Offerings to the Orisa in the Yoruba culture are one of the most important aspects of religious practice, since everything is based on sacrifice. Offerings can be made to praise an Orisa, for an Ifá divination, an initiation, for the Oke Itase, festivals, to get lucky or to solve some problem.
Types of offerings to the Orisa
The Adimu (Àdìmù) is the most common type of offering made to the Orisa. In it, in most cases, food or animals are used. Some of the foods that are used as Adimu in traditional Ifá are Amala (Àmàlà) or yam flour, Ekuru (Ékuru) or Akara (Àkàrà), which are two dishes of carita beans, or Eko (Èko ) which is cooked cornmeal, to name just a few examples. Each of these foods, which are typical of the Yoruba culture, are used for different purposes.
Another type of sacrifice or Ebo are the Ebo Rirú and the Etutu (Ètùtù).
It is important to know that the ceremonies and sacrifices that are performed during an initiation of Ifá or one of the Orisha are not offerings, but are part of the same initiation.
It should also be taken into account that a medicine should not be used without having previously made the offerings. If you are interested in knowing more about Ifá medicines, download the Ifá Tradicional Pro application.
Why make offerings
When a divination is made, Ifá will always indicate offerings to the Orisa or sacrifices that the person must make to achieve his goals and prevent something negative from happening. In this case there are several options: that the person listens to Ifá and makes the offerings immediately or, on the other hand, that the person delays or does not make the necessary offerings or sacrifices.
If we make the offerings to the Orisa immediately, the positive part of what was said by Ifá will manifest and we will be able to overcome the negative part that Ifá warns about. For example, if divination points to a kind of wealth, making the offerings will make it manifest. If, on the other hand, divination indicates an economic loss, with the offerings we will do everything possible to prevent this loss from occurring.
When we delay the offerings, the safest thing is that the positive does not manifest itself and that the negative cannot be avoided. Continuing with the same example above, if divination points to a kind of wealth and we delay the offerings, it will not manifest itself. If in divination it is warned of an economic loss and we delay the offerings, we will not prevent this from happening. When this situation occurs and people find that their problems are not resolved or aggravated, they return to the babalawo’s house to try to make the sacrifices requested above. However, they have to take into account that at that moment the situation is different from the initial one and that the offerings that will have to be made will change.
The third option is that the person does not make the offerings. Here it is necessary to warn that if you do not do them, your situation will worsen. That is why we always recommend to people that if they are not willing to make offerings to the Orisa, then do not make divination.
Ensures the success of sacrifices
For the offerings to the Orisa and the sacrifices to be completely successful, people must maintain good behavior, respect their taboos and heed the warnings that Ifa makes.