Also another POINT in short (because its alot to unravel) that needs to be made: Ifa is within the Hebrew bible as ob/ov "necromancy" It is *-buk0 with the loss if the 2nd syllable. The most famous use of this word is in 1 samuel 28 regarding the so-called Witch of Endor, or Eshet Ba'alat Ov. The story goes that after disobeying YHWH's command to thoroughly slaughter the Amalekties & their liveStock (1 Samuel 15:3), Saul lost the blessing of The Most High (15:26) and the counsel of the prophet Samuel (15:34-35). In Samuel 25:1 we know Samuel in verse 15:35. On the eve of Samuel's battle against the Philistines, Saul trembled with fear. After repeating Samuel's passing burial in Ramah, verse 3 recounts that Saul hesir ha'ovot ve'et hayidonim meha'aretz, which signaled 2 events according to Ben Siegel. There was essentially a ban on divinatory practices, which was often punishable by death. In trying to understandwhy he was trembling in fear before his battle, and after using all legitimate Yahwistic means of mantic inques (i.e. , dreams, URIM/lots, prophets,etc), Saul commands his servants to bakshu'li ("seek for me" ) an eshet ba'alat ov, which was direct violation of Levitical law concerning acceptable religious practices. Because YHWH abandoned Saul, he turns "illegal" oracular methods that he himself forbidden. The diviner later conjures up Samuel and informs Saul as to why God abandoned him. What is important here is that the practice of ob/ov is associated with thaumaturgy or necromancy.
In the article "The Necromancer's Inheritance: The Ba'alat Ov of Endor in Samuel 28" discusses many different interpretations for ob/ov in Hebrew.
"Scholarship has yet to arrive at complete agreement regarding the exact nature of the hebrew noun ov. Frederick Cryer describes ov as a "famous puzzle" and concedes yidoni "has something to do with knowledge, but of what sort it is im possible to say." Albright defined ov as "ghost , shade which returns to the earth," but this doesnt necessarily hold if we translate hesir ha'ovot as "removed the ghosts". How does one remove a ghost if not by necromancy? Theodore Lewis acknowledges the linguistic ambiguity, classifying ov and yidoni as both the spirits of deceased as well their professional handlers. Citing Sumerian, Assyrian, Hittite and Ugaritic linguistic similarities, Harry Hoffner identifies ov as a pit used for ritual communication with the dead. Therefore, we are left with the impression of ba'alat ov as either "a lady with mastery over a ghost" or "a female owner of a ghost-pit." "Ghost-pit" may even be supoorted by the range of translations of for Endor; "Eye/Spring/Foutain if Generations". Although these renderings do not begin to exhaust the range of potential meanings of the referent, I find them, particularly the latter, useful in accounting for the identity and actions of the Lady in v 7-25
the term ob/ov is associated with the spirit of the deceased, as well as the handler/diviner that conjures up the spirit. fact that ob is also confused with a pit further supports our contention that ob/ov is just avariant of M-E b3:
b3 "to be a ba (-soul); to endowed with a ba (-soul)
b3.y "hole" (<b3 "to hack up (the earth); to open up")
Word ob/ov (b3 with the loss of -3) is also the word for the handler (diviner) possibly explains the inspiration behind the usage of leopard skins in Km.T via paronymy with the word b3"leopard". Noted that ob with Hebrew means "a bottle made of animal skins" (Strong's Concordance). The exhaustive concordance :
'ob : bottle, familiar spirit
From the same as'ab (apparently though the idea of prattling a father's name); properly , a mumble , i.e. A Water skin (from its hollow sound); hence a necromancer (ventriloquist, as from as jar) --- bottle, familiar spirit. Paronymy.
Ifa also ties intion MOTION as well In Cikam the Yoruba term ifa corresponds to a root pr "go up", ascend", pr.i "go,come out, escape, issue, proceed, leaving;" pr.i "to display, to show, be visible, be apparent;" pr.t "rise, emergence; pr.t "fruit, seed (in sense of offspring, prosperity),descendants." The cognate verb in Yoruba is fo, folo "to fly, to jump," with a reflex bo "to return, to arrive, to travel towards, to come;
The word hpr inCiKam conceals the p/p-r root which means to emerge,comeout,blow,breathe, ascend, escape, leave, appear, display rise"
hprr - The God hpr
hpr - Existence
hpr - The intransitive verb means; to come into being , to change, to take effect, to exist, to be.
hpr-djs.f - He who came into being on his own, "an epithet of the sun god Ra"
hpr.w - Form, configuration, ways of being, modes of existence, existence," (hpr-hpr.w: existence took effect; existence came into being
hpr.j - That which exists; the young sun god in the form of the sacred scarab
hpr.w - Living men and women (human beings) Bidge 542b*
hpr.w - Those living now
hpr.w - Children
hpr.w - Form, shape, modes of being
hpr.w - appearance
hpr - A product of fermentation
hpr.jw - Education, upbringing
hpr - Occur, happen, come to pass, exist, be, come into being, become, change (into); take place ,be effective, go by, be past, continue (of action)
hprr - Dung bettle, scarab
hpr - Not possible (to do something) ; bring about, to effect
Reflexes of hpr "change, evolution" in African languages can be seen in Zulu : weMvwelo "appearing," Dogon: bibilu "metamorphosis" , and Kikongo: ki.pura "flutter like a chicken." That hpr derives from pr can be seen in the form of word:
the h- is a prefix which in ciLuba can be k(a,i)- or ci-. In ciLuba the p/p-r verb takes on many forms and pronunciations.
Cibidi, Kabadi - form,copy,figure,mold,envelope
CidiVwile - Existence itself;
cifwatulu -form,copy,figure,mold,
cipwidi, mpwilu - end
ciVwa, mu diVwa - become
ciVwavwa -future ahead
cyuwidi - fullness
fwa (ku-) -disappear, die
KadiVwile - existent itself; Auto-Generator
KaVwidila - why we exist
mpwilu (ku-) - at the end of becoming
mvwilu - approach, processing
mVwilu (-ku) - beginning of the future/ of becoming
pwa (ku-) - be done, finished, complete, exhausted
Egyptians caught the essence of Ifa and divination in the term hpr/hprw/hprr "existence" , to become, transformation, bring about, to effect, occur, happen, come to pass, exist, be come into being, take place, be effective, go by, be past, continue (of action)". The term mvwilu/ku-mvwilu within Ciluba "approach, processing, beginning of the future", ciVwaVwa "future ahead" to the conceptualization of Ifa. Ifa informs us of why we're here on earth and when consulted on regular basis, implies to whether were on path or not concerns our destiny . be aware that the cilbua terms are variations of "hpr" of the Egyptian which is the full pronounciation of the word Ifa. This is confirmed by the Igbo word agbara "oracle of Awka districts for the northern Ibgo regions."Agbara is also a forest spirit.
Motion & flight are at the heart for words for divination can be seen in the different types of divination done in ancient times. You also have Rhabdomancy which is ----a type of divination by means of any rod, wand, staff, stick, arrow or the life. One method in rabdomancy was setting a number of staffs on end and observing where they fall, to divine the direction one should travel, or to find answers to certain questions. Belomancy, also bolomancy, is ancient art of divination by use of arrows. The word is built upon Greek "belos", "arrow,dart" and manteia "divination". Belomancy was anciently practised at least by Babylonians, Greeks, Arabs and Scythians. The word belos is a variant of f-l,p-l, b-l roots we have seen before dealing with "flight" and birds".
