The Voodoo religion flame wars are flying. Not that this is a new thing, I had the first ever Voodoo website back in 1992. Then, as now, I tried to provide respectful and accurate information and products for devotees of Voodoo, Vodou, and La Regla Lucumi, better known as Santeria. I published the Oshun- African Magickal Quarterly, and we featured writings from people who have now become icons in the religion.
Back then I mostly lectured in the Pagan community and I would constantly find my self explaining to people that as bad as the witch wars they were experiencing seemed, that could not hold a “black” candle to the stuff practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religions do. A huge push has begun lately in the New Orleans Voodoo and Haitian Vodou community to legitimize practitioners. Wonderful, in theory, except we come up against a number of problems. First what are we basing this legitimacy on ? We could base legitimacy on education, experience, effort, dedication, sanity… unfortunately all of these are problematic and slippery. Also difficult is that fact that for hundreds of years these religions were suppressed, hidden, and illegal making the written history almost non-existent and definitely spotty. Then, as now, those that got the most attention were the ones that screamed the loudest. It’s ghetto logic but it works. Now I could walk around with a sign saying this person with no initiations and no proper education might not be the best person to sign your spirituality over to, but I would need quite a few signs and I’d appear even more strange than I probably already do as your friendly neighborhood Voodoo priestess.
Sometime back I wrote a rather extreme post about why Voodoo is like Gangster Rap, and it comes to mind again now. See I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, and I spent a lot of time in the 1980’s going to rap battles the kind of which now you only see in films. This stuff was pretty hardcore, any rappers who weren’t up to the challenge were shown the door, the floor, their a**. I remember one middle class rapper who was quickly laughed off stage, rap music wasn’t about the hardships of the suburbs, it was about the anger and resistance of the ghetto. I may get in trouble for calling him out on it now, but that rapper I remember was Will Smith. Unacceptable to those of us from “the Hood,” but obviously easily sold to Hollywood as representative of alternative culture. OK, where am I going, my point is this is what I see happening in the New Orleans Voodoo, Haitian Vodou, and also Lucumi/Santeria culture. These religions, like rap and jazz music before them, are being neatly packaged and sold for the masses. If it’s not funny like Step and Fetchit or demonized like Papa Legba on last season’s American Horror Story, it’s not going to make the mainstream. The Rolling Stones will always sell more music than Lightning Hopkins… some people like their music, their drinks, and their religion watered down. The problem is that these things are dangerous. People put their lives and their souls in the hands of morons, and the consequences are scary. Maybe some people just have that lesson to learn for themselves, but as I always tell my spiritual godkids “pray that the lessons come gently and easily.” Try to find out who and what you are getting yourself in to before you are in too deep. On more than one occasion I have had people tell me they willing bound themselves to a temple or group that they then found unsavory or objectionable. What does one do in this situation? The answer isn’t easy, it’s like asking how does one become unborn?
I’m sure I’m going to get some attention from this post. My credentials and education are listed on this page, and and also in the first two posts in the blog archive. Much more information about these religions can be found in my book Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism. I know this will not be enough for some people, I almost wanted to cover myself with my degrees, citations, and warriors and take some photos, but that probably wouldn’t be enough either. Fakers have to be fake, and Haters got to hate, but I wish they’d all just go home.
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