Vodou 501: God in Action
One of the ways vodou is characterized as unique is in the role possession plays in the religion. We are, fundamentally, a very practical religion. Survival has always been one of our central concerns. Possession, in vodou, is a demonstration that the divine has an active interest in the survival of people—the lwa come, treat illness, offer advice and guide their children, or even just the people who showed up. Possession is a normal event in vodou and while not everyone can get possessed, vodouizan expect that they will have regular access to the spirit through the people who can get possessed, so that as life happens, they will have a stream of solutions. Possession is god in action.
A priest is always someone with the capacity to get possessed, though not everyone with the capacity to get possessed is a priest. Priests have the training that allows possession to happen more frequently, the spirit to express more clearly, and allows various states in the process of possession. The established relationship with the spirits gives a priest a bit more options when it comes time to be possessed. We don’t have to be ‘blacked out’ for the spirit to speak through us. The spirits need to pour less energy into expressing themselves and are easier to recognize for what they are, which makes possession less dangerous for us.
Possession is dangerous, as to be expected from something that involves pouring the presence and awareness of something else into a physical body. Things that are not divine tend to drive it like they stole it. They can and will damage what they possess for the fun of it. The training and establishment of relationships with the lwa are incredibly important for preventing the priest from being used and abused by various spiritual entities.
Perceptually, possession is a demonstration that the line between priest and god is much thinner than is comfortable. If they need to, the lwa can come in so swiftly and violently that the priest’s awareness is completely elsewhere, leaving nothing but a blank spot in the priest’s memory. More often, they opt to come and lightly touch the priest’s consciousness, or to take control of the priest’s body, leaving the priest’s awareness sitting in the background and spectating what happens.
At first, possession can feel like an invasion, as if you have suddenly and irresistibly been occupied by something that, while it does not mean you harm, is definitely capable of harming you. It’s both personal, in the sense that it is the relationship between your consciousness and body which is being disrupted, and impersonal. The lwa come to do business, do what they need to do, and go. That business is not what the person is capable of, involves information the person does not previously possess, and actions the person does not know to take.
Possession can feel like being a spectator in your own body. A presence which is alien to your experience, though you recognize it, is using your body to do work as you watch. You can wrestle with the presence a bit, though you will not win if it chooses to exert itself.
Later, possession feels like unification. The disparate influences, the conflicting urges or thoughts which are a normal part of consciousness disappear. Instead, everything in the priest is one and more than one. No one is observing, no one in the backseat and watching. The presence of the lwa with the priest has neither doubt nor conflict, only purpose. The line between lwa and priest is gone, there is only presence. As much presence as the priest can hold.
You may be conscious or unconscious, though the more the priest recognizes god in themselves, the more control they have over the expression of the presence. The more the priest recognizes god in themselves and the more control they can exert over the expression of the divine in them, the less control they want over the expression of the presence. As I like to tell people about my own experience with the lwa—I could argue or try to resist, but why would I?
Ego can mimic this, but it does not unify. It suppresses. It conquers. It announces itself and brags and punishes. And it harms, as much as it can, to demonstrate its power.
