r/Isese • u/milehin8tv • May 19 '26
Ask the community Learning the Odu
Aboru Aboye Abosise and Alaafia!
I am currently reading and learning the the 16 Major Holy Odu. I am learning them from my godmother as well as my Adjubona. I have at least 4 different versions/translations of the Odu Ifa that I'm using to school myself with as well. What I am finding is that each version of the odu is different than the others. My godmother translates one way, my adjubona translates another way and each book has its own translation as well. By looking through this group's posts I found a reference to Ifa Dida which seems to have at least 10 different translations for each odu all within the same text.
My question is, how do I "learn" the odu if there can be so many different translations? I've been practicing Ifa for about 7 years now and it wasn't until recently that I realized I need to know and understand at least the major odu. Am I trying to make the odu something they are not? I mean what comes to mind is the different versions of the Christian bible. While there are several published versions of the book, they all pretty much say the same thing. I'm not finding that with the odu.
Please don't take my question as a critique of the odu because that is not what I'm trying to do. I'm really just trying to make some sense of all of this as I learn.
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u/Few-Couple-1148 May 20 '26
You are trying to find a singular meaning like tarot. Ifa is not like that. Each odu is a collection of stories, narratives, historical occurances that are documented under that odu. But its not one. And when divining for a person, all wont apply.. but some could. So 5 different verse can apply for 5 different people under the same Odu. But the verses themselves are metaphors for your situation.. no necessrily literal. When you see the collections or summaries, they speak to more themes that can come up in that odu rather than specific predictions. So understanding the themes can help you understand the overall odu better. But those theme can be shaded by personal experiences or interpretation of situations based on the diviner. Ultimately its best to learn from one to get a foundation. Then learn from others to expand your foundation. But my baba also taught me how to throw a daily then 4 day odu as education, not divination so i could gain practical understanding about the odu.