Vodou Culture 101: The Veve

My godfather likes to use the analogy of a phone number to describe a veve—if you want to talk to someone specific, you use a specific combination of numbers and it reaches their phone (and typically them.) Veves are interesting phone numbers. A veve is a cluster of symbols, each with a specific meaning, that combined create a request for a specific spirit.

We draw them in cornmeal, flour, ash, and things even stranger. A veve is temporary, fading over time, and used for a specific act of communication, typically during a ritual or magical working. They are not intended to be permanent nor are they intended, as many people seem to want to do, for anything as permanent as a tattoo. A party veve or cluster of veves will be stomped out as the party progresses, often ending as a swirl across the floor, to be swept up in the cleanup after a party or ritual.

This is also because a veve, especially one which has been properly activated and empowered, is a portal. An open door will be walked through.

Drawing a veve well is surprisingly difficult and physically taxing. It is one of the skills that a handful of people in a vodou society will specialize in, partially because it is that difficult.

I tend to do quite a bit of the veve drawing for parties in my society. I refer to it as “leg day” when I go to parties and draw veves, because I don’t get a better workout for my lower body than what has to be done to draw a veve correctly at any gym I’ve ever been to in my life.