The ifa literary corpus, called odu, consists of 256 parts subdivided into verses. Unlike the i ching, however, ifa poetry is not written down but passed down orally. In general, ifa divination is a geomantic knowledge system through which specialized interpreters diagnose, explain, or predict current and future fortunes or misfortunes. Ifa divination ifa is the oracle of maximum importance to practitioners of orisa lifestyle. Ifa and my own life experiences has previously made known to me they we can convert poison into medicine. Ifa divination, knowledge, power, and performance is a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on ifa. The word ifa refers to the mystical figure ifa or orunmila, regarded by the yoruba as the deity of wisdom and intellectual development. The babalawo uses the ifa divination system to make a spiritual inquiry into ones akashic record to see how a problem or situation is best resolved.
Like the chinese i ching, ifa combines a large body of wisdom literature with a system for selecting the appropriate passages from it. Orunmila is identified as the grand priest, as he is who revealed divinity and prophecy to the world. One such traditional divination system is the yoruba method known as ifa. Ifa divination is both a body of knowledge and a system of social, emotional, pathological control, employing relevant historical and mythological precedents contained in the special divinatory verses to be recited, chanted or song by the babalawo. Orunmila is the deity associated with ifa diviniation. There are some charts, illustrations and photographs.
Orunmila asked them to allow him to consult his ifa divination system. Discover answers to lifes questions using the ifa oracle an ancient african divination tool and the spiritual foundation for candoble, santeria and vodun. Henry drewal this landmark study of ifa, the most important and elaborate system of divination of the yoruba people of nigeria. So, if one is adapting a divination system, should one not also try to see how far one can go with developing that adaptation into a cognitive force which may be applied in daily life. This ancient corpus contains the history, cosmology, worldview, linguistic heritage, medical tradition and ethical legacy of the yoruba people and has been preserved orally through poetic form. The word for head in yorubaoricarries physical and spiritual connotations that cannot be separated. Sep 28, 2009 the ifa divination system is applied whenever an important individual or collective decision has to be made. Ifa divination, knowledge, power, and performance african.
This is a simple, beautiful and powerful ifa prayer. Ifa magic and if applied correctly through the use of any instrument of divination, the outcome will be certain ibid. Ebo as a healing technique in ifa divination system by. Ifa in yoruba thought system carolina academic press. These two specialized studies of one part of the system of ifa divination relate to. Ifa divination trays from isaleoyo openedition journals. Orunmila is claimed to have brought ifa divination to the world. Ifa divination is practiced by the yoruba people of southwestern nigeria and west africa. Ifa divination system intangible heritage culture sector unesco. The ifa divination system has been greatly misconceived as a mere esoteric system, devoid of any form of technological information.
Most important, however, ifa provides a pragmatic and psychological cushion against the vicissitudes of life. Ifa divination is the process in which a ifa priest uses the sacred ifa tools to perform a. The essays, with amazing depth and complexity, situate this practice and the religion it represents into a broader global context. Though the number of symbols is different, the chinese i ching divination system also bears some resemblance to ifa divination. Accordingly, mesopotamian divination was an allembracing semantic system designed to interpret the whole universe. Traditional african divination systems as information. In traditional yoruba culture, ifa refers to a system of divination and the verses of the literary corpus known as the odu ifa. Olu longe in his december 22, 1983 inaugural lecture titled ifa divination and computer science asserted that orunmila is one of the deities of the yoruba while ifa divination is a.
Ifa is the yoruba system of cosmology, philosophy and divination, contained in a vast oral text. In some instances, the name orunmila is used interchangeably with the word ifa. It is through casting the oracle that noninitiates and priests alike can determine the wishes of their ori, the ancestors and the orisa. Within each of the 256 odus, there are1,680 sacred verses all presented in parable format. Central to this study is the iconographic description and interpretations of isaleoyo divination. Divination plays a crucial role in the ancient yoruba traditional religion of ifaorisa. Ifa helps repair imperfect ori and helps the individual stay in.
Hall, and is an excellent example of the exoteric tarot. Ebo is considered to be the core of ifa divination system mode of healing and solving problems and forms the nucleus of all other healing system. The ifa divination system is a set of divination acts done by a professional that has been granted authority a babalawo to create and make use of set of rules to communicate with the gods so as. Pdf the ifa divination system is a set of divination. This landmark study of ifa, the most important and elaborate system of divination of the yoruba people of nigeria, remains a monumental contribution to scholarship in anthropology, folklore, religion, philosophy, linguistics, and african and africanamerican studies. The study reported in this book examined the pivotal roles that ebo plays in the healing process with a vi among the yoru ba of southwestern nigeria, ifa divination is a major source or means of. Traditional african divination systems as information technology. Divination is spoken of as casting ifa dafa, da ifa, using the verb that describes throwing corn to chickens or tossing out water. Bible of yoruba people university of african art press. The yoruba religion also referred to as ifa religion is the traditional religious concepts and practices of the yoruba people, is found primarily in southwestern nigeria and the adjoining parts of benin, commonly known as yorubaland. Pdf a comparative study of ifa divination and computer science. They occupied an area bounded by the niger river, and including what is now known as the benin republic, southwestern nigeria, and part of togo. For divination the best pack of tarot cards now available is that given with this course of lessons.
Ifa divination a yoruba divination art ifa divination is considered by many academic scholars, anthropologists, and metaphysicians to be one of the oldest and most accurate divination systems in the world. Ifa divination is the system our ancestors used to solve family, institutional, governmental, and personal problems. Introduction ifa is a system of divination based on sixteen basic and 256 derivative figures odu obtained either by the. Orunmila the capsule of divination, which he swallows eagerly. The ifa divination system, which makes use of an extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formulas, is practiced among yoruba communities and by the. The ifa oracle is animated by a deity named orunmila, but also often called ifa. This landmark study of ifa, the most important and elaborate system of divination of the yoruba people of nigeria, remains a. It informs readers new to ifa studies, challenges experts to question their presuppositions, and does all this with multidisciplinary acuity.
No matter what youre looking for or where you are in the world, our global marketplace of sellers can help you find unique and affordable options. Pdf a comparative study of ifa divination and computer. Yoruba refers to a group of cultures linked by a common language. A babalawo ifa priest uses the ifa divination system to make a spiritual inquiry into ones akashic record to see how a. Finally, a big thank you to my advisor and the chair of my dissertation. Thus, the body of ifa consists of 430,080 messages for mankind prof. Ebo as a healing technique in ifa divination system by morten.
Apr 25, 2020 ifa divination is the system our ancestors used to solve family, institutional, governmental, and personal problems. It has, furthermore, the decided advantage that the cards are of such size that they may be conveniently shuffled and dealt. In addition eledumare gave orunmila the circular, the rectangualr and the triangular ifa trays opon ifa. Babalawos or iyanifas use either the divining chain known as opele, or the sacred palm or kola nuts called ikin, on the wooden divination tray called opon. Its ability to survive seems to lie in its flexibility and its adaptability to new circumstances. Dafa ifa divination ifa divination gives a clear and precise look into the energies that are involved in any given situation and also provides answers and solutions for how to deal with any given circumstance that can occur in the universe. The one that yields the fullest information is the system of geomancy known as ifa, for which there are three procedures of varying complexity, the two most complex being used by professional diviners babalawo.
View afaifa divination system research papers on academia. The ori holds the bodys knowledge and is its destiny. Download divination or read online books in pdf, epub, tuebl, and mobi format. Pdf the ifa divination system is a set of divination acts. I will base my claims on verses of ifa which give us hints to that effect. Consulting ifa will allow you to access hidden knowledge about your life. To perform divination, an ifa priest, father of the mysteries, or babalawo, casts a chain of eight halves of palm nuts or else sixteen separate nuts, and then reading the pattern of the cast, he marks the permutations on a tray. Bernard maupoil, during a tour of administrative duty in danxome during 193336, made an extensive study of the ifa system of divination, which plays such a large part in the religious life of the yoruba and of their neighbours in danxome who have borrowed it from them. Ifa divination, babalawo reading, babalawo divination, odu ifa.
The ifa divination system is applied whenever an important individual or collective decision has to be made. This suggests that divination is not primarily a system of belief or attitude, but is a technology. Practitioner of this tradition believes in one god, the creator of all things. The ifa divination system is based on a set of 256 energies.
It is through ifa divination that one can find answers to life challenges and situations. Henry drewal this landmark study of ifa, the most important and elaborate system of divination of the yoruba people of nigeria, remains a monumental contribution to scholarship in anthropology, folklore, religion, philosophy, linguistics, and african and africanamerican studies. Nov 27, 2017 ifa divination is both a body of knowledge and a system of social, emotional, pathological control, employing relevant historical and mythological precedents contained in the special divinatory verses to be recited, chanted or song by the babalawo. It is means of communication between the natural and supernatural worlds that is used as a guide to ones destiny. Pdf the ifa divination system is a set of divination acts done by a professional that has been granted authority a babalawo to create and make use.
Divination and interpretation of signs in the ancient world. This is a rich book with diverse perspectives converging on ifa divination as a complex knowledge system. In a similar vein, yoruba philosophy can be considered antecedent to yoruba religion, in the same manner that every. Ifa divination, knowledge, power, and performance on jstor. The ifa divination system, which makes use of an extensive corpus of texts and mathematical formulas, is practiced among yoruba communities and by the african diaspora in the americas and the caribbean. Ifa divination helps provide a formula for us to use.
Trusting the inherent knowing that we all possess allows us to take back our own personal power, which is according to ifa and yoruba philosophy our given birthright. Two studies of ifa divination africa cambridge core. One may also determine whether the prayers and offerings presented to the divine forces are both heard and accepted. Ifa also provides a solution to either realign, or deepen current alignment, by making simple offerings to specific universal energies that are intended to get the person back into energetic balance.
This is your chance to work with someone who is not only an orisa lifestyle practitioner and a counselor but also a personal mentor and professional consultant who offers many levels of coaching, consulting and training for educators, human services. The paper establishes that ifa trays from isaleoyo bear distinctive features when compared with other ifa trays in yorubaland such as those of ijebu and osogbo. Divination systems 2005 university of metaphysical sciences 2 divination methods are covered, the author attempts to give full explanations of each and how they are done. Although to the masses ifa, or fa as it is called in danxome, has become. The structuring of the opon ifa into unified segments created through the inscribing of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines into its surface in order to. An ifa diviner with at least 15 years of training, having memorized all the passages of the odu needed to interpret ifa device outcome ifa divination is practiced by the yoruba people of southwestern nigeria and west africa. In nigeria, benin, togo, and throughout the african diaspora, yoruba people and their descendants use an ornate circular or rectangular opon ifa divination tray for.
The sacred texts of ifa, repository of the accumulated wisdom of countless generations of yoruba people, are an invaluable source not only for all students of african oral literature and yoruba civilization, but also for future generations interested in the continuing vitality of ifa divination and a yoruba way of life and thought. He then brought out the entire ifa paraphernalia, including the opele, iroke, opon and agere. Ifa divination system intangible heritage culture sector. You can think of them as currents in the river we call life.
A comparative study of ifa divination and computer science. He also mentions numerous famous or infamous people associated with divination. Osun and the origins of the ifa divination wande abimbola y ifa divination we mean ifa and related systems of divination based on the stories and symbols of the odu such as dida owo divination with the sacred divining chain called opele and et. Pdf the ifa divination system is a set of divination acts done by a professional that has been granted authority a babalawo to create and make use of set of rules to communicate with the gods so as to solve peoples problems.
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