unruly anointed🤘🏿💫

Sure!

Met tet translates to ‘master of the head’. In vodou, this is the guiding/ruling spirit of a person, who speaks to how they live their life and do their work in the world. In many ways, the met tet is the deepest reflection of who a person is at their innermost core, who the spirits see them as, and how they move in the world. It may be a spirit the person has a deep and close relationship with, or it may be a spirit who simply oversees the workings of their life with little to no active contact, or anywhere in between.

The identity of the met tet can only be revealed during the lave tet/ritual headwashing or kanzo/initiation process, and for very good reasons:

First and foremost, it is a safety measure and not a small one. In contrast to other Diasporic religions like Lucumi or Candomble, the identity of the met tet is closely guarded, almost-secret information. We don’t talk casually about who are met tet is, and we keep that information in the family, if not extremely limited within the family (there are three people in the world who know the identity of my head, and two of them don’t remember with any regularity). This is because an unscrupulous person can work a met tet against a person. For example, I could throw a huge party/ceremony for that spirit and show them that I can offer them more than you can and distract them from protecting you and keeping you safe, which leaves you extremely vulnerable to all sorts of stuff. For a lay person, that could be absolutely cataclysmic. 

The identity of a met tet is also not set before kanzo or a lave tet, because it does not need to be. There is no reason or way for a spirit to be sealed on someone’s head without those series of ceremonies, and so the chief or most important spirit in a lay person’s life can change over time and through depth of service. There’s no reason to basically play spiritual whack-a-mole trying to keep track of what spirit is most pronounced now in someone’s life–it just creates a mess. 

The relationship between an initiate and their met tet cannot be sealed without a pot tet, a specific ritual object created during a lave tet or kanzo. For an initiate, it is the most important physical object we own, period, and it must be protected at all costs as it is the tangible link between our ti bon ange/soul and our met tet. It’s the ‘if your house was on fire’ object–I would rescue it before everything else. This is an object that can only be given to someone who has gone through ceremonies, so it cannot exist for a lay person. Some houses keep the pot tets of initiates under lock and key in the back rooms of their temples, some allow initiates to take them home and place them on their tables, some only allow certain initiatory grades to have their pot tets at home. None of these are better than the other, but they all speak to how important it is to keep it safe. How a house treats the pot tets of it’s children is a mark of whether it’s a house you want to be in or not.

Some things that do not apply to a met tet:

-It cannot be determined outside of a lave tet or kanzo.

-It cannot be determined during a reading by a priest outside of the tradition, or by any other form of divination not traditional to vodou (ie, we do not use Tarot cards, shells, opele, baraja espaniola, or anything besides the lineaged traditional card divination). It is a long, lengthy, and labor intensive process to determine a met tet and it must be done with incredible care–it is literally someone’s life you are determining and holding in your hands.

-It cannot be determined by someone who is undergoing a lave tet or kanzo alone, meaning you do not inform your priest of your met tet. There may be indications during the process, but a person undergoing ceremony does not have the skill or license to discern that. I hear this a lot and it’s weird.

-You do not choose your met tet from a list or descriptions. There are thousands of lwa and, while there is one who is your head, you do not determine who it is.

A person who has not undergone any ceremony CAN serve their met tet–simply lighting a candle for your guardian angel (the guardian angel novena candles are perfect) and offering prayers to be led in the right direction is perfect. I did this leading all the way up to my kanzo, and it served me really well.

GILGAMESH & THE BULL OF HEAVEN

The scene depicts Gilgamesh and his friend Enki confronting the Bull of Heaven who was invoked upon them by Inanna.

Series: Mesopotamia Original oil painting 35” x 35” oil on canvas

Sure!

Met tet translates to ‘master of the head’. In vodou, this is the guiding/ruling spirit of a person, who speaks to how they live their life and do their work in the world. In many ways, the met tet is the deepest reflection of who a person is at their innermost core, who the spirits see them as, and how they move in the world. It may be a spirit the person has a deep and close relationship with, or it may be a spirit who simply oversees the workings of their life with little to no active contact, or anywhere in between.

The identity of the met tet can only be revealed during the lave tet/ritual headwashing or kanzo/initiation process, and for very good reasons:

First and foremost, it is a safety measure and not a small one. In contrast to other Diasporic religions like Lucumi or Candomble, the identity of the met tet is closely guarded, almost-secret information. We don’t talk casually about who are met tet is, and we keep that information in the family, if not extremely limited within the family (there are three people in the world who know the identity of my head, and two of them don’t remember with any regularity). This is because an unscrupulous person can work a met tet against a person. For example, I could throw a huge party/ceremony for that spirit and show them that I can offer them more than you can and distract them from protecting you and keeping you safe, which leaves you extremely vulnerable to all sorts of stuff. For a lay person, that could be absolutely cataclysmic. 

The identity of a met tet is also not set before kanzo or a lave tet, because it does not need to be. There is no reason or way for a spirit to be sealed on someone’s head without those series of ceremonies, and so the chief or most important spirit in a lay person’s life can change over time and through depth of service. There’s no reason to basically play spiritual whack-a-mole trying to keep track of what spirit is most pronounced now in someone’s life–it just creates a mess. 

The relationship between an initiate and their met tet cannot be sealed without a pot tet, a specific ritual object created during a lave tet or kanzo. For an initiate, it is the most important physical object we own, period, and it must be protected at all costs as it is the tangible link between our ti bon ange/soul and our met tet. It’s the ‘if your house was on fire’ object–I would rescue it before everything else. This is an object that can only be given to someone who has gone through ceremonies, so it cannot exist for a lay person. Some houses keep the pot tets of initiates under lock and key in the back rooms of their temples, some allow initiates to take them home and place them on their tables, some only allow certain initiatory grades to have their pot tets at home. None of these are better than the other, but they all speak to how important it is to keep it safe. How a house treats the pot tets of it’s children is a mark of whether it’s a house you want to be in or not.

Some things that do not apply to a met tet:

-It cannot be determined outside of a lave tet or kanzo.

-It cannot be determined during a reading by a priest outside of the tradition, or by any other form of divination not traditional to vodou (ie, we do not use Tarot cards, shells, opele, baraja espaniola, or anything besides the lineaged traditional card divination). It is a long, lengthy, and labor intensive process to determine a met tet and it must be done with incredible care–it is literally someone’s life you are determining and holding in your hands.

-It cannot be determined by someone who is undergoing a lave tet or kanzo alone, meaning you do not inform your priest of your met tet. There may be indications during the process, but a person undergoing ceremony does not have the skill or license to discern that. I hear this a lot and it’s weird.

-You do not choose your met tet from a list or descriptions. There are thousands of lwa and, while there is one who is your head, you do not determine who it is.

A person who has not undergone any ceremony CAN serve their met tet–simply lighting a candle for your guardian angel (the guardian angel novena candles are perfect) and offering prayers to be led in the right direction is perfect. I did this leading all the way up to my kanzo, and it served me really well.

“A lot of things are a lot more haraam clearly in the Qur’an. Sodom, Gomorrah — that was about rape, that wasn’t about being gay.”

Masqueraders at Ugwuoba, present-day Enugu State. Eliot Elisofon, 1959. Smithsonian.

Masked and costumed men […] masquerade during the annual yam festival, called ‘Onwasato’ in [Igbo]. The very colorful costumes of reds, whites and greens in stripes are called Iyolo, which means 'fine thing.’ The raffia costumes are called Udo, which means 'rope.’ […] The dancers are milling up and down the main road through the village, charging back and forth senselessly, dashing through the market area, shouting and jumping, some blowing horns hidden inside their masks. This was the first day of a four-day celebration, and was the first 'showing’ of the masquerade costumes.