Wicca, Wiccan Magick, Witchcraft, and Magic Spells

Vodun is called sometimes Voodoo, Vodoun, Vodou. The religions related to Vodun are: Candomble, Lucumi, Macumba, and Yoruba.

Vodun, Vodoun, and Voudou are generally called Voodoo by the public. The name is detectable with a African word for the “spirit”. Vodun can be directly traced with Western African Dahomey of Yoruba who lived in 18th and 19th century. Its roots can go behind 6,000 years to Africa. That the country occupied of the areas of Togo, Benign and Nigeria of today. The slaves brought their religion with them when they of force were embarked in Haiti and other islands in the Western Indies.

Vodun was actively removed for colonial periods. “Much out of priests or, and their tombs imprisoned were killed destroyed, because of the threat which they constituted with the Euro-Chrétien/au Moslem dominion. This forced part of Dahomeans to form orders of Vodou and to create the underground companies, in order to continue the veneration of their ancestors, and the worship of their powerful gods. ” 1 Vodun was again removed during the mode Marxist. However, it was freely applied to Benign since a democratic government was installed there in 1989. Vodun was formally identified like official religion of Benign in 1996-FEB. It is also followed majority of the adults to Haiti. It can find in several of the large cities in North America, in particular in the south American.

Today more than 60 million people to practise Vodun in the whole world. Religions similar to Vodun can be found in South America where they are called Umbanda, Quimbanda or Candomble.

Today, there are two forms practically independent of the religion:

1) A real religion, Vodun applied to Benign, the Dominican Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Togo and various centers in the USA - mainly where the Haitian refuges arranged.

2) A bad and imaginary religion, which we will call Voodoo. It was created for films of Hollywood, achieve violence, the ritual odd ones, etc It actually does not exist.

History of Vodun in the west:

Slaves were baptized in the catholic church on their arrival with Haiti and other the Western Indian islands. However, there was small current Christian infrastructure during the 19th century early to maintain the faith. The result was that the slaves mainly followed their original indigenous faith. This that they practised in the secrecy, even all while dealing with the mass regularly.

A vague and sensational book was written in 1884 that described Vodun like deeply bad religion, and included sinister descriptions of sacrifice, cannibalism, etc human, some of which extracted starting from the priests from Vodun by torture. This book caught the imagination of the people apart from the Western Indies, and was responsible for most of the misunderstanding and fears which is present today. Hollywood found this a rich source for plays of screen of Voodoo. The films of horror started in the Thirties and continue today to represent Vodun badly. It is only since the Fifties late that precise studies by anthropologists were published.

Macumba, Candomble, Umbanda, and Santeria support many similarities with Vodun.

Belief of Vodun:

Vodun, like Christianity, is a religion of many traditions. Each group follows a different spiritual way and adores the Pantheon slightly different from the spirits, called leasing. The word means the “mystery” in the language of Yoruba.

The traditional belief of Yoruba included God Olorun in chief, who is distant and unknowable. It authorized little Obatala God to create the ground and all the forms of life. A battle enters the two gods led to the provisional exile of Obatala.

There are hundreds of minor spirits. Those which came from Dahomey call Rada; such which was added later are often the chiefs died in the new world and are called Petro. Some of the latter are

Agwe: spirit of the sea
Wedo helped: spirit of rainbow
Ayza: guard
Baka: a bad spirit which takes the shape of an animal
Baron Samedi: guard of the tomb
Dambala (or Damballah-wedo): spirit of snake
Erinle: spirit of the forests
Ezili (or Erzulie): female spirit of the love
Mawu LISA: spirit of creation
Ogou Balanjo: spirit of curative
Ogun (or Ogu Bodagris): spirit of war
Osun: spirit of the curative jets
Sango (or Shango): the spirit of gives the attack to
Yemanja: female spirit of water
Zaka (or Oko): spirit of agriculture

There is a certain number of points of similarity between Roman Catholicism and Vodun:

Both believe in being supreme. Leasing resembles to the Christian saints, of the fact they were in the past people who carried out the exceptional lives, and are usually given a simple responsibility or a special attribute.
Both believe in life after death.
Both have, like centre piece of part of their ceremonies, a ritual sacrifice and consumption of flesh and blood.
Both believe in existence of the invisible bad spirits or the demons.
The disciples of Vodun believe that each person has a small fireclay cup met (main of the head) which corresponds to the holy owner of a Christian.

The disciples of Vodun believe that each person has a heart which is composed of two shares: a broad bean angel the large one or a “great angel of guard”, and a Ti broad bean angel or a “little angel of guard”. Last sheets the body during the sleep and when the person is had by a leasing during a ritual. There is a concern that the Ti broad bean angel can be damaged or captured by bad sorcery while it is free from body.

Ritual of Vodun:

The goal of ritual is to make the contact with a spirit, to gain their favour in their offering the animal sacrifices and the gifts, to obtain the assistance in the form of more abundant food, the higher level the life, and improved health. The human one and leasing depends on other; the human ones provide food and other materials; leasing provides health, protection counters bad spirits and good fortune. The ritual one are held to celebrate lucky events, to try to escape a race from the misfortune, to celebrate one day seasonal of celebration related to a leasing, for curative, with the birth, the marriage and death.

The priests of Vodun can be male (houngan or hungan), or female (mambo). A temple of Vodun is called a hounfour (or the humfort). In its center a post is a post-mitan where God and the spirits communicate with the people. A furnace bridge will thoroughly be decorated with the candles, the images of the Christian saints, the articles symbolic systems related to leasing, ritual are composed of some of the following components:

~ a treat before the principal ceremony
~ creation of a veve, a model of flour or meals on the floor which is single with leasing for which the ritual must be led
~ shaking a rattle and beating the drums which were cleaned and purified
song
~ to dance by the houngan and/or the mambo and the hounsis (student studying Vodun). To dance will build typically in the intensity until one of the dancers (usually a hounsis) becomes had by a leasing and fall. Its Ti broad bean angel started from their body and the spirit took the order. The had dancer will behave like leasing and is treated with the respect and the ceremony by the others presents.
~animal sacrifice; this can be a goat, a sheep, a chicken, or a dog. They usually with humanity are killed by splitting their throat; blood is gathered in a ship. The had dancer can drink part of blood. The hunger of leasing is supposed then to be satisfied. The animal is usually made cook and eaten. The animal sacrifice is a method to devote food for consumption by disciples of Vodun, their gods and ancestors.

Bad sorcery:

The houngan and the mambos confine their “white” magic of activities which is employed to bring good fortune and curative. However the caplatas carry out acts of bad sorcery or black magic, sometimes called “left-handed Vodun”. Seldom, a will houngan begin in such a sorcery; some replacement enters the white and dark magic.

A single belief in Vodun is that a dead person can be then to be buried restored. After resurrection, the zombi does not have any will of their clean, but remains under the order of others. Actually, a zombi is an alive person who never died, but is under the influence of the powerful drugs managed by a bad wizard. Although the majority of the Haitians believe in zombis, little ever saw one. There are some recorded examples of the people who claimed to be zombis.

The joining of the pins in headstocks was in the past employed like method to curse an individual by some disciples of Vodun to New-Orleans; this practice continues from time to time in South America. The practice became closely related to Voodoo in the public spirit by the vehicle of films of horror.