Cuban "santeros" bleed a goat during a Yoruba's cult initiation ceremony in a home-temple in Havana. AFP PHOTO

"My discovery (of the faith) dates back to a course on trance religion I took in 1998 at the University of Neuchatel," Geraldine Correa, 30, said on a visit to a worship center in Havana.

An anthropology student, Correa first became interested in the religion, which blends elements of Christian and African faith, as a research subject.

But it gradually became a personal issue of beliefs and in 2005 she joined the Regla de Ocha, as the faith was called by 16th Century slaves who were brought to Cuba from what is now Nigeria. The Spaniards called it santeria, roughly saint -- or deity -- worship.

The initiation ceremony, in which the subject is allied with an orisha, starts with animal sacrifice and takes seven days.

The newcomer, foreigners pay between 700 and 4,000 dollars for initiation alone, hears oracles speak of his fate and on the seventh day, in a sign of syncretism with Christian belief, heads to church and makes offerings of plantains, coconut and rum.

The newly initiated "iyawo", hears the syncopated beat of sacred drums which can lead to a trance. From then on, the iyawo is supposed to dress in white for a year from head to toe.

Correa lived half of that time in Cuba, and half in Switzerland.

"It was easier here on the island because it is something that people are used to seeing in everyday life," she said. "People give you a spot on the bus; they know you are not supposed to receive anything in your hand."

But in Switzerland, Correa said she found, "a profound feeling of loneliness", in her small city of Fribourg where she raised eyebrows as something of a curiosity.

From santeria, Correa says she has learned "her great tolerance", and "a very close relationship with the deities who live with you."

The main orishas or deities are: Obatala, the creator of humanity (whose color is white); Yemanya, the symbol of the sea (blue); Chango, symbol of dancing and war (red); and Ochun, the incarnation of love and femininity (yellow).

The faithful, who often wear bracelets or other amulets and practice small animal sacrifice, believe their connections with deities help bring immediate benefits, such as finding a spouse, having children or overcoming an illness.

The Yoruba Cultural Association of Cuba has more than 11,500 members, and 1,169 of them are foreigners (up from 800 in 2000) most of whom converted from spiritual "neighbors" espiritismo, palo monte or the secretive Abakua.

Cuba is for them the Yoruba "Mecca", because it is widely seen as where the spiritual energy of the universe "is the strongest," said Digna Estrada, a member of the association.

"There are people from all over, Americans and Europeans, Swiss, Spanish, Italian, French and even Japanese. Ten years ago there was nobody in Venezuela and now it is full of santeros and babalawos (priests)," ethnic studies and santeria expert Natalia Bolivar told AFP.

Tato Quinones, an anthropologist and Geraldine's sponsor, believes santeria has a pull for people from societies that are drenched in stress and extra-strength consumerism.

"For more intelligent people, coming here is a journey to finding themselves, and finding nature again," Quinones said. "For others, it is just about superstition or fetishism."