At the heart vodou practitioners believe, “People are born to die” (375).
The vision of death is ever present in their life and it is what gives them energy. Haitians search for balance in their existence, but balance in vodou is a dynamic force of living with conflicting ideals harmoniously. In the face of such poverty, disease and death in their society this idea has become necessary to survival. This chapter entitled Gede, focused on Alourdes, a vodou priestess.
Alourdes treats friends and family and others in her village. When people present to her they come with problems with such things as love, family, work, financial troubles and physical maladies (346).
Though Alourdes acknowledges these areas of difficulty she seeks to treat the underlying “root” which has to do with disturbances in relationships with the “dead, iwa or jealous, angry or malicious” humans (346).
When “treating” another, Alourdes describes troubles as either natural or supernatural.
Natural difficulties come from God and there is nothing she can do to help those people, but supernatural can be handled with her assistance. For these individuals she usually does a card reading to determine the source of the trouble. The levels of difficulty can range from something as simple as “eyes” where there are so many people thinking or speaking of you that it sets your spiritual nature off balance, to deliberate vengeful acts performed by a boko – “a specialist in the work of the ‘left hand’” (347).
The Essay on Different Reasons People Comunicate
There are lots of reasons why people communicate at work. For example, to share ideas and thoughts, to express needs and feelings, to socialise, to gain and share information, to build relationship and to maintain relationship, to understand and to be understood and to receive instructions, to give encouragement and show others that we care. In order to work effectively with children and their ...
One of the rituals which begins healing is with a ‘luck’ bath, ‘good luck’ – washed toes up or ‘bad luck’ – washed from the top down (348).
The process of becoming a vodou spiritual leader or priestess mimics the healing process. Essentially vodou healers begin as the most troubled of all as they are most receptive to spirits, so they undergo the strongest healing process. There are four vodou initiation levels. The first is head-washing, purposed to dislodge spirits or to refresh and feed the gwo bonanj – “big guardian angel” (351).
The second is the kanzo, meaning fire. In the public portion of this ritual dumplings are removed from large boiling pots and pressed into the left hand and left foot of the participant, to teach them strength. They are told not to use the word “hot” again, but instead use “strong” (351).
The next is the kouche sou pwen which translates to lying down on point. It is a process of gaining intuitive knowledge and growing in tune with spirits. The final process is acquiring the ason or sacred rattle which qualifies one for healing work.
At its heart vodou leaders have a great “knowledge about people”. Whether that stems from psychic power, empathy, or intuition the end result is the same (156).
The strength in Alourdes, Maggie and the other vodou leaders lies in their ability to instill a self confidence in practitioners, particularly in Haiti. There is a unique spirit in practice called Gede. Gede lies on the edge between the living and dead and makes himself known at parties and other vodou gatherings.
Gede is a childlike spirit that is overtly sexual – carrying many phallic symbols, such as a wooden staff of a penis – and blurts out comments that would not normally be heard in public settings and certainly not by those ‘possessed’ by Gede. Gede is a spirit of death, sex and humor and in a most important way his presence helps practitioners to learn to balance a joy for life with the hardships they endure on a daily basis (362).
The cemetery and death is central to vodou culture as a spiritual center mainly because death and disease are so prominent in Haitian society.
The death rate among children is in the 90th percentile before the age of one. Poverty forces most residents to deal with the bodies of the dead and because they can’t afford burial plots their dead are piled into the “charnel house” at the Port-au-Prince cemetery in a “great anonymous heap of bones” (371).
The Essay on Vodou Religion Spirits Ritual World
Vodou, a traditional Afro-Haitian religion, is a worldview encompassing philosophy, medicine, justice, and religion. Its fundamental principle is that everything is spirit. Humans are spirits who inhabit the visible world. The unseen world is populated by lw a (spirits), myst'e (mysteries), (the invisible's), zane (angels), and the spirits of ancestors and the recently deceased. All these spirits ...
Dealing with death has become tantamount to an appreciation of life, learning strength, self respect and dynamic balance – all central ideals to vodou culture and tradition. References Brown, K. , (Year of Publication).
Gede. Gede: Moma Lola – A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (pages of chapter).
Location: Publisher.
