Customer Reviews

The Sacred IFA Oracle

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

With all due respects to my elder Babalawo, but I believe that we all as human beings and followers of the Orisha, need sacred texts as all major religions do. The Christians have the Bible, the Muslims the Quran, and the Hindu's the Bhagavad Gita. This book may not be the answer to any of those sacred texts I have mentioned, but it is quite certainly a good start. Not only for divination, but also for spiritual inspiration as well as daily affirmations.

My highest respects to Afolabi Epega, for translating these ancient texts known as the Sacred Living 256 Odus
of our Lord the great prophet / Irunmole / Orisha, Orunmila. This book belongs in the shelf of every Orisha worshipper. This book is great only because of Afolabi Epega, the rest of the introduction should have been left out, and is not needed.

One who reads this book must understand that the whole view and teachings of each Odu would fill many, many volumes of books, this is just but a great start.

As a babalawo I'm happy to have bought this book. There are lots of good things. It's interesting because it give a quick resume of each Odu in just one book. About 2 itan by odu (some have just one) and 4 for the meji. each time with the ebo.
I just have would like that tones and specifics sounds would have been better written and specifiquely for the name of the awo.

Here is the best explanation of the 256 Odus I have seen. The "western" translations help bring this always fluid system into a mainstream view. I would recommend this for any aspiring Babalowa.

Afolabi Epega did a great job in his explanation of the 256 Odus. The "western" observation and the introduction written by Philip Neimark could have been left out and the book would have been better off. It is a shame that Oluwo Afolabi Epega is even remotely affiliated with Philip Neimark in this book

two years ago I bought this book, and at first I didn't know what to do with it. I just put it away, because I didn't understand what it was all about.
Since a while I am learning the Divination with the Opele and now the book enfold his secrets to me. I was amazed, but I must say I am glad I bought it.

Afolabi Epega did a great job in his explanation of the 256 Odus. The "western" observation and the introduction written by Philip Neimark could have been left out and the book would have been better off. It is a shame that Oluwo Afolabi Epega is even remotely affiliated with Philip Neimark in this book

The idea was great - translate a chunk of the corpus of Ifa into English to make this great library of wisdom available to all those who don't speak Yoruba. But the execution of the project leaves much to desire!

There has - and probably always will be - a huge hype about Philip Neimark and his Ifa practice. Yes, he is different and yes, what he does is not the Cuban Ifa religion but some type of Folk-Ifa from Nigeria...or at least what's left over after the sell-out, Christianization the influence of Islam and a couple of hundred years of hereditary titles rather then religious education! Oh well! To each their own!

The title of this book - "The Sacred IFA Oracle" - is quite misleading! It should be called "a very short selection of verses from the corpus of Ifa myths with some bits of Neimarkian philosophy".

My Yoruba speaking friends love this book simply for the fact that it has some of the Ifa verses in Yoruba. The English translation however are simply not good enough! To be blunt....they su^&! I'm not impressed!

this book is such a sham. the actual oracle is only for Babalowo's and should not be read by everyone. If Niemark wasn't so concerned with making money under the guise of religion he would not have written this book. He should be banned from being a Babalowo. He should know better.

No contiene tooooodo el conocimiento de If, pero sintetiza con gran estilo el mensaje de cada Odu. Espero que se sigan realizando trabajos como ste.
La visin "occidental" de cada Odu es un detalle que no pasa inobservado. Las religiones cambian, progresan.

Afolabi Epega did a great job in his explanation of the 256 Odus. The "western" observation and the introduction written by Philip Neimark could have been left out and the book would have been better off. It is a shame that Oluwo Afolabi Epega is even remotely affiliated with Philip Neimark in this book.