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Self-initiation in Ifa-Orisha: yes, no, maybe?
In the Ifa-Orisha religions it's generally accepted that "self initiation" is out of the question: priests are needed in order to transfer the Ashe of the Orisha to the Head (Ori) of the initiate. The common stance on the subject is: "Self initiation is not possible". But is it? Isn't it? Could it be...? The words "this is not possible" are invariably uttered by those who either tried and failed, or never even tried at all. I myself belong to the latter category (I never tried at all), which makes me just about the least qualified person to make a sweeping statement like "It is impossible". For I simply dunno: I never gave it a try, nor do I know anybody who did. Since in any Ifa-Orisha-oriented initiation process we are to an incredible extend dependant on the willingness or non-willingness to cooperate of a deity (a higher being: the Orisha), it seems fair to say that it's the ORISHA that determines whether an initiation becomes succesful or not. In saying this, I presume that Orisha's have a will of their own, for if they haven't... our Religion ceases to be a religion, on account of it being rather "non-religious" to worship a deity that doesn't even have its own will. What is the alleged and desired result of initiation? The alleged and desired result of initiation is receiving the Ashe of the Orisha in question. Nothing less, nothing more. Now by saying "self-initiation is impossible", one seems to presume that an Orisha is incapable of giving its own Ashe to a human being without another human being (the priest) going through "the ritual motions". In this perspective the Orisha is simply a force of nature that can be manipulated like we manipulate other forces of nature, like electricity. To safely deal with electricity, one needs a qualified electrician ("electricity manipulator")... and to safely deal with an orisha (no need anymore to use a capital letter O) one needs a qualified olorisha ("orisha manipulator"). So yes: if an orisha is simply a mindles power, one needs to be initiated by a qualified priest in order to prevent that mindless power to mindlessly blow you up. In that case I would consider self-initiation close to (possibly even completely) impossible, for if you don't know Ohm's Law (U = I*R) you'll blow just about every fuse there is, and quite likely kill yourself in the process. But: how many people do we know that have killed themselves trying to self-initiate? I've heard many horror stories about priests putting the "wrong" Orisha on a persons head, whith terrible, sometimes deadly, results for the initiate. If there are similar horror stories about people buggering up their self-initiation, I would like to be informed of them, for right now the lack of such histories seems to indicate that more "official" initiations are botched up and result in snuffing the initiate, than "self-initiations" tend to do. Now for the flipside of the coin. Let's presume (like I tend to do) that Orishas are not mindless powers of nature, but conscious "Deities", "Spirits" or "Higher Beings". In that case Ifa/Orisha is a RELIGION, where said Deities are not manipulated but actually worshipped. Initiation into such a Deity then seems to be a choice and an act of will of the Deity itself, where the performing priest is not the manipulator of a mindless force of nature, but the humble servant of a conscious and powerful Deity. It is a matter of arrogance then, if the serving priest says: "Only when I am present and doing my job, can the Orisha give its Ashe to the initiate". Such an opinion would make the Orisha dependant on the priest, instead of the other way around. The Orisha would then be a "lower" being than the priest, and subsequently the religion would cease to be a religion, like I stated earlier. When one maintains that the Ifa/Orisha complex indeed IS a religion dealing with conscious Deities that are above their worshippers and priests, then there is no theological reason why an Orisha would not (be able to) allow and help a person to self-initiate. For by its very nature, in a RELIGION it's the DEITY that calls the shots. In short: I am not prepared to totally exclude the possibility of self-initiation into the Ashe of an Orisha. I believe it's up to the Orisha to decide whether, in any individual case, the person can or can't. Do I think (an attempted) self-initiation is worth the trouble? I dunno. I don't think I ever met a person who tried and succeeded, nor did I ever met any person who tried and failed. I've only met people why never tried at all, and for some odd reason they seem to consider themselves fully qualified to state that "it's impossible". Would I myself go through the trouble of an (attempted) self-initiation? No, I don't think so; I'm quite happy with the way my Babatobi performed mine. And to be totally honest: if I ever would attempt a self-initiation and I would actually succeed, I would never tell anybody. For I would be a person who tried and succeeded, and these are never believed by those who either tried and failed, or never even tried at all.
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Contributor's Note
An Ifa divination text from Jaap Verduijn's Odu Ifa Corpus. Ifa as a divination method is found in many countries in West Africa. However, the Yoruba peoples have perfected it. The presented texts are translations, rewritings and interpretations of original Yoruba divination verses, in which the traditional "poetry-like" cadence and rhythm has been preserved and/or recreated as far as the English language allows. The texts are part of my "working corpus" as an Ifa diviner.
More about Ifa on http://www.qondio.com/mama.pl?a=intelshow&i=17751
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What is this thing called Ifa?
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