The Marasa: The Divine Twins of Haitian Vodou
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Today we’re going to talk about a very primordial Lwa, a lwa racine or root Lwa, in Haitian Vodou. Or is it two Lwa? Or… three??
In case you’re new here, Lwa comes from French (and, consequently, Kreyòl) word that means Law. Simultaneously, it comes from a word in the Yoruba language of West Africa, olùwa, meaning a god. You see this double etymology often in Vodou, which in itself is a mystery. The tradition is full of synchronicities, puns, and spiritual double entendres, as you will soon see.
Lwa as used in Vodou is translated to mean Spirit, but to understand what a Lwa is it’s better to refer to other Kreyòl words, because what we think of in English as a spirit is usually on a smaller scale than the Lwa. Sometimes the Lwa are called Sen yo, or the saints. They intercede with Bondye, the one, good God, on behalf of humans. Sometimes they are called Zanj yo, or the Angels, as grand-scale Beings of a higher order than humans. Sometimes Envizib yo, or the Invisibles, those beings who live on a plane we can’t ordinarily see. And sometimes they are called Mistè yo, or The Mysteries.
Mistè, I feel, is the best word for the spirit forces we are going to talk about today, because they are ancient, elemental, profund, and we could talk about them, study them, live inside of them our whole lives and never completely understand them.
They’re the Marasa, the Divine Twins of Haitian Vodou.
Their name comes from the KiKongo Word mabasa- one who comes divided, the one who comes as two.
Here’s a little origin story for the Marasa. It probably bears a resemblance to any creation myth you’ve ever heard:
In the beginning, the Universe— that is to say Bondye, the singular Good God— was one; which is to say, It was nothing. Not being divided, the Supreme Being could not observe itself. It could not experience itself. All was in agreement, all was sameness, and in absolute sameness, absolute unity, nothing can happen.
Then, suddenly, the lonely, bored Bondye tore a rift right down the middle of its own cosmic unity, and on either side of the rift were Opposites. Male and female. Darkness and light. Heaven and earth. The sun and the moon. Being torn from the same fabric, the two poles on either side of the rift, the Opposites were both eternally joined, and eternally separated. From this tension between unity and separation, all the phenomena of the world are generated. Finally, something had happened. And is still happening.
This myth goes back not only to West African cosmologies but also Taino cosmologies. Taino is a general word for the indigenous people of Ayiti (the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic are on), Boriken (what is now called Puerto Rico), and the eastern part of Cubao, or Cuba.
In West Africa, Nana Burulu, the old woman at the beginning of the world, gives birth to the dual-gendered twin divinity, Mawu-Lisa. The Taino creatrix Atabey was lonely all by herself and spontaneously gave birth to the twins Yucahu and Guacar.
Having been created through the very first action of the Original Being, The Marasa are on a different plane than the other spirits. In fact, when a triple libration is poured in Vodou, its for Mò, Mistè, and Marasa, setting them in a class of their own, apart from both the dead and the other Lwa. This is because everything else exists within the Marasa. They form the fabric of the physical universe. For this reason, also, they are saluted in the very beginning of a ceremony, right along with, or perhaps even before, Papa Legba.
The Marasa are seen as twin children. They’re not children because they’re young, but because they are from the infancy of the creation, and therefore very, very ancient. They represent freshness, newness, beginnings, and the birth of the race.
The Marasa, being the origin of everything, are also the parents of Humanity, related to the dual head of the Fon pantheon Mawu-Lisa and comparable to Adam and Eve as the First Couple.
As twins, who simultaneously express unity and duality, they harmonize opposites. They reunite, and by their complementarity, each being a half of a whole, they achieve totality.
The two halves are sometimes seen as the visible and invisible worlds, mortality and immortality, humanity and divinity, matter and the metaphysical. And that they mirror each other exactly is important; as above, so below. Everything in the spirit world has a counterpart in the physical, and vice versa. This is another concept that echoes through magical systems and philosophies across cultures, as seen in Plato’s theory of forms and Mircea Eliades’ The Myth of Eternal Return.
In Vodou, the spirit world, where the Lwa live and the dead travel, is anba dlo; under the water. The Mirror, miwa, is the surface of the water, the membrane between the worlds, twinning what is on one side with the other.
The surface of the water is the horizontal mirror, but there is a mirror on the vertical axis as well, which divides male and female, light and dark, night and day.
And being of a double nature, human beings are on both sides of both mirrors at the same time. Both axes together divide into halves roughly equivalent to yin and yang; each half in metaphysical, half in the physical world.
The Marasa, then, are the mysteries of liaison between heaven and earth and between male and female as found within each individual human being.
The Marasa are two, but they are also three. They are the two that come after the one, but they also generate a one, the one being their harmonious relationship. 1+ 1 = 3. Marasa Twa- Three Marasa- is seen as a cosmic totality. In the physical world, this is exemplified by two parents producing one child.
It’s believed in both African and Haitian cultures that the birth of twins, despite being extremely lucky, creates a rift in the cosmic order, an echo of the primordial rift. Not only are twins revered, but the single child born after twins is significant enough to have special name. If male, the child is called Dossou, and if female, Dossa. This child is an earthly stand-in for the unified whole that male and female issue from, the reunification after division.
Interestingly, fraternal twinning in Africa is higher than anywhere else in the world. In some places the birth rate of twins is four times what it is in European countries.
A brief note about twins in African and Haitian society. The word “twin” does not only mean a double birth, but any abnormal birth. Children with extra digits, for example are considered twins because it’s believed one twin ate the other. But also breech births, babies born with hair, babies born with teeth, babies born wrapped with umbilical cord, babies born in the caul, hunchbacks, hydrocephalic, and babies with dwarfism are all considered twins, and therefore special, having a deeper connection with the spirit world. This is echoed in some hoodoo and conjure beliefs that set people with unique birthmarks or unique birth circumstances apart as spiritually gifted. Indeed, those with abnormal births are sometimes quite literally closer to the underwater world of the afterlife, due to their bodies’ tenuous hold on earthly existence.
(For a fascinating film about the musician and mystic Genesis P. Orridge traveling to Africa to engage in a twin ceremony to connect with their deceased lover Lady Jaye, check out The Bight of the Twin. I have only been able to access the full documentary through subscribing to The Satanic Temple TV streaming service. Definitely worth the $6.66 per month.)
In Africa, in extreme cases, children with unsustainable physical abnormalities are set by the water to die, and then join a category of powerful ancestral spirits called Kings of the Waters. They are served not only by immediate family but generations of descendants. So again, echoing that horizontal and vertical axis, we have the ones under the water interacting with those who live on the other side of the mirror, another twinning of family.
Let’s now explore the syncretization, or the twinning of African and Catholic elements, such as iconography and liturgical calendar, when it comes to the Marasa in Vodou.
The Catholic image of Saints Cosmas and Damian is used to represent the Marasa De, or the Two Marasa. These martyrs were twin brothers who practiced surgery and medicine without charging a fee, emphasizing both the mirroring of the Marasa and their role as healers, not only of the rift between opposites, but all health conditions.
The image of the three central virtues of Christianity in the form of three girls— Faith, Hope, and Charity— is sometimes used to represent the Marasa Twa or Three Marasa, aka the Marasa Dosou.
In Vodou, there are almost always multiple manifestations of principle Lwa. In the case of the Marasa, we not only have Marasa De and Marisa Twa, but Marasa that share the same gender and Marasa who are different genders.
The Marasa that are seen as male and female are said to be a reflection of that ancient West African double deity Mawu-Lisa. The male of this pair is sometimes represented by Saint Nicholas, both for his solar aspect and the fact that he’s associated with children, and the female by Saint Clare for her lunar appearance.
In terms of their feast days, they change from house to house.
Sometimes the Marasa are celebrated on Christmas because of the obvious association with children. For the same reasons, they are celebrated on January 6 with the Adoration of the Holy Infant by the Magi.
Sometimes they are linked to All Soul’s Day, along with Gede— the rambunctious Lwa of Death, Sex, and Birth— because children, particularly children with physical differences that render them fragile, go hand in hand with all these mysteries. In my house, they are celebrated in mid October; close enough to Fèt Gede to relate the two, but long enough before to have their own celebration. They also share Mondays and Fridays with the Gede, emphasizing their enmeshment with cycles of birth, sex, and death.
Sometimes they’re celebrated on December 28th, the Slaughter of the Innocents, perhaps also because of their ancient association with children who have passed into the spirit world after a brief visit to this one.
No matter when they are honored, the Manje Marasa (Marasa Feeding) ceremony always involves children and gifts. Many children and also adult twins- including people with physical abnormalities- are invited. Toys like marbles and dolls are put out for the children to play with. Food is served that children would like: sweets, soda, popcorn, candy, cookies, molasses syrup, peanuts, fruit soda. The food is laid out on a laye or flat basket on the floor, and that’s where the children eat. Non-twin adults do not partake. Alcohol, mineral water, and vegetables, particularly green vegetables are pointedly not served. The point is to bring delight and satisfaction to the children and to encourage the Marasa themselves to come down in possession.
When they do come down, they laugh, cry, throw food, and play with other children. They are fed in 2 or 3 clay bowls that are joined together called a criche or plat Marasa.
When the Marasa are down in possession, it’s important not to parent them, reprimand them or condescend to them. They may act like children, but they are ancient, wise, gifted healers. Being children, they are in touch with origin mysteries that we are not.
My godmother did not confirm the following bit that I read somewhere but I mention it anyway because it’s funny: Do not under any circumstances offer them leafy greens. They have innately strong curative powers and don’t need herbs to help; it’s insulting to push them on them. (My godmother said you can make whatever you want but the point is that it’s stuff kids want to eat, so make sure it’s tasty!)
In a Manje Marasa, after they seem to have had their fill, the children are asked the ritual question, “Are you now satisfied?” If they say yes, you can expect blessings. The children also wipe their greasy fingers on your clothes to give you good luck.
In the Marasa we see the very ancient and foundational and the very immediate come together. In my house, the Marasa are always referred to casually as “the kids,” the way you talk about anyone who happens to currently be a child in your own family, as in “the kids’ table” at a family gathering. Despite being foundational metaphysical principles, they come down and act like all other human children. And we’re asked to treat them just like they want to be treated, to give them what they want, at least in that moment, just because they like it and it makes them happy. I think there are some fundamental lessons in how to conceive of children here. They have a wisdom all their own, because it comes straight from the source.
