Diloggun (hardcover)

The Diloggun: The Orishas, Proverbs, Sacrifices, and Prohibitions of Cuban Santeria

The first book on Santería’s holiest divination system to thoroughly explore each family of odu and how their actions and reactions affect the spiritual development of the client.

• Includes the major considerations for sacrifice, providing the diviner with ways to placate and supplicate the Afro-Cuban deities known as orishas.

• Demonstrates how to properly end a reading so that negative vibrations are fully removed from the diviner's home.

• Provides a thoroughly detailed description of each of the 12 families of odu that exist in the diloggun--from Okana through Ejila Shebora.

The diloggun is more than a tool of divination. It is a powerful transformational process, and the forces that are set in motion when it is cast determine the future evolution of the adherent. The Diloggun is the first book to explore this Afro-Cuban oracle from the perspective of diaspora orisha worship. It is also the first book to explore the lore surrounding this mysterious oracle, which is the living Bible of one of the world's fastest growing faiths.

The twelve families of odu that are available to the diviner include 192 omo odu, the children of the odu, and each of these patterns or letters has its own proverbs, meanings, prohibitions, and sacrifices. Ócha'ni Lele provides the secret but essential information that the adept diviner needs to know to ensure that every element affecting a client's spiritual development is taken into consideration during a reading. His book is also the first to detail how to properly end a session so that negative vibrations are absorbed by the orishas and fully removed from the diviner's home. For those seeking the wisdom of ancient Africa, The Diloggun is an indispensable guide to the mysteries of the orishas.

Ócháni Lele (1966 - ) was born in Richmond, Virginia, to an unwed, 16 year old teenage mother and an absent father. He spent the first five years of his life living in an extended household with his maternal grandparents, mother, and aunt. In 1972, his mother married; his biological father gave up parental rights, and within a year he was adopted by his step-father. The first year of their marriage was spent living in Colonial Beach, Virginia, after which his family moved back to rural King George, the entrance to Virginia's Northern Neck, where he spent the next 12 years of his childhood. Growing up rurally was anything but idyllic; it was a period filled with alcoholism and abuse. At age 17, after graduating from high school in 1984, he ran away with a local summer stock theater, The Fredericksburg Theater Company; and there he pursued his first love of acting and drama.

When the season was over, he spent four semesters studying at Mary Washington College in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia, planning to pursue dual degrees in English Literature and Psychology; however, his desire to experience the exotic world of magic and alternative spirituality sent him on a journey that ended with his initiation in the Afro-Cuban world of Santería, a religion known to adherents as the Lucumí faith. Over the years he has written a number of books about that faith: "The Secrets of Afro-Cuban Divination" (Destiny Books, 2000); "Obi, Oracle of Cuban Santería" (Destiny Books, 2001); "The Diloggún" (Destiny Books, 2003); "Teachings of the Santería Gods" (Destiny Books, 2010). Most recently he published, “Diloggún Tales,” a collection of Afro-Cuban folklore from the orally maintained, holy book known as the odu.

Currently he is studying at Seminole State College of Florida, pursuing dual degrees in Nursing and English Literature. In 2012 he plans to transfer to the University of Central Florida to finish his bachelor degrees in both fields of study. Future educational plans include his MFA in Creative Writing with the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop. In addition to his academic work, Ócháni Lele is working on another book titled, tentatively, “The Sacrificial Ceremonies of Cuban Santería.” It is a collection of folklore, history, short stories, and sacrificial ceremonies. It promises to be the most complete study published of ancient sacrificial rites.