Festival of the Bones
October 24 – November 1, 2026The Nine-Day Elevation · Online, with a Cemetery Sweep in Oakland on Oct 31
Every fall the Center turns toward the dead. For nine days we feed them, speak their names, and sit in their company, opening with the Dumb Supper and closing with a feast and the Roll Call of the Ancestors. Festival of the Bones is also our gala, the one gathering each year where our community, our supporters, and our funders come to the same table on behalf of the land.
Nine days
We keep ancestral wisdom as living technology.
The Jambalaya Center is a California religious congregation rooted in Yoruba Ifá, Egungun, and Akan Sankofa, alongside Indigenous earth-based teachings. It was founded by Chief Iyanifa Luisah Teish, author of Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals, and exists to preserve, teach, and protect the spiritual technologies of our ancestors.
We train priests. We hold ceremony. We keep the archive. We speak to the ancestors and expect accurate returns. The work is built to last seven generations, so every decision, document, and ritual is made with our descendants in mind.
When problems arise, proceed from a position of strength.Chief Iyanifa Luisah Teish · Jambalaya (1985)
Five acres on Pocket Canyon Creek, coming home.
Redwood, meadow, and creek on unceded Pomo and Coast Miwok territory. Chief Iyanifa Luisah Teish has lived and prayed on this land, and every festival we hold happens here. We are working to bring it permanently into the Center's care.
A Black-led religious congregation, anchored by a Black woman elder, holding five acres in Sonoma County. Your gift carries the land and the life that grows on it.
Four festivals, one turning year.
Oshun
The river, sweetness, the medicine of love. The year opens in water.
Shango
Isokan: The Blessed Binary. Fire, thunder, the drum, and justice. Returns summer 2027.
Festival of the Bones
Egungun. We feed the dead and speak their names. The Center's gala.
Olokun & Damballah
The deep, the old, the still. The year turns inward.
Taught whole, taught in order.
Religious education and spiritual formation: apprenticeship-based, guided by divination, and held by elders. Every school keeps its own season. Participation is not initiation, and we offer no secular certification.
Ifá & Orisha Cosmology · Divination Arts · Egbe Leadership & Sacred Governance · Sacred Arts & Cultural Memory · Ancestral Restoration · Plant Medicine & Earth Healing · Sacred Masculine
Igbimo Ijinle
Chief Iyanifa Luisah Teish
Yeye. Lineage holder, initiate of the Fatunmise lineage of Yoruba Nigeria, and author of Jambalaya. Her name and teaching are the foundation the Center stands on.
Queen Mother Iya Sobande Greer
Oludari of Egbe Osain · Master Herbalistiyasobande@jambalayacenter.orgThe Igbimo Ijinle governs the Center through divination, ancestral consultation, and sacred council. It is witnessed by the Apena Council and extends through our Egbe leaders and priests across the diaspora.
Moon by moon, the work continues.
Our Patreon community is how 280+ people across the diaspora sit with Chief Iyanifa Luisah Teish each month: live ritual on the new and full moons, seasonal teachings, and the Vault of her decades of work. Members hear about her classes before anyone else.
Letters from the land: festival announcements, seasonal teachings, and quiet updates on the campaign. Written for people already walking toward this work.