Ifá is a system of Divination is the occultic practice of ascertaining information by supernatural means. If a distinction is to be made with fortune-telling, divination has a formal or ritual and often social character, usually in a religious context; while fortune-telling is a more everyday practice for personal purposes. Divination is often... divination that originated in West Africa is the region of western Africa generally considered to include these countries: Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Côte dIvoire (Ivory Coast) Equatorial Guinea Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Niger Nigeria Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Senegal Sierra Leone Togo Chad, Mauritania, and... West Africa among the The Yorùbá are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria, comprising approximately 26 percent of that countrys total population, and numbering about close to 100 million individuals throughout the region of West Africa. While the majority of the Yorùbá live largely in the south-west of Nigeria, there... Yoruba people. The system is also practised among believers in Santería, Candomblé, and similar transplanted African traditional religions in the New World.

The For alternate usages of Oracle, see Oracle (disambiguation) An Oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. In the ancient world many sites gained a reputation for the dispensing of oracular wisdom: they too... oracle consists of a group of Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the palm family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order Arecales. There are 202 currently known genera with around 2,600 species. The type member of this family is the areca palm... palm nuts or Cowry shells (also spelled cowrie), are marine snails of the genus Cypraea (family Cypraeidae), found chiefly in tropical regions, especially around the Maldives or the East Indies. The shell itself is smooth and more or less egg-shaped, with a long, narrow, slit-like opening (aperture). Sizes range from 5... cowrie shells, or replicas of these, which are thrown to create In mathematics and computer science, the binary (base_two) numeral system is a representation for numbers that uses only zeroes and ones as digits. A computer file or data stream is said to be binary when it is interpreted as a sequence of encoded numerical values rather than human-readable text... binary data, depending on whether they land upright or reversed. The nuts are cast between the diviner's hands, and at last counted, to determine whether an odd or an even number of them has been retained. The shells or their replicas are often strung on a divining chain, four to each side. Four such throws or shells make one of the sixteen basic patterns (an odu in the Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. See IPA in Unicode if you have display problems. Yorùbá is a language of sub-Saharan Africa. The native tongue of the Yorùbá people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin... Yoruba language); two of these combine to create a total set of 256 odus. Each of these odus is associated with a traditional set of verses, often relating to The mythology of the Yorùbá is sometimes claimed by its supporters to be one of the worlds oldest widely practised religions. It is a major religion in Africa, chiefly in Nigeria, and it has given origin to several New World religions such as Santería in Cuba and... Yoruba mythology, which explain their divinatory meaning. The system is sacred to the gods In Yoruba mythology, Orunmila is an Orisha (Orisa), and deity of prophecy. He is recognized as ibi keji Olodumare (second only to Olodumare (God)) and eliri ipin (witness to creation). Orunmila is also sometimes referred to as Ifa (ee-FAH), which is actually the embodiment of knowledge and wisdom and... Orunmila, god of prophecy, and In Yoruba mythology, Eshu is an Orisha, and one of the most respected deities of the tradition. He is the protector of travelers and a god of roads, particularly crossroads. Every magical ceremony or ritual began with an offering to Eshu; failure to do so guaranteed failure in the intent... Eshu, who as messenger of the gods lends his authority to the oracle.

Where O is an odd count or a "heads" result, and E is an even count or a "tails" result, the sixteen basic patterns and their Yoruba names are set forth in the sidebar.

The entire system bears a superficial resemblance to Western systems of Geomancy (from the Latin geo, Earth, mancy prophecy) is a method of divination to interpret markings on the ground or how handfuls of dirt land when you toss them. It was explained as divination (in the same sentence with pyromancy and hydromancy) in the best-selling Travels of Sir John... geomancy. It is suspected by some that Western geomancy was borrowed from a version of the system borrowed by Arab (disambiguation). There are three factors which may assist to varying degrees in determining whether someone is considered Arab or not: Political: whether they live in a country which is a member of the Arab League (or, more vaguely, the Arab world); this definition covers more than 300 million people... Arabs and carried to North Africa, where it was learned by Europeans during the Historically, the Crusades were a series of several military campaigns, usually sanctioned by the Papacy, that took place during the 11th through 13th centuries. Originally, they were Roman Catholic endeavors to capture the Holy Land from the Muslims. Some were directed against other Christians, such as the Fourth Crusade against... Crusades. Though the number of symbols is different, the system also bears some resemblance to the The Great Wall of China, stretching over 6,700 km, was erected beginning in the 3rd century BC to guard the north from raids by men on horses. China  listen? ( Traditional: 中國; Simplified: 中国; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a nation located chiefly in continental East... Chinese Alternative meaning: I Ching (monk) The I Ching (Traditional Chinese: 易經, pinyin y jīng; Cantonese IPA: jɪk6gɪŋ1; Cantonese Jyutping: jik6ging1; alternative romanizations include I Jing, Yi Ching, Yi King) is the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. It describes an ancient system... I Ching divination system.

Names

Ifa priests and worshippers among the Yoruba people or those who belive in Ifa bear names related with Ifa, always starting with the word Ifa like Ifadairo, Ifabiyi, Ifadare, etc.

External links

• Online simulation of Ifá divination, with the names of the odus (http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~mjn203/ifa/)
• Ifá divination tools in African art (http://www.africans-art.com/index.php3?action=page&id_art=969)

Reference

• William R. Bascom: Ifa Divination: Communication Between Gods and Men in West Africa ISBN 0253206383
• William R. Bascom: Sixteen Cowries: Yoruba Divination from Africa to the New World ISBN 0253208475