During an Ifa enquiry and what it takes to be Awo Orunmila

The first cast is the Olori odu which is the chief Odu that answers your query.

The second cast is Kotojale which means what will happen before it ends. What will happen at the middle

The third cast is Mojale which means what will happen at the final end.

If kotojale seniors Mojale then Kotojale comes with ire. If otherwise it comes with ibi. The ibi or ire will accompany the kotojale. If kotojale is Eji ogbe (ire). It means there will be an alignment which will bring blessings.

You can then check for different ires for that reading by making two casts. If first is senior then you have that ire, if not, then you don't have it. Different ires to check for can include money, wife, children, promotion and etc depending on what is relevant to your query.

What to note is that for every query of any nature, there are 256 possible responses and a good Babalawo must be able to interprete any sign as a response to any query. Therefore the scenarios are limitless. The spectrum of possible meanings to different categories of queries is very broad indeed. However the standard is that a qualified Awo should know offhand at least four original stories per odu to start with and know the ebos for them and also many other technicalities that can only be learnt from a practicing Babalawo. That is 1024 stories minimum to qualify to start practicing and if it is 1000 words per story, it will be over one million words which is like one and a half times the volume of the Christian Bible and that is for a first degree practitioner. You then continue learning to Masters, PhD and Professor (Araba) level till your death. No end to learning Ifa.

Interesting. I wonder why it's not promoted to widen African horizon.