Who all gone be there? Where the money go? And what is it gonna do for me? These are the key questions asked about Initiation.
While initiation is considered secret and a sacred path, the mystery is often questioned before you undergo the process. While we can’t share the details of what happens, we can help you understand what and who it involves and why it’s an investment. When you come to Ifá or Orisa for initiation you are entering a lifelong covenant with your Ori and the Orisa. The process is sacred, but it also has practical realities. To understand the costs, it helps to know what is required behind the scenes.
Time Commitment
Initiation is a multi-day event (3-17 days) that requires focused work. The preparation begins well before the ceremony, and the period of seclusion means that priests and their assistants dedicate themselves completely to you. During this time, they set aside their own families and work to serve you fully.
Human Resources
An initiation is never performed by a single person. It requires an entire team working in harmony:
- Senior Priests and Elders: These individuals have trained and invested for many years through apprenticeship with an elder, divination, ritual service, and lived experience to become masters at their craft. Just as a surgeon must master their knowledge before performing an operation, priests must master sacred knowledge before guiding an initiation. Simply having been initiated does not qualify someone to perform one; only those who have been trained, tested, and proven are entrusted with this responsibility.
- Animal Handlers and Ritual Specialists – Some helpers are responsible for acquiring animals from farms and caring for them until the ceremonies. They are also trained to perform the sacred slaughter with precision and prayer, ensuring the act is done in alignment with tradition. Afterward, they process the animal with care: preparing the meat to become food, distributing portions to the community, and discarding remains in sacred and respectful ways. This is skilled work that demands both ritual knowledge and practical responsibility.
- Assistants and Attendants: This team are apprentice that supports the priests, guides you through your seclusion, and ensures every step of the process flows correctly.
- Helpers: These individuals are essential to the process. They prepare meals, clean before, during, and after the ceremony, care for the priests and initiates, and run errands to keep things running smoothly.
- Drummers and Singers: They create the sound and vibration that open the way for the Orisa to be present.
- Community: These individuals stand with you as part of your spiritual rebirth and your acceptance into the community.
Materials and Offerings
Initiation requires many specific items, including food, cloth, hard to find herbs from Africa, sacred chalks, animals, pots, tools, and more. These are not symbolic extras but are necessary resources that nourish, protect, and anchor your new spiritual life. Gathering and preparing them requires knowledge, care, and a financial investment.
Financial Investment
The cost of initiation reflects the many resources that go into it:
- Multiple days of focused work by a team of priests who have dedicated years to their training.
- Cost for travel if necessary priests have to be sent for from other towns, states and sometimes countries.
- Compensation for staff or assistants, helpers, for their time and effort.
- Cost to cater and feed the community, priests, and initiate for days.
- The purchase and preparation of animals, herbs, food, and sacred tools.
- The reality that priests and helpers step away from their normal work to serve you completely during this time.
- Cost of Temple or space usage including utilities, wear, and maintenance.
Your financial contribution is a part of your own sacrifice. It recognizes the many years of study the priests have invested to become licensed professionals. It also supports the community of helpers and temple who make your initiation possible.
A Spiritual Surgery and Alignment Process
Think of initiation as a kind of surgery for the soul. A medical operation requires not only a doctor but also nurses, anesthesiologists, and support staff. Just as you would never ask someone who once had surgery to perform one, only trained priests who have mastered their craft can perform an initiation. The helpers are like the hospital team—preparing the space, caring for the patient, and ensuring everything runs safely.
When you go through initiation, it is as if your Ori is being placed on the sacred operating table. Ifá is the surgeon, and the priests are the trained medical team carrying out precise procedures for your soul.
In this “surgery”:
- Your Destiny is Aligned – Just as a doctor might reset a bone so it heals properly, initiation resets what has been dislocated in your spiritual journey. The ceremonies realign you with the path your Ori chose before birth.
- Your Blocks are Removed – In the same way a surgeon removes what is harmful, initiation clears away spiritual obstructions, inherited burdens, and misalignments that have been holding you back.
- Your Life Force is Strengthened – Surgery repairs and restores vital organs; initiation strengthens your connection to your Ori, feeding it and sealing it with power so you can live with more clarity, purpose, and resilience.
- Your Spirit is Protected – After surgery, doctors give bandages, medicine, and rest. In initiation, the rituals, offerings, and taboos you receive act as protections, covering you while you heal and grow into your new life.
- Your Quality of Life Improves – Through this process, things that may have been challenging can often be achieved. Ifa is not magic, but is an elevation that can bring stability and support in all areas of your life.With your Ori strengthened, your soul purpose, lessons, and life path become clearer. You gain tools to face challenges, wisdom to guide decisions, and spiritual knowledge that supports not just you but also your family.
- Healing of Mind, Body, and Spirit – Heal from dis ease and trauma at the root of the condition. Ifa has literally saved lives.Initiation brings renewal across every level of your being. It can open the way for emotional release, physical healing, and spiritual peace. By clarifying your life path, initiation helps you see your challenges differently and approach them with higher understanding.
- Discover Your Divine Path in Life- Learn your taboos and where your potential challenges are. Who and what is compatible with your destiny, and more. Gain insights into your life’s blueprint, including compatible professions, relationships, and future prospects.
- Receive Spiritual Guidance and Protection: Connect with Orunmila and Olodumare, gaining spiritual protection and guidance to navigate life’s complexities.
- Transform Your Character, Ascension, and Wisdom: Initiation is about becoming a changed person, both in character and wisdom. It serves as a compass to steer through life’s ocean, bringing comfort and avoiding hardship.
- Become a Priest/ Priestess –For those specifically called, one can begin training to become a professional priest. After training, you would be known as a Babalawo or Iyanifa, Babalorisa, or Iyalorisa
- Achieve Spiritual Rebirth: After initiation, you are encouraged to re-initiate yourself by cultivating good habits, seeking knowledge, and being more prudent and thoughtful.
