Are Voodoo Dolls Real?

Question: Are Voodoo Dolls Real?

Answer:

The Myth

Popular culture depicts the “Voodoo doll” as a poppet bearing the resemblance of an enemy. The target is cursed with misfortune, pain and even death via the thrusting of pins into the doll. Such items are not a part of traditional Vodou, although some Vodouisants, primarily in New Orleans, have now adopted them, often for sale to tourists.

Possible Origin

Tales of similar poppets have existed in European witch folklore for centuries.

It’s certainly possible that Europeans, knowing very little about Vodou and commonly decrying it as evil and Satanic, merged rumors of Vodou with familiar witchcraft rumors from back home.

Pwen

In Vodou, a pwen is an item filled with particular components that appeal to a particular lwa. They are meant to attract a lwa and gain its influences for a person or place. Pwen come in a variety of forms, including dolls. Pwen dolls can be found in a variety of forms, from crude poppets to elaborate works of art.

Source:

Catherine Beyer, Alternative Religions Expert

Article found on & probably owned by About.com

What is Vodou?

Vodou, sometimes referred to as Voodoo, is a religion that blends Catholicism with West African diasporic faiths. Primarily practiced in the Caribbean, Vodoun incorporates ancestor worship and animism alongside saints and African gods. Many of the traditions followed today are directly related to those brought to Haiti by enslaved Africans hundreds of years ago. During the colonization of Hispaniola, Africans from many different tribes brought their customs with them.

These beliefs were blended with the native Taino Indians of Haiti, along with the influence of Spanish and French Catholicism.

During the late 18th century, there were a number of slave rebellions in Haiti, and former slave Touissaint L’Ouverture led battles against the French colonists. Haitian lore attributes L’Ouverture’s success to a Vodou ceremony — according to legend, this was the beginning of the revolution. Today, while many of Haiti’s people identify as either Protestant or Catholic, nearly all acknowledge the country’s connection with Vodou.

Bob Corbett of Webster University has a wonderful outline of the basic beliefs of Vodou on his page at Introduction to Voodoo in Haiti. He describes the basic concepts of Vodou, as well as the deities and ritual format. Corbett reminds his students “to recognize that Voodoo is Haiti’s religion, it is taken very seriously not merely by unlettered peasants, but many intelligent and learned members of the Haitian society believe as sincerely in Voodoo as do German theology professors in their Christianity.”

Following the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, Vodou was brought to the forefront of the public’s attention. A scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou was formed at University of California, Santa Barbara, and named Kosanba. Their website says, “The presence, role, and importance of Vodou in Haitian history, society, and culture are unarguable, and recognizably a part of the national ethos. The impact of the religion qua spiritual and intellectual disciplines on popular national institutions, human and gender relations, the family, that plastic arts, philosophy and ethics, oral and written literature, language, popular and sacred music, science and technology and the healing arts, is indisputable.”

Source:

Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert

Article Found On & Owned By About.com

Ebbos in Santeria – Sacrifices and Offerings

Ebbos (or Ebos) are a central part of Santeria practice. Humans and orishas both need an energy force known as ashe in order to succeed; orishas, in fact, need it in order to survive. So if one would like to be favored by the orishas, or even just pay respect to these beings that are intimately involved with forces in the physical world, one must offer ashe. All things have some quantity of ashe, but nothing is more potent than blood.

Sacrifice is a method of delivering that ashe to the orishas so they, in turn, can use ashe for the petitioner’s benefit.

Types of Offerings:

Animal sacrifices are by far the most known type of offerings. However, there are many others. One may need to pledge to do a particular action, or abstain from certain foods or activities. Candles and other items may be burned, or fruits or flowers may be offered. Singing, drumming and dancing also contribute ashe to the orishas.

Creating Talismans:

Food is the usual offering in the creation of talismans. A talisman provides certain magical qualities to the person wearing it. In order to infuse as item with such influence, ashe must first be sacrificed.

Votive Offerings:

Those who wish to more generally attract the positive aspects of an orisha might make a votive offering. These are items that are left at a shrine or otherwise put on display as a gift to the orishas.

Animal Sacrifice Where the Meat is Eaten:

Most ceremonies that involve animal sacrifice also involve the participants eating the flesh of the slaughtered animal.

The orishas are only interested in the blood. As such, once the blood is drained and offered, the meat is eaten. Indeed, the preparation of such a meal is an aspect of the overall ritual.

There’s a variety of purposes for such a sacrifice. Initiations require blood sacrifice because the new santero or santera must be able to be possessed by the orishas and interpret their wishes.

Santeria believers do not merely approach the orishas when they want something. It is a continual reciprocal arrangement. Blood may therefore be sacrificed as a way of saying thank you after the receiving of good fortune or the resolution of a difficult matter.

Animal Sacrifice When Meat is Discarded:

When the sacrifice is made as part of purification rituals, the meat is not eaten. It is understood that the animal takes the impurity upon itself. Eating its flesh would simply put the impurity back into everyone who partook of the meal. In these cases the animal is discarded and left to rot, often in a location of importance to the orisha being approached.

Legality:

The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that religious animal sacrifice cannot be made illegal, as it falls under freedom of religion. However, those that perform animal sacrifices do need to follow certain rules to limit the suffering of the animals, just as slaughterhouses have to do the same. Santeria communities do not find these rules to be burdensome, as they have no interest in making the animals suffer.

What is becoming more controversial is the discarding of purification sacrifices. The discarding of carcasses in certain locations is important to many believers, but that leaves local city workers the task of cleaning up the rotten bodies. City governments and Santeria communities need to work together to find compromises on the subject, and the Supreme Court also ruled that related ordinances should not be overly burdensome to believers.

Source:

Catherine Beyer, Alternative Religions Expert

Article Found On & Probably Owned by About.com