Beginning Your Journey In IFA

IFA Speaks: Beginning Your Journey In IFA
By Chief Adedoja E. Aluko, Editor-in-Chief


In IFA, the Odus of IFA are experiences in life. For those who have received one Hand of IFA, it means that you have been given a charge and a destiny.

Now you know who you are, although you may not know what you are. When you know who you are, it is a step onto an enlightened path. It is the first step on the journey, because now you know who you are. You say: "These are my characteristics, now I have to discover how to apply who I am to what I want to be and what I want to become."

Some of our Odus give us broad range. We can be anything, from a farmer to a merchant, to a trader and still have success: if we do our sacrifices and follow IFA. Some of us have narrow paths: IFA says you can't go to the farm; IFA says you have to be an IFA Priest and you can do nothing else but IFA. Some of us have narrow paths. But this is IFA.

We believe in the religion of IFA; IFA is run by the Odus; divination is our right to the future, past and present. That's how we know, through divination. Each Odu is tailored to the individual.

Individually we come from Heaven to Earth. We don't come from Heaven to Earth as a group; we don't come from Heaven to Earth as a pair; we don't come from Heaen to Earth as twins--each twin comes from Heaven to Earth individually, even though they may be carried at the same time.

Sometimes you have two people with the same Odu, but they are different. One may be Sango and one may be Oshun. And they operate dirrerently; there are similarities, but they are different because we each come from Heaven to the Earth, as our own selves. And when we go back to Heaven, we have to go back as our own selves, no one else.

No one else can go back to Heaven for you. No one else can die for you, but you. That is IFA.

In the tradition of IFA, it teaches us that we have to give reverence to our Hand of Ifa, our Ikin. It's not something we put on the shelf and go to once a month; we might have to go there twice a month: every seventeen days minimum. Some times we go every four days. And we put them in our hands and we just talk to IFA. But we make mistakes; we go there and we ask for: "oh, I need a new car; oh, I need a new house; oh, I need money; oh, I need this.

But Orunmila teaches us in Ogunda Meji, that money (owo)came to Earth for us to utilize. Orunmila made the correct sacrifice, so he can receive money when he needs money. He didn't say he could get the whole money tree and get it all, because that is greed.

What Orunmila teaches, however, is that when you go to IFA, you ask for good character. IFA is about good character, Iwa-pele; this is the sum total of what you ask for. Because, when you develop good character all things come to you. All things love good character: aje (money), ile (house), everything, car; all of them stay with good character. When you have bad character, you see money leave, house leave, car leave; you loose everything.

So when we have good character, everything lives with good character. The Earth loves people who have good character. Olodumare loves people who have good character. Good character is what we seek. That is the traditional way of looking at this religion.
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For more information about Orisa/Orisha and IFA please do not hesitate to contact me. [email protected]