Based on the way the chain falls, the priest will know which of the 256 odus should be consulted. In all, there are 256 possible arrangements (signatures) of the chain. Each one of them can land face up or face down. The chain is made up of eight sacred palm nuts. The priest will pray to Ifa for guidance and then will “throw” (drop) the divination chain. In a divination session, the person (or community) seeking help or guidance will come to the diviner, a priest, and think of the question silently. These sayings were passed down orally for centuries but first written down in the twentieth century. The texts of Odu Ifa are used in conjunction with divination. to give insight into the ethical decisions that one makes in ordinary life” (“Alafin of Oyo” by Molefi Kete Asante in Sage Encyclopedia of African Religion, Vol.
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Contained in 256 odus, the Ifa can be used.
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“Ifa is a philosophical corpus related to the myths of origin, ethical ideas, and cosmological understandings. Odu Ifa is the religious text of that religion.
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“The word Ifa refers to the mystical figure Ifa or Orunmila, regarded by the Yoruba as the deity of wisdom and intellectual development” (, accessed 12/19/20). There are some practitioners in the United States as well. (Other more well-known Yoruba religions include Haitian Vodou and Santeria.) Yoruba religions today are concentrated in Nigeria, Togo, and Benin in West Africa and in Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Guyanas, Jamaica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Yoruba religions are a group of systematized beliefs and practices that originated in West Africa and were brought to the New World by enslaved people who further developed and adapted them to their situation, including some influences from Christianity.