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paroissedumont · 7 years

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NOU DWE KWAPE TOUT SOUS DIVIZYON NAN PEYI DAYITI

Nou toujou rete kwè se politik ak religyon ki se sous kansè k ap simaye divizyon nan mitan mas pèp la. Nasyon an bezwen pran souf, li ta renmen benefisye èd ak sipò tout pitit li yo k ap viv anndan kou lòtbò dlo. Peyi a bezwen tout moun mete men ansanm yon mannyè pou kwape lamizè ak inyorans. Ayiti kapab boujonnen lespwa, devlopman ak richès pou tout moun si n asepte fè solidarite youn ak lòt.

Par: Jean-Marie Mondésir

Depi lontan nou remake se religyon ak politik patizan ki toujou ap simaye divizyon nan mitan mas pèp la. Religyon ak politikayri se 2 kansè kap wonje peyi dayiti. Si nou pa rive kwape 2 maladi grav sa yo, li difisil pou n rive pran chemen devlopman. Se dwa tout moun pou pratike religyon yo vle, manman lwa peyi a garanti dwa tout sitwayen nan zafè religyon. Epitou, religyon se yon koze ki konsenen vi prive yon moun, nou pa konnen pou ki rezon yon sitwayen dwe sibi diskriminasyon ak prejije paske li pa pratike menm religyon ak yon lòt moun k ap viv nan vwazinaj li. Nou swete moun ki genyen mikro nan men yo ak konesans sou kilti peyi a dwe kontribye nan fè edikasyon mas pèp la sou koze fondamantal

Fòk nou pratike tolerans pou sa ka vanse nan enterè tout moun alawonndadè nan peyi dayiti. Religyon katolik genyen kesyon pou l reponn devan listwa ak bann prèt pederas k ap detounen jenn fi ak jenn gason nan legliz. Nou ta renmen konnen ki vè ki pike kadinal ayisyen an pou l rive ap fè kilometraj sou religyon majorite nasyonal la. Fòk nou konnen vodou se alafwa yon mòd devi, yon fason pou reflechi ak panse, yon fason pou manifeste kwayans nou tankou zansèt nou yo te konn pratike nan epòk esklavaj. Fòk nou pa bliye vodou a se yon religyon tou pou moun ki chwazi swiv ritm ak kwayans e fwa vodouyizan yo tankou sa fèt nan peyi Benen ann Afrik delwès.

Daprè dekrè lwa ki te pibliye nan ane 2003 nou kapab di vodou a jwenn rekonesans legal li kòm religyon. Moun ki deklare yo se vodouyizan merite respè ak pwoteksyon tout otorite ki tabli nan sosyete a. Nan bon kreyòl, woungan ak mambo ki anrejistre nan ministè zafè etranjè ak religyon genyen dwa selebre maryaj, chante antèman, fè kominyon ak batèm selon ritm ak lafwa pratikan religyon sa. Nou ta swete bann entelektyèl pachiman k ap retire trip pou mete pay, sispann voye monte sou kilti mas pèp la.

Ann mete tèt ansanm pou n pote kole pou sa chanje nan enterè tout sitwayen nan peyi dayiti. Nou konsevwa mal yon peyizan ki kwè nan relasyon lanati ak lagrikilti ki toujou ap obsève lalin pou simaye semans nan tè, yon mannyè pou rekòlt la pote bon jan rezilta ap kritike vodou. Si se pou moun ki pratike religyon vodou pa t ap genyen pwoblèm erozyon paske vodouyizan se protektè anviwonnman. N ap mande pou kisa genyen ipokrizi nan kesyon ki konsenen vodou. Eske se movèz fwa k ap manifeste nan lòlòj moun k ap asosye vodou ak malfektè, lougarou elatrye.

Pouki rezon okenn moun pa janm mande tèt yo kote medsen fèy jwenn konesans pou geri maladi. Pouki rezon okenn moun pa janm reflechi pou konnen ki kote fanm saj yo jwenn konesans pou akonpaye lavi. Eske n ap sispann fè ipokrizi sou kesyon vodou a? Eske nou chwazi blye kote n sòti nan milye peyizan ? Eske n ap genyen kouraj pou n sonje beny fèy chans nou te pran avan n kite lakay pou lavi kab souri pou nou nan Potoprens obyen nan peyi zetranjè.

Ann sispann fè demagoji ak kilti mas pèp la, ann aprann valorize nanm ak idantite nasyon an, vodou a se mak fabrik Ayisyen nan peyi a. Ann konsome pwodwi lokal yo, ann ankouraje travay peyizan nou yo. Ann pataje konesans nou ak lòt, yon mannyè pou n kontribye nan edikasyon pèp la. Fòk nou pa kite religyon etranje ak politik patizan mete divizyon nan mitan nou. Fòk nou pran tan pou n dekouvri tout maladi grav ak lenmi pèp la ki anpeche n vanse nan chimen pwogrè ak devlopman.

Kadinal Chibly Langlois genlè te sou lè misye tap voye monte sou religyon nasyonal la. Fòk tout sitwayen fè yon sel pou defann kilti ak religyon mas pèp la. http://www.haitination.org/index.php/component/k2/item/418-let-tou-louvri-pou-kadinal-katolik-la-chibly-langlois

Jean-Marie Mondésir

Juriste haïtien

Spécialiste en droit civil

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port-salut · 7 years

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Nou Dwe Kwape Tout Sous Divizyon Nan Peyi Dayiti ...

Par: Jean-Marie Mondésir

Daprè dekrè lwa ki te pibliye nan ane 2003 nou kapab di vodou a jwenn rekonesans legal li kòm religyon. Moun ki deklare yo se vodouyizan merite respè ak pwoteksyon tout otorite ki table nan sosyete a. Nan bon kreyòl, woungan ak mambo ki anrejistre nan ministè zafè etranjè ak religyon genyen dwa selebre maryaj, chante antèman, fè kominyon ak batèm selon ritm ak lafwa pratikan religyon sa. Nou ta swete bann entelektyèl pachiman k ap retire trip pou mete pay, sispann voye monte sou kilti mas pèp la.

Ann mete tèt ansanm pou n pote kole pou sa chanje nan enterè tout sitwayen nan peyi dayiti. Nou konsevwa mal yon peyizan ki kwè nan relasyon lanati ak lagrikilti ki toujou ap obsève lalin pou simaye semans nan tè, yon mannyè pou rekòlt la pote bon jan rezilta ap kritike vodou. Si se pou moun ki pratike religyon vodou pa tap genyen pwoblem erozyon paske vodouyizan se protektè anviwonnman. N ap mande pou kisa genyen ipokrizi nan kesyon ki konsenen vodou. Eske se movèz fwa k ap manifeste nan lòlòj moun k ap asosye vodou ak malfektè, lougarou elatrye.

Pouki rezon okenn moun pa janm mande tèt yo kote medsen fèy jwenn konesans pou geri maladi. Pouki rezon okenn moun pa janm reflechi pou konnen ki kote fanm saj yo jwenn konesans pou akonpaye lavi. Eske n ap sispann fè ipokrizi sou kesyon vodou a? Eske nou chwazi blye kote n sòti nan milye peyizan ? Eske n ap genyen kouraj pou n sonje beny fèy chans nou pran avan n kite lakay pou lavi ka souri pou nou nan Potoprens obyen nan peyi zetranjè.

Ann sispann fè demagoji ak kilti mas pèp la, ann aprann valorize nanm ak idantite nasyon an, vodou a se mak fabrik peyi a. Ann konsome pwodwi lokal yo, ann ankouraje travay peyizan nou yo. Ann pataje konesans nou ak lòt yon mannyè pou n kontribye nan edikasyon pèp la. Fòk nou pa kite religyon etranje ak politik patizan mete divizyon nan mitan nou. Fòk nou pran tan pou n dekouvri tout maladi grav ak lenmi pèp la ki anpeche n vanse nan chimen pwogrè ak devlopman.

Jean-Marie Mondésir

Juriste haïtien

Spécialiste en droit civil

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phoukanamedpookie · 10 years

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OK, this stuff I'm reading about spirit marriages (aka maryaj lwa) is...kinda eerie because of how well it applies to my own life.

Edit: Too bad I have to wade through a lot of evangelical fundamentalist Christian stuff, though.

Edit: How to reconcile this with Jewish practice?

#about eshu #spirit spouse #spirit marriage #maryaj lwa

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rockofeye · 6 months

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Can a women marry a feminine Lwa like Erzulie Freda?

Hi,

The answer to this will change depending on who you talk to. There are people who will insist that same gender maryaj lwa will never take place, and there are people who will say it's fine, though less common.

I've seen women give rings to Freda and sign paperwork with her indicating a marriage, and I myself had a wibbly wobbly maryaj lwa because I am a masculine person who married masculine lwa while I wore masculine clothes, and also had female lwa come to my marriage, sit at the maryaj table, and formalize relationships.

How I have been taught is that you marry the lwa who ask, and who asks can lead to determining what needs to happen.

You didn't ask this specifically, but I'll say sexual orientation does not play into maryaj lwa. I know plenty of gay men who have married all the feminine lwa, and lesbians who married all the masculine lwa. Maryaj lwa isn't the same as our understandings of human marriage; it has nothing to do with attraction (though many folks experience attraction).

I hope this answers your question!

#vodou #haitian vodou #maryaj lwa

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rockofeye · 6 months

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Can people get married to any lwa or just certain lwa? I ask because I have yet to see anyone married to Papa Legba, Met Kalfou, Met Bossou etc...

Hi,

It depends totally on what the lwa ask and what the regleman of the particular lineage doing the maryaj prescribe. I have seen or heard of people who are married to Kafou, Bossou, and others. I myself am married to lwa that aren't in the usual array that the lineage I am initiated into prescribe.

There are some lwa that would universally would not be married out of safety concerns for the human partner; not because those lwa are universally bad or anything but because their energy can unbalance folks in ways that the lwa would not intend. Gede is not a lwa that is married in the same ways others are married; it's common for Gede to be given rings and he may even demand to sit down at the marriage table, but it's not done in the same way. The reasoning is that Gede will literally love the person into death. Not intentionally kill them, but as an unintended consequence.

Hope this helps!

#vodou #haitian vodou #maryaj lwa

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rockofeye · 5 months

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Raising the Dead

I've been sitting with what I have learned and experienced this past Gede season and it feels strangely appropriate to write about that on a day given to Lazarus, the man who died and then lived again.

Gede and I have a long, LONG history. It was Gede who stood waiting for me to get myself to a fet and, as he put it, it was Gede who walked with me through my life (even when I didn't know it) and kept me alive to have the opportunity to step into the djevo. It is Gede who has been my foundation and Gede who has worked tirelessly in the background to help me consistently build myself back better than I was before; whether it was before kanzo or before maryaj or even better than I was last week.

Gede was the first lwa I encountered in Haiti, in the head of the houngan who would later become my husband, and that Gede has always been important to me. For quite awhile, I didn't understand and didn't look at the importance of the same Gede coming in the same head at very important times for me....but I get it now. S (my human husband) has a strong, STRONG relationship with his Gede and it was his Gede that gave me the opportunity to make the choice in Haiti before I entered the djevo: was I going to actually do all of it in the way it was intended, or was I going to shrink back and hold myself like and as an outsider?

I didn't totally understand that choice in the moment, but I did know that when Gede dragged me (kinda literally) into the middle of the temple during bat gè and demanded a gouyad out of me, the person who does not dance well at ALL. But, I had decided in the midst of my personal misery preparing for kanzo that I was all in and would do whatever was asked of me because, up until that point, my way of doing things was not helping me. That gouyad changed my life, honestly. The same Gede dragged me back for more gouyad after kanzo, and this time it was a literal dragging because I was very clear on the post kanzo instructions that I was not to interact with the dead for the period of my eprèv and I didn't know what to do. There is video of my sort of gesticulating wildly at my godfather and my friends as Gede took me by the arm, dragged me in front of the drums, and asked for a little more gouyad.

It was also that Gede who came to to my maryaj lwa and placed the rings I had bought for Gede on our fingers, and that same Gede who, when he comes down for his fets, has me running for him. He reminds people on the regular that I married him before I married the chwal/my human husband, and intercedes (without my asking) when other Gede start asking me for things and favors because it is he who takes care of me.

I also relate to Gede in a very different way than I sometimes see others relating to Gede. I find Gede to be very, very serious and I don't often get the dick joke kind of Gede that people most relate to. To me, Gede tells jokes to be able to say the things that people would otherwise be unable to hear, and I am a person who just gets confused by that, to be quite honest, because if I am going to hear hard things and someone is laughing about it, I get lost a bit...like why is it funny? That's not to say Gede has not done that; Gede in my husband's head is notorious for poking fun at me and at times exploiting the fact that, while I speak Kreyòl quite well at this point, I am not quite fluent enough for everything and particularly not for understanding the dialect that S's Gede will speak at times. It always comes with a blessing, even though I may not see it in the moment.

This year, I have been reminded just how close to me Gede always remains. That has been drastically underlined since S arrived in the US, and it has been kind of amusing to experience.

I work occasional overnight shifts at a side gig (because what houngan/manbo does not hustle for their lwa...), and more than once I have come home to find S not in our bed but sleeping in lwa room, which is not in and of itself weird. Vodouizan do that frequently as a devotion or to generate dreams or for any number of other reasons. It is, however, kind of strange to stick your head into the lwa room and see your husband laying on the floor like he is in the grave (arms crossed on his chest while he lays on his back) with a black moushwa over his face.

It's even stranger when your husband sits up and you realize it is your Husband who has come to see you and remarks that it is about time that you got back from work because he has been there waiting for you since before the sun came up. Having chats with Gede at 7AM after working all night is certainly a challenge but it is it's own blessing. He has detailed a lot of important stuff for both myself and my husband that needs to get done, and confirmed a lot of things that I had thought about before.

The confirmations are part of the lesson for me. I approach most things spiritual with a critical eye; I look to see if what I believe the lwa are telling me makes sense with what I already know, if it seems supportive of me versus undermining what the lwa have already put in place, and if it is going to harm me or other folks. Those are my basic guidelines for looking at what I hear or intuit, and even then my reaction is, unless it is something that has to be done immediately, I kind of put it on a shelf and just watch how things unfold.

It is absolutely wild to me to sit and chat with one of my lwa and have them declare the same things I have heard on my own and have not shared with others. To me, that reveals that my default is to sort of not believe what I am hearing and not give it the importance that it deserves. Like, Gede sat there and talked about one of my personal Gede whose name I have never spoken to another person--not even my husband--and spoke about them by name. He talked about other spiritual things that I had not brought up to anyone at all and just held to myself and my takeaway is that I need to trust what I hear more.

It reminded me of something I heard at Gede's fet at my spiritual mother's house. Ogou came to speak with his children, and I overheard something he told someone else: you can hear me in your head when I speak, so why do you wait to hear it from my mouth? Over the past decade my lwa have developed and refined me enough that I don't need to speak with them when they are in a head all that often. Sometimes it's useful to clarify something I am not understanding or in a very difficult situation, but by and large I hear them quite clearly, understand what they are saying, and have the tools to communicate with them. The first thing my mother taught me was how to pray and use my table, and I consistently do not give that the importance that it really holds.

The other side is that I sometimes don't pay attention enough to how they speak, in that after a decade of them telling me things, the way they speak has become more streamlined and requires very few grand gestures. Before it was them pulling out all the stops and sending very in-depth and detailed dreams. Now it is the things that occur to me when I sit and pray, or that occur to me when I am sort of contemplating a situation that I or someone else has been struggling with. They certainly do still send dreams when they want to underline something, but it has become much more of a ingrained process. In a way, it's been a manifestation of one of my most long term prayers: I want there to be no distance between myself and my lwa, and I do not want to be able to find the border where they begin and I end because I want them so enmeshed in my life and me so enmeshed in them that I move with them easily and fluidly.

And so it is.

This past season of a reinvigorated death has also got me rolling around with my ancestors again in a different-than-usual way. I have always had a complicated relationship with my ancestors because my relationship with my family is complicated, but they have gotten louder and louder, and that means it's time to take a deep breath and dig back in. In the last year, I uncovered a big giant gaping wound that has led to some of the problems my family currently experiences. Not a generational curse, really, but the reverberations of a massive tragedy that my ancestors were involved in that has never been addressed. Looking at what has happened in one branch of my family since that tragedy, and it's absolutely clear that the damage from that has radically changed the descendants. I don't even think most of my living family from that side have any knowledge of what happened; it took a lot of careful reading for me to get it.

I also visited the grave of a family member I was close to in life and that reawakened him. Standing in front of his grave and feeling his shock that I had come after being away for so long was kind of a shock to my system, and he's come to speak with me since and outline what he really needs.

The bottom line that my ancestors have highlighted is that my family is unwell because my ancestors are unhealed and problems have gone on for generations unaddressed. This has created a poison well of sorts, and here we are. Through probably a mix of accident and ancestral wrangling, I am the only living member of my family who hears (or knows they are hearing) the ancestors and so they have been clear that it is my responsibility to do the work to change things so that there is peace moving backwards in time and peace moving forward.

I am not exactly thrilled about this. It's not a surprise because I have been told this before and purposefully ignored it. However, life circumstances have changed and I am no longer in a space where I can ignore it. When I look at the scope of what must be done, I kind of look at my ancestors and ask where my staff is and how I am going to get paid for this, because it is A LOT.

I know the answer to those questions (I am the staff and the pay comes later), so I guess it's off to work I go? I don't know. I have a lot of personal background working with difficult ancestors, but I am going to be fumbling through how I address the ancestral weight of mass tragedy. People don't write books about that kind of ancestral veneration, but maybe that's also part of this work because I can't be the only one dealing with ancestral mess on a grand scale. Just another opportunity for personal growth and development, I guess.... These moments get tiring as I get older.

Now we are solidly in Makaya season, which closes out our year and dictates what our new year will be like. It is not gentle or nurturing; it is the expectation of rapid change and assertive (an understatement) presence of spirit. In common culture, this is the time of year that commemorates the divine taking on flesh, and in Vodou that is one of the most spiritually hot and spiritually significant events in our day-to-day. The lwa come into heads to bring us direct change, deliverance, healing, and hope. With the mess that the world is today, we need that and particularly the focus of healing and hope. Makaya's healing is not gentle and not without it's own kind of suffering; after all, the poto mitan is on fire and the Petwo lwa arrive screaming.

May the heat of the flames burn away all that I do not need and all that holds me back, and may the leaves and medicine find their way to the parts of me that need healing and wholeness. May I hold onto the hope that comes from the fire, because what is burned away will bear new life. May the soil be rich and may I be receptive.

#vodou #haitian vodou #real vodou #Gede #Guede #Ghede #Makaya #ancestors

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rockofeye · 5 months

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What happens to maryaj rings after death? Is one buried with them, or are they reusable for other usage? Likewise, where do empty novena candles go after their usage? Can things (with the exception of ritual paraphernalia) be thrown away after usage in general, or are there certain procedures for some things before disposal?

Hello!

A lot of that will depend on particular lineage and what the lwa dictate; burying them with the vodouizan may be one option and passing them to a descendant is another. It's possible they could be reused, particularly by a family member of the deceased, but that would be super dependent on the lwa involved. I would never place an item from a deceased person for a lwa like Danbala, for example.

Empty novena candles can be disposed of without issue. If you really like the image on them or something, they can be recycled and made into new candles as you wish.

There are ways that things like food and the remains from spiritual work at disposed of, and that varies from lineage to lineage.

Hope this helps!

#vodou #haitian vodou

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rockofeye · 6 months

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Is there a preference for who one's parenn/marenn is, or not really? Is the best spiritual godparent someone you know or are familiar with?

Hi,

That's an 'it depends' answer.

It depends on what the purpose is.

In Haitian culture, godparents are for every major life event, really. Children have godparents at birth. When my husband and I got married, each of us had godparents for the ceremony. Godparents are utilized during maryaj lwa and take part in the blessing of each union. Most importantly, godparents are an essential part of kanzo; they are who baptizes you when you are lifted from the djevo and they choose the name you will carry as a manbo/houngan or hounsi kanzo.

So, how someone chooses that is up to them. When I did my maryaj lwa, my husbands chose the marenn/parenn or folks made themselves available, and when I married my husband in a civil ceremony, the godparents were local friends who said they would stand for us and sign paperwork with us (which is required in civil ceremonies in Haiti).

For kanzo, I advise people to choose carefully. The function of a godparent in that capacity is not insignificant. They are taking responsibility for you in a public way, and they are choosing your name, which carries meaning and often reflects who you are and what you are expected to become. They are also people who can help in the event that, god forbid, your initiatory parent passes or there is another situation that you need assistance with, like maybe you have a disagreement with your parent and need assistance mediating to a resolution. In a lot of cases, your marenn/parenn are the only people who could really touch your head in a ritual manner if there was an emergency and your initiatory parent (who should always be the first choice) is unavailable for whatever reason.

I also give advice I was given in choosing; as I live in the US and travel between Haiti and the US for my Vodou, I chose a parenn who is in the US and a marenn who is in Haiti, and I chose them both on the basis of what I saw in them. My marenn reminds me so much of my mother that it's a little terrifying (in a good way) and she has never held back from saying 'no, fiyèl, not like that', which is important to me. She was the first person I met in Haiti when I arrived for kanzo and she pulled me into line real quick, because I was messy.

Some important things to note about godparents especially in regards to kanzo:

The person who initiates you is not your godparent, they are your actual parent. They are working with the lwa to birth you into the world, and referring to them as your godmother/godfather means there are things that are not understood and it's kinda cringey for a manbo/houngan to do that.

The people who baptize you at your kanzo are your marenn/parenn. If they weren't there, weren't holding the candle, didn't give you your name, and didn't parade you around the poto mitan, they are not your marenn/parenn. It's similarly kinda cringey to watch and I imagine it could be read as disrespectful towards the people who stood up for you.

While there are customs around a relationship with a marenn/parenn, none of those customs should really involve being in a romantic or similar relationship or doing things that would give you pause if you were approached about them with anyone else. Use your logic and discernment.

I am sure this is more than you were hoping for, but I hope this helps!

#vodou #haitian vodou

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rockofeye · 4 years

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Hello, Houngan. I was wondering, is there a general rule for order of ceremonies? Like, if someone needs or has been asked for Kanzo and Maryaj, is there a preferred order? Or is it down to the individual? Thank you, and I hope you and your family are keeping well.

Hi there,

We are doing well so far, thanks!

In terms of what ceremonies need to happen when, that comes down to what the spirits determine, along with presiding priest. This can be communicated via divination and discussion with the priest who would preside over the ceremonies, or from the spirits directly while they are present in possession.

If the spirits communicate no clear preference (and have been consulted to determine that), then the individual can have more room to determine what happens when. This is often influenced by when the presiding priest can offer the ceremonies needed (kanzo is a huge undertaking, so it is planned well in advance and marriages can be the same way) and when the individual can afford them.

For example, my lwa asked me for maryaj and for kanzo in a relatively short time period, and when I sat with my mother for divination to go over all of this, the lwa indicated that kanzo needed to come first despite them asking me to marry them before they asked for kanzo. For other people, it has been different.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions.

#vodou #haitian vodou #kanzo #road to kanzo #maryaj #maryaj lwa #Anonymous

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rockofeye · 4 years

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Maybe this is a taboo topic, or maybe it just doesn’t happen, because I’ve never seen or heard it talked about, but do lwa ever initiate any sort of sexual contact with those that serve them?

Hi there,

Good question!

So, when the lwa are embodied, there is absolutely no sex/sexual activity with a sèvitè…that is strictly tabooed. Sex/sexual activity is something that is held as separate in the religion because it is spiritually unclean for the lwa to really be exposed to or to be present in the temple. This is not a “sex=bad” kind of thing, but more along the lines of that coming into a temple/ceremony with someone else’s ‘stuff’ (spiritual or physical) on you or coming in with the energetic remnants of sexual activity on you is not considered ritually ‘clean’ for the work and for the lwa. It is not appropriate for sex/sexual activity to happen in a temple or ceremony space either.

Gede certainly can dance very suggestively, but even he draws a line at sexual activity with a sèvitè because it’s sort of an uncrossable boundary.

The most contact there will be between a sèvitè and a spirit is (chaste) kisses on the cheek or lips between a sèvitè and their spouse(s) when they greet each other. Like, chaste meaning not a make-out sesh and, you know, no tongue. Even kisses on the lips draw a lot of attention because that’s on the edge of what is acceptable in a ceremony.

Some folks who are married to their spirits or are about to marry their spirits may experience “marital relations” with their spouse(s) in dreams. This can be more often as maryaj approaches or as a message that the ceremony really needs to happen soon, and becomes more infrequent after that.

Otherwise, sex/sexuality is something that happens outside the practice of the religion. By and large, the religion is fairly modest across the board.

And…this should not need to be said, but we live in the world we live in: no one should be telling you that you need to engage in sex/sexual activity with them as a part of an initiation or spiritual work. There is no spiritual work or initiation in Haitian Vodou that requires sex/sexual contact of any sort, and anyone who tells you differently is trying to manipulate you for their own desires. Sexual activity is tabooed between a priest and their spiritual children or clients, godparents and godchild, and even between some ‘siblings’ who have initiated under the same priest, in particular situations. There’s a terrible book called The Voudon Gnostic Workbook that details sexual activity as part of ceremony and/or as offerings to the lwa, and this is out and out false and made up whole cloth. There is a tiny group of ceremonial magicians who present themselves as ‘doing Vodou’ as use that as a template, but it has nothing to do with actual Haitian Vodou.

I hope this answers your questions…please let me know if I can offer more info or expand on anything.

#vodou #haitian vodou #vodou culture #real vodou #sacred sexuality #spiritual work #maryaj lwa

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rockofeye · 5 years

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Sometimes it's the little things.

I keep all my wedding rings for my spirits in a small dish on my nightstand so that I remember to put them on each day in my not-a-morning-person stupor each day. While cleaning my room about two weeks ago, I accidentally knocked that dish flying and rings went everywhere. Like, under the bed, behind the nightstand...everywhere.

So, I crawled around on the floor and collected them and counted them to make sure I had them all....

I did not.

My ring for Simbi was missing. Most of my maryaj rings have some heft to them, but Simbi's ring is a simple sapphire and silver solitaire and it's light enough to have bounced anywhere. I tore my room apart that night, and then again the next day. Shook out everything, moved the bed and nightstand, and...nada. It seemed to have bounced all the way to Ginen because it was *GONE*.

I was unhappy. Maryaj rings are special--there are particular things done to them during the ceremony and by the spirits to make them essentially pwen/concentrated points of that particular spirit--and Simbi had done a lot of work on his ring when I married him. I knew he wasn't unhappy and it was just a thing, but it was another thing and, if I couldn't find it, I would need another ring before I leave for Haiti. I can't go in front of my husband and not have his ring on for him.

I prayed about it and knew that if it was to remain his ring (if he hadn't decided it was time to change it up or whatever), it would show up when he was ready for it to show up. I told Simbi I hated not being able to wear his ring on his day or whenever I wanted to, and that I very much wanted to have his ring for Haiti and wasn't sure I could afford a brand new ring before Haiti.

Today is Tuesday, which is Simbi's day, and I was sad I couldn't put on his ring when I was getting ready for work today. I sat on the edge of my bed while getting dressed, happened to look down, and what was sitting on the floor right in front of my toes but Simbi's ring?

I think I giggled, and then I picked it up, gave it a kiss, and slid it on my finger. Maybe Simbi wanted my mind on him, maybe I needed to think about some stuff...don't know. What I do know is that he definitely was pleased to give it back, and on his day (of course)!

Bilolo pou ou, Simbi Dlo, Simbi Andezo, Simbi Makaya, Simbi Gangan, Simbi Bwa, Simbi Anpaka, tout nasyon Simbi. Mèt basen la, mèt fèy yo, mèt magi a. Gwo koulèv nan basen la, larivyè nan dife, gason ki konnen sekrè fèy yo, bon gason Ezili Danto. Gwo neg m, gwo mari m....mesi anpil pou banm bag ou.

#vodou #haitian vodou #simbi #maryaj lwa #priest things

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rockofeye · 5 years

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This is the time of year when things are sort of tumbling towards a logical conclusion: I am getting ready to head back to Haiti for close to a month. It’s always this frenetic pace that sort of creeps back into being around May, and this year has definitely not been any different. Lots of ceremonies have rounded out this spring/early summer; a lave tet, several maryaj lwa, a fete for Kouzen, and more. There’s been coordinating a bunch of stuff between here and Haiti, all the shopping that gets done ahead of time (I own more pairs of white pants than I do pants for work), and getting ready to put my US life to bed for a month so I can go see all my husbands where they live, enjoy my siblings, participate in ceremony, and luxuriate a bit in being away from my office. All good stuff. It’s kept me so busy, though, that writing has been a distant second to getting ready and putting in work and maintaining my blessings.

It’s also a time where I am really thinking about the past year and what I have accomplished, and what’s coming next for me. This year makes three years since I was lifted from anba dlo and made a houngan, two years since my lwa put ALL the rings on it, and a year since I married the man they brought to my door. In between all those things was a lot of re-building and creating: I spent about a year and half in temporary settings while my lwa pulled strings behind the scenes for the right job and right living situation, and finally settled down in early 2018. At this point, I have been where they put me for as long as I was in that nebulous floating liminality of waiting. They have been good to me.

The past year has brought new situations and new ways of knowing my spirits, like each year before it has. This past year, they’ve really tasked me with focusing on embodiment and digging deep to really refine my understanding of who I am. It caught me a little off-guard, but I understand the importance and how it benefits me, my relationship with them, and how it makes me a better priest.

It’s come up in the most interesting of ways. I’ve done a handful of interviews this year talking about gender and sexuality and what that means in Haitian Vodou, ranging from a thesis project to a podcast interview, and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what labels mean for me personally and in all my relationships. It’s a lot of sorting thoughts and chewing on the idea. Ogou kind of put it before me: how do these words serve you? how do they help you or hold you back? how do they matter, if they matter at all, and how do they affect how you see yourself and the world around you?

It’s this weird combo of trying to fully embody myself and strip away all the things that may not be useful, with the end goal seeming to be two-fold: be fully myself and fully of the spirits, with no conceptions of the reflexive-ness of identity words standing between me and my spirits. I feel like a snake shedding layers, or pieces of scar tissue and scabs falling away. It doesn’t hurt so much as it feels refreshing. I think this would have been an impossibility several years ago, but I know myself so much more these days and feel so much more settled into who I am that what language I use seems almost inconsequential. If I know who I am and all my spirits know who I am and my husband knows who I am and my mother knows who I am, does anything else really matter?

This has come out in how I sit with them, as I pray for them to help me be vulnerable and malleable in their hands so that nothing remains that would separate me from them, and to help me grow into what they envision for me. Some days it’s a tentative prayer because I remember what upheaval can be like at their hands, some days I want Ogou to bring me close enough that his forge consumes me totally. Balance.

It also shows in some other tasks they have put me to. I have spent a lot of time with my hands in a basin or filling bottles or crushing leaves in pursuit of learning what they ask me to: the making of medicines and magic that comes from the life of the leaves and roots and other things we utilize in the religion. It’s a lifelong task that won’t be finished any time soon, and I am loving. I enjoy working with my hands and seeing things as they are formed and come together. Each of the things I make have their own little spirit in them, and I am looking forward to preparing for them to make their way into the world.

This was one of my ‘gimmes’ when I was getting used to the idea of kanzo; a thing that I would take up to make the commitment feel good overall (before I understood what the lwa could do with me, if I would only let them). I wanted the art of the religion, as Vodou has come of the most unique art forms in the world. I am a maker and an artist and was long before the lwa took me, and so I wanted that to continue. A friend reminded me after kanzo that all things that comes from the hands of an artist-priest is art, be it art that belongs to the spirits.

I have carried that forward in how I think about making medicine and magic, and it has brought another dimension to my relationships with my spirits: those who are teaching me how they make medicine and make magic are artists in their own right. Artist-doctors, artist-magicians, and artist-priests in a spirit package. The art they make and show me how to make moso a moso isn’t aesthetic or pretty sometimes, but it is compelling in its own way. What swirls in the bottle changes each moment, and each particle tells another story and retains another spiritual or literal fingerprint.

Through all these things, they show me a new way that they love me. I dream with them and scribble notes when I wake up. I bring bottles to my mother for her to smell and give me feedback on (yes, good or it needs a little more XYZ, keep trying...I keep those notes, too).

For this, it requires a different kind of embodiment; a self that makes room for the spirits to speak and be heard and can put that into action within the medicine. A translation of input that affects the output. Priest as conduit in a spiritual electrical circuit. A sort of symbiotic system featuring a different sort of self.

Embodiment pulls back to the basic premise of Vodou: Vodou is about relationships; with self, with community, with a parent, and with the spirits. They all inform each other, and we are a product of these relationships--if we work to make them function well--and of our exercises in embodying them out in the world. It’s given me insight into even the most mundane aspects of my relationship with my human husband in that things flex and flow with our environment(s) and reveal to us more about how we share a combined life. It’s shown itself in my relationships with the lwa who are my husbands in the same way. Things flex and flow within a core understanding of how the relationship is embodied, and we learn how we relate across Ginen.

All of these things are on my mind as I approach a new (for me) year and look towards what might come next in my pursuit of embodiment and medicine and the bottom of the basin. I am looking forward to learning/relearning what vulnerability comes with embodiment and how my spirits fill up the soft spaces in me. My own medicine comes when my feet are on the ground in Ayiti, and it’s why I go back each summer: it is my check-up and my treatment and the time when my lwa do their work on me. This summer, as I pack my suitcases and look at the calendar hoping for the days to pass fast but not too fast, I pray that my lwa reveal my own vulnerability to me in the temple, that they remind me of their strength when they push on the soft spots, and that I remember to let myself be seen as a whole person, because everything else is a drag.

I still have time for leson/divination if you’re interested...hit me up soon!

#vodou #haitian vodou #real vodou #vodou culture #kanzo #priest things #i can't wait to get on the plane #maryaj lwa #mari lwa m yo map vini

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