I see it as an ongoing collective process that will benefit us all. Ifa says if your life gets better my life gets better.
The reason I spent the past year making this vocabulary available is because I believe understanding certain key words is essential to an informed interpretation of our sacred scripture.
During the course of this dialogue the suggestion was made that there is only one way to interpret the verses of Odu Scripture. Theologians refer to this idea as the dogmatic approach to interpreting a prophetic message. Personally I reject the dogmatic approach because it inevitably leads to dissension, argument, denigration and even war.
I believe there is some confusion around this issue because when I first started writing about Ifa the only books on Ifa available in English were written by anthropologists. It is the function of an anthropologist to record the beliefs of a given culture without comment or judgment. This is significantly different than the function of a theologian. In academia it is the function of the theologian to express a personal opinion on the meaning of the transcendent prophetic message of a given religion as it applies to life in the present moment in a particular part of the world.
One of the first books in English approaching the subject of Ifa Orisa from a theological perspective was Jambalaya by Luisah Teish. That book created a lot of controversy because it presented the world view of Ifa Orisa as it was preserved by the African American culture of New Orleans, and it included commentary on the value of that world view. Prior to Jambalaya most of the information on Ifa Orisa came from Wippler and Bascom who did not have a theological point of view and did not consider the cultural nuances of Ifa Orisa as it was preserved by Southern African American culture.
Her book preceded the availability of books by Dr. Abimbola and other African theologians who wrote before her, but whose books were generally unavailable in the Diaspora.
For me it is self-evident that as Ifa Orisa spread throughout the Diaspora it took on some of the cultural beliefs of its new environment. There is a clear Catholic influence on the Ifa Orisa tradition practiced in Cuba, just as there is a clear Baptist influence on the Ifa Orisa tradition practiced in Trinidad. Based on my interaction with Ifa Orisa elders in Nigeria I see clear influences of both Christianity and Islam on some of the interpretations of Ifa scripture coming from our learned elders in traditional Yoruba culture.
If the point of Ifa Orisa is to develop good character, then for me I don’t care what you believe, I judge our interaction by your ability to demonstrate the attributes of good character which I believe are clearly defined by the message of the Prophet Orunmila. I have noticed that in all religions those who take a dogmatic approach to theological issues tend to be poorly behaved. Psychologists say that when a person has difficulty being comfortable with a difference of opinion they are evidencing a failure to fully make the transition from childhood to adulthood. The purpose of puberty rites in all traditional cultures is to begin the process of individuation. As children we define who we are by assimilating the ideas of our parents. As adults we start the process of creating our own perceptions of self and world. When these perceptions contradict the view of our parents the guidelines of good character compel us to accept those differences without judgment.
In the process of divination every Awo makes theological statements every time they interpret a verse. Those statements are informed by the world view of the diviner and the cultural context of the divination. To me this is self-evident. My impression of some of the reaction to my effort to explain the difference between Prophetic Metaphor and Topographical Metaphor is that the theological function of Awo may not be clear.
Every Awo functions as a theologian every time they interpret Odu.
I have presented most of the vocabulary I have collected over the years and now want to shift the conversation to the issue of interpreting religious symbols. As a first step in that process I want to say the every Odu has multiple frames of reference. Odu can be used to; solve a personal problem, to solve problems between two or more people, to solve family problems, to solve community problems and to solve global problems. In addition Odu refers to a wholistic form of healing, it codes the information needed to perform ritual, it gives a detailed analysis of consciousness (ori), it describes the role and function of the human ara, it describes the structure of physical reality and it describes the relationship between human Ori and the Ori of Creation.
Some verses have a single function. Some verses have multiple functions. Every Odu has verses that covers all the perspectives I present. Our job as Awo is to determine the perspective of each verse and make a judgment about how and why it relates to a specific context.
The Prophetic Metaphor deals with problem solving. In Ifa the basic premise is that if you develop good character you will receive a blessing of wealth, long life and children. That is a prophetic message because it addresses the issue of the consequence of moral behavior or lack of moral behavior. In Yoruba that is the polarity between ire and ibi.
The word for good character in Yoruba is iwa pele from the elision I wa ope ile means I come to greet the earth. So in this liturgical word we have an inference of the need to both understand the moral implications of life on earth but also the implications of understanding the structure and dynamics of the world we live in. In traditional Yoruba culture a junior greets and elder implying the elder is the teacher. So greeting the Earth suggests we can learn from understanding how the world is put together. In academic theological circles the use of religious literature to create a metaphysical landscape that describes the nature of reality is called a topographical metaphor.
There seems to be some disbelief that Odu Ifa includes the concept of topographical metaphor. I am of the opinion that Odu Ifa not only includes the concept of topographical metaphor it presents a scientific paradigm that is more sophisticated and more accurate than the current state of academic science. That is a controversial idea that may or may not be true. What is true is that in our faith all Awo who have reached the age of being a grandparent have both the right and the obligation to express theological opinions on the content of the symbols used in our scripture. If you review the dialogue over the past year on this wall it is evident that our fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters from traditional Yoruba culture have a clear understanding of this dynamic. For those of us who grew up in the west we need to move past our cultural conditioning to engage in the kind of dialogue that does not resort to denigration of the other as a tactic of disagreement.
So I want to move forward discussing the scientific implications of Ifa. To be fair to those who are interested n this subject, it is easier to have that discussion without the distraction of discussing my personal character. Einstein’s wife said he was a terrible husband the theory of relativity is still true. For those who find value in dogma I have suggestion, look at this page as a kind of collective TV set, if you don’t like the program change the channel.
Ire
Awo Falokun
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