Scary, Scary Vodou

I write a lot about culture. Part of the reason I do is as a kindness to future students of vodou or people struggling to make the cultural leap between their US majority culture experiences and the culture of vodou. I do not anticipate a wide audience. The topic of vodou is interesting to many people, but most people will happily stop looking for information after watching a few TV shows or movies with vodou-themed characters. They won’t even make it to a book from a practitioner, let alone contacting a practitioner and trying to become a student.

I like to think of it as a winnowing. If you’ve contacted me, you’ve already made it through a number of hoops. You’ll still need the spirits’ permission to learn more, but if you got here, it’s not because you’re only sort of interested.

A question was asked recently on one of the forums I frequent: how do practitioners feel about the inaccurate portrayal of vodou in media?

My answer is that I’d rather have all those inaccurate, offensive, grossly wrong portrayals than I would a ton of accurate books, TV shows, and movies. So bring on all the misinformation that can be cooked up by someone who needs a bad guy who is sufficiently exotic as to be unsympathetic. I’ll know where you’re coming from by how you talk about vodou and adjust my approach accordingly.

I view those portrayals as the modern equivalent of a saint ‘mask’, a way to hide the actual spirit or character of the spirit from people who have no need or business knowing the spirit or character of the spirit. People who need to know will find themselves in contact with someone who can train them, and the spirits will let that practitioner know what to say, when to say, and who to say it to.

The spirits are active in their communication, especially on the topic of people they wish to have relationships with.

Vodou was never intended to be a mass religion or a mass experience—we are a religion of secrets, of mysteries, of the life-spanning process of elevation and healing. It was never intended to be turned into an institution, as the Abrahamic religions are. It was never intended to be a path everyone follows, nor is it intended to be something that can be known consistently across every society or house.

Let vodou be scary. Let it be something used to indicate a villain or a scary monster. Let it be silly and inaccurate and cheesy as hell. Let people chase their imaginations and fantasies.

The lwa will call their own and a way will be made for them.