#ginen

Vodou is monotheistic, teaching the existence of a single supreme God. This entity is called Bondye or Bonié,a name deriving from the French term Bon Dieu ("Good God"). Another term for it is the Gran Mèt, borrowed from Freemasonry. For Vodouists, Bondye is the ultimate source of power, the creator of the universe, and the maintainer of cosmic order. Haitians frequently use the phrase si Bondye vle ("if Bondye wishes"), suggesting a belief that all things occur in accordance with this divinity's will. Vodouists regard Bondye as being transcendent and remote; as the God is uninvolved in human affairs, they see little point in approaching it directly. While Vodouists often equate Bondye with the Christian God, Vodou does not incorporate belief in a powerful antagonist that opposes the supreme being akin to the Christian notion of Satan.

Vodou has also been characterized as polytheistic. It teaches the existence of beings called the lwa,a term varyingly translated into English as "spirits", "gods", or "geniuses". These lwa are also known as the mystères, anges, saints, and les invisibles, and are sometimes equated with the angels of Christian cosmology. Vodou teaches that there are over a thousand lwa. Serving as Bondye's intermediaries,they communicate with humans through their dreams or by directly possessing them.Vodouists believe the lwa are capable of offering people help, protection, and counsel in return for ritual service. Each lwa has its own personality,and is associated with specific colors, days of the week, and objects.Particular lwa are also associated with specific human family lineages.These spirits are not seen as moral exemplars for practitioners to imitate. The lwa can be either loyal or capricious in their dealings with their devotees; they are easily offended, for instance if offered food they dislike. When angered, the lwa are believed to remove their protection from their devotees, or to inflict misfortune, illness, or madness on an individual.

Hi there,

I am good, thanks, and I hope the same for you.

Haitian Vodou does have beliefs about what happens after we die, and they kind of start in life. We believe that each person is made up of three parts, give or take: the kò or kò kadav/the physical body, the ti bon anj/’little good angel’, and the gwo bon anj/’big good angel’.

The kò is pretty self-explanatory; your physical presence in the world and what you use to do physical acts. The ti bon anj is considered to be what makes you you; your individuality, your personality, all of the little things that make you up as a human person. The gwo bon anj is almost like a higher self or, in purely Western esoteric terms, the godhead; your divine nature..we say this is the part of you that belongs to Bondye/God. Sometimes folks might use other terms in there like nanm, which means soul, or zetwal, which means star. Those two terms are often more common outside the Vodou community in Haiti, but people still use them in the religion, too.

While the kò dies, the rest of us does not. It is generally agreed upon that the gwo bon anj returns to Bondye; it is theirs, and so it must go home to Bondye.

The ti bon anj goes anba dlo/under the water to rest, meaning it is delivered to the realm of the lwa to rest. There are special rites performed for initiates after death to assure this. After at least a year, more rites can be performed by a spiritual family or on behalf of a biological family to claim that soul as a zansèt/ancestor.

Souls that are unclaimed remain anba dlo, overseen by the family of lwa we refer to as Bawon.

Haitian Vodou does have beliefs in what could be called reincarnation, but that specific word is not used. We believe that the ancestors seek to return home, and that can happen in any number of ways; babies are often the ancestors returning, people initiating into a particular sosyete can be an ancestor returning. It’s a thread that is pretty heavily woven through Vodou culture and Haitian culture at large and so that dictates a lot of how interactions go between folks and the hopes for children and similar.

That’s not to say that someone knows that they are an ancestor returned or whatever--souls that are reborn don’t carry that knowledge--but it is prescriptive: we treat all people with respect because they can be our family on many different levels.

I just unfollowed someone because they said to another tumblr person that any African-derived tradition that initiates white people is “selling a product.”

I have stated on this blog early on that I am white. I did one of those DNA test things (because I’m a genealogy nerd) and I have no discernible African or Native American genes.

My mother’s family came from Britain in the 1630s. Some of them wound up in Barbados where they were plantation owners. I have records about one ancestor who came to what is now Connecticut with three slaves. 

So, my white ancestors have committed plenty of sins.

I was initiated into Haitian Vodou, into a legitimate sosyete by a legitimate, wonderful manbo. She loves and respects her spirits, and does what they tell her. If her spirits say that a certain person needs kanzo, she will tell that person.

The spirits chose me, a white middle-class cis gendered heterosexual (mostly; hey, I did go to college) woman, as one of their children. And so here I am.

True Vodou is about serving the spirits and worshiping God, and serving the community around you. Any sosyete that does initiations of ANYONE in order to just make money is not doing Vodou the way my manmi taught me. 

Sure, I guess there are houses who take advantage of people, and I’m sure that there are charlatans who offer “secret Vodou initiation” to tourists who can’t tell the difference and are ripe for ripping off. But that’s not what I’m talking about here.

There are plenty of Haitians who think white people don’t have spirits, that in order to serve Ginen you must be Haitian, or have Haitian ancestry. Fine; that’s what they do in their lineage.

But in my lineage, the spirits think differently. My house has children of every color and race and gender and sexuality, because we believe the spirits call who they call for specific reasons. Who are we to argue with spirits when they say “So and so needs to be in this house”?

I know that there are many Haitians who think I’m not legit because despite the fact that I was initiated, I’m white, so I don’t really have spirits. That’s OK. You know why? Because, as the saying goes, “Every manbo is master of her own house.” If your group wants to exclude white or non-Haitian people, go ahead. I know lots of Haitians don’t trust white people, and I can understand that because we white people have a history of going to Haiti and fucking everything up. 

But I can tell you that Ogou told me to my face that he brought me to Boston specifically to join this house. I can tell you about him putting his ring on my finger at our maryaj. I can affirm that I spent 9 days in the djevo. My card readings for others are accurate. My dreams are true. My magic works. I am white, and I am a legit manbo. And if you insinuate that I’m not, you’re disrespecting my manmi and my house because you’re saying that she doesn’t create legit initiates.