Rules For Ifa Divination
Orthodox perspectives of ancient African spirituality say that in order for people to communicate with the Orisa Baba Orunmila, one must be initiated to Ifa. Traditionally speaking this is very important in order to gain the ability to perform divination or readings for others. For many people, the spiritual readings consist of little more than fortune telling. People will try to get a reading to determine who they should marry or where they should live or what kind of car they should buy. Marry the person who best reflects your goals in life. Live where you can afford and is most convenient to your lifestyle. Buy a car you can afford. No one needs divination for such rudimentary questions. And Orunmila, assistant to the Supreme Being Olodumare, doesn’t have time to spoon feed people answers for things that really don’t matter.
The objective of any true reading from Orunmila is to help an individual develop his or her spirituality. The development of spirituality is paramount to our time here on Earth. Spirituality helps prepare us for the next phase of our existence that comes when we pass away and lose our grip on this thing we call life. To not properly prepare means that we cannot advance. We will flunk. And when we fail to develop, like in grade school we are held back and will have to take another stab at this level of existence again and again until we get it right. Readings are how we get instructions to make improvements in our character where we are lacking. Readings are important in this day and age where there is so much pressure to conform to the materialism of the modern day world. Divination and readings are very important.
The people who perform these readings, the diviners, have a very important role to fill. The diviner’s main concern is supposed to be to help guide people along their path of spiritual development. But many times the diviner can get distracted. The client that comes in for a reading is going to pay good money for their reading. If a diviner doesn’t meet the client’s expectations they just might take their business elsewhere. If a client wants to contact Orunmila to find out if it will be okay to buy that Escalade with the twenty two inch chromed wheels then take the money and tell them they have the blessing from Ifa. Obviously, in order to develop spirituality, the client must see the folly of chasing material goods. No real divination is needed to answer that question. But there are diviners who take their ability much more seriously. And there are clients who take the opportunity for divination a lot more seriously as well.
Traditionally speaking the person who becomes a diviner must be initiated to Ifa. The person who wants to be a diviner must be initiated as a child of Orunmila. There are a number of steps and prerequisites that must be satisfied in order to reach this level of spiritual development. But it culminates in somebody who has already been initiated getting paid handsomely to perform an initiation ceremony for the client. The entire process can take a seriously long time and cost a good sized fortune. Ask just about anyone who studies the old school ways of Ifa and they’ll tell you that only people who pay for the initiation ceremony and jumps through these hoops will be able to communicate with Orunmila and learn the secrets to divination. And the way the vast majority of people practice divination is that they get out a special tray or some obi or some ikin or an opele chain or some other medium where they can throw trinkets like dice on a craps table.
The problem with this line of thinking is that if Orunmila wanted to communicate with somebody today, he may not be in the mood to wait for somebody to study all the teachings that other people say must be studied and pay all the money that other people say must be paid in order to get some initiation ceremony performed. If Baba Orunmila wants to communicate with you, chances are he’s got what it takes to bypass all the human trappings that people say must be done. And if Orunmila really wanted to bad enough he wouldn’t wait for the individual to find his dice to make a roll. Orunmila has so many ways to at his disposal to make an appearance to an individual’s consciousness that it boggles the mind. Orunmila is the assistant to the Supreme Being for god’s sake (pun intended). He is the master of fate. He isn’t limited to the rules of communication that we apply to ourselves. And to be honest, we are not limited to the rules we place on each other either.
Conversely, simply because we’ve gone through all the hoops that the community of Ifa worshippers says are necessary in order to become a diviner doesn’t automatically make us a diviner. A person can study odu verses and spiritual text from now until the end of time. However, if the individual s not right in his or her relationship with Orunmila, if they do not embrace social consciousness, if the person does not practice personal integrity, Orunmila would not trust that individual to be his manifestation of spiritual instruction. It wouldn’t matter of the individual had the biggest Orisa pots, the shiniest opele chain, or the biggest Orisa shrine, Orunmila would only be wasting his time with the person who manipulates others in the name of Ifa. And while these people think they are getting over, Orunmila is not a fool. Only people with the fortitude to maintain their good character will have his trust to guide others. And those that are diviners for their own selfish purposes will have to account for their actions.
Like most of the rules we’ve learned about African based spirituality, the limitations we put on ourselves are not based on spiritual fact but on the opinions or ideas that somebody with a little clout got in their head a long time ago and managed to push onto others until it become accepted as law. We have been hoodwinked into thinking that we have to live by each others rules. We have been duped into thinking that the Orisas are limited by our rules. Students of Ifa need to unlearn the box of boundaries we have put on our selves for it is not a natural construct of our relationship with the spiritual world.
I could not agree with this post more. My grandfather and several uncles are Babalawo’s. I have learned damn near everything I need to know and I don’t believe that I have ever been totally initiated. My mother would never allow that, another story to be told. Anyhow, I know that I have a connection with Orisa and my ancestors. And no initiation is going to make it stronger or better in some way. I have everything I need in order to be connected with my spirituality.
Thanks for a great post that is so on point for Ifa and Yoruba tradition.
Thanks for the feedback theblacksentinel,
But I have to give credit where credit is due. Orunmila made this post possible. Baba Orunmila will talk to whoever he pleases whether they have been initiated or not. People had better stop trying to control every aspect of spirituality and get with the program!
Peace
So here’s my funny story. I’ve typed this up three or four times and chickened out.
I’d been attending public services at an ile for almost a year. January’s service was for Obatala, because that’s how this ile starts the year. The service was led by a priest of Obatala who’s also a priest of Orunmila.
Before the service, I put my shoes down in a corner and my purse on top. However, furniture got moved around, and things changed. I special order my shoes because I wear an unusual size, and the pair I had was new.
You can see what’s coming next, right?
Well, there’s two iyawos, and one of them wears very close to the same size shoes. By accident, I happened to put on her shoes and leave, and drive an hour home, and then not notice that they weren’t my shoes. I did notice that the laces seemed odd, but it never occurred to me to check to see if they were my shoes. I put them away in my shoe drawer, because I only wore this type of shoe to services. In my defense, I’m an omo Olokun, and prone to being lost deep in thought.
A week or two later, I get an email from one of the priests, and that’s the first clue I have that these aren’t my shoes.
I’m horrified, of course, because it was obvious that she couldn’t wear my shoes. She had to wear the Ifa priest’s shoes, because the Ifa priest happened to be the only initiated person who had a spare pair of shoes.
There’s all kinds of ways of interpreting that, but it definitely seemed like a message to at least two of us. Do I think Baba Orunmila will speak up if needed? I do.
I’d never been to a bembe. I think, given my travel schedule, I’d been to six services and an awan for Olokun. That’s not a lot of exposure, especially when you consider how many people that go to the services have been in the ile (as members or guests) for years or even decades.
(And yes, the situation was resolved and I paid for another pair of shoes for the iyawo, apologized for the inconvenience, and got an Ifa reading with some ebo work to do.)
STEALING FROM IYAWOS!!!!
Actually that is too funny. Of course iyawos should know better than to leave their shoes or whatever anywhere they can be confused for another’s. And it’s a good thing the ile had mature people running it. I know a couple of Orisa houses where you would still be making ebo.
But I must confess that I don’t think much of the traditional interpretation of the iyawo process. I will confess that I written a post about a month ago regarding the iyawo costume and how it relates to politicians who wear lapel pins. This has got to be a sign that I should post that article!
Peace
Actually, they saw the concept of “walking in an iyawo’s shoes” as a sign that I may be called to initiation. (There were other aspects, but those aren’t my story to tell.) So overall it wasn’t perceived as a negative thing, just something positive with some negative bits to clear up.
I also noticed that the iyawos did keep their shoes on their mats after that.
I don’t know how I feel about the traditional iyawo costume, but my first thought about that is that I couldn’t imagine wearing white for a year prior to menopause.
In the Jewish communities, women who keep frum cover their heads (though they aren’t required to wear white). In some groups, the women shave their heads and wear wigs — conforming to the letter of the law, but not obviously sticking out in society quite so much. There’s a feeling among other parts of the community that this is outrageous, and this has led to the occasional bombing of wig shops.
I read one of your old posts about cutting dreads during initiation, so it seems that hair is a fairly emotional issue across several religions. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on clothing.
Like I said, they sound much more mature than some of the Orisa people I’ve experienced.
Peace