There are distinctive forms of Voodoo - Voodoo as it is practiced in Haiti, in New Orleans, in Chicago or in New York City. Each of these forms of Voodoo has a particular character, which is determined by the types of rites and loas (Voodoo's spirits or deities) that have evolved in these different locations. Contrary to popular belief, Voodoo ceremonies are not held in secret, and are in fact open to anyone who wants to come and quietly observe. Actually, Voodoo is probably one of the most egalitarian religions; for example, male and female priests are equal in rank and receive the same respect from their followers, and homosexuals may become religious leaders too. Moreover, Voodoo can comfortably exist alongside other spiritual tenets. All are welcome in Voodoo.

2.1. Initiatory traditions of the original religion

Practitioners of Voodoo come together in a neighborhood community called société. The société centers around a temple where rituals are performed and offerings are made to the immortal spirits that are worshipped in that community. The société is always led by a single priest or priestess, who possesses a wide range of knowledge in religious and practical matters, ranging from foretelling the future and communicating with the gods to healing the sick with herbal medicines. The most important thing to understand about Voodoo is that practitioners think of their religion in practical terms.

They do not believe in Voodoo; rather, they serve the gods that represent the major forces of the natural world. In return they expect the gods to work for them, heal their illnesses, give advice and help in times of need. Because practitioners of Voodoo are largely poor, they need the gods to help them get through the trails of everyday life. They do not worship in richly decorated churches but they hold their rituals in a ceremonial space that also functions as a central meeting place for the community. Their offerings to the spirit world consist of items which a peasant would normally possess and yet still have significant value to that peasant - eggs, liquor, tobacco, to name a few. Each ritual is held for a specific purpose: to request something of a particular god and to offer that god something in return. In Voodoo, divinity is found in the act of ritual itself, in chanting and drumming and dancing to call the immortal spirits down from the cosmic plane where they live. It is this act of service, and not any magical object or spell that infuses the practitioners with divine power.

2.1.1. The priest and priestess

The houngan is the priest, the mambo the priestess of Voodoo (who are the religious leaders). Both are equal in every respect, and that is why I will refer to them as houngan or simply priest, which does not imply the gender. The houngan acts as a community leader as well as a spiritual leader, and he serves many functions within the société. He is the only person who is fully trained to interact with the gods and to interpret for them. As well as being the priest, the houngan acts as confessor, confidential and financial advisor, prophet and healer for the people in the community. But the houngan should not be confused with the stereotypical notion of a witch-doctor, rather he is more a folk healer with a considerable knowledge of herbal remedies who treats minor illnesses. Because the houngan's patients believe that he works directly with the Voodoo gods, his remedies often have a strong psychosomatic value. Nevertheless, a doctor usually treats serious illnesses. Generally, a houngan inherits his office from a parent. The current priest trains future priests from a young age on, and the new houngan is not fully initiated until he reaches his early thirties. Although houngans and mambos are professionals they do not receive a salary. Therefore, they charge for their healing, fortune-telling, magical services and rituals. The prices for the hougan's service largely depend on what the priest feels like his clients can afford to pay.

2.1.2. The Voodoo 'church'

The area where rituals are performed and where the members of the société gather is called the hounfort. A peristyle, a roofed or open space where the public ceremonies take place, takes up most of the hounfort. It has a floor of beaten earth and may be bordered by a low wall. The center-post is located in the middle of the peristyle. At its foot is a socle, a flat base made of cement which is used as a place for food offerings to the gods. During a ceremony the spirits can travel down the post from their home among the stars, enter the hounfort and take part in the rituals. An altar or altar stone is located at the center of each chamber inside the hounfort. A jumbled, chaotic assortment of objects which have symbolic meaning within the belief of Voodoo covers the altar, including candles, food, money, amulets and ritual necklaces, ceremonial rattles, pictures of Catholic saints, bottles of rum, bells, flags, drums and sacred stones. The altar represents the door between this world and the world where the immortal spirits reside. By performing a ritual at the altar, one can, therefore, call the gods from the spiritual world.

2.2. The Voodoo Gods

Voodoo belief recognizes one original Supreme Being, who created the world and who is analogous to the Christian God. However, this Supreme Being is too far away for personal worship, therefore devotees serve the loa, or lesser deities, who they form very close and personal relationships with. Actually, the loa are the spirits of the ancestors and the spirits that represent natural forces and moral principles - such as love, death, war and ocean. Voodoo devotees serve the loa, providing offerings in exchange for services. In fact, the original African gods from which the loa evolved were the spirits of actual human beings. Just as a child looks to his parents for guidance, the living look to their wiser ancestors who have already passed into the spiritual world for advice and help. Captured slaves brought their beliefs in these gods with them to Haiti, where they were incorporated into what would eventually become Voodoo's pantheons of powerful spirits. The two major groups of loa are the Rada and the Petro.

2. 2.1. The gods in Africa

The Rada are the benevolent, gentle, passive and paternal loa that originated in Africa, representing the warmth and emotional stability of the home continent. Rada rites emphasize the positive, gentle aspect of the gods and the Rada loa never demand a larger sacrificial offering than chickens or pigeons. The majority of Voodoo ceremonies, 95 per cent or more, are Rada types. The most important Rada Gods are called Damballah-Wedo (father) and Aida-Wedo (mother). They are the oldest ancestors and thus represent the ancestral knowledge that forms the foundation of Voodoo. Damballah-Wedo, the father of everything that is powerful and good, is closely associated with the snake. That is why many outsiders believe practitioners of Voodoo actually worship snakes. But, this is not the case in Haiti, where the snake is merely treated with great respect because it is considered to be the servant of Damballah.

2.2.2. Spirits born in Haiti

The Petro are the dark gods, the balance to the benevolent forces of the Rada. However, the term 'dark' does not mean that the Petro loa are evil, but they represent the necessary equilibrium, to perform the acts that the Rada loa can not accomplish. The Petro rites originated in Haiti because the stability and traditional patterns of the African tribes were disrupted and violated by the brutality of slavery. The gods could no longer take a gentle passive role; rather, action was needed. As a result, the Petro loa, who are more aggressive, more powerful, more magical and also quicker than Rada gods, were born. It was this Petro cult that gave devotees the organization and moral rage to lead the successful slave revolt in Haiti in 1804. Petro gods can make quick cures of illnesses and perform powerful acts that the Reda gods are not capable of. Since they demand more expensive sacrificial offerings, they demand goats, sheep, pigs, cows and bulls. In general, Petro ceremonies are outside the hounfort, in a cemetery, for example.

2.2.3. The spirits of death

The Guédé are really an enormous group of the loa who are the spirits of formerly living people. They belong neither to the Rada or the Petro nation, but are an entirely separate family of loa. Because the Guédé exercise power in matters concerning death, particularly the passage between the world of the living and the dead, they are often the last resort for the sick. They allow an ill person either to recover or to accept him/ her into the realm of the dead. Baron Samedi, who represents death, is the best known of the Guédé, and one of the most powerful and dreaded of all the loa, because he is the one who controls the passage between life and death. In ritual, he is often offered black goats or chickens. His symbols are the cross, coffins and phalluses, his colors are black and purple, and he is often portrayed as a glutton and trickster.

2.3. Invoking the loa

The most frequently performed ritual in Voodoo is one that invokes a particular loa to offer food to him and seek his presence on earth. This ceremony, called mange loa, is opened with an invocation to Legba, the loa of the gate, who provides a gateway for the loa to enter the peristyle. Drumming is an essential to any Voodoo ritual because it sets the rhythm for the dance. The priest leading the ritual traces vévés on the ground or on a sheet of white paper using ashes, flour chalk or powdered brick. These vévés symbolize the spirit who is honoured in the ceremony and they are usually destroyed at the end of the ceremony. At the climax of the ritual, the priest invokes the loa and food offerings are then made to the loa. Voodoo ceremonies are often wrongly depicted as drunken sex orgies, but in normally drunkenness is rare and the practitioners always ear traditional costumes.

2.4. Death and the Soul in Voodoo

Belief Due to the fact that Voodoo is basically an ancestor religion, death plays a vital role. Their ancestors always accompany the practitioners of Voodoo and they act with the awareness of their ancestors' presence around them. The spirits of dead family members offer protection, healing and advice, and they bring messages through intuition and dreams. In fact, this emphasis on death has contributed to many misconceptions and stereotypes about Voodoo. But it is important to understand how Voodoo practitioners think about death. According to Voodoo belief, a human being is made up of five basic components: The mortal flesh, The spirit of the flesh, The star of destiny, The gros-bon-ange, And the ti-bon-ange. The physical or mortal parts of a human being are the mortal flesh and the spirit of flesh. Both disappear after death. The star of destiny resides in the heavens, from where it decides about a person's destiny. The most important components of a human body, however, are the two parts of the soul, the ti-bon-ange ('little good angel') and the gros-bon-ange ('great good angel'). The gros-bon-age keeps the body alive, and after death, it returns to the reservoir of energy in the cosmos. Without the gros-bon-ange a person loses his/ her life-force. The ti-bon-ange makes up the half of a person's soul and it is the source of a person's personality. Furthermore, it is responsible for determining an individual's characteristics, personality and will. In Voodoo belief, death is not seen as the end of life, but as a change. The physical part of the body decays, whereas the soul - the gros-bon-ange and the ti-bon-ange - endures after death in a different form. The gros-bon-ange returns to the high solar regions where it joins the other loa and is itself transformed into a loa. Approximately a year after the death, the houngan performs a ritual, which is presided over by Baron Samedi, to ensure that the ti-bon-ange is put to rest. This ritual is very important because otherwise the ti-bon-ange may wonder the earth and bring illness and disaster on others.

Chapter I

Chapter III