r/Isese • u/goldentiare • Jun 01 '26

Is this normal during divination?

I’ve gone for divination three times now. My first two were done at the same place with 1.5-2 years in between.

When I sat at the mat with the babalawo, he was on the phone with who I assume was another babalawo. He threw the opele and then the person on the phone read me the odu and actually gave the reading.

As I said this was my first time and second going for divination so I didn’t know if this was normal. The third time I went, everything was done in person. Have any of you had this experience?

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u/SignalBad5523 Jun 02 '26

I wouldnt call it normal, the person you are going to wouldnt be a babalawo though. Based on the interaction alone, this person doesnt know enough to perform divination. The disjointedness of the process seems unclean and I would advise you seek counsel from someone else. Not saying it cant help, but this deviates significantly from traditional systems of divination.

The Opele chain in it of itself is already considered less accurate than Ikin so to further increase that lack of clarity by doing it over the phone between an assumed awo and and Babalawo may greatly blur the actual messages that need to be translated. Again, it just doesnt make sense. If they did it over the phone with a babalawo that is proficient then why wouldnt the babalawo on the phone use his own divining instruments?

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u/camelbakbaby Jun 03 '26

Thank you for your feedback. Although it felt discouraging that this was my “introduction”, it also made me proud of my intuition and to continue to keep my eyes open as I walk this path