Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).
LiSe:... old Europese oracle [/URL]the figures are tetragrams: they consist of four lines, each of one or two dots. 'Even' and 'uneven'. They are built up from top to bottom. Anyting which will yield even and odd numbers or whatever else which can be seen as even or odd can be used for obtaining a tetragram. A dice, a handful of beans which you count, a coin for which you decide if heads or tails is odd or even...
And for a poetic in-between, without the work you have to do for the Yi, but with a bit more sophistication than this one, I use the LingQiJing.
...
The only scientific (and ethnographi)c source on the topic of Ifa-divination I know:
Bascomb, W. (1969).Ifa Divination: Communication between Gods and Manin West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press.
...
Ifa, god of divination, who is usually termed the God of Palm Nuts, because sixteen palm-nuts are used in the process of divination, comes after Shango in order of eminence. The name Ifa apparently means something scraped or wiped off: he has the title of Gbangba (explanation, demonstration, proof). Ifa's secondary attribute is to cause fecundity: he presides at births, and women pray to him to be made fruitful;
YORUBA-SPEAKING PEOPLES OF THE SLAVE COAST OF WEST AFRICA
by A. B. ELLIS [1894]
... but I’m glad to see you can see the fascination of this world.
Clarity,
Office 17622,
PO Box 6945,
London.
W1A 6US
United Kingdom
Phone/ Voicemail:
+44 (0)20 3287 3053 (UK)
+1 (561) 459-4758 (US).