My Initiation Into West African Divination
In 2017, Elder Malidoma Somé of the Dagara Tribe of Burkina Faso told me that I would become a diviner. While I utilize divination in the ritual and ceremonial work I offer, I did not realize the full scope of his prophecy until this very year. When I was formally initiated as a stick diviner in the West African/Dagara tradition of Elder Malidoma’s lineage.
“Inside the healer in Frank,” Malidoma shared with me nine years ago, “is a diviner.” At the time of this prediction, I had no understanding what Elder’s words truly meant. But as I stand here today, I am proof of a vision which has now come to pass; humbled by the grace of a future foretold. The great mysteries of who we are, and what we are here to remember, holds secrets yet to be revealed. My recent initiation story into West African stick divination serves as a reminder that we don’t always need to know the who, what, where, when, why or how. All we are asked to do is remain present and listen. And, in turn, we will be shown unique and wondrous gifts which call us by name. In surrender to our unfolding path of growth, as in all of Nature, we empower a golden road of truth. And accelerate the journey of our great remembrance.
If it is one thing I have found to be true over the course of my development as a medicine carrier on the path of remembering is that we are continually called down a seemingly endless series of transformational cycles. Pathways of renewal, upgrade, trial and transit. Otherwise known… as initiations. When one such gateway of growth closes, we will be given respite. But we will soon hear a familiar echo in our bones. That another cycle of change … beckons.
When this universal voice asks us to elevate our path and practice, we are given agency, free will and choice to answer. While he may no longer be an embodied teacher, I am humbled to share that Elder Malidoma Somé continues to push me (and many others) from his perch in the Otherworld. Such is the story of what led to my recent initiation into West African stick divination. From the world of pure Spirit beyond death, Elder Malidoma revealed to me that yet another turn in my medicine wheel had been ordained. A call to step further into an individual and communal path toward wholeness. After my transition through another initiatory cycle deep inside the spiritual technology of West African/Dagara stick divination, I am most humbled and honored to be here. And eternally thankful to Elder Malidoma Somé and the Dagara Tribe of Burkina Faso for their repeated call of support through the veils of seen and unseen.
The Call Comes Through
In 2023, two years after Elder Malidoma Somé’s passing from this world, I felt the call to search for a traditional African diviner to work with. Not to fill the massive hole created by Malidoma’s physical absence. But to reconnect with the powerful practice of African divination which began and ended, for me, with Elder Malidoma. While this holy man I’m still humbled to call a teacher had left his physical body, I continued to work with Elder Malidoma in visionary states beyond sleep and dream in the years beyond his death. Here, he continued to offer guidance, workshops, new trainings; replete with upgrades and information. After seeing him many times in such settings, his revelations noted that a deeper immersion into the root systems of his Dagara medicine tradition was being called for me to connect with. And so I began to action the echoes of his call. To begin this quest in earnest, I felt it would be best to find a diviner in Africa who could supply a bridge to the Otherworld. One which Elder Malidoma’s continued presence, even after his passing, deemed necessary for me to engage.
In short order, I was guided to Mbali Marais, a South African Diviner and Elder who offered traditional stick divinations in the lineage of Elder Malidoma’s Dagara roots. I knew she was the “right” person to work with when I saw photos of her on her website, standing with Elder Malidoma. She was also pictured with another African Elder whose work I greatly admired. That of esteemed Zulu Medicine Man, Credo Mutwa. After a few months of divinatory meetings over Zoom to Cape Town, this South African Elder asked me a very strange question. “So Frank… are you ready to come to Africa?” She explained that there was a loud call coming through that evening’s divination for me to be initiated into the same traditional divination technology which she practiced. Her offer came as an unexpected surprise. Yet it felt that Elder Malidoma was surely involved; pushing me to be merged with this ancient and potent spiritual practice from his lineage.
Answering The Call
I humbly answered this Otherworldly call. And through heartfelt surrender, let go of any plans or preconceived notions as to how it would all come to pass. I released any attachment or even hope that anything would ever come to fruition. For if it was meant to be, I felt it would be presented in right form and right timing. And so it was. Over the next couple of months, the South African Elder and Diviner decided it would be best for me to connect me with her cohort of initiated African diviners stateside, in California. Specifically, for a round of formal confirmations. While diviners in the West African/Dagara tradition of divination are selected by the Spirit world directly, the review process for “official” membership, initiation and training follows a strict code of requirement for entry. One in which, first and foremost, repeated confirmations from the larger community of initiated diviners is essential before anyone can proceed.
Traditionally, one’s call to this work must be vetted through repeated divinations by other tribal members merged in Dagara medicine before any action can take shape. Put through the paces of this original way of tribal confirmation, I met with several initiated diviners over the course of the next year. And watched as time after time, each one confirmed the initial messages offered by Mbali in 2023. A formal invitation from the Elders to officially merge with this sacred Earth medicine practice whose ancient roots lay deep in West Africa was eventually offered. Preparations were made in order to lay the groundwork. Which included the building of various shrines which help to firmly root and support this work. Interestingly, I had already built one of the main prerequisite shrines for Dagara diviners while working and studying directly with Elder Malidoma Somé years before.
Dagara diviners build shrines in order to access the Spirit world directly through an anointed location. It is commonplace in Dano, Burkina Faso for initiated diviners to build an entire room dedicated to their shrines. This area becomes a dedicated and holy work space. Where access to the Spirit world is always supported and close at hand. Once the preparatory groundwork for my merger was laid, I met with Elders and initiated diviners for in person teaching sessions to learn the mysteries of stick divination. And following a formal process of ritualized initiation rituals, training and practice cycles under the tutelage of initiated diviners and Elders, my deployment in this work was deemed “ready for action” in 2025.
Service & Stewardship
The initiatory cycle of Dagara diviners imbues the energy of transformative rites of passage which unite the diviner with their Otherworldly calling in an embodied capacity. Much like a traditional marriage, this ritualized process of merger is an integration ceremony. One which bonds the initiate with their work as a diviner, for life. Vows are exchanged. And each year, initiated Dagara diviners in the Somé lineage renew their sacred vows of service. To uphold and support this ancient medicine path. And ensure that this tradition is stewarded each year with fresh, invigorating, lively and urgent power and humility.
To be an initiated diviner in this lineage is to provide proper stewardship of this tradition, year in and out. To provide effective treatment for all who are called through this wondrous gateway to the Otherworld. Annually, Dagara initiated diviners gather as a collective. To renew their vows together. Although new to this medicine, I have already attended one of these collective retreats. And the energies of a circle of Dagara initiated diviners is truly a powerful and humbling space to hold. Moving forward, in alignment with this call, I plan to attend these renewal of vow ceremonies. And gather with this vibrant community of fellow diviners. Each individual, called down their own unique – and collective path – of Dagara inspired initiation. As one, called to reignite a sacred flame of rebirth from deep within.
Down a two-year cycle of initiation through a path of calling, confirmation, preparation, formalized merger, training and development, I am humbled and honored to now offer traditional West African / Dagara stick divinations to all who are called. Through this sacred portal to the Otherworld.
The Ancient Ways: History & Grounding The Work
It is said by the Elders that traditional West African / Dagara stick divination is an ancient practice. With roots 8,000+ years old. It has been passed down through the ages by oral tradition. Dagara spiritual technologies first grounded in the Western world through the work of Papa Elie Huen, a member of the Somé family clan of Dano, Burkina Faso. Dagara stick divination, in particular, found its way to the United States in the 1990’s/early 2000’s through Martine Somé, sister of Elder Malidoma Somé.
Elder Malidoma Somé was a pioneer. A man who was called by his tribe to root their teachings deep within the Western world. As a diviner, Elder Malidoma developed his own, unique and pioneering form of cowrie shell divination. It was based on traditional African divination teachings but was a blend of worlds; a system of his own invention and interpretation. As a younger man, I wanted to learn this technique, as one could sign up to study it with him directly. But alas, it never came to be. During my recent initiation journey, I learned that Dagara stick divination was one of the original forms of divination which Elder Malidoma studied and practiced as a young man. To sit here today, having been merged in the same fundamental spirit technology as that which Elder Malidoma was raised on in his youth continues to fill me with awe, wonder and immense humility.
I sit with grace through all that has come to pass over the past few years of initiation into Dagara divination. And I remain ever-humbled to know that Elder Malidoma’s prophetic observation from 2017, that “inside the healer in Frank is a diviner,” has finally been revealed in wholeness. Through an unlikely and nonlinear chain of events, I am now an initiated Dagara diviner in the Somé clan’s beautiful lineage from Dano, Burkina Faso. Something I never saw coming. But a piece of the universal puzzle which Elder Malidoma knew would be coming, all along. Such is the bountiful and magical nature inherent in the wisdom and vast mystery… of West African divination technology. It speaks to the core Universal blueprint of an individual’s soul and spirit. Dagara spirit technologies can read through one’s being with a sharp, enlightened and holographic nature. To reveal past, present and future all at once. Through a system of ritual and remembrance, beyond space and time.
Years ago, Elder Malidoma used to tell me during my own private divinations that he could read his divination board of totems, runes and objects like a reel of analog tape. Reviewing one’s past, present and future all as one. From what I can share personally, every piece of information which Elder Malidoma told me in divinations eventually came to pass. His medicine and insight were supercharged with Otherworldly acuity. And it has been his direct Dagara teachings, in person study and divinations which have guided me down my own path of medicine more than any other human I know. I am grateful beyond words to now be an initiated diviner in his divinatory lineage. Continuing to be guided and called through a sacred walk of reconnection with the ancient ways. My road to initiation in West African divination technologies was by no means linear. And not something I sought out on my own. But yet, here I am. Just as Elder Malidoma shared it would be.
A Prayer Of Gratitude & Grace
Thank you to all who answer their own calls of initiation from the Otherworld. Thank you to the Elders and People of Dagara Land in Burkina Faso and throughout Africa. To ALL who have been called forth to replant ancient medicine teachings of the Original Ways in the West… we thank you. I don’t know where we would be without them. The ongoing and essential reconnection with the animating essence of raw, wild, primal forces of Nature, within and without, are vital for our individual and communal growth. Together, we have the power to reinvigorate ourselves, each other and all Being. Thank you to all in this world and the Other who light our communal pathway home. Many blessings.
