Vodou - Learning Basics of Vodou

Learn the Basics of Vodou

Vodou is a practical religion which helps its adherents with day to day living.  To practitioners of Vodou, their gods are beings with fully developed personalities, likes and dislikes, and certain preferences in style.  The gods are called the loa, and there is a huge contingent of them—some raucous, some bawdy, some sneaky, some demure.  Vodou priests are called houngan and priestesses are called mambo.  It is through them that direct contact with the loa is made.

In Vodou, the ancestors are also worshipped.  There are ancestor loa who are venerated, but every Vodou adherent also worships his or her own family, those kin who have already passed.  This is usually done with special ancestor altars or sacred spaces devoted to them.

It has been said that in most religions, people talk to the divine.  But in Vodou, the divine talks to the people.  This happens during Vodou ceremonies and rituals, when the loa are called forth through dancing, drumming, and special offerings.   If the loa is happy with the offerings presented, he or she will enter the ceremony through the phenomenon of possession, inhabiting an initiate’s body.  The initiate, now filled with the spirit of the loa, acts in the manner of that god.  Now is the time when the loa imparts advice or offers information, which occurs at the bidding of the houngan or mambo.

The houngan and mambo have the power to access other worlds—the world of the invisible—and other states of consciousness.  They make these other worlds directly available to initiates so that they, too, can learn from these other worlds.  Seeing direct evidence of these other worlds gives the Vodou practitioner comfort and insight as he or she goes about his daily business.  Vodou thus offers a glimpse of something bigger, a taste of the divine that lifts adherents beyond the mundane. 

The practice of Vodou offers a different way of looking at the world.  In the Vodoun life, power is not something that comes from the government or an institution.  Instead, power is a mark of how well an individual can work with the loa.  If they are efficient at harnessing these unseen gods and their powers, it translates to having personal power in the form of good health and success. 

Vodou is one of the world’s oldest religions, with millions of devout followers.  Vodou, or Voudoun, is sometimes called "the world’s oldest religion" and many believe it to be up to 10,000 years old, though most place the figure at more like 6,000 years.  It originated in West Africa, but took the form of Vodou, which most people are familiar with, during the forced slave migration to Haiti.  The African diaspora, or mass migration outside their home country, spread the religion to North and South America, the Philippines, and the Caribbean.  

While you may be more familiar with seeing the word spelled as Voodoo, most practitioners consider that spelling somewhat of a pejorative of traditional African cultures.  The exception to this is in New Orleans, where it is still usually spelled Voodoo.

In upcoming posts, you will learn how you can take part in some beginning Vodou practices.   And we will examine some common myths about Vodou and see why they are incorrect.

By Secrets2Voodoo.com

Tags: power of voodoo, haiti voodoo, Voodoo spell