Why Self-Initiation Can’t Replace Actual Initiation in African Spirituality

Young men at our shrine who just got initiated into Fa(Ifa), the Yoruba-origin geomantic divination system and deity of wisdom.

There is a worrying trend of people reading textbooks or Google-searching rituals in African spirituality and claiming to be legitimate practitioners or, in the worst-case, priests. This article will expand on why self-initiation after reading books is unlikely to be effective and sometimes even dangerous. While books and theoretical research can offer valuable…