It costs money, openly.
Divination, initiation, medicine and festivals are paid for, the sums are substantial, and there is no collection plate because there is no congregation. Practitioners are paid for skilled work in the way a doctor is, and Ifa itself holds that a priest consulted without payment has not really been consulted.
Yoruba religious practice is paid for and the transactions are open. Divination carries a fee; initiation costs a great deal, running to thousands of dollars in the Americas because of the number of priests, animals, drummers and materials required; medicines, festivals and consultations are all charged for. There is no congregation, no membership, no tithe and no collection, because the model is professional rather than congregational: a babalawo is consulted and paid as a specialist, in the way a physician or an advocate is. The corpus itself supports this — there are verses to the effect that a diviner who is not paid has not been properly consulted, and that failing to pay invalidates the work. Outsiders regularly read this as commercialism, and practitioners regularly point out that salaried clergy funded by weekly collections is also a payment system, merely one that conceals the transaction.
The same ground, other faiths
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