Ifa divination tools
Ifa's palm nuts or ikin
16 Palm nuts
Within the Orunmila system of Ifa divination, the sixteen palm nuts or Ikin are considered the most elevated form of divination, to the extend that they are often called the "sacred palm nuts". They are used in combination with the Ifa tray or Opon Ifa, on which the signs are written that are indicated by the Ikin. The diviner takes all 16 ikin in the left hand, and then grabs them with the right hand. Usually some stay behind, if one ikin is left the diviner writes a double mark (II) on the divining tray or Opon. If two remain, a single mark (I) is drawn in the iyerosun. Sometimes more than one remains in the left hand, or none at all, and such a grip is discarded and no mark is made. The process goes on until a full double Odu Ifa has been written in the iyerosun on the tray. Although the palm nuts or Ikin are held in the highest regard compared with other Ifa divinatione methods and paraphernalia, it's a remarkable though sad fact that they are the easiest to deliberately manipulate by unscrupulous diviners.
Opon Ifa, Ifa divination tray
Opon Ifa
This one used to be mine...
The Opon Ifa or Ifa divination tray is one of the best known objects within the Ifa divination system. With collectors of ethnografica they're very popular indeed, and some of them are admittedly quite impressive! The one pictured to the right, that once used to be mine, is very large with carvings in unusually high relief, truly a beauty! It was a very old one, and a couple of Awo's who are much better than me informed me that it had been fed human blood, long ago...
It took me some time (and profound divination!) to figure out how to orient the tray when working with it - the proliferation of Eshu heads made it far less straightforward than would have been the case with simpler trays! And for those who are morbidly interested: no, the human blood never bothered me (wide grin)!
Patience: it will all come!
Take it easy and have patience: all Ifa paraphernalia will in due course appear here... together with some of my experiences with them, and lots of other info.
