Ifá Oracle
Yoruba sixteen-figure oracle
For odu signs, opele casts, and spoken-verse guidance.
Oracle / Ifá
Ifá is the divination system of the Yoruba of West Africa, kept by trained priests, the babaláwo. Its foundation is sixteen principal figures, the Odù Mejì, each a pattern of four single or double marks. A cast makes two such columns, called legs: the right leg is senior and is read first, the left completes it, and together they give one of 256 odù.
The opele is a divining chain of eight half-seeds; each falls open or closed. What follows reads the figures from their patterns and names as the app does. It is written interpretation, not a verse of the Ifá corpus, whose sacred verses belong to the babaláwo who learn them. The structure of the sixteen figures follows A. B. Ellis (1894).
About Ifá
Ifá is the system of divination of the Yoruba people of present-day Nigeria, Benin and Togo, and it is also practised across the African diaspora, in Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and beyond. It is both an oracle and a vast body of sacred knowledge covering history, ethics, medicine and ritual.
Orunmila and the babaláwo
According to Yoruba tradition, Ifá was revealed by Orunmila, the orisha of wisdom and destiny, who witnessed the choice every soul makes of its destiny before birth. Through Ifá a person can learn whether they are walking in harmony with that destiny and what must be done to restore balance. The priests of Ifá are the babaláwo, a title meaning “father of secrets”. Their training takes many years of memorising verses, and a real consultation is carried out by a babaláwo, who interprets the sign that appears and prescribes any offering or action it calls for.
The 256 Odù
The foundation of Ifá is a set of 256 signs called Odù. Sixteen of them are the principal Odù (Ojú Odù), beginning with Ejiogbe, Oyeku Meji, Iwori Meji and Odi Meji. Each principal sign is made of two identical halves. The other 240 signs combine two different principal halves, so that 16 times 16 gives 256 in all. Every Odù is a binary figure of eight marks, single or double, arranged in two columns of four.
The opele and the ikin
The babaláwo has two main instruments for casting an Odù. The opele is a divining chain on which eight half-shells or seed pods are strung, four on each side. With a single cast, each piece falls concave or convex side up, and the full Odù appears at once. For the most solemn consultations the priest uses the ikin, sixteen sacred palm nuts. He tries to grasp them all in one hand, and the number left behind, one or two, is marked in powder on a wooden divining tray, the opon Ifá. The process is repeated until all eight marks of the sign are recorded.
The verses
Each Odù is linked to a large number of verses, the ese Ifá. They are poetic narratives, often telling how a figure of the past faced a problem, consulted Ifá, made the prescribed offering and either prospered or suffered for ignoring the advice. The babaláwo recites the relevant verses, and the client’s situation is understood through them. The corpus is transmitted orally.
In 2005 UNESCO proclaimed the Ifá divination system a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, and in 2008 it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Ifá on your phone
The app keeps a history of your readings, has a sign for every day and a home-screen widget, and goes further into the tradition.