I’ve had some interactions lately that have highlighted for me that people know less about Vodou than I assume they do. Most of the time, people just flat out admit that they are starting from zero in their understanding of this tradition when I mention I am involved in it. The next thing I’ll hear from people is that they are wary of even looking into Vodou because they don’t want to be a party to cultural appropriation, or they don’t want to dabble with forces they don’t understand. One person came to me specifically for Ouija board advice because, since I was a Vodou practitioner, I would obviously be comfortable working with “dark energies.” Another told me that she thought it was cool that I was into Vodou because she really liked ghosts. All of this indicates to me that most people I encounter lack a basic frame of reference for Vodou.
I don’t blame people for not knowing about Vodou. Its history is not taught in school. The word is heavily ambiguated as "voodoo" and tacked as a marketing gimmick onto everything from donuts to chips to dolls to economics and usually just tossed around as if it’s just a spookier word for magic. Thanks to racism, colonialism, and Hollywood, if anyone does consider it as a specific tradition, it’s associated with black magic, pin-riddled dolls and zombies. So I figured that, for once, I would try to start from as close as possible to zero in this post.
Here goes then.
Vodou is a spiritual system and way of life that developed in Haiti. Its basic structure comes from Africa with some indigenous Taino influences. It incorporates some Catholic iconography and ritual. It heavily emphasizes family ties, real or fictive, and ancestry. After acknowledging a singular creator deity, it aims to open communication with a certain set of archetypal spirits called the Lwa using ritual techniques like drumming, singing, offerings, images, dance, and ceremony. There is a medicinal herbal component to Vodou, and also a protective and blessing-bringing magical component.
Vodou isn’t a scary black-magical way to hurt people or bend their will to yours, despite what Hollywood would have you believe. Vodou is about community. It’s very much an extension of family. It is “we take care of us.” It’s mutual aid. If you are coming to Vodou sniffing around for something to increase your power and personal magnetism and get unimaginably wealthy and squash your enemies and have dominion over the world, look elsewhere. Vodou is not about individual glory.
If you need proof of that, note that most Vodou practitioners in Haiti refer to themselves as sevite: servitors, or people who are in a service role to the spirits. Contrast that with the Chaos Magic idea of a servitor, or spirit who is created to perform a certain task to benefit its creator, and you’ll have a good sense what a reversal the Vodou mindset can be from the European magical view of binding and dominating and bossing spirits around.
BUT- and this is very important- the sevite isn’t submissive to the Lwa either. We’re not talking about a master/slave relationship on either side. It’s reciprocal, like any organic relationship. It’s a lot like family or close friendships. Each can ask things of the other, each can complain about the other, each can even give the other the silent treatment for a time if it comes to that. The relationship is built up over time. It can be consecrated or “made official” through formal ritual, if both the sevite and the Lwa desire that. Just like human-to-human relationships, it doesn’t need to be formalized to be valid, but a ceremony indicates a deeper commitment.
Next, people tend to lump Vodou into the same category as witchcraft, paganism, animism, and polytheism. It’s none of those things. Let’s address them one by one.
The idea of witchcraft has its roots in Europe. It ties into pre-Christian European earth based spiritual practices, persecution of those practicing those practices (or not, if they were just framed), and various organized revivals of those practices including (but not limited to) Wicca and Tradcraft. It has transgressive, anti-patriarchal, feminist connotations. All of which is great. But it’s not Vodou. Vodou has a separate history, vis a vis African traditional religions, colonialism, slavery, indigenousness, imposed (and adopted) Catholicism, creolization, and revolution. It may not be accepted by the Church, but it, in general, is not anti-Church. Although there are factions within Vodou that (quite understandably) want to decouple African traditions from Catholic ones, most Vodou practitioners are practicing Catholics, to this day.
Pagan, similarly, means non-Christian. It’s not accurate to call Vodou non-Christian, as its practices are woven together with Catholicism. Nor is Vodou an earth based tradition in the way paganism is generally (also perhaps simplistically) characterized. The Lwa are not nature spirits. They might have associations with natural features or elements, but they deal much more with human nature and the vagaries of the human world.
Animism is the belief that everything is alive and possesses a spirit. This is a beautiful, constructive, and respectful way to view the world. It’s just not explicitly a foundational idea in Vodou. Yes, there is a sense that objects, plants, and natural elements are ensouled. But more foundational to Vodou is the idea that the Lwa, these great archetypal spirits, can be called down into dreams, altars, reposwa (receptacles, such as certain special trees), and human bodies. It’s not exactly false that Vodou is animistic, so much as that idea glosses over the main point.
Vodou’s monotheistic, meaning there’s one God. We call that God Bondye, which means Good God. That being is the all-creator from which everything emanates and that permeates everything. That being is very busy, and since it both is and created every single thing that exists, can’t be expected to hear our individual cases. The Lwa do that. This may seem like a technical distinction between monotheism and polytheism, almost a matter of point of view, but it’s essential. The belief is that God is good. Nothing happens without God wanting it to happen. This includes any healing or magical working. We acknowledge that we’re doing it within the context of this all encompassing God who has absolute veto power.
All right, I think I may have covered the “starting from zero” aspect and now it might be time to address the “cultural appropriation” and “dabbler” aspects.
People on social media sometimes call Vodou a “closed tradition.” What people generally mean is that you can only practice Vodou if you’re Haitian or of Haitian descent. It’s true that Haitians have a birthright to this tradition. Vodou is inseparable from Haiti. Taken out of context from Haitian culture and history, it isn’t really Vodou anymore. However, the Lwa have been known to call people of diverse ethnic backgrounds. They seem to know who they want and it doesn’t seem to matter much to them whether the person has any previous relationship, whether ancestral or cultural, with Haiti. The important thing is that, once set on the path, they develop one. If they never do, they might be practicing something, but it won’t be Vodou.
If you believe the Lwa are real, you can bet that someone who claims to practice Vodou but does not reckon with their own internalized racism or colonialism, who doesn’t make the effort to learn Vodou’s historical basis in Africa, the transatlantic slave trade, and the Haitian revolution, and who doesn’t even figure out how to cook for the Lwa or what music they like, who isn’t willing to spend time with Haitians and treat their culture with respect… well, that person can’t really expect the Lwa to be part of their lives.
As far as dabbling goes, everyone has to start somewhere. Those of us who enter from the outside will most certainly have a dabbler phase as we find our way in. But ultimately, Vodou is an initiatory tradition. If you want to learn about the tradition in any depth, you need an initiated godparent in the tradition. If this seems hard to accomplish, it can be. Those who promote themselves as such are often not authentic or are out to make a quick buck. Those who have active sosyetes (societies) are generally very busy. But you do need to put in the legwork and find a real godparent if you want to engage in the tradition. Vodou practices are very house-specific. There are plenty of books and websites out there, but you will find they contradict each other, because the details vary from house to house. And nothing takes the place of direct contact with the tradition. It’s an oral, ritual, and artistic tradition. It is not possible to reconstruct it from written material alone. It’s transmitted through human connection and direct participation. So if you want to do it, get you some.
Additionally, Vodou is not a do-whatever-you-want space. It is a highly organized system with plenty of reglemen, or rules. There is a way to do everything: a way to salute the spirits, a way to pour libations, an order to which spirits are saluted and called when, with which drumbeat, with which dances, offerings, colors, and so forth. We approach this with the belief, and the direct experience, that these spirits are real, and that it matters to them that we do it right. It’s not that there’s no room for creativity within the tradition, but the creativity happens within structure. This is why it requires mentorship. There’s simply too much to learn on your own.
Vodou is not dark. It deals with archetypal divine energies. It is heart breaking and heart opening. It is a channel for divine communication. People think it’s dark because of movies, racism, and touristy versions that are designed to make outsiders feel like they’re entering into something scintillatingly dangerous. That is not to say nobody does anything bad within Vodou, but people do bad stuff within all religions.
Vodou doesn’t have anything to do with ghosts or hauntings, generally speaking. There is very specific ontology of the afterlife within this tradition, and there are specific hygienic rituals done to make sure all the components of a human being travel to the correct planes after death. Ghosts and hauntings are signs that something has gone awry. There are ways to connect with one’s ancestors and with the dead in general. But if someone’s spirit is just wandering around after death, that is not considered good or fun to hang around, and things are done to remedy that.
People sometimes worry that Vodou is demonic. It’s important to realize that the whole concept of “demons” as we now understand it is based in European traditions. Essentially, what came to be known as “demons” in European grimoires and within the church were very often remnant deities from pre-Christian Europe and West Asia. It was in the Church’s best interest to make these beings as scary as they possibly could. It didn’t really work. As I mentioned before, people still work with these spirits for personal benefit with the help of texts. They are generally associated with individual gain and development. This is not bad per se, but it’s not Vodou.
That said, there are “hot” spirits in Vodou that can be dangerous to deal with. Most basically ( even somewhat reductively), most spirits or Lwa from the Haitian Vodou pantheon can be divided into two groups: Rada and Petwo. Again, almost reductively, the Rada spirits are calm, cool, ancient, slow moving, order-loving and order-preserving. They come from the ancestral kingdoms of West Africa and are served before other spirits. The Petwo group are fiery in nature and come either from West Central Africa or from the Caribbean, either from the original Taino inhabitants of Ayiti or emerging for the first time during the ceremony at Bwa Kayiman that started the Haitian Revolution. These spirits are about revolution, change, justice, and magical efficacy. They are about quickly and vigorously righting wrongs. They are not inherently bad, but since they are fueled by the energy of anger and violence, they can get out of hand. So they are worked with carefully, just as you would handle a real life person who tends toward anger and violence with care.
I think that covers some basics, and then some! I offer all this with humility and the understanding that there are better resources than I out there. Due to my limited time, these posts are not impeccably researched or edited and inevitably contain some opinion mixed in with fact. Please let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!
