Home/The Ilé
Ẹgbẹ́ · a society, since 2005
Ilé Ẹgbẹ́ Tíwalàdé
An ẹgbẹ́ is a society — people bound to one another and to a practice, not a congregation that turns up on a Sunday. An ilé is the house that society keeps. Joining one is closer to being taken into a family than to signing up.
We are an African centered spiritual group led by individuals who help by serving.
Ilé Ẹgbẹ́ Tíwalàdé · in their own words
What the house holds itself to
Ifá teaches us that we are our neighbour’s keeper.
Ẹgbẹ́ Tíwalàdé, on the Ifá Code of Conduct and Ethics
The house says its model is building community using integrity, patience and good character — and that the services it runs are developed and delivered against that code, not alongside it.
What the house does
Their own list, in their own order
Rites of passage
- African drum and dance
- Cloth weaving and dyeing
- Gardening
- Building
- Wood carving
- Drum and small instrument making
Ceremony and counsel
- Naming ceremonies
- Consultations
- Counselling
- Classes on the Ifá/Òrìṣà tradition and Yorùbá culture
And what it does for people outside it
Ifá teaches that we are our neighbour’s keeper- Feeding the hungry through their own outreach team.
- Gathering gently used clothing and carrying it to people who need it.
- Collecting and passing on information about aid for displaced people.
- Youth members are expected to take part — the house treats it as how good character is built.
The rites
6 of them, and not one has a checkoutArranged with a person, prepared for the person.
Ìdáfá / Ìbọ̀
Ifá divination
Casting and reading with the ọ̀pẹ̀lẹ̀ or ìkin, and the ẹbọ that follows from what falls.
Mérìndínlógún
Sixteen-cowrie divination
Read with the cowries. The odù that comes is the answer, and the prescription comes with it.
Ìsọmọlórúkọ
Naming ceremony
A child receives their name in front of the house. Named in the ẹgbẹ́’s own list of what it offers.
Ẹbọ omi
Spiritual bath
Prepared for the person, from what the reading asked for. Not a bottle off a shelf.
Ìtọ́jú ilé
Cleansing a home
Done at the house, not sold as a kit.
Ìmọ̀ràn
Consultation and counselling
Named in the ẹgbẹ́’s own list. The elder is a trained spiritual counsellor as well as a diviner.
Coming in
You do not have to be initiated, and you do not have to know the words. Classes and ceremonies are open; what is closed is closed for reasons the house will explain to you plainly if you ask.
The house has kept an older site at egbetiwalade.weebly.com. Everything on this page comes from there.