What is Ifa? (Kini Ifa?)

What is ifa?

 Ifa origin, ifa as act of divination, ifa as a religion, if as a cultural elements, all this we be discussed in detail. Ifa as a divination system is universal although it evolved from Yoruba land. Ifa goes by different names if we consider it from universal perspective. The igbo people of Eastern Nigeria  refer to ifa as Afa(in which case a dibia who is synonymous to babalawo divinity) if you move outside our country Nigeria, let us consider different names give by people of various culture to ifa from global perspective, this semantic differences arise as a result of wide spread of Ifa practice over the year to different cultures. :the Hebrew people call Ifa Epha, The Arabian people regards Ifa as Ramah or Hati, the European call ifa Geomancy, The Malagasy people  regards as Geomancy. The Dahomey people too refer to Ifa as Afa, the Fon people of Republic of Bennin refer to Ifa as Fa, The Nupe people of Nigeria refer to Ifa as  Eva, The Jews refer to Ifa as Ephod, the Ewe people of Togo refer to ifa as Afa, the Siwah people of Sahara refer to Ifa as Derbelraml or Derbelraml fu . But the fact remain that the act of divination reading derive from sixteen corpus is ifa and it original unadulterated name is  Ifa, which is the yoruba pronunciation of it. Ifa is also known as Orunmila, orunmila is also known as ifa. The two can be use interchangeably, although Orunmila is the first prophet through wish ifa is deliver to the world, but in ancient times orunmila is different from ifa, but the interchangeable use of orunmila as ifa, or ifa as orunmila arises as results of different holy odu ifa often refer to orunmila as ifa and ifa as orunmila and the main reason for this is that is only orunmila that have been able attain high level of sacred frequency of consciousness of embodiment of sacred ifa knowledge as set by OLODUMARE. And no babalawo has ever achieve same feet since then hence orunmila is regarded as ifa and ifa is also regarded as  orunmila, the two can be use interchangeably and it is  sacredly acceptable, but in actual fact Ifa is the sacred wisdom or the divine or sacred message from Olodumare. The person through whom the message is interpretated is Orunmila. So orunmila is an entity on it own or let me say orunmila is a personal life on it own and Ifa is an entity on it own, but the close association of the personality of orunmila and entity of Ifa over the centuries have make many scared verses of Ifa refer to Orunmila as ifa and Ifa as orunmila, it is now acceptable but the two are different entity. Ifa aslo is also called some other names as :Eleri ipin (withness of destiny at creation) ifa is also known as Opitan Ile Ife (ancient historian of Ife city) ifa olokun asorodayo (ifa olokun one that bring peace to broken peace to trouble mind) Akoniliran bi iye kan Eni (one who teach one 's wisdom like one relation) .
Now that we have known that Ifa is universal but under different names, now what is ifa?
Ifa is an holy sacred message from Olodumare (God) deliver to mankind through an ancient Olodumare prophet (Orunmila) .Ifa is an embodiment of
spiritual knowledge, medicine, culture, social values, human history, law, custom and traditions encapsulated in corpus know as odu ifa, through which it can be dig into and use  to meet both heavenly and earthly needs. Ifa is a divine message of Olodumare, it is a sacred message that covers the totality of all aspects of human existence. Ifa scripture is generally oral scripture and some of do come through dreams to a gifted babalawo. Although there are many books today explaining verses of Ifa, but this books can only depicted 1percent of volume of Ifa verses and scripture available at disposal of competent babalawo wish different from one person to another. Olodumare is a words, Ifa exist as a word, ifa is an inseparable part of olodumare, OLODUMARE is the beginning and end of all things, so because Ifa is part of OLODUMARE (God) ifa is believed to know the beginning and end of all things. For example
A verse in odu ifa ejiogbe give credence to this, it goes thus.

Orunmila ni hun un un
Ifa moni ki lo de ti o n kun barami elesin oyan?
Orunmila ki lo de to n kun  Adagba Ojomu
Ifa ni hun un unu
Ifa ki lo se o ti  on kun  barami  agboniregun?
Okinkin ti je ki eyin erin  o fon
Ifa loro lo po  ninu ohun
Ohun renikan a ba so ni
Ogun ni emi  n  ko, se bi ore niwa
Orunmila dahun pe o just oro ore lo
Orunmila ni Eni to mon iwaju oro  to  mon eyin oro ni  ohun  ko ri
Ogun ni o mon, sugbon  ko ri tu
Okanlelerinwo irumonle ni  won mon  sugbon won o ri tu
won wa bere  lowo orunmila pe se iwo na mo
Orunmila ni ohun ko mon iwaju oro, ohun ko mon eyin oro
Oni ifa nikan lo mon iwaju oro , ifa nikan lo mon eyin  oro.
Ifa olodumare
Atenilgelege sapeji ara

Translation

Orunmila is murmuring and soliloquizing
I  said ifa, why are you murmuring, the title holder of Elesin Oyan of oyan Kingdom
Orunmila why are you murmuring the Adagba of Ojomu land
if continue to murmur
I said Ifa  why area you murmuring, the trumpet blower, who blew the elephant tusk.
Orunmila responded I have alot on my mind.
But I have no one to share it with
Ogun demand am I not worthy enough for you to discuss it with me, at least we are friend.
Orunmila retort it goes beyond friendship
He said he had not met any one who knows the beginning and end of a matter
Ogun claim he does, but he was unable to unravel any matter.
All the 401 deities attempted and failed.
Then they unanimously inquire from orunmila if the beginning and end of all matters.
Orunmila say he didn't, that it is only ifa that knows the beginning and end of all matter.
From that odu ifa it can be discovered that in yoruba cosmology it believe that Ifa know beginning and end of all things. They believe ifa is Eleri ipin (the withness of destiny) hence ifa consultation is usually make before any important decision is taking like :selection of new King to ascend a throne, before embarking on business venture, when one want to choose a mate or friend, selection of partner for marriage, when one is sick, when things are not going well in person life, etc. Ifa will reveal solution to such problems.
Since Ifa is believed to know the beginning and end of every thing, hence ifa is use since ancient periods up till today  to regulate every sphere of human life. So if you said ifa is religion you right, if you said ifa is a science you are right, if you said ifa is a culture you are right, ifa you said ifa is divine, you are right, if you said ifa is mere spirituality you are right, because Ifa is an embodiment of all aspects of humanity ranging from :spirituality, science, medicine, culture, history.if you consider ifa from the cultural perspective, you we see that up till today ifa is use to regulate political and social-economic, languages and culture, type of marriage or sexual orientation acceptable and other social norms and value acceptable according to the will of olodumare. And if you say Ifa is Medicine, ifa has medicinal relevance, ifa as mean deal with physical and magical accept of using leave and herbs hence we have akose ifa for various purpose,e.g Akose ifa for wealth, for protection and infertility etc. Hence ifa can be called a medicine, if you said ifa is religion, yes many ifa verses preach sermon, ways to leave to please OLODUMARE (God) and gods such as preaching again murder, and other antisocial behavior and teach other morals. If you said ifa is Divinity, yes ifa is body of divination system, each ifa verses contains sacred messages,that is usually interpreted by a competent babalawo to solve human problem. Ifa you said ifa is history, yes if deal with history of the past raging from creation story of the universe, the historic past of great and ungreat people that have leave are are in Ifa scriptural verses. Hence saying ifa is historical is not wrong. if you say ifa is science, yes ifa sacred verses  for those (the babalawo) that know it contains some sacred  scientific knowledge like astronomy, cosmology, mathematics, logic, Astral science, philosophy and statistics. Etc
If you said ifa is a system of worship you are right. All these itemize characteristics are embedded in Ifa, so ifa can be said to be all encompassing. It embodies all aspects of human life.
The sacred messages or divine sacred knowledge and wisdom of Ifa is embedded in Ifa corpus know as Odu ifa. The Odu ifa contains 256 chapters in totality. There are sixteen major Odu know as Ojodu(Ekiti /ife)  oju odu(Oyo). There are 240 minor odu ifa know as Amulu or Afekaleka,this Amulu are derived from the 16 major Odu. The each of the  16 major Odu is sub divided into fifteen sub chapter each, making the totality of the Amulu in odu ifa 240.it is the combination of the 16 major odu ifa know as oju odu and 240 minor odu ifa that make up of the totality of the 256 major odu ifa. So all the spiritual and scientific knowledge of Ifa is encoded in this 256 odu ifa. It is believed that each odu ifa contains over 1,680 verses,and they are all in form of myth, science parable, anecdotes and wisdom saying. That 1,680 multiply by 256 that we presumably over 430,080 sacred verses of sacred verses of Ifa. Although ifa is far far above that. that is the elder will say a ko ifa ko ifa ifa o tan (we learn ifa continously but we cannot know it end). In one of the praises of Ifa, ifa is regarded as Oluwa mi amoimontan (my lord the great mystery, my lord the unfathomable). Babalawo derive solution and message from each odu that appear on ifa divination tray to the client. A competent babalawo must at least memorise 2 verses in each Odu of the 256 odu ifa to be competent to conduct divination reading. So odu ifa is not contain in any books as many people do think. Most books that have been written on ifa just document few out of avalanche knowledge of odu ifa. Most of it have lost and some are still orally available within the knowledge of practicing babalawo.
So from my explanation so far ifa can simply be defined as a sacred or esoteric words OLODUMARE (God) that is embedded in odu that can only be discovered and interpret through the medium of divination.
The sixteen major odu as arrange in Ifa spirituality is of three tradition. Ile Ife tradition, Ekiti tradition, oyo traditions. The arrangement of odu ifa in these three tradition is different. But the two other tradition that Ekiti and Oyo take derive their arrangements of odu from Ile Ife tradition. I will explain what lead to different in arrangements of odu in different tradition as explained by odu ifa irete ogunda after I have listed the arrangement of odu as use in this three tradition. It is instructive to state here that entity know as sixteen odu ifa are like individual spirits why they are in isalu Orun (heaven) before coming to this earth. Ejiogbe is the last of the sixteen odu when they are still in heaven, ofun meji is the most senior out of all of them when they are still in heaven. But when their journey was set to ikole aye (earth) ofun meji who is the most senior say that he is not yet ready to go. So Ejiogbe who is the youngest take the lead that is how ejiogbe become the first odu ifa, oyeku meji follow ejiogbe, after is odu ifa iwori meji, odu ifa odi meji, then odu ifa obara meji, odu ifa okanran meji, then odu ifa irosun meji, then odu ifa owonrin meji, then odu ifa ogunda meji, then odu ifa osa meji, then odu ifa irete meji, then odu ifa otura meji, then odu ifa oturupon meji then odu ifa ika meji , after is odu ifa ose meji then come lastly is odu ifa ofun meji came to earth last after his junior odu have came to the world and take place of seniority before him.
On getting  to  the world ofun fight rigorously to take his place as the elder and most senior back, but he failed in the attempt. History have it that he fought ose meji, he win, he fought odu ifa ika meji, oturupon meji, otura meji, irete meji, osa meji, ogunda meji, he won all of them. But when he get to odu ifa owonrin meji, owonrin meji resist he fights back and then is winner that  emerge between two of them as no one of  them  lose their ground, that is why up till today no  one knows the senior between odu ifa owonrin meji and ofun meji that is how ejiogbe become the most senior odu in arrangement of sixteen odu merindinlogun now I will go first into Ile Ife Tradition arrangements of odu merindinlogun,because it is from it that  other tradition derived their arrangements. How Ekiti and Oyo take borrowed Odu arrangements from Ile Ife traditional is explain in odu ifa Irete aaya/Irete ogunda, I will give details of later in this article. And will explain what responsible for the differences in arrangements of odu ifa in the three tradition mentioned.
Arrangements of odu ifa in Ile Ife tradition  goes thus :1 Ejiogbe, 2 Oyeku meji, 3 iwori meji, 4 Edi meji, 5 obara meji, 6 okanran meji, 7 irosun meji, 8 oworin meji, 9 ogunda meji, 10 osa meji, 11,irete meji, 12 etura meji, 13 Eturupon meji, 14 ifa meji, 15 ose meji, 16 ofun meji.
It is instructive to note that it is wrong for some writer who have think the arrangement of odu ifa in Ile Ife tradition and Ekiti tradition is  the same. No far from it. Now let examine Ekiti tradition arrangement of odu ifa. Ekiti tradition arrangements of odu ifa  goes thus.
1 Ejiogbe, 2 Oyeku meji, 3 iwori meji, 4 Edi  meji, 5 obara  meji, 6 Okanran  meji, 7 irosun meji, 8 owonrin meji, 9  ogunda meji, 10 osa meji, 11 irete meji, 12 otura meji, 13 oturupon meji, 14 ose meji, 15  ofun meji, 16  ika  meji. That is arrangements of odu ifa in ekiti tradition.