Ifa is Yoruba cosmology - the study of natural phenomenon.
It is the science of the cosmos in Yoruba language and pattern of communication.
It is a system of communication in an animist world. You can call the religion of this culture animism.
Animism is the thought that considers everything in existence as having a consciousness of itself.
By law of natural evolution backed up with DNA genetic traits, Yoruba’s genes of all genes in the world is the oldest full human group, that is, by natural evolution from just animals, the full sized human came into the process of evolution as the Yoruba man - Ó dúdú wá - he came as Black. This is why the black man's religion is animism because before humans were, there was life, there was consciousness, there were lives, countless things interacting already naturally in the cycle of live, death and rebirth, the human species just came in at a point in evolutionary cycle. And the oldest full size human DNA in the world is the DNA of the Yoruba around 87 thousand years ago. The Word Yoruba is talking about Africa - The Black man.
*This is not a race issue or contest. I'm just presenting the natural reason behind the African worldview. They were early men with more of the consciousness of what is behind. The beginning of human existence and evolution. They carried a lot of wisdom upon which man advanced going forward.
Ifá, being the ruling word of the universal consciousness before the evolution of man became articulated in the man called Ọ̀rúnmìlà Bara Agbonmiregun. Ọ̀rúnmìlà is said to have been with the universal consciousness called Olódùmarè from the beginning before the existence of man. Upon the existence of man and human species, Ọ̀rúnmìlà came as a man. He stayed across different parts of Yoruba land teaching Ifá to different people. He went back to Ọ̀run through a palm tree when he had made many students on earth who could replicate his teaching to be guiding humanity from generation to generation. These people are called Babaláwos. They are priests of the Ọ̀rúnmìlà the righteous servant of Olódùmarè. The wisdom of Ọ̀rúnmìlà is in the voice of Olódùmarè called Ifá.
Ifá is the operating system of the universal consciousness called Olódùmarè (no one sees or knows how it is), it is heard by Ọ̀rúnmìlà, collated and delivered to humanity by the spirit of Ọ̀rúnmìlà.
Ọ̀rúnmìlà is a Yoruba word that connotes the possession of the knowledge of the procession of life from Ọ̀run (invisible realm) into Aye (visible realm).
Orunmila documented all the consciousness that was at play in prehuman existence and uses it as a medium of ordering human existence, helping men understand from what was, how they can move into what is, and to what next.
Ifa is a description of the consciousness of all things in existence in the Yoruba worldview.
It contains the chronicle of both the good and the evil forces of nature and most importantly how they do coexist to serve the giant purpose of the order of the universe.
Its religious backbone is the law of retributive justice which places the creation of your reality into the realm of your own conscious decision.
We enjoy life to the degree of conscious or unconscious positive decisions we took or take in order to create those things that give us the joy of life. In the same manner , we suffer in life to the degree of our conscious or unconscious negative decisions that gives us distress. With the right attitude, we will learn how not to be foolish and seek to take better decisions going forward.
That which we let go to get the joy of life is what Ifa refers to as Ebo. This is like a student sacrificing sleep to read in order to have good grades in school. This is a key feature of higher animals, ability to delay gratification for a greater good, a function of the part of the brain called the Neo cortex which doesn’t exist in lower animals.
The cosmology of the Yoruba is a brilliant view of life, I know many good hearts would love to have the right knowledge of it.
And I am willing to let that information be made available.
My aim is that it will help someone know how to fix issues in his life seeing from the perspective with which the Yoruba sages explained life occurrences. Experiences of ancestors past, their triumphs, their failures and countless lessons to learn from their triumphs and failures.
Before now, it has been a long lost and wasted wisdom, but it was never lost, it’s obviously coming out now.
"When we wakeup in the morning, we should first teach ourselves Ifá, let’s not start the day with implementing madness." Èjì-Ogbè
By Ayobami Ogedengbe
Copyright: © 2021.
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