As a result, the youth and the Yoruba people are losing interest in practising and consulting Ifa divination, which goes hand-in-hand with growing intolerance towards traditional divination systems in general. What is Ifa religion It is a profound framework in light of confidence in three significant parts: the preeminent being (Olodumare), the spirits (Orisa). It is through these Od If that priests and priestesses of. It is through the knowledge of these energies, called Od If, that Babalawo and Iyanifa are able to work with individuals to achieve the greatest potential of their destiny. Under the influence of colonial rule and religious pressures, traditional beliefs and practices were discriminated against.The Ifa priests, most of whom are quite old, have only modest means to maintain the tradition, transmit their complex knowledge and train future practitioners. The Od themselves are the oracles of the Yorb divination systems of If, Obi, and Merindinlogun. The knowledge of Ifa has been preserved within Yoruba communities and transmitted among Ifa priests. The ese reflect Yoruba history, language, beliefs, cosmovision and contemporary social issues. The ese, considered the most important part of Ifa divination, are chanted by the priests in poetic language. Each of the 256 odu has its specific divination signature, which is determined by the babalawo using sacred palm-nuts and a divination chain. The Ifa literary corpus, called odu, consists of 256 parts subdivided into verses called ese, whose exact number is unknown as they are constantly increasing (there are around 800 ese per odu). The Ifa divination system is applied whenever an important individual or collective decision has to be made. In contrast to other forms of divination in the region that employ spirit mediumship, Ifa divination does not rely on a person having oracular powers but rather on a system of signs that are interpreted by a diviner, the Ifa priest or babalawo, literally “the priest’s father”. The word Ifa refers to the mystical figure Ifa or Orunmila, regarded by the Yoruba as the deity of wisdom and intellectual development. 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |