Haiti and the Distortion of Its Vodou Religion

Good article from two years ago on the CNN site.

Haiti and the Distortion of Its Vodou Religion

New Vodou book

My godmother has published her new book!

I had the privilege of reading the pre-publication manuscript, and I loved it. (Of course, I am a little biased *grins*.) A lot of practical information is inside, including tips on tools, sacred spaces, rituals and correspondences. This is another book I wished I’d had when I was starting out.

Announcement on Mambo’s webiste

Amazon link

WHEN IS ORISA INITIATION REALLY NECESSARY?

One of my sosyete sisters shared this excellent article by Ayele Kumari, PhD. Check out her blog:

http://www.ayelekumari.com/ifayele/when-is-orisa-initiation-really-necessary5424577

A review of CNN’s “Believer” Vodou episode

Mambo Sallie Anne Glassman has published a detailed review of the recent Vodou episode of CNN’s “Believer” TV series.

http://thelensnola.org/2017/04/02/cnns-reza-aslan-tries-to-make-sense-of-vodou-and-falls-short/

CNN showcases Vodou

CNN is featuring Vodou this Sunday on its show “Believer.” I haven’t watched any of the episodes so can’t vouch for its quality one way or the other, but the preview looks interesting.
http://www.cnn.com/shows/believer

‘Jesus Hasn’t Saved Us’: The Young Black Women Returning to Ancestral Religions

This article by Yomi Adegoke was published on the Broadly website.

Christianity still exerts a powerful force in many black communities, but some young women are turning their back on the faith and returning to the older, traditional religions of their ancestors.

Read the full article here.

 

Legba creates my vision

I am coming up on the first anniversary of my Kanzo with Sosyete du Marche. Thus it seems like an appropriate time to reflect on the past year and what has (and has not) changed about me and my life.

Outwardly, there is not a whole lot of visible change. I am still at the same job. I live in the same place, in the same area of town. I haven’t gotten a spiffy new haircut nor remodeled my home.

Not all of my bad habits have changed. I still stay up too late on weekends, and have a tendency to procrastinate. I have an impatient streak, but it’s one that I continue to mostly control. I can be messy when I get busy or tired, especially when facing art deadlines. I still am fascinated with the afterlife, although in a much more positive way than I have been in the past.

What has changed outwardly is the official acquisition of my new family, the Sosyete. This is no small thing for me—my birth mother crossed over nearly three decades ago, I never knew my father and the one living relative I do know is permanently estranged. Now I have parents and many siblings I can turn to for love, advice and support. I took great delight in sending my initiatory mother a small Mother’s Day gift, something I have not been able to enjoy for many years.

So what about the less-obvious changes?

Many times I thought about writing this post but kept putting it off, uncertain whether there had been any changes interesting enough to discuss here. Apparently the changes kind of crept up on me. Some people’s experiences are more dramatic and obvious, but the majority of mine tend to be more subtle. My Lwa often speak softly, and in the language of images.

In March and early April I was engrossed in my usual springtime art frenzy, preparing to participate in a local sci fi/fantasy convention’s art show and another show at a local shop. I had quite a few pieces planned that were Vodou-related, including two sculptures of Legba, La Siren, La Balenn and Agwe, whom I’ve never sculpted before.

The first Legba I finished this spring was the Old Man walking along a road with one of his dogs, although I sculpted both Legba faces at the same time, and was very happy with them. This was a sharp contrast from the struggles I sometimes have with faces, which can result in me becoming so frustrated that I will toss them in the garbage and begin anew. I was particularly pleased that both of the faces resembled Legba as he appeared in one of my dreams.

Sculpting clothing is not always super easy for me, yet when I worked on his jacket and pants, I kept having what artists call “happy accidents”—my hand would move and create a fold or movement of the fabric that was unplanned, but looked good. Now, normally, I would never consider putting one of my own pieces on my altars, because I would sit there and obsess over the flaws and shortcomings. This time, however, I was so happy with the completed piece that I thought about keeping him for my altar if he didn’t sell at the convention. Also finished for the convention was a La Balenn piece whose face turned out unusually lovely. I received a lot of compliments on both of them when I showed them to friends.

La Balenn did not sell at the convention, but Legba sold immediately after to a couple of friends who saw him in the art show there. (They tried to buy him at the show, but due to a change in the art show hours, they were not able to purchase him before it closed.) It makes me smile to think of Legba in their home.

Then my focus shifted to finishing the pieces for the shop show. I decided to do a Native La Siren, as that is how she appeared to me the one time that I saw her. I was not sure exactly how to sculpt Agwe, so I had a loose plan to create him as a merman wearing an admiral’s jacket. However, he had other things in mind. I kept receiving flashes of images in my head, and realized that yes, he did want to be portrayed as a merman, but rather than the uniform he opted to have coral extruding from his back and crowning his head. Although I was working on my pieces up to the last minute, I never really got stressed out. It seemed that every time I got stuck on something, the answer would pop into my head and I was able to move on. Sometimes my hands felt guided, to the point that I don’t feel that I can take all of the credit for the way the art turned out. It was more of a collaboration between the Lwa and me.

When Agwe was completed, he also received many compliments. During the artist opening reception, one of my regular buyers whom I had never met before came in and bought the entire marine Lwa set (La Siren, La Balenn and Agwe). He wanted the seated Legba piece I had there too, but a friend had already spoken for it, so this gentleman commissioned a new one. (I have to smile when I think of Legba and the 3 marine Lwa displayed in his home; I won’t be surprised if they all start showing up there.) Another previous buyer whom I had never met came in and purchased a Sekhmet wall piece of mine. During the following weeks when my art was on display, a couple of local Santeria folks saw Agwe and loved him so much that they commissioned one like it.

Overall, this is probably the most successful art show I’ve had to date, as far as sales are concerned. I reflected back on the nom vayan (“valiant name”) that my initiatory mother gave me at my batem (“baptism”). It translates into “Legba creates my vision,” and he certainly has outdone himself this time.

If you haven’t already read it, my lovely initiatory mother has written a wonderful piece on magickal names in Vodou, which explains them better than I can here. All’s I can say is it certainly worked for me! Honor to her, Papa and the Lwa. Ayibobo!

A new year, Bain Noel and Four Circles class

So we are here in 2015 and I need to start posting regularly again. There are some topics I meant to post last year after Kanzo and I need to get those written. With the shortest day of the year behind us, it’s time to look forward to spring and growth.

Last night I participated in a small Kings Day fet. There were only ten of us present, and half of those had never attended a fet before. As a result, things were a little rough around the edges, but we still raised a good amount of energy. I am not the most energy-sensitive person in the world, but at one point during the Petro section I become uncomfortably hot, even though we were in a basement and had not been dancing enough to raise a sweat. Others felt it too. The presiding Mambo gave us the Bain Noel baths. We parted ways happy and the newcomers plan to return for the next event.

In other news, Sosyete du Marche has started up its Four Circles Year One class again. This is the 101 of Vodou and you have until the end of January to sign up for this quarter. More information here.

Ayibobo, and here’s to a prosperous 2015!

Sacred Journeys: Osun-Osogbo

Sorry for the last minute notice. This episode of “Sacred Journeys” premieres on PBS tonight, and features the festival of Osun-Osogbo  in Nigeria.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/sacredjourneys/content/osun-osogbo/

End of summer update

My apologies for being absent for a bit. August proved to be a busy month.

Upon returning from Kanzo, I had to complete my 41 days of restrictions which, like Kanzo itself, were easier than expected in some ways and more difficult than expected in other ways. It was an interesting period and an exercise in self-discipline. Ironically, I think the food restrictions were more difficult for the girlfriend than they were for me. (She didn’t Kanzo, but ate dinner with me every night.)

Then the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO happened. Like many people, I could not stop thinking about that and you can bet that Ogoun was watching closely. I seriously hope justice is attained for Brown, or the social fabric of this country is going to deteriorate further and it will be bad news for everyone. We are seriously out of balance, and you can only tip the scales so much before something topples and breaks.

August ended on an upbeat note. Mambo Vye Zo Komande and the Houngan arrived in Seattle to visit their family here and we had a very nice private service in which I handed my kolyes (sacred beads) back to them (they now reside at the house in Philly). Mambo also had her art featured in the Esoteric Book Conference, held at the University of Washington Sept. 5^th through Sept. 7^th. Although I’d viewed some of the pieces while in Philly, seeing them all presented together formally at the conference was a real pleasure. You can view some of them here. The energy coming from one of the pieces was quite striking and stood with me until the following day.

The book fair was fun, and I walked away with a copy of “Shades of Ritual: Minority Voices in Practice,” which I can now remove from my Amazon wish list.

That’s it for now. I have some topics still percolating in my brain, and hope to post them soon.