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Ifá is a living Yorùbá religious, philosophical and divinatory tradition. What follows is for education and exploration: the structure of the sign system, and what scholars have recorded about how it is used. A traditional Ifá consultation involves trained practitioners and a transmitted body of knowledge that software cannot reproduce, and nothing on these pages stands in for one.
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What is Ifá?
A divination system, a body of oral literature, and a religion — the word covers all three.
Who is Ọ̀rúnmìlà?
The òrìṣà of wisdom and divination, whose words the verses are said to carry.
What is an Odù?
One of the 256 signs — a pattern of eight marks, and everything that has been attached to it.
What is an ẹsẹ̀ Ifá?
A verse of the corpus — the unit a diviner memorises and recites.
What is a babaláwo?
The trained diviner — “father of secrets” — and the years behind the title.
What is an ìyánífá?
A woman initiated into Ifá — a title the scholarship records, with less written about it than about the babaláwo.
How an ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀ forms a signature
The divining chain: eight half-nuts, one throw, one Odù.
What are ikin?
The sixteen sacred palm nuts, and the slower, older way of forming an Odù.
What is an Ọpọ́n Ifá?
The carved divination tray on which the marks of the ikin are drawn.
What is ìyẹ̀rọ̀sùn?
The divining powder in which the marks are drawn.
What are ìbò?
The small objects a client holds so that a broad pronouncement can be narrowed to an alternative.
How 16 become 256
The arithmetic of two columns — and why a rank is not part of it.
The House of Ifá is an educational section. Satin Cradle is not a babaláwo, an ìyánífá, a priest, an initiated practitioner or an oracle, and does not offer consultations. Nothing here is needed for any practice.