The Tree, the Bird and Her Sixteen Bird Companions : Foundations of Opa Ọsanyin Philosophy and Mysticism 1 : Summative Invocation
Abstract
An inspirational foundation in Opa Ọsanyin Philosophy and Mysticism, my development of ideas about cosmology, nature, in general, and human nature, in particular, through the symbolism of opa ọsanyin, a staff constituted by birds organized in relation to a central bird, representing Ọsanyin, the Yoruba origin Òrìsà cosmology deity of the biological and spiritual power of plants and the orientation of these ideas towards the theory and practice of the quest for intimate knowledge of ultimate reality.
In developing these ideas I correlate the associative values of opa ọsanyin with similar imagery of birds on a staff in Yoruba visual symbolism, specifically, the osùn babaláwo, the staff of the babalawo, adept in the esoteric knowledge of the Ifa system of knowledge, and opa erinlẹ, the staff representing Erinlẹ, the deity of the forest and the powers of nature in general.
The composition of this piece was inspired by the collage below, made by myself through combining images from various online sources. The juxtaposition of the pictures multiplied the evocative force of each one in a synergistic unity, stimulating the emergence of an idea smoldering in my mind for some time but reaching its first articulation in the two paragraphs below.
These paragraphs are an outcome of an ongoing series of essays I am writing and publishing on the symbolism of opa ọsanyin, with this essay representing the application in contemplation, prayer and invocation of the cosmological implications of opa ọsanyin I am building in those essays.
The essays on opa ọsanyin are themselves an incidental growth from another series of essays, an exploration of classical Yoruba aesthetics as developed by Rowland Abiodun and Babatunde Lawal, in which I use the graceful and dynamic clustering of birds around a central bird in opa ọsanyin as metaphoric for the integration of individuality of research orientation in relation to a unifying ethos in what I name the Ife School of Yoruba Studies, scholars and learning practices active in the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, formative for the scholarly careers of Abiodun and Lawal.
Following this essay, I try to more carefully explain, in forthcoming essays, this piece in its concise integration of a range of ideas in metaphysics, conceptions of the structure and meaning of reality, epistemology, perspectives on possibilities of knowing, iconography, visual symbolism, and literature, all from various cultures, in terms of the suggestive values of opa ọsanyin.
The passages below are constructed as two paragraphs, reading like an incantation, with only one full stop at the end of a long sequence of expressions, deliberately so in order to suggest the inspirational stream through which the ideas were constructed as well as enhancing the sense of calling on powers both beyond and within the self the paragraphs represent.
Projecting as the universe its sixteen powers of manifestation, withdrawing these into itself and projecting them again in a continuous cycle, the cosmos is continually created by the Self as cosmic core and the self as the one perambulating through space and time, the totality and the individual experience of that totality, the chattering of birds on the tree of life indistinguishable and unintelligible but clarified and luminously meaningful in their individuality and unity the further I climb the pole of Ọsanyin, where sixteen birds congregate around the central bird, my brethren of the avian universe, the mothers dreaded and yet venerated, the wombs of totality where time and space converge with infinity, the convergence I seek in the flame like undulation in which all the birds are fused as one, Àwọn Ìyá Wa, Àwọn Odù Ifá, I bend the knee in veneration and supplication, as I seek entrance into your sacred grove, the conclave of insight and transformation.
So may run an invocation in the school of Ọsanyin mysticism I am in the process of developing, a process of identification of self and cosmos in terms of the symbolism of Ọsanyin, the Yoruba origin Òrìsà cosmology deity of the biological and spiritual power of plants in their association with the mystery and glory of the forest, microcosm of cosmos, Ọsanyin, represented by a staff in which a gathering of birds are organized in relation to a central bird, evoking trees in which birds congregate as well as the unity of being of the deity through the structural singularity of the staff and its evocation of avian motion and song, transformative powers projected within the voice of nature, powers engaged with and called upon by the Ọsanyin devotee, a symbolism I interpret in terms of a tree of life, the cosmos as a tree, the central bird suggestive of the unity of self and cosmic core, the surrounding avian forms the expressions of that cosmic centre and the centre of self, totalistic universe and individual cosmos, ideas correlated with the symbolism of opa Ọsanyin, the Ọsanyin staff in relation to the association of the number of birds sorrounding the central bird as at times being sixteen in number, the number of cosmic matrices and information cores known as as Odù Ifá in the Ifá system knowledge, themselves also associable with Àwọn Ìyá Wa, Our Mothers Arcane, the feminine principle as a fundamental matrix of creativity and destruction in Yoruba thought, ideas evoked for me by the collage above of Ọsanyin staffs, of birds surrounding a central bird and of what might be either an opa Ọsanyin or an osùn babaláwo, staff of the babaláwo, adept in the esoteric knowledge of Ifá, here constituted by a single bird on a staff, reduced to a flame like undulation evoking avian dynamism, bringing to my mind ideas of the unity of self and spirit, of self and cosmos in terms of flame.
I dreamt I saw an eagle in mid air,
plumed all in gold, hovering on wings outspread
poised to swoop
wheeling, he came down like lightning, terrible and fast
and caught me up into the sphere of flame
where he and I burned in one furnace blast.
The visionary fire seared me through
constituents of knowledge
reconfigured in the mind fire
fusing the particular and the universal through its horrific power
distillations of consciousness
like the circularity of a calabash
its circumference evocative of the unity of all possibilities
its depth suggestive of the ground of existence
things, their qualities and relationships
the leaves strewn throughout the universe
all this I beheld as one simple flame.
An Invitation
“i woke egret-breasted to a peace of fire
....
now flares the savaged ember
now lifts the pinioned egret...’’
Like Wole Soyinka’s “egret-breasted” flight in “Mahapralaya’’ through landscapes both inspiring and challenging, this piece is part of a journey through landscapes of possibility both compelling and demanding, reconstructing forms of knowledge in open spaces, thereby building one of the world’s largest collections of freely accessible, sole authored works, integrating the visual and verbal arts, spirituality, philosophy and science, published on various online and print platforms, as evident at the my central website Compcros: Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems.
Your donation will help advance this initiative.
Image Sources
Left, Old Forged Iron Osanyin Staff, Birds + Bells, from MAbram Gallery
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