Divination

Except for the day you are born and the day you are supposed to die there is not a single event in one's life that cannot be forecast and if necessary changed. You are born with a specific path, divination serves as a road map to your path.

Divination is defined as the faculty of foreseeing. Divination (Ifa) is an art and it involves having insight into one's fortunes and misfortunes from birth to death and beyond. Each person has a certain God given life potential. As a person grows, the world challenges him/her with obstacles that tend to throw him/her out of alignment with whom he/she has the potential to be. Divination serves as a means to realign a person to their rightful path that was decided upon in heaven before one's arrival to earth. If one aligns himself with the forces of nature, which are within us all, one will have a more fortunate outcome with one's endeavors . Divination is a means for achieving one's endeavors (spiritual aspirations) and teaches us to balance ourselves with our environment. This crucial element (divination) is missing in the masses of the African descendants in the New World and even in Africa itself.

Western science is biased against the validity of divination as the source of inspiration. Divination deals with the invisible/spiritual forces that exist in our reality. Western science deals with these unseen influences, but calls them "laws of physics". The methodology used by Western science, in its futile attempt to understand unseen influences, is to conjure up theories and create experiments that test their theory. If the experiment produces the expected result, given static circumstances, the theory is considered valid. This process is based on the belief that the universe functions in a mechanistic and ordered manner and that the spiritual (unseen) influences are non-existent. However, the spiritual realm does exist and has an influence in our lives that parallels the obvious (physical). Divination deals with these unseen influences that play a life and death role throughout the duration of our lives on earth.

Africa is the cradle of civilization. This cradle nurtured many different means for man to communicate with God. Throughout the African Diaspora only one form of communication, via divination and spiritual virtues, has reigned supreme. Ifa. Through the Ifa apparatus, divination is performed and fate is revealed. Ifa is expressed in all African countries in one form or another by one name or another. The slave master had to eliminate this ancient power that the African used in order to enslave the African in the New World. However, through it all, Ifa survives. Ifa is still intact and is as accurate and as relevant today, as it was 10,000 years ago.

There are many forms of divination. You have the physic network, palm reading, crystal balls, the I Ching, and so on. And of course we have Cleo!   All these methods are supposed to give the client insight into their unknown future. The Ifa system of divination, due to the amount of information and the number of possibilities is the most robust, ancient and the longest standing of all forms of divination. In the African tradition it is unthinkable to embark upon any major task without first consulting the oracle (Ifa) to ascertain whether or not the proposed action is favorable or not and to probe the probable outcome. To embark upon serious actions like marriage, child conception, new business ventures or the treatment of dis-ease without first seeking the guidance of Ifa is careless and foolhardy. This is a major mistake for the masses of African descendants in America that desperately need such guidance.

Ifa works with the unseen forces of the universe through the inter-play of the forces of expansion and the forces of contraction. The forces of expansion are symbolized by a single vertical line (I). The forces of contraction are symbolized by a double set of vertical lines (II). These forces are seen as existing in eight dimensions which form two spheres, one inside the other. This sphere is symbolized through the use of two vertical columns. Each column is made up of four sets of either single or double vertical lines. This system generates two hundred and fifty-six different sets of quadragrams. Each quadragram is a representation of several fundamental energy patterns that entail all of Creation. Each of these 256 energy patterns is born from sixteen major forces called Olodus. The remaining 240 are combinations of the first sixteen and are called Odu. Each Olodus/Odu is bought to life during a divination session and the message contained is revealed via the intuitive association of the Babalawo.

The Babalawo's are priests of Orunmila that are specially trained, via years of instruction from elders on the secrets of divination. Babalawo literally means, Father of Secrets.  Within the same verses that detail your fate you have the appropriate sacrifice prescribed by the Babalawo to assure a favorable outcome. This is similar to visiting a MD in the western world. You visit the doctor; he reads you with his instruments and prescribes some medicine. Your body will sacrifice something for the betterment of the targeted problem if the prescription is followed. Babalawo's are spiritual doctors that use the instruments of Ifa through divination to heal and guide our spiritual being (prescription). Divination can also be referred to as Managed Care.