Voudou is a 10000 years old African Religion!

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"Any idea of God must work for the people who developed it. Consequently as the times have changed, so have our ideas about God."K.Armstrong.

Voudou depending on how it is pronounced translate as "Sacred" or "Spirit Divine" in "Fon" a Benin language:
Voudou is a derivative of the world's oldest known religions which have been around in Africa since the beginning of human civilization.

Voudou is estimated to be 10,000 years old. Voudou in Haiti is a mixture of religious practice from many African ethnics groups such as the Fon, the Nago, the Ibos, Dahomeans, Congos, Senegalese, Haussars, Caplaous, Mondungues, Mandinge, Angolese, Libyans, Ethiopians, and the Malgaches.

Voudou recognizes one God, Gran Met. There are a host of spirits or deities called loa which act as intermediaries between humans and God. The loa have significant powers relatively independent of God, and embody both positive and negative forces.

In addition to the loa, Voudou recognizes the spirits of ancestors.

Each person has a living body and two inner forces, the Ti-bon-ange, sort of a universal soul in the person and the Gros-bon-ange, a personal soul. Voudou has male priests called *houngans and female priestesses called *mambo.

The dominant activity of houngans and mambo is healing.

Voudou's healing is an amalgamation of *herbal medicine, and*faith healing.

Human sacrifice is not now nor ever has been a part of Haitian Voudou.

However, There are the *bokors, who are practitioners of black magic and sorcery who are loosely tied to Voudou.

Evidence relating to Zombies and Voudou dolls fall under the auspices of the Bokor rather than the Hougan and Mambo of the Loa Gine.
I found 43 Voudou deities but, I will only list the major ones (references are at the end of this report for further information).

Legba: controls the crossing over from one world to the other.

(the natural world to the spiririt world).

All Voudou ceremonies start with a prayer to Papa Legba to open the gate.
Ayizan: is Legba's wife. She protects the markets, public places, doors, and barriers, and has a deep knowledge of the intricacies of the spirit world.

Ogoun Feraille: is mighty, powerful, triumphal.

He is the traditional warrior figure in Dahomehan religion.

(Also Yoruba tribe in Nigeria) He is the warrior of Haitian revolution.

As Ogoun Badagris he is the Voudou religion's master of lightning and storm.

Agwe: is the Sovereign of the sea. His jurisdiction cover all the flora and fauna of the sea, and all ships which sail on the sea. Agwe's counterpart is La Sirine of the seas.
Dumballah Wedo: He is the benevolent loving father, he and his wife, Aida-Wedo, (Benin deity) are often shown as two snakes.

The serpent is a symbol of fertility.

Dumballah is Dahomean in origin.

He is one of the oldest ancestors and he is sacred.

Dumballah and his wife Aida-Wedo represent human sexuality.

Erzulie Danto: has tremendous power and is feared as much as she is loved.

She has several different roles: goddess of love, of the word, help, goodwill, health, beauty and fortune, as well as goddess of jealousy, and vengeance.

( She is the Dahomean earth mother and Goddess of love).

Baron Samedi also called Ghede: is Death He is the keeper of the cemetery and the primary contact with the dead. He has power over Zombies.

Petro: Comes from a new nation of spirits forged directly in the steel and blood of the colonial era. They reflect all the rage, violence and delirium that threw off shackles of slavery.

(Marionette Boissech is a she devil, and Bosou Kablamin is violent and defeat enemies, they are both violent Petro loa and Bizango is an extreme form of Petro.

Rada: The loa that represents the emotional stability and warmth of Africa, and the hearth of the nation.

Rada derived from a Dahomean deity and is highly religious in nature and rites.

Rada stands for light and the normal affairs of humanity.

Obatala: Obatala is a sky deity.

Sobo Kessou: Loa of strength, is powerful and well known for his bravery as a warrior.

***Voodoo survived as a legitimate religion in Brazil where it is called Candomblé, and the English speaking Caribbean (Jamaica, Virgin islands) where it is called Obeah and Spanish speaking islands (Cuba, Puerto Rico) where it is called Santeria.

Voudou is the recognized religion of Benin.

On April 10, 2003, Haiti's government officially sanctioned Voudou as a religion, allowing practitioners to begin performing ceremonies from baptisms to marriages with legal authority

Let me remind everyone that the Jews used to worship Baal(a bull) then they moved on to Yahweh and El, they had their animal sacrifices, their temple priestess who were in fact prostitutes that people would go into the temple to have sex with, to experience the divine.

Jesus the Hebrew Jew was trying to reform the religion.

None of the stories in the bible are originals, they are from older civilizations (Sumeria and Ur, and Babylon which is present day Iraq where Abraham originated from) The Jews embellished those stories.

The Catholic have their "Dieu en trois persones" and decided to make rabbi Jesus most likely a prophet into a "God" in the counsel of Nicai in 325 Ad. They made other humans Saints, as if a human can raise another human being to divinity.

None of those saints are black by the way. I believe that we have a right to worship the divine in our image.

We should reform Voudou however just like those other religions were reformed.

Perhaps we should eliminate the animal sacrifices and replace them with more chanting and incense burning.

We should separate those Bokors from the religion itself since they seem to be making poisonous powders, from a combination of poisonous fish, frogs, bones and leaves to harm others, and all the charlatans who claim to have supernatural powers to make money from gullible folks.

However we have the right to dance to our Gran Met divine to the sound of our drums and experience the Universal divinity force in our own way. Book: History of God by Karen Armstrong/ on www.godchecker.com (click African gods) click on yahoo.com and google.com and dogpile.com for more information about Haitian Voodoo history, migration, and list of Voodoo deities.

Flo, October 1 2007, 1:42 AM

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