I been planned on doin' a blog on voodoo, but of course, this muzik grind has had me very caught up.
But after this earthquake in Haiti, I've seen alotta ignorant statements from non-Haitians as well as Haitians, blaming this natural disaster on Vodou.
Now, I'm not an expert Vodou practitioner, but I have had a few experiences with the culture. So here's the interpretation from Mr. Luv~N~Light's perspective.
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When most people think of Vodou, automatically negative things come to mind like Voodoo dolls, Zombies, & sacrifices.
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That might be one minor aspect of Vodou, but i know for a fact, there wuz one time that i wuz jumped (had to fight & shit) & i wuz brought to this Haitian lady's house right after it ALL went down. She made me a special tea & wiped my wounded skin with some natural ointment.
I aint gon tell you, i left that house like i wuzn't even jumped, feeling like a few years younger.
And guess wut? The lady wuz a vodou practitioner.
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"The other side to vodou is the usage of healing energies thru prayer & natural remedies."
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Of course, everything does have its negatives & positives.
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You have Muslims that blow up shit & kill hundreds of people. Then you also have Muslims that practice prayer & peace every moment of the day.
You have Hindus that have slaughtered Muslims in the streets, but you also have Hindus like Mahatma Gandhi that united his nation.
There are Christians like the ones behind the Inquisition, but then again, there are Christians like Dr. Martin Luther King & Mother Teresa.
So the same goes for Vodou.
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When the African slave trade wuz taking place, the people were not only ripped of their clothes, families, & land ... they were ripped of their philosophies, religions, language, & culture as a whole.
Anything that wuz non-European in praise wuz labeled as wicked or savage.
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The Haitians found a way to merge their religion with the European religion that wuz being force fed to them.
Not too much different from how the Jews had to do during their holocaust.
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Most Haitians are descendants of West Africans, so the Haitian culture reflects that area of the world.
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Vodouisants believe that there is one God who is the creator of all, referred to as "Bondye".
GOD not being able to be fully grasped by his creations, sent forth the lwa, which are the spirits that Vodouisants pray to & call upon.
{Much like the angels in Christianity, the dakini in Buddhism, the eloheem in Judaism, the deities in Hinduism, the gods of the Greeks, etc., etc.}
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Not only did the Africans blend their religion with the French, they also had strong connections with the Arawak & Taino Indians.
In actuality, the Native Americans & Africans had so many similarities as far as being intuned with the spirit world & nature, so their culture wuz merged in as well.
Vodou is actually a unified religion.
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One thing that seems to throw people off about Vodou are the spirit possessions.
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But the spirit possessions are not much different from people catching the Holy Spirit in church.
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The only difference is that they purposely direct those energies in 2 their bodies, becoming mediums for the spirits & ancestors.
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We are ALL mediums for different energies AKA different spirits.
Ever felt so good one day & then ALL of a sudden, you have bad vibez or feel down for no reason at all?
Well, that's because the physical world is just clothing for the spirit world.
The ancient people knew this & knew how to tap in to this world that we often forget exists around us ALL the time.
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Now, i've been to a few Vodou parties & witnessed the prayer, offerings, & spirit possessions.
When its time for the actual seance to occur, Vodou practitioners clean up, rearrange the room, set up an alter with gifts for the spirits, throw holy water, burn incense, & go into deep states of prayer & meditation.
They basically do Feng Shui on the area so the energies can flow right.
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Of course there are different energies out here, ranging from the most negative to the highest levels of positivity. That's why there is usually a vodou priest or priestess that resides over each seance.
There are different nations of lwa just like there are different legions of angels.
Some are guardians, some are archangels, some are fallen too.
But if you really look at the Vodou religion, it has nothing to do with worshipping the Devil.
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It's ALL about angel worship & praise to the ancestors.
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The primary reason for the rumors of Devil worship in Vodou is due to the revolts that took place in Haiti which ended in the Africans over-throwing the Europeans.
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Vodou played a major role in Haiti's revolution.
Haiti became the first free nation in the New World.
Their faith wuz one of the biggest factors in making freedom a reality.
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Of course the Europeans had to tarnish Haiti's name & reputation in any & every way possible, & that's where the urban legends began.
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If anything, Haiti deserves the utmost respect for being able to hold on to its African "Roots" more than any other nation on this side of the world.
And it's sad that it took an earthquake to finally realize the struggle of the Haitian people.
This poverty & shit that they're having to deal with over there stems back to slavery.
If someone would fix their face to even blame it on ancient wayz & beliefs, then they dwell in darkness themselves.
Remember Ignorance is Bliss & Knowledge is Power.
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Of course, i only barely scratched the surface of the Vodou religion.
There's no way i could explain any whole religion within one blog, but hopefully yall open your eyez to know some of the history & to see the positive side to Vodou.
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Other thingz included in Vodou are dream interpretations, energy-cleansing, psychic readings, as well as more supernatural thingz such as teleportation & shapeshifting.
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Sometimez we fear the thingz we don't know or overstand, but like the great prophet Y'shua of Nazareth said, "If you seek, you shall find." The Truth is out here.
LuvNLight
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