I have learned so much from the work and thoughts of Susanne Wenger that I wanted to share some of them with you..

Remembering Forward... plus other wisdom from Susanne Wenger

At age 35 Susanne Wenger came to Nigeria. The year, 1950. For over 50 years she has become so integrated into the culture that she has achieved virtual orisa status. Her re-construction of the ritual art in Oshogbo is, and remains, a triumph of human spirit and vision combined with the eternal energies of Nature. Some of her thoughts follow.and are worth following.

." the creation of the world happens continuously. There is neither beginning nor end, everything dies into a new birth, forms of culture grow like grass, Life and its meaning does not repeat itself. everything is born into a death. A good picture paints itself. And man creates his world himself."

"Everything that exists is unique like the waves in the river, and is never again its earlier self. Evolution itself is a reflection of the waters of Life- just as the tree who, daily visited by me, never deposits the same picture twice in my tree-wise heart. "

"There is man and woman in everything that lives. Much would come to an end if everything was properly androgynous."

"There is a great difference between genuine synchronism and a hodgepodge. When the mother of a child baked her son a cake and her spoilt son declared it unfit to eat- she answered 'it must be good, it's full of good things. With a cultural mix it is the same: there are a lot of good ingredients but very often it is not fit to eat."

"Yoruba religion concerns itself with 16 principal orisa whose cults ramify further, so that in principle the number of deities can be extended infinitely."

"One must avoid encounters with the restless souls of those who died too suddenly or as executed criminals, which are called pako, that is, deads who did not undergo the proper death ritual. They live between this life and the hereafter, and yearn to be born again by women they meet."

"Not only human beings, but also plants, animals, water, earth, stone, metal: all have a dimension of being which allows them total atonement with the appropriate orisa."

"The Yoruba knows Oludumare, the Christian believes in God. Which implies the possibility of disbelief. The Yoruba finds that absurd. "

"Oludumare is the ground in deep consciousness of all knowledge..His meta-intellectual absolute supremacy constitutes the dynamic condition for the continuous creation of life"

Blessings!...
Philip Neimark
Oluwo

 
© 2008 Ifafoundation.org