Vodun Metaphysics: The Interplay of Divine Energy
From Ajo Inú: the Inner Journey Beyond the Quest ©2004-2024
In the ancient Vodún system as with many other West Afrikan spiritual traditions there is distinguished at least three interdependent levels when viewing the reception, contemplation, and/or manifestation of spiritual energy (knowledge) within the human vessel. They involve, in Ewe Vodún:
Susu -the cognitive organ, the brain
Adanu -the cognitive process, the thought itself
Nunya -the cognitive achievement, the knowledge: results of the process
The mis-socialization and miseducation of the Afrikan, whether institutionalized in a church or a school, is enveloped within the three concepts expressed in Vodun spiritual therapy. The New Afrikan susu-adanu-nunya connection has been warped due to the acceptance of foreign ideology. It is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just does not match until you force it to. But what are the results of that forced fit? Chaos plain and simple. So in the earnest attempt to restore ourselves we become slaves to other concepts and ideologies or simply put we exchange one slave master for another. So the susu-adanu-nunya concept implies that we must re-align ourselves with and within our own collective Afrikan reality. The actual unjustified arrogance of certain Western (pseudo) scientists who are dreaming of a hypothetical “Genetic Revolution” through the cloning of human beings and other creatures is a concrete proof of the sickness and imbalance of the Western epistemology and a concrete proof that science in the Western society has not been built on solid cosmological, cosmogonic and theogonic foundations, but rather on opportunist speculations and on imposture which have led the whole of Mankind now into a tragic existential impasse. From the Vodun perspective cosmological, cosmogonic and theogonic foundations for a genuine science are not achieved through pseudo-philosophical speculations, but through the highest form of mystic revelation called Hugbo (Evhe/Ewe for higher/mystical knowledge). A system of knowledge rooted on such foundations achieved by means of true inner searching (Hugbo) takes surely ethical considerations and social responsibilities into account. By extension to the metaphysical realm we can postulate that the relationship between the world of spirit (i.e. unseen energy) and the visible world (i.e. matter) is a constant and that all phenomena result from an interplay between these two realms. The teachings of the ancient West Afrikan forms of divination based on Odu Ifa teach of the constant interplay between energy from a spiritual perspective. All matter rises from Odù or Nana Bulúkú. It was taught in the ancient Kmtic temples that light is an electro-magnetic vibration or wave. It acts in some ways as if it is composed of particles (called photons) and except for being weightless susceptible to the laws of matter. In other ways it behaves as if it were nothing but a wave phenomenon and subject only to the laws of magnetism. Neither view alone is correct. It partakes of both natures. There is a magnetic component and a particle component, which operate at right angles to one another and in perfect synchrony. When one component is at its maximum level, the other is at rest. Then as that component declines in intensity, the other increases until it reaches its maximum just as the other component comes to a state of rest. This eternal alternation between the two primal universal forces is exactly what the open (light-“wave”) and closed (dark“matter”) symbolism of Odù Ifá reveal to us. We now know that all matter is nothing but patterns of energy in constant flux. What we call matter is simply the nodal points (points a standing wave where there appears to be no motion) of energy waves in constant motion.
