The Loa of Vodou

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The Loa of Vodou

• The Pantheon(s) of Haiti

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Nations

• Haitian Vodou has multiple nations of deities.
• Different nations are honored with different
  rites
• Within and overlapping the nations are different
  families
• We'll divide them by rite for this presentation...

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The Rada Rite Lwa

• Legba
• The Marassa
• Loko Ayizan
• Damballah Ayida Wedo
• Agwe LaSiren
• Ezili Freda
• Oguon
• Azaka

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The Rada Their Rites

• Marked on beat of three drums which are played by
  secular musicians and a piece of iron
• Initiatory
• Benevolent

• Considered cool by Haitian Vodouists
• Slower to act than their Petwo Counterparts

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Papa Legba
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Papa Legba

• Seen as an old man walking on a crutch (which is
  the piteau mitan or center post of the peristyle)
• Crossroads guardian
• First to be invoked
• Must open gate for the lwa to come to the
  peristyle

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Legba as a Saint

• St. Peter is Legba due to the keys to heaven
• St. Anthony is Legba
• St. Lazarus is Legba due to his crippled
  appearance

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Offerings to Legba

• Grilled Chicken
• Sweet Potatoes plantains
• Bones
• Kleren
• Tobacco Pipe

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Song for Legba

• Papa Legba, open the gate for me so I can go
  through.
• When I return I will pay honor to the Lwa.

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The Marasa
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The Marasa

• Twins are seen as two people who share a soul in
  Haiti.
• These are the first set of twins ever
• They love children and to play tricks
• They are thought to be extremely powerful

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The Marasa as Saints

• St. Cosmas and St. Damian are seen as the Marasa
  due to almost always appearing together

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Offerings to the Marasa

• Baby goat stew wrapped in banana leaves
• Toys
• Candy
• Fizzy Drinks
• Popcorn

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Song for the Marasa

• This is the food, this is the water.
• Take the family, if the family falls on hard
  times
• You take care of the family

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Loko Ayizan
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Loko Ayizan

• First Priest Priestess
• Loko gives the asson (sacred rattle in Rada
  Rites) to new houngan or mambo and reveals an
  initiate's met tet (head lwa)
• Called after the Marassa as a matter of respect
  due to Rada rites being strongly hierarchical and
  initiatory
• Rarely do they possess anyone

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Loko Atisou as Saint

• St. Joseph is seen as the representation of Loko
  Atisou, however we were unable to locate a saint
  related to Ayizan Atisou

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Offerings for Loko and Ayizan

• Roosters Loko prefers red roosters

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Damballah Ayida Wedo
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Damballah Ayida

• Damballah is a white python and his wife Ayida is
  the rainbow
• Very concerned with order and hierarchy and seems
  to be vestigial in their role
• Damballah like cleanliness and is fond of eggs
  and flour (only white things)
• Ayida rarely possesses mortals from my research

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Damballah Ayida as Saints

• St. Patrick is Damballah
• Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception is Ayida

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Offerings for Damballah and Ayida

• White Chickens
• White Eggs
• Rice
• Milk

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Song for Damballah

• The spirit works in the water, it's Damballah
• The spirit works in the water, it's Damballah
• Papa Damballah is the spring
• Papa Damballah is the spring

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The Creation Myth of Damballah And Ayida Wedo

• In the beginning there was a vast serpent, whose
  body formed seven thousand coils beneath the
  earth, protecting it from decent into the abysmal
  sea. Then the titanic snake began to move and
  heave its massive form from the earth to envelope
  the sky. It shattered stars in the firmament and
  wound its taut flesh down the mountains to create
  riverbeds.

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Creation Myth...

• It shot thunderbolts to the earth to create the
  sacred thunderstones. From its deepest core it
  released the sacred waters to fill the earth with
  life. As the first rains fell, a rainbow
  encompassed the sky and Danballah took her,
  Ayida, as his wife. The spiritual nectar that
  they created reproduces through all men and woman
  as milk and semen.

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Just One More...

• The serpent and the rainbow taught humankind the
  link between blood and life, between menstruation
  and birth, and the ultimate Vodou sacrament of
  blood sacrifice.
  

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Agwe and LaSiren
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Agwe LaSiren

• Agwe is a sea spirit, who has traveled
  extensively and has the tastes to prove it
• Likes sea green and blue offerings and prefers
  foreign liquors to domestic ones
• LaSiren is his wife, who is able to grant great
  wealth to devotees
• LaSiren is very vain and is white rather than
  dark skinned

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Admiral Agwe LaSiren as Saints

• St. Ulrich is Agwe for he is always shown holding
  fish.
• Our Lady of the Caridad is LaSiren

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Offerings for Agwe and LaSiren

• Champagne
• Liquers
• Cakes
• White Sheep
• White Hens

• White Doves
• Perfume
• Mirrors
• Sweet White Wines

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Songs for Agwe LaSiren

• Alert the angels in the water beneath the mirror
• Oh, he will see , he will see
• Alert the angels in the water, oh he will see

• The mermaid, the whale, My hat falls into the sea
• I caress the mermaid, my hat falls into the sea
• I lie down with the mermaid, my hat falls down
  into the sea

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Ezili Freda
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Ezili Freda

• Lwa of beauty and love
• Seen as a pale skinned mullatto woman of wealth
• Expensive taste in offerings
• Is married to Damballah, Oguon, and Agwe but
  still marries mortals

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Freda as a Saint

• Mater Dolerosa de Monte Cavario is Ezili Freda
  due to her light skin and her crown and jewels in
  most lithographs

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Offerings for Freda

• Sweet cakes
• Pink Champagne
• Perfume
• Makeup
• Virginia Slim Cigarettes
• White Doves

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Song for Freda

• Haughty Ezili, proud Ezili
• preening Ezili thinks she's something
• Ezili is married, she's unlucky
• Ezili is prostituted, she's unlucky

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Oguon
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Oguon

• Several Warrior spirits have this name
• Likes Fire and Iron in keeping with his warrior
  status
• Carries a Machete and smokes cigars

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Ogou as a Saint

• Primarily St. Jaques Majeur (James the Elder) due
  to St. James the Elder being always depicted in
  lithographs as riding a horse with a sword drawn.

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Offerings for Ogou

• Red Roosters
• Rice and Red Beans
• Five Star Barbancourt Rum
• Cigars
• Bulls

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Song for Ogou

• Fire spirit where are you going, leave your
  children
• When I remember Ogou Feray I must be strong to
  call Ogou
• He drinks but is never drunk
• Ogou drinks but is never drunk

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Azaka
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Azaka

• Carries a straw bag (makout) with his possessions
  in it
• Agricultural spirit he is a poor farmer
• Very shrewd and wise, his advice is highly sought
  after
• Does not have the sophisticated ways of other
  Rada Lwa

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Azaka as a Saint

• St. Isador is Kouzen Azaka, the devout farm
  laborer who was helped to complete his agrarian
  toil by guardian angels

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Offerings to Azaka

• Cassava bread
• Sugar Cane
• Rice and Beans
• Tobacco
• Kleren

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The Petro Rite Lwa

• Kalfou
• Dan Petro
• Ibo
• Gran Bwa
• Ezili Danto
• Bossou
• Simbi

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Petro Lwa continued

• Linglessou Basin-Sang
• Damballah Ge-Rouge
• Agwé Ge-Rouge
• Ogoun Ge-Rouge
• Erzulie Ge-Rouge

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Petro Rites

• Marked by the beat of two drums
• Magical
• Malevolent
• Often seen as related to red societies or secret
  societies in Haiti

• Considered hot by Haitian Vodouists
• Must faster than their Rada counterparts
• Must be handled with care due to their tempers

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Kalfou
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Kalfou

• Petwo version of Legba
• Usually given offerings to keep things away
  rather than to open the gates
• Seen as a trickster who is unaware of his
  malevolence

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Dan Petro

• May have been a Spanish slave during the
  revolution
• Seen as the father to the Petro Nation and head
  of the Petro Rite Lwa

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Ibo
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Ibo

• The Igbo tribe contributed this lwa
• They were known for their courage and their
  conviction
• A revolt of 75 Igbo slaves once walked into a
  creek to kill themselves while singing a hymn
  rather than work as slaves
• Not to be asked for favors, rather offerings are
  for services already rendered

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Gran Bwa
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Gran Bwa

• Teacher of root doctors
• Living representation of the forest
• Is very saddened by the huge loss of Haiti's
  native forests

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Gran Bwa as Saint

• St. Sebastian is Gran Bwa due to the saint's
  execution by arrows while tied to a tree

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Offerings to Gran Bwa

• Leaves
• Flowers
• Tobacco
• Kleren
• Cornmeal
• Peanut Cakes
• Cassava Bread

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Song for Gran Bwa

• Gran Bwa zile zile
• Gran Bwa climbs to the wood
• I am going to Gran Bwa
• I am going to pick my leaves

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Ezili Danto
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Ezili Danto

• Grand matriarchal figure within the pantheon
• Hard working mother who raises her children alone
• Was rewarded for fighting in the revolution by
  having her tongue cut out
• She is a larger dark skinned woman who is
  attractive but not vain like Freda

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Danto as a Saint

• The Madonna with Child is Ezili Danto.
• The preferred version is Our Lady of Czerstochowa
  but St. Barbara Africana or Our Lady of Mount
  Carmel are also popular

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Offerings for Ezili Danto

• Barbancourt Rum
• Black Pigs
• Fried Pork
• Strong (unfiltered) cigarrettes

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Song for Ezili Danto

• Ezili is the mambo
• This temple is my house
• This house is the house of my spirit

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Bosou
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Bosou

• Mighty bull spirit seen as the sacrificial bull
  itself
• The two horned bosou is seen as the bull who is
  the earth, however the three horned bosou is seen
  as a malevolent spirit who works with bokor to
  create baka which are nothing but trouble

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Bosou

• St. Vincent de Paul is Bosou
• Offerings are made of fried beef
• Those possessed by Bosou act literally like a
  bull snorting, grunting and acting like a bull
  in a china shop

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Simbi
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Simbi

• Simbi is the patron of the rains, river currents,
  and the master of all magicians
• He is of the two waters and has his domain in
  both the heavens and the sea

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Simbi as a Saint

• Moses is Simbi
• The Magi are also Simbi

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Offerings to Simbi

• Simbi preferrs white animals for his offerings

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Song for Simbi

• Simbi in the two waters
• Why don't people like me?
• Because my magical force is dangerous
• They like my magical force in order to walk in
  the middle of the night.

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Others

• Linglessou Basin-Sang
• The Ge-Rouge
• Jan Zombi

• Linglessou Bucket-of-Blood
• The Red Eyed

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The Ge-Rouge

• Literally means the red-eyes
• These are shadow incarnations for Rada lwa that
  manifest during Petro rites.
• They are usually crying hence the red eyes
  due to sadness over the people not honoring them
  properly any more after the revolution

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The Ghede Mixed Origins

• Bawon Samedi
• Brigitte
• Brav Ghede
• Bawon Kriminele
• Papa Ghede
• All of the Dead

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The Ghede

• The Ghede show when they want to, with little
  concern for hierarchy
• Seen as guardians of fertility and children,
  obsessed with sex and death

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More of the Ghede

• Festival 'fetdemo' on November 1 2
• When they possess a vodouist, they are always
  hungry because they are what consumes and is
  never filled
• They typically wear undertaker's clothes and
  purple sunglasses with only one lens
• They embrace the dual domains of the creation and
  conclusion of life.

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The Ghede as Saint

• St. Gerard is all of the Ghede but especially
  Bawon Samedi the head of the Ghede

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Offerings for the Ghede

• Black Rooster
• Black Goat

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Song for Ghede

• Papa Ghede is a handsome man
• Papa Ghede is a handsome man
• He is dressed all in black
• For he is going to the palace

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Interesting Facts

• Humans are born little more than animals
• Through initiation they gain a soul
• This soul (gwo bon anj) is kept in a po-tet (pot
  for the head)
• The houngan or mambo who is in charge of the
  peristyle keeps this po-tet
• After death the po-tet is broken so the gwo bon
  anj can descend into the abysmal waters

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More interesting facts

• After a year and a day the gwo bon anj is brought
  up into a govi by the hougan or mambo
• This govi is consulted for advice and is even
  known to speak
• The lwa will sometimes demand a marriage to an
  initiate and offer protection in return
• A mystical marriage requires the human partner to
  devote one day a week exclusively to the lwa

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Still More Interesting Information

• Zombis are real not brain eating zombis, but
  the poison exists to make it look like someone is
  dead, and without proper burial practices, those
  almost dead can be brought out of the grave and
  with psychotopic drugs may even be controllable
• There are vodouists of non-African ancestry

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Chart of Correspondances
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References

• The Book of Vodou by Leah Gordon
• The Haitian Vodou Handbook by Kenaz Filan
• Divine Horsemen The Voodoo Gods of Haiti by Maya
  Deren