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Iro Eweka: The Human Face, The Human Mind and The Possibility of A Mysticism Inspired by Benin Olokun Symbolism
Iro Eweka: The Human Face, The Human Mind and The Possibility of A Mysticism Inspired by Benin Olokun Symbolism
Eweka
The
Human
Face,
the
Human
Mind
and
the
Possibility
of
a
Mysticism
Inspired
by
Benin
Olokun
Symbolism
Oluwatoyin
Vincent
Adepoju
At
7:45
am
on
Tuesday,
March
13,
2012,
a
great
light
shot
from
the
earth
into
the
immensity
of
space,
but
left
its
radiance
behind.
What
features
of
this
luminescence
have
etched
themselves
in
my
mind?
A
face
inscrutable,
as
a
person
who,
as
was
described
of
Isaac
Newton
in
his
quest
for
the
structure,
dynamism
and
source
of
the
cosmos,
is
understood
as
having
crossed
many
strange
seas
of
thought,
alone1.
The
face
a
mysterious
map,
radiating
a
character
difficult
to
conceptualize.
It
did
not
fit
into
the
conventional
traceries
of
a
human
face.
The
face
would
have
been
easier
to
understand
if
it
was
found
in
the
shrine
of
some
esoteric
sect,
showing
to
the
world
a
shaman
reputed
to
journey
into
spirit
realms
to
bring
back
those
who
had
found
their
way
there
and
been
lost,
or
some
mystic
immersed
in
arcane
and
sublime
mysteries,
recalling
Esiri
Dafiewhares
response
to
my
description
of
a
related
impression,
although
more
subtle,
from
my
first
my
meeting
with
the
writer
and
social
activist
Wole
Soyinka,
of
a
character
etched
into
ones
physical
persona
through
having
immersed
oneself
in
certain
numinous
streams.
2
Yes.
The
right
word
in
describing
Iro
Ewekas
face
is
the
word
numinous.
It
suggests
the
complexity
of
personality,
of
a
universe
of
closely
woven
impressions,
perceptions,
emotions
and
orientations
defining
the
perhaps
unfathomable
depths
of
the
self.
Philip
Pullmans
novelistic
cycle
His
Dark
Materials
represents
the
intricate
constitution
of
personality
in
terms
of
a
coruscation
of
energy
that
projects
the
dominant
mental
patterns
of
the
individual,
constituting
a
cloud
of
symbols
that
constellate
around
the
person3.
The
more
complex
the
mind,
the
more
dense
and
complex
this
coruscation.
1
As stated in Isaac Newton in Popular Culture Wikipedia : This passage is from William Wordsworths The Prelude in which he describes a marble statue of Newton at Trinity College, Cambridge: And from my pillow, looking forth by light/Of moon or favouring stars, I could behold/The Antechapel where the Statue stood/Of Newton, with his prism and silent face:/The marble index of a Mind for ever/Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton_in_popular_culture. Accessed 3rd April, 2012. The Wikipedia essay links to the particular page in a Google books search where these lines from Wordsworths 1850 version of the Prelude are quoted in J. Robert Barth, Romanticism and Transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, 2003. p. 19. Accessed 29/03/1012.
2 Personal communication. Benin-City. 3 Depicted in the novels The Subtle Knife. London: Scholastic, 1997 and The Amber Spyglass. London:
Scholastic, 2000.
Victor Ekpuk Victor Ekpuk, evoking the shaping of thought through symbols, creates compelling visual expressions that may suggest this cognitive cloud that defines the abstract form of the individual, unseen but experienced in terms of the distinctive character of the self, the subtle impressions it projects, and its hidden potential, perhaps unknown even to the human being emanating this presence. What is that glowing core of seeds nestling within the forest of forms, both humanoid and abstract, in Ekpuks Children of the Full Moon?4 Is it perhaps the coordinating centres of the brain, alive with the fire fed though blood and the pulsations of mind, weaving the network of impressions, emotions and attitudes into the complex known as a human mind? The forms are strange but compelling, belonging to no known language even as they recall the figurative and abstract combinations of Egyptian hieroglyphs and Nigerian nsibidi, but transposed in terms of an individualistic imagination feeding from many streams. 4 Visible at various sites online, including the artists site at
A
related
sense
of
something
meaningful
but
which
is
yet
beyond
grasp,
is
suggested
by
my
memory
of
Iro
Eweka.
Why
was
his
face
so
strange?
Why
did
he
insist
on
wearing
a
white
robe
and
bathroom
slippers
as
he
went
about
his
life
as
a
teacher
at
the
University
of
Benin?
How
come
he
presented
himself
as
a
consultant
psychiatrist
and
yet
taught
philosophy
of
art?
He
was
the
first
African
I
knew
about
who
depicted
part
of
his
work
history
as
having
taught
English
at
the
University
of
Oxford.
An
African,
teaching
the
English
persons
native
language
at
a
premier
seat
of
English
academic
aristocracy?
Wow!
He
certainly
seemed
to
know
his
English
literature.
I
remember
his
referring
my
sister
to
one
of
the
Irishman
W.B
Yeats
more
haunting
poems
in
marking
one
of
her
essays
in
aesthetics.
A
multi-talented
person.
5
His
legacy
in
my
life
emerged
decisively
decades
after
I
had
last
seen
or
interacted
with
him.
I
woke
up
one
morning
with
a
revelation
of
a
profound
implication
of
his
essay
on
Olokun
symbolism
which
I
had
stumbled
across
online.
Revelation,
beceause
the
idea
emerged
fully
formed,
without
my
having
given
it
any
attention
earlier.
In
Olokun
Symbols,
which
I
read
at
the
Institute
for
Benin
Studies
site,
Eweka
painstakingly
describes
the
ideational
significance
of
a
sequence
of
graphic
symbols
created
in
connection
with
devotion
to
Olokun,
believed
to
be
the
sentient
personality
of
the
worlds
oceans,
as
worshipped
in
Ewekas
native
Benin-city,
a
very
rich
but
understudied
field6.
What
gripped
me
most
forcefully
about
Ewekas
characterization
of
these
symbols
was
his
careful
attention
to
their
unified
morphological
progression,
to
their
visual
forms
as
representing
an
unfolding
sequence
of
ideas
depicting
the
unity
of
Osanobua,
the
creator
of
the
cosmos,
Olokun,
the
aquatic
presence
pervasive
in
the
world
and
the
human
being,
within
the
context
of
time
and
space.
Why
not
draw
out
clearly
the
mystical
implications
of
this
depiction
of
Olokun
symbols?
Is
it
not
possible
to
take
them
as
an
initiatic
sequence,
enabling
a
progressive
series
of
contemplations
of
ultimate
meaning
as
consisting
in
the
unity
of
the
absolute,
as
represented
by
Osanobua,
and
the
contingent,
as
5
Iro
Eweka
is
designated
as
Consultant
Psychologist/Psychiatrist
and
Associate
Lecturer
at
the
Open
University,
Bristol,
UK,
at
the
text
of
his
lecture
We
Are
Because
He
Was
,
the
3rd
Jacob
Uwadiae
Egharevba
Memorial
Lecture
on
8th
December
2000
at
the
Oba
Akenzua
II
Cultural
Complex,
Benin
City
posted
at
http://www.edo-nation.net/eghar3.htm.
Accessed
16,
March
2012.
SEO
Ogbonmwan,
Adieu
Prince
(
Professor
)
Iro
Eweka
Message
#58442
on
the
Nigerian
Identity
Yahoo
Group,
Wed,
March
14,
2012;
10:12
PM
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NigerianID/message/58442
eulogises
Iro
Eweka
in
the
context
of
a
survey
of
his
educational
and
professional
history.
Accessed
16
March
2012.
6
Iro
Eweka,
Olokun
Symbols.
Institute
for
Benin
Studies.
Accessed
2010.
Currently
inaccessible.
represented by Olokun, the human being and the spatiotemporal coordinates within which these possibilities of being emerge? Perhaps this sequence of ideas could even be related to a development of mystical theory and practice that takes it from the better known effort to immerse oneself in ultimate reality, and use it as a means of cultivating comprehensive understanding of phenomena, since the unity between constituents of the cosmos Eweka describes can be understood as a unity evident in every aspect of existence. Perhaps climbing such a ladder of partial unifications of the various constituents of existence, one may arrive at a self constructed cosmic unity. Such a unity, a theoretical construct shaped by combining various sources, could provide a template for exploring the idea that contemplating such a self created form could enable one move from the theoretical to the experiential, from a purely abstract understanding of cosmic unity to an experience of such a unity.7 Perhaps from such an experience of cosmic unity one could even travel deeper, transcending knowledge with my thought, in the words of the Christian mystic St. John of the Cross 8 , ones knowledge becoming swallowed up by the transcendence known in various schools of thought as the foundational nothingness. nyat, the void of Buddhism, beyond being and non-being9. Ain Soph, the Unmanifest of Hermetic Kabala, among similar ideas within explicitly religious and philosophical contexts as well as contexts outside those explicit frames, such as the powerful adaptation of the concept by the writer Wole 7 This is a conception of cognitive and aesthetic mysticism, involving contemplative discipline, ratiocinative
effort,
aesthetic
appreciation
and
inspiration.
Contemplative
discipline
facilitates
inspirational
insights
and
syntheses
that
integrate
ratiocinative
and
aesthetic
perceptions
at
a
level
of
greater
complexity
and
depth
than
would
be
possible
through
ratiocinative
and
aesthetic
appreciation
alone.
I
am
developing
this
approach
through
practice
and
a
study
of
various
sources,
including
the
mystical
theory
of
Maurice
Bucke
in
Cosmic
Consciousness:
A
Study
in
the
Evolution
of
Human
Consciousness.
New
York
:
E.
P.
Dutton,
1969.
8
From
St.
John
of
the
Cross,
Verses
Written
After
An
Ecstasy
of
High
Exaltation
in
Poems.
Translated
by
9 The concept of nyat, the Void, is developed at length in Buddhism. The Wikipedia article nyat
states : The exact definition and extent of emptiness varies from one Buddhist tradition to another; this can easily lead to confusion. These traditions all explain in slightly different ways what phenomena are empty of, which phenomena exactly are empty and what emptiness means. A collection of essays that studies this idea and a related one in Christianity is Void and Fullness in the Buddhist, Hindu and Christian Traditions : Sunya-Purna-Pleroma. Edited by Bettina Baumer and John R. Dupuche. New Delhi : D. K. Printworld, 2005. .Judith Simmer Brown, Dakinis Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism, Boston : Shamballa, 2002, expounds in resonant terms on the idea in terms of space, a correlation between voidness, space, being and consciousness that may be adapted to Norma Rosens account described below, of the characterization of Olokun in Benin Olokun veneration in terms of the sky. The Buddhist source that has struck me most of the few I have read is the poet Jetsun Milarepas summation of his contemplative discipline in the Song to the Gesh in Tibets Great Yogi, Milarepa : A Biography from the Tibetan. Translated by the Lma Kazi Dawa-Samdup and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Oxford : Oxford UP, 1969. 245-247. 246 : Accustomed long to know the meaning of the Wordless,/ I have forgot the way to trace the roots of verbs and source of words and phrases, the Wordless being described earlier in the same poem as the Unborn, the Indestructible and the Unabiding, being therefore a referent that transcends all forms that structure existence, and consequently Wordless since it is beyond conceptualization, language being the primary human means of expressing concepts.
Soyinka10 and, in a different epistemic context, the quantum nothing of scientific cosmology11. A negation of conventional conceptions created by a convergence of intensities of such force the resulting illumination is akin to darkness, as 10 Wole Soyinkas The Credo of Being and Nothingness . Ibadan : 1991, has a graphic description of a self
developed void meditation. His The Man Died. London: Rex Collings, 1976 , chapter XXXIII, is centred in a compelling account of the writers use of a similar meditation as a means of orienting himself while in solitary confinement, a meditation reflected in his prison poetry A Shuttle in the Crypt. London: Rex Collings, 1972. His development in Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1990, of the concept of the abyss of transition, a transformative space embodying birth, death and rebirth, in relation to his reflections on space in tragic drama, suggests a relationship between space, voidness and being as central to Soyinkas aesthetic. Soyinka describes tragic drama as [engaged with] the profound and elusive phenomenon of being and non-being and the space within which dramatic action takes place as fundamentally a symbolic chthonic space [evoking ] mans fearful awareness of the cosmic context [of his ] existence [shaped by ]the cosmic location of [his] being [ a space that evokes ] the fundamental visceral questioning [that] intrudes, prompted by the patient, immovable and eternal immensity that surrounds [him] [the reality of which] undented vastness [may have ] created the need to challenge, confront and at least initiate a rapport with the realm of infinity.
11 The Kabbalistic and scientific development of a related idea in describing the source of the cosmos may
be correlated in terms of metaphysical and epistemic conceptions from Western occultism and contemporary scientific cosmology. Relevant sources from Western occultism are Anonymous. The Office of the Holy Tree of Life. No publication information and Dion Fortune. Sane Occultism in Sane Occultism and Practical Occultism in Daily Life. Wellingborough : The Aquarian Press, 1987. 13-119. A particularly useful source from contemporary scientific cosmology is Tian Yu Caos Ontology and Scientific Explanation in Explanations: Styles of Scientific Explanation. Edited by John Cornwall. London : Oxford UP, 2004. 173-195. Correlations between Western occult and scientific conceptions of the source of the cosmos may be developed in terms of conceptions of ontological distance between the source of the cosmos and the manifest cosmos. These involve ideas about the emergence of the positive manifestation represented by the cosmos from the fecund negativity of the source of existence. It includes ideas about the epistemic implications of a negative conception of ultimate reality. This is an understanding of ultimate reality, not in terms of positive attributes, but in terms of nothingness, nothingness understood as an utter transcendence of conventional cognitive categories. On the ontological distance between the source of the cosmos and the manifest cosmos, the Office of the Holy Tree of Life states Unidentifiable art thou; and utterly apart from anything thou art (11). Tian Yu Caos account of scientific cosmology presents a similar idea : Since nothing has the least possible connection with the observed universe, that is, it has nothing to do with any physical entities and properties, such as particles, fields, energy, momentum, or even any classical space- time substratum, except for being susceptible to quantum fluctuations that are justified by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics, we seem to have an ontological basis for explaining the origin of the observed universe in terms of a natural cause, that is, the quantum nothing ( 192). On the emergence of the positive manifestation represented by the cosmos from the fecund negativity represented by the source of existence, the Office of the Holy Tree of Life declares : Thou art the void, yet breathest forth vitality and being as Eheieh.Thou art uncreate, yet cause of all creation Thou art motionless, yet every moving nebula proclaims thy power made manifest through nature (34). Tian Yu Cao expounds a similar idea in scientific cosmology : the quantum nothing is its own cause of its very existence and of its change, without requiring any further external cause. ...together with the most general principles and laws of quantum theory, the quantum nothing gives an ontological basis for a picture whose coherence and articulateness yield a clear understanding concerning the origin and evolution of the universe ( 193 ). On the epistemic implications of its negative conception of ultimate reality , the Office of the Holy Tree of Life expounds : We know we know thee not; and only thus we know thee. We know no symbol for thee; nor have we any name for thee except necessity of nothing. Our solitary means of recognizing thy reality is inwardly through inward stillness of our sense (11). Dion Fortune develops this idea it is said of the Mysteries that the candidate was led on from degree to degree and shown more and more recondite symbols of the Godhead, and at the end, when the final curtain was drawn aside, was revealed to him an empty shrine and a voice whispered in his ear, There is no God. the Logos can only be apprehended by those who can meditate in an empty shrine, that is, to say, those who can think without a symbol. The training of the degrees is designed to teach the mind to rise to the abstract and transcend thought, for it is only when thought ceases that apprehension begins. ...the occult doctrines are a system of algebra that enables the mind to function beyond the range of thought ( 19). Tian Yu Caos account of scientific cosmology also locates a negative conception of the source of the cosmos in a transcendence of conventional cognitive categories : Since whatever is physically imaginable is physically connected with our observed universe, ( namely all possible events that are compatible with the observational evidences that we have obtained hitherto), then nothing which is physically imaginable could be responsible for the genesis of the universe. (190-191).
depicted
by
Aleister
Crowley
12,
on
the
highest
stage
of
Samadhi,
transformative
states
in
the
Indian
discipline
of
Yoga.
Light
a
candle
and
open
the
windows
at
midday.
The
light
of
the
candle
disappears.
Expose
the
light
of
the
sun
to
a
greater
light
of
such
intensity
the
radiance
of
the
sun
becomes
darkness,
adapting
Crowleys
metaphor
of
stages
of
contemplative
transformations
of
perception.
I
have
been
on
this
journey
for
about
two
years
now
and
an
infinity
of
possibilities
is
opening
up.
I
received
news
of
Ewekas
departure
as
I
was
preparing
to
enter
the
temple
of
nothingness,
so
called
because
is
it
a
series
of
reflections
on
nothingness
as
the
most
fundamental
of
expressive
forms.
Nothingness
understood
as
absence.
The
absence
from
light
that
makes
possible
the
growing
life
in
the
womb
and
in
the
soil.
The
pauses
between
sounds
that
aids
speech
becoming
legible.
The
void
between
the
celestial
bodies
within
which
they
execute
their
orbits
without
mutual
interference.
The
emptiness
that
is
the
space
of
non-understanding
created
by
the
human
beings
sensitivity
in
the
face
of
the
mysteries
that
define
his
existence,
where
he
ultimately
comes
from
and
where
he
goes
finally.
The
abyss,
the
endless
zone,
resonant
with
possibilities,
from
which
all
issues
yet
which
is
beyond
all.13
I
was
considering
what
image
to
use
in
inspiring
myself
in
this
quest
though
various
fields,
autobiography,
architecture,
literature,
religion,
music
and
science,
exploring
the
idea
of
nothingness.
The
image
that
began
to
suggest
itself
to
me
on
the
day
I
learnt
of
Ewekas
journey
is
derived
from
the
indelible
impression
made
on
me
by
the
stimulus
of
his
essay
on
Olokun
symbolism.
Having
been
inspired
by
his
essay,
I
sought
out
more
information
on
this
symbol
system
and
discovered
Norma
Rosens
fantastic
article
Chalk
Iconography
in
Olokun
Worship 14 ,
rich
with
more
graphic
symbols.
I
then
integrated
one
of
Rosens
drawings
of
an
Olokun
symbol
with
an
Ife
head.
The
collage
needs
to
be
repeated
with
a
fresher
image
from
Werner
Formans
photographs
in
Basil
Davidsons
Africa:
History
of
a
Continent,
and
without
the
tear
on
the
right
from
carrying
the
image
with
me
for
years,
having
ripped
it
out
of
the
family
copy
of
the
book
in
crude
expression
of
admiration
well
before
I
bought
my
own
copy
of
the
book.
The
slightly
faded
image
and
the
tear
remind
me,
however,
of
my
own
history
and
of
my
father
who
specialized
in
buying
general
interest
but
scholarly
works
for
the
family
library,
the
Davidson
being
one
such,
and
taking
me
also
to
the
inscrutable
look
on
my
fathers
face
that
12Aleister
Crowley
Magick:
Liber
Aba
:
Book
Four.
Boston:
Weiser,
1994.
41.
13 This will be presented in a forthcoming work tentatively titled Emptiness and Being, consisting of a
fateful day when I saw him alive for the last time, during an illness in which he repeatedly told me he was passing way while I refused to believe him. What do people think when they know they are leaving this world, particularly if that departure is accepted by them as inevitable? Perhaps there are some kinds of knowledge one may gain that are so beyond the understanding of other humans that this mesh of perceptions reconfigures ones face to a form others can hardly read.
The
brooding
face
of
the
Ife
head
suggests
elevation
of
mind
while
the
features
are
expressive
of
warm
blooded
participation
in
the
vagaries
of
human
existence,
integrated
in
a
serene
understanding
within
the
mind
expressed
by
the
face,
unlike
the
lofty
remoteness
of
a
Buddha,
sublime
but
removed
from
involvement
in
the
struggles
of
life
as
most
humans
know
it.
The
mind
orients
itself
within
the
axis
of
time
and
space
represented
by
the
centrifugal
and
centripetal
thrust
of
the
arrows
of
time
and
the
shaping
of
space,
converging
at
their
effusion
from
eternity
within
which
swim
the
primal
forms
that
beget
the
cosmos,
represented
perhaps
by
the
emergence
of
the
first
life
forms
from
primeval
seas,
by
the
inchoate
forms
awaiting
manifestation
within
the
great
womb
that
is
in
everyone
while
it
remains
in
its
essence
beyond
reach.
Let
us
leave
the
last
word
to
those
who
will
evoke
for
us
the
meaning
of
the
word
numinous
which
I
have
used
in
describing
Iro
Ewekas
face.
I
wont
define
the
word,
though
I
love
its
definition
in
Websters
Third
New
International
Dictionary
of
the
English
Language
1966,
derived
from
Rudolf
Ottos
classic
use
of
the
term
in
his
Idea
of
the
Holy,15
because
that
definition
is
not
precise
enough
for
this
15
Rudolf
Otto
The
Idea
of
the
Holy.
Oxford
:
Oxford
UP,
1958.
present purpose. I will leave Elechi Amadi in his novel The Concubine and Akin Solanke on Iro Eweka, to indicate this meaning. Elechi Amadi in The Concubine : Emenike noticed that the old men averted their faces when the priest appeared to glance at anyone of them; so he decided to stare back whenever the priests glance fell on him. His opportunity came before the thought was through his mind. He gazed at the priest and immediately regretted that he had done so, for in the priests face he read mild reproach, awe, power, wisdom, love, life and yes, he was sure death. In a fraction of a second he relived his past life. In turns he felt deep affection for the priest, and nauseating repulsion which made him want to scream with disgust. He felt the cold grip of despair, and the hollow sensation which precedes a great calamity: he felt a sickening nostalgia for an indistinct place he was sure he had never been to.16 The tension between fascination and strangeness central to the concept of the numinous is communicated here. Akin Solanke : He was about the best lecturer that taught me then. He was versatile and deep of mind. His strange facial appearance gave room for ambivalent interpretation of his personality. Because he smoked heavily, he appeared dazed and lost like a drug addict; yet, he looked mysterious and unfathomable. His characteristic white garment and beard created further distance and profundity about his strangeness. I had so much admiration for him. I was always excited anytime his psychology course came up on the timetable and I looked forward to it with great expectation17. On learning of the great mans final journey, Akin exclaimed: Prof. Iro Eweka! Gone ... like that? Hmmmmm! He looked untouchable and daring. Of course, Iro Eweka is beyond death. Like he has been for a long time, he lives in the mind of
16 Quoted in Juliet Okonkwo, Elechi Amadi , Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. Two: 1700 to the
Present.
Ed.
Yemi
Ogunbiyi.
Lagos
:Guardian
Books,
1988.147-153.162.
Personal
communication.
Quoted
in
Oluwatoyin
Vincent
Adepoju.
Unforgettable
Teachers
:
Iro
Eweka
at
Scribd
http://www.scribd.com/Toyin%20Adepoju/d/67088769-UNFORGETTABLE-TEACHERS-IRO- EWEKA
and
blogger:
http://ifastudent-cognitivediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/unforgettable-teachers-iro- eweka.html.
Saturday,
October
01,
2011
17
those of us who adore and admire him and his prodigious intellect. Adieu!18 th March 2012 14 Dedicated to Mr. Opene, my 3rd year teacher in composition at the University of Benin. His undying summation of written composition : You are the artist.
18
Email
communication.
Friday,
March16,
2012.
References Adepoju, Oluwatoyin Vincent Unforgettable Teachers : Iro Eweka at Scribd http://www.scribd.com/Toyin%20Adepoju/d/67088769-UNFORGETTABLE- TEACHERS-IRO-EWEKA and blogger: http://ifastudent- cognitivediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/unforgettable-teachers-iro-eweka.html. Saturday, October 01, 2011. Accessed 16/02/12. Amadi, Elechi, The Concubine. Ibadan : Heinemann, 1966. Anatta, Wikipedia. Accessed 16/02/12. Anonymous. The Office of the Holy Tree of Life. No publication information Baumer Bettina and John R. Dupuche. Void and Fullness in the Buddhist, Hindu and Christian Traditions : Sunya-Purna-Pleroma. New Delhi : D. K. Printworld, 2005. Barth, J. Robert, Romanticism and Transcendence: Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Religious Imagination. Columbia : University of Missouri Press., 2003. Brown, Judith Simmer,Dakinis Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism, Boston: Shamballa, 2002. Bucke, Maurice, Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of Human Consciousness. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969. Cao, Tian Yu , Ontology and Scientific Explanation in Explanations: Styles of Scientific Explanation. Edited by John Cornwall. London : Oxford UP, 2004. 173- 195. Crowley, Aleister, Magick: Liber Aba : Book Four. Boston: Weiser, 1994. Dafiewhare, Esiri Personal communication. Benin-City. Ekpuk, Victor, Children of the Full Moon. http://www.victorekpuk.com/victorekpuk.com/drawings%28hide%29.html. Accessed16/02/12. Eweka, Iro, We Are Because He Was , the 3rd Jacob Uwadiae Egharevba Memorial Lecture on 8th December 2000 at the Oba Akenzua II Cultural Complex, Benin City. Posted at http://www.edo-nation.net/eghar3.htm. Accessed 16, March 2012. -----------------Olokun Symbols. Institute for Benin Studies. Accessed 2010. Currently inaccessible. Accessible at Scribd : http://www.scribd.com/doc/87261390/OLOKUN-SYMBOLS-BY-IRO-EWEKA . Accessed 29 , March 2012.
10
Fortune, Dion. Sane Occultism in Sane Occultism and Practical Occultism in Daily Life. Wellingborough : The Aquarian Press, 1987. 13-119. Isaac Newton in Popular Culture, Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton_in_popular_culture . Accessed 29/03/1012. Milarepa. Tibets Great Yogi, Milarepa : A Biography from the Tibetan. Translated by the Lma Kazi Dawa-Samdup and edited by Evans- Wentz, W. Y., ed Oxford : Oxford UP, 1969. Ogbonmwan, SEO Adieu Prince ( Professor ) Iro Eweka. Message #58442 on the Nigerian Identity Yahoo Group, Wed, March 14, 2012; 10:12 PM. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NigerianID/message/58442 Accessed 16 March 2012. Okonkwo, Juliet Elechi Amadi , Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, Vol. Two: 1700 to the Present. Ed. Yemi Ogunbiyi. Lagos :Guardian Books, 1988.147- 153.162. Otto, Rudolf, The Idea of the Holy. Oxford : Oxford UP, 1958. Pullman, Philip, The Subtle Knife. London: Scholastic, 1997 --------------------The Amber Spyglass. London: Scholastic, 2000. Rosen, Norma, Chalk Iconography in Olokun Worship in African Arts, Vol. 22, No. 3 (May, 1989), pp. 44-53+88. JSTOR : http://www.jstor.org/stable/3336778 . Posted at http://obafemio.weebly.com/uploads/5/1/4/2/5142021/chalkiconographyinol okunworship.pdf. Accessed 16 March 2012. Solanke, Akin, , Email communication. Friday, March16, 2012. Soyinka, Wole, The Credo of Being and Nothingness . Ibadan : 1991 ------------------The Man Died. London :Rex Collings, 1976 , A Shuttle in Crypt. London :Rex Collings, 1972. ----------------- Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 1990 . nyat , Wikipedia. Accessed 16/02/12. Three Marks of Existence. Wikipedia. Accessed 16/02/12. Wordsworth, William. Wordsworth's Poetical Works, Volume 3: The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind : An Autobiographical Poem. Composed 1799-1805. 11
Published 1850 . Edited by William Knight.1896.
Archived
at
Project
Gutenberg.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12383/12383-h/Wordsworth3c.html.
Accessed
02/04/12.
12