A Piece of a paper I'm writing:
The image of Voudon in the Western world is one of wax or clothe-material puppets with pins & needles sticking out of them and black magic. Voudon is, in fact, one of the world's most ancient religions. Voudon arrived in the West during the slave trading decades. The basis of the religion came from Africa, but the Voudon we now know began in Haiti. A variety of different ethnic groups accumulated their religions and formed the Voudon that is known in this day and age.
Voudon is a West African word that means "spirit"'; the original word was vodun. The basic ethos of the religion is that everything in the universe is intertwined
Nothing happens by fate in this world, and there are no accidents. Everything that you do to someone, you do to yourself, because you are that individual.
Voudon ceremonies contain dancing, rituals, and prayers. They also include animal sacrifices. The figure of the serpent plays a major part in such rituals, and the high priest or priestess will embody the snake's power. Spirits of nature, wealth, and happiness possess the bodies of believers at the ceremony.
Music and dancing are also major elements of the Voudon ceremony. In the West, the dancing has often been portrayed as sexual, but actually that is not its main purpose. Dancing is a way to connect with the spirit world.
Voudon is also an important part of family life in any community that practices it. The high priest has a great deal of influence and gives spiritual advice when it is asked for. He or she is also seen as a healer and practices with medicines and herbs. The knowledge that the high priestess has gained through the years will have been passed along through prior generations.
Practitioners of Voudon also use spells. For the most part, these are spells used to evoke good, not evil. There are love spells, healing spells, and spells to celebrate joy and happiness about a particular event. The image of black magic and harmful spells that you normally see in Hollywood movies was mainly founded by Europeans who had a distrust of anything African.
Voudon is practised as a religion in a number of countries around the world. In Brazil, it is called Candomble, and in the Caribbean, it is called Obeah. In 2003, the government of Haiti sanctioned Voudon as an official religion. Believers can now be baptized and married within the religion without facing persecution.
It has taken centuries for this official action to happen. Believers say it will take more than an official show of faith to make up for the persecution that followers of Voudon have had to contend with. There are millions of people in Haiti alone who have faith in this religion.
In addition, I have just read in the Friends of the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft Newsletter, March '08 that the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum is celebrating its 36th anniversary this year.
Voodoo is universal of our culture, our folklore, our history and our lives. It is hardly secretive or proscribed as the movies, or the rest of America would suggest.
It is such a shame that people believe all the sensationalism shown in films that fall far short of the truth. Before you protest at the idea of sacrificing a chicken; do the chickens you eat for dinner every week all die from natural causes?
