Vodou Culture 101: Spirit Contracts
One of the more interesting parts of being a priest is negotiating with spirits on behalf of people.
The word ‘lwa’ means law, and specifically the laws of the divine. Vodou takes a very particular view of the word law, not defining it as the enforcement of customs via governmental or state sanctioned mechanisms (like the legal system here in the US). Instead, in vodou, law refers to the way the world works, something more like physics than what the US majority culture would consider to concern a legal agreement. For vodou, if things happen, it is because they are following the law, not because something is written and for fear of being arrested or censured by your neighbors.
Philosophically, much of what the legal system here in the US does is attempt to constrain people’s actions and in doing so, provide stability by regulating change. Part of providing that stability is punishing people who do not comply through a system that the government or state sanctions for the purpose of punishment, our legal and penal system. If you read the history of the laws in the US (or are following some of the weird laws being introduced by our conservative government), you are well aware that the behaviors which the law attempts to regulate are often far more about social and cultural comfort than they are about political stability. Blue laws are a great example of this. While that wikipedia entry is written with a clear bias toward the religion which provided the law, a law that says you cannot, for instance, sell liquor on Sundays is not providing social stability.
What it does is give the people in the Abrahamic religions a warm feeling and the illusion of control.
In vodou, the lwa are mysteries: they are not to be constrained, described, or predicted in their behavior by people, and change is inevitable. The lwa can do most anything they want to do within their domains, and often outside those domains through the complex system of kinship, allies, and partners/consorts across domains. Part of the reputation the lwa have for being malicious or capricious is because people do not understand that the lwa serve the laws and purpose of the divine, not people’s expectations of stability or their understanding of how the world should work.
On occasion or by request, the lwa can be asked to enter into a contract with someone. Those contracts can be on whatever the person or lwa deem relevant, typically in their domains. Sometimes the lwa will offer a contract to someone: they will offer, as an example, to clear a person’s genetic line of a propensity to addiction. Unlike people, who often “didn’t mean it” when payment comes due, the lwa will keep their contract. If they enter into a contract with someone, whether a marriage or another sort of contract, they will always do what they said they will, which is not necessarily what people expect or thought was going to happen.
Understand, if you are someone seeking a contract: all contracts require payment and enforcement. The lwa do not need a legal system, they are their own enforcement. They do not like people who break their promises, and the contract will include the penalties for breaking your promise or your part of the contract.
The lwa will always get the payment which a priest has negotiated for you.
