Learning Ifa

Learning Ifa


Traditionally, Ifa has been passed on through an intensive apprenticeship to a master diviner. Often, this apprentice-ship takes years of study in which the mentor teaches the student the 256 Odu (the graphic signs) and their hierarchy after which, the student is taught the innumerable oral texts known as ese Ifa.



Generally speaking, each diviner is required to know at least four texts for each Odu, so 1024 is minimum. Most diviners know well more than that. However, for mutiple reasons, Ifa and Orisa practices are under fire.



The United Nations’ website says this about it: Under the influence of colonial rule and religious pressures, traditional beliefs and practices were discriminated against. The Ifa priests, most of whom are quite old, have only modest means to maintain the tradition, transmit their complex knowledge and train future practitioners. As a result, the youth and the Yoruba people are losing interest in practising and consulting Ifa divination, which goes hand-in-hand with growing intolerance towards traditional divination systems in general.” )



Didafa.com is a modern version of the ongoing education pursued by the best diviners (babalawo) by providing information and forums about Ifa and its symbiosis with Orisha, humanity and the Earth. In the past, having traveled extensively and having learned new wisdom from diverse regions and people, a diviner earned trust and confidence in his/her abilities. Didafa.com provides people and communities the opportunity to learn and share their particular wisdoms in the information age; a new kind of travel and itinerancy.

What is Ifa?

What is Ifa?

Ifa is a West African technology of communication between worlds – worlds of humans, ancestors, gods, and personal destinies.



In addition, Ifa refers to all the work associated with Ifa divination – the initiating of youth and adults, the making of medicines or talismans, making offerings to orisha (orisa), ancestors (egungun) or other entities, continuing education by diviners (babalawo) after initiation, and so on.



Recognizing its sophistication, UNESCO named Ifa one of the world’s Intangible Heritages of Humanity in 2005 making it a world cultural treasure.



Ifa accepts everyone – regardless of biology, nationality, or religious identification – by virtue of being eniyan (human being), the ones selected by the creator (Olorun) to improve the world and leave it better than when we came into it.



When communicating with people, Ifa speaks through eloquent stories, proverbs, songs, and poetry. Through these, the wisdom from other worlds enters this world in order to correct and right what has become imbalanced or sick. By hearing the voice of Ifa, humans are provided with the opportunity to heal and deepen the meaning of their lives by shifting life’s circumstances away from the ones that have brought trouble.



The person who comes to Ifa achieves healing through offerings and actions directed through Ifa’s advice. The wisdom of ancestral pasts enter the living present so that the living may heal themselves and so heal the wounds of the ancestors.