The Divine Role of Oxossi in the Endgame: the Orisha of the Hacker 7 comments

16 Nov 2010 @ 13:40, by Max Sandor Rarely did I talk about the qualities of the Orisha in public forums over the last decade. There is just too much confusion, inside and outside of the circles of Ifá and it didn't seem appropriate to throw in some words of wisdom to so many misconceptions and so much disinformation. About ten years ago, though, when I wrote articles for the journal 'Odidere' of Chief FAMA [link] , I commented about the sacred Odu (Primal Principle) of Okanran-Disa and its signifance for the evolution of man and the creation of this world and it is now time to add a few notes to these musings. Oxossi is known as the archetype of the tracker and trapper in the forest. Instead of engaging in open combat like Ogum or trying to be the hero like Shango, he prefers to remain unseen, stalking the prey for whatever it takes until the time to strike has come. He studies the traps within the world of mortals carefully and meticulously. In this way, he is able to find his way through the jungle and create his own traps. In the jungle of the Digital Culture of today, he is found in the role of the 'ethical hacker'. With a deep amd profound sense for the injustice in this world and equipped with a keen & astute sense of observation, he sits behind the computer screen, watching and watching, finding a path through the net of networks, weaving his schemes to make the hidden visible and to penetrate the invisible. At the conference on Geopolitics of Culture and Technology last week in São Paulo, Brazil, [link] we heard about the difference of the Chinese and the Western philosophy by François Jullien, Professor at Paris 7, about the wisdom of the 'Art of War' versus the blind and narcistic heroism of the Greek which permeates so much the Occidental thinking. He could as well have talked about the extremes of Oxossi combined with Obatala and the show-off-ness of Shango, The modesty of the 'wise' general versus the false heroism of the West. For Oxossi, winning the war is more important than dying on the battle field and being admired as an hero in a future as a heroic ancestor, which means as a Dead, of course. The code of honor of Robin Hood, the prototype of Oxossi in the West, is being despised by the egocentrical leaders of today. For them, he simply is a terrorist, and they enjoy humiliating him and his followers, as exposed by Saúl Puerta Peña [link] on the said conference, reporting on the indigenous movement for independence in Peru. Any confessing hacker, even with the high ethical standards (see [link] ) is being labeled a terrorist by the pyramidal power structures [link] . And perhaps in this way we may be able to understand Brazil's special role in today's world: a country in which the archetype of the tracker, trapper, and hacker, the Orisha Oxossi, is symbolized and incorporated in so many ways, always with a soft but unignorable influence of Oshun, from the colors of its banner to its martial arts, Capoeira, from its carnival to the unique institution of its 'motels', and, last not least, its 'LAN houses', Internet centers pervading urban jungles as well as the most remote of outbacks, from 'favelas' to 'aldeias'. And there we see the unique importance in the 'endgame' of our civilization: the heroes of the past did NOT save this world. They are dead, we only find their once glorious names on highway signs and street corners. Ogum betrayed and deceived, seeing his technology abused by greed and lust for war, in the end, it will be up to his brother Oxossi to risk a last-ditch effort to make mankind survive this ugly and senseless game of power. As a sidenote, if he should succeed, and we all do hope so very much, you can count on a Shango to step in to reap the honors and be applauded and revered. It has always been that way. After all, we're talking about the archetypes, the models and blueprints of this World, from its beginning to its end. As Robert Heinlein put it so nicely "Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet, you can't win."

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