What is Voodoo?

an altar ornament for the Orisha Yemaya

Voodoo is a term used to describe a variety of  polytheistic, panentheistic, and hierarchical monotheistic belief systems rooted in West Africa.  Its more accurate name is Vodun, which means the spirits or essences (of nature).

At its core, it is somewhat agnostic, in that the vast majority of its adherents believe that it is impossible to accurately define or imagine the Supreme God.  So rather than treat the Supreme God as a Santa Claus type figure who it’s okay to make our petty requests to, practitioners petition the Lwa or Orishas instead.  This serves the dual purpose of avoiding blasphemy and working with nature, rather than against it or in spite of it, to fulfil one’s desires or get things done properly.

Because of political, cultural, and social changes and upheavals, Vodun is not practiced in the same way it was in pre colonial times, even in Africa.  Some changes were for the better, and some for the worse, and some are a matter of opinion.  Overall though, the vast majority of practitioners today are balanced people being true to their time tested ancestral faiths.

Related Belief Systems

Mami Wata – a pantheon of deities worshipped and/or honored in west and central Africa.  Vodun is one of the child systems of Mami Wata, and overlaps quite a bit though some adhere to Mami Wata traditions and paths independent of what is now known as Vodun.

It’s a neat coincidence that it sounds a lot like “Mommy Water”.  Its original meaning though, is more like Truth (all life comes from) Water.  The deities are mostly female, and priesthood is passed matrileneally.  There are still Mami Wata adherents and priestesses in Togo and other areas of west Africa.

Muti (Umuthi) - indigenous southern African healing and spirituality.  It got a bad rap recently because of some simple minded psychos who take things too far and commit murders and mutilations.  The people who do that are charlatans, not real healers, as a true believer believes that killing an innocent person will bring the wrath of them and their ancestors.  Those doing it today are just materialistic idiots who believe that body parts of children will bring them more wealth or protect them from the natural consequences of their actions.

In truth, much like Vodun, adherents of Umuthi believe that there is no protection from the natural consequences of one’s actions.  The Supreme God is not a Santa Claus, and neither are the other spirits.  If you do evil, you get evil.  If you do good, you might not always get what you want, but you’ll always at least have peace.

Kala Jaadu (also spelled Jadoo) – Middle Eastern magic and pre Islamic spirituality.  It is practiced and believed in with a high level of secrecy.

Conversion to Islam was not as complete in the Middle East as some may believe.  The Prophet Muhammad (Peace be unto him) himself was also an esoteric.  There are also a few different Islamic flavors within the standard Sunni, Sufist, and Shiite sects.  For spiritual guidance and help, some problems needed solving with things other than the usual Muslim practices.  Some old practices were repackaged within the Islamic theology.

One of the most popular ideas within Kala Jaadu is the belief in djinn.  Djinn are described as being made of fire or as higher dimensional beings, depending who you ask.  Some are powerful and can control forces of nature, where others are not really that interested in this, and just do occasional mischief.

Some practitioners are able  to communicate with, and claim to be able to control djinn.  Be wary of those who say they are actually able to control them.  Djinn have free wills the same as humans.  If they like someone, they might let them believe that, but they are there only because they choose to be.

Santeria - Santeria, also known as the Lucumi/Lukumi or Regla de Ocha is the belief system of Afro-Cubans.  It is a combination of Yoruba, Roman Catholic, and Native Carribean “Indian” beliefs.

Candomblé - Candomble is a Brazilian Bahia faith that is a mixture of Yoruba, Roman Catholic, and Native South American faiths.  In Candomble, as in Haitian Vodou, many of the Orishas are conflated with Roman Catholic saints.  The associated saints are considered something like avatars of an Orisha.

Haitian Vodou – Haitian Vodou is a combination of west African, Roman Catholic, and Arawak beliefs.  It has a unduly bad reputation as “black magic” mostly due to racism and fear.  It was one of the driving forces in the Haitian Revolution, and so Haitian Vodou is representative in the European American mind of Black slaves successfully ousting their masters.  To this day, the idea that there is something in which they are not superior, makes racists shake in their jackboots.

Kumina - This is an African derived faith similar to Vodun that is practiced in Jamaica.  They have events called Pokumina or Pukumina that are dances where the spirits of nature and ancestors come down and possess the dancers.  Pukumina comes from the Twi word “po” which means “small”, and the word Kumina for the faith itself.  Because of misunderstanding the linguistic roots and the nature of the dance though, it is often referred to as “Pocomania”: small madness.

Hoodoo - A North American approach to magic and mysticism that combine elements of African, Native American, and European folk medicine and traditions.  It is “baptist” in the sense that mostly non Catholics practice it, so they don’t usually use the Saints as covers for the Orishas.  Some do use Angels though.  The Angels apparently don’t mind this because it works.

Bible verses and Christian practices are a common part of root work in Hoodoo, along with a variety of American traditional practices that developed through time or borrowed from old world cultures.

Obeah - Obeah’s roots are mostly Igbo.  It is basically African-Carribean folk medicine, but Obeah practitioners take from any and all systems that work.  They tend to be African centered, but eclectic and esoteric.

Unlike other systems that often have a more strict hierarchy, and differentiate between the initiated and non initiated, Obeah people are quite often very solitary, and make their status or fame from their record of service.  It is less a belief system in and of itself than it is an approach to Vodun.