Yoruba Religion (Ifá)

A West African tradition of one high God and vivid orishas — root of the diaspora faiths.

ancient West Africa → · West Africa · African & Diaspora

Yoruba religion honors a supreme creator, Olodumare, approached through the orishas — powerful spirits of nature, force, and human life such as Shango, Yemoja, and the trickster Eshu. Its sophisticated Ifá divination, read by trained babalawo from a vast oral corpus, guides individuals along the destiny (ori) chosen before birth. Carried across the Atlantic by the slave trade, it became the wellspring of Vodou, Santería, and Candomblé.

Key figures

• Olodumare, the supreme God
• The orishas (Shango, Yemoja, Eshu)
• The babalawo (diviner)

Texts

• Ifá divination corpus (Odu)

Beliefs

• One supreme God above many orishas
• Destiny (ori) chosen before birth
• Balance between humans, ancestors, and spirits

Rituals

• Ifá divination
• Offerings and drumming for the orishas
• Ancestral veneration

Grew from

• Animism & Shamanism

Connections in the atlas

• Abiku / ogbanje
• Shango
• Mãe Menininha do Gantois
• Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
• The Ifá corpus (Odù)
• The earth-diver
• The Persona
• Vajra and thunderbolt
• ☿︎ Mercury
• Pilgrimage (ritual)
• The Middle Passage
• The Yoruba and the Atlantic diaspora