Understanding the Hierarchy of Odu Ifa

Part of understanding the hierarchy of Odu Ifa is the mastery of the position of each Odu in the Ifa corpus chart and the structure of the two legs of Ifa. 

There are 256 Odu in the Ifa corpus. 16 out of these 256 Odu have symmetric legs (I.e. identical right and left legs), and they’re collectively called the Meji Odu or the major Odu Ifa (Ogbe-Meji et al). The 16 Meji Odu are senior to the remaining 240 asymmetric Odu (minor Odu) in the Ifa corpus. 

Normally, when divining, the Opele Qchain is cast twice. The rank of the Odu which emerges in the first and second casting will determine the choice to be made by the diviner. For example, If during the first casting, the Opele Qchain randomly generates an asymmetric Odu (I.e. omo Odu or minor Odu); say, Ogbe-Irosun and in the second casting, the Opele Qchain generates a symmetric Odu (i.e. major Odu); say, Ogbe-Meji, the diviner would choose Ogbe-Meji over Ogbe-Irosun because Ogbe-Meji is senior to Ogbe-Irosun on the Ifa corpus chart. Conversely, if Ogbe-Irosun emerges from the first casting and Irosun-Ogbe emerges from the second casting, the diviner would choose Ogbe-Irosun because the right leg is senior to the left leg. 

It suffices to know that if Ogbe-Meji (aka Ejiogbe) or even Ofun Meji emerge from the first casting, there’s no need for any other casting because Ogbe-Meji is the father and the leader of all the Odu in the Ifa corpus while Ogun-Meji is the eldest of the Odu.

This technical information about the hierarchy of Odu Ifa is non-superficial; has interesting applications in pure and applied math, computer science, quantum mechanics and cryptography.