To: K-list
Recieved: 1999/11/11 11:21
Subject: Re: [K-list] Voodoo
From: Jon-Carl Lewis
On 1999/11/11 11:21, Jon-Carl Lewis posted thus to the K-list:
Voudoun has always been of interest to me, especially Elegba.
(I'm African American and feel strong ties to the Yoruba spirits)
I've shied away, however, because the way it has been presented to me is that I would have to engage in lots and lots of ritual every day.
I can hardly feed my cats, let alone a stone siting by the door.
But is there a mystical path of Voudoun that is less about mass worship (like the movies) and more about personal connection with the spirits.
I'd be interested in knowing more about how to be a "solitary" and "contemplative" practitioner, much as I don't go to church but contemplate the person and mystery of Christ constantly throughout my hours, weeks, and days.
Just wondering.
Jon-Carl
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 11/11/1999 at 11:58 AM Sharon Webb wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Since there seems to be some current interest in the subject, I'm enclosing
>an article (below) that I did awhile back on Voodoo. The article was
>commissioned by Eye On the Web, as was an article I did on kundalini;
>however, the companies management changed and the articles commissioned were
>dropped due to bottom-line consideration...so...this one was never
>published. Too bad, because there was a lot of research in this one...and a
>lot of misunderstanding about the subject.
>
>Sharon
>-----------------
>Voodoo
>by
>Sharon Webb
>
>
>A deep fog snakes through the swamp. Dead trees cast eerie shadows in the
>light of the full moon. The insistant sound of drumming rises to a frantic
>pitch as a wild-eyed woman moves in sensuous dance rhythms. A pin, stained
>with blood plunges into a rag-doll...a strangled scream.... And shadowy
>figures of the undead...the Zombi...move toward us.
>
>Voodoo? No. Hollywood. Pure Hollywood. Unfortunately, the residue of sixty
>years of horror films colors our minds with thoughts of evil and sorcery
>when we think of Voodoo.
>
>Voodoo, more properly spelled Vodou, means spirit. And it is largely due to
>this religion that the indomitable spirit of Haitian slaves survived the
>cruelty of French rule. The captured West Africans were baptised Catholic
>and then left largely to their own religious devices. They chose to honor
>their African ancestors and the spirits of their heritage, cloaking these
>figures at times with the symbols of Christian saints, but never confusing
>the two religions.
>
>Under different names, variants of Vodou spread through the Caribbean and
>South America. Santeria, Macumbe, and others come from the same roots as
>Haitian vodou. The American variant entered the French quarter of New
>Orleans and was later brought by immigrants to New York, Chicago, Miami, and
>other cities throughout the United States and Canada.
>
>Vodou priests can be male--houngan, or female--mambo. Ceremonies take place
>in a temple called a hounfour. A pole at the center of the structure, the
>poteau-mitan, is the means where God and the spirits communicate with the
>people. Vodou priests are involved in "white" magic which is used for
>healing, good fortune, and counseling. They are concerned with the
>well-being of their members.
>
>Only the "left-handed Vodun," the bokors, perform evil acts of sorcery. Yet
>according to Wade Davis, ethnobiologist and author of The Serpent and the
>Rainbow, even the bokors are often concerned with the well-being of their
>communities, at times ridding the village of violent, dishonest and
>disruptive people through the process of zombification. But a zombi is never
>dead, but only drugged into submission and sent many miles away, where he or
>she is no longer a menace to the community. Zombification is perhaps the
>ultimate in ostracism.
>
>Vodouisants believe in one God---the Gran Met, or Great Master. Gran Met is
>all powerful, and omniscient, but he is considered to sometimes be distant
>and detached from human affairs. All practitioners honor the loa (also
>spelled lwa) who are lesser entities that interact directly with the people.
>
>Mambo Racine Sans Bout, a legitimate priestess of the Vodou offers the
>explanation of Luc Gedeon, who initiated her: "The loa are like conscious,
>etheric streams composed of an immense number of sentient beings.... Each of
>these sentient beings is a microcosm of the entire stream. Therefore, each
>being incarnating as a portion of the stream contains and can act as if it
>was the entire stream."
>
>The loa make their presence known by temporary possession of members of the
>congregation. This practice, called "riding the horse" is somewhat akin to
>the phenomena of channeling and facilitated when the Vodouisant enters an
>altered state. The ritual opens with an invocation to Legba, the loa of the
>gate and crossroads. No other loa may cross from the astral to the material
>plane without the permission of Legba. Water is poured at the four cardinal
>points and three times before each sacred drum.
>
>The priest or priestess draws a symbolic design specific for the loa being
>honored. Candles are lighted within the circle designated by the cardinal
>points. The drumming begins with beats at first stately, then later more
>rapid and insistant. At least three songs are offered to each loa. Dancing
>and rhythmic movement begin and the combination of movement, flickering
>candlelight, and persistant polyrhytmic drumbeats place the vodouisant into
>an irresistable altered state of mind.
>
>At this point the loa descends and rides his horse--the person chosen by
>the loa to possess. The possessed person then takes on the characteristics
>of the loa and is often able to perform physical feats impossible to
>ordinary humans. Possession by a loa is considered normal and desirable
>under these circumstances.
>
>A Professor in the Graduate and Theological schools of Drew University,
>Karen McCarthy Brown, sums it up this way: "The moral sense that emerges
>from Vodou is one that, if it does not always delight in life's conflicts,
>at least accepts them as somehow deeply and inevitably true. Vodou spirits
>are characters defined by conflict and contradiction. For example, Gude,
>patron of the dead and guardian of human sexuality, wears dark glasses with
>one lens missing because he is said to see simultaneously into the worlds of
>the living and the dead. This double vision is, no doubt, also the source of
>his humor. To laugh is to balance, and like all balancing within Vodou, is
>achieved not through resolving or denying conflict, but by finding a way of
>staying steady in the midst of it."
>
>#####
>
>New Orleans Voodoo: http://www.duke.edu/~ams7/aas99s/rtha.html
>FAQ: http://www.gnofn.org/~voodoo/vodu-faq.html
>LePeristyle Haitian Sanctuary---Philadelphia: http://mh101.infi.net/~loa/
>Voodoo in New Orleans:
>http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/6157/Voodoo.html
>Sacred Music of Haitian Vodou: http://www.si.edu/folkways/40464rap.htm
>Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa:
>http://www.si.edu/folkways/40440yor.htm
>Voodoo Flags: http://www.egallery.com/flags.html
>New Orleans Voodoo temple---a Belief Misunderstood:
>http://www.gnofn.org/~voodoo/flyer.html
>The Vodou Page (Mamgo Racine Sans Bout):
>http://members.aol.com/racine125/index.html
>The Vodun Religion: http://www.religioustolerance.org/voodoo.htm
>Voodoo: From Medicine to Zombies:
>http://www.nando.net/prof/caribe/voodoo.html
>(Alourdes):
>http://www.mat.auckland.ac.nz/~king/Preprints/book/renewal/voices2/vodou.htm
>Vodun Information Pages:
>http://www.arcana.com/voodoo/voodoo.html#disclaimer
>Basic Rituals of Vodun: http://www.arcana.com/voodoo/ritual.html
>Calendar of Voodoo ceremonies: http://www.arcana.com/voodoo/calendar.html
>Zora Neale Hurston: http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~gallaher/hurston/hurston.html
>Charlatans in Vodou: http://members.aol.com/Racine125/charlatan.html
>How to Spell V-o-d-o-u: http://members.aol.com/Racine125/spelling.html
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.