Foreign Policy reports on Haiti's attempt to rebrand itself as a "Voodoo tourism" destination.

The lead paragraph begins: "President Michel Martelly, the Haitian leader
formally known as Sweet Micky..." which is really the kind of thing I dreamed I'd be reading 25 years ago. Thank you, future, for becoming this present.

The story doesn't have much beyond the phrase "Voodoo tourism" but I'm wondering if anyone has heard anything more about this as an element of national policy.

I'm curious about how practioners might view this Salon article, "What I learned from a witch doctor," written by a woman who originally was most interested in the typography used on the packaging at a local botanica.

(Sorry for the belated reply - I haven't had the brainspace to actually read the linked article.)

I don't know how my Santo friends would view it (I should send them the article, heh) but I found it charming and endearing. At the same time, it feels a little thin on data - it's an atmospheric article, and a kind one, about how Botanicas and the people who run them fit into their communities, I suppose, rather than explaining what a new visitor might need to know about the resources there. The photos tell me more about what I'd find in a Botanica, but the words tell me how to approach such a visit.

I gotta say, it sounds a heck of a lot warmer than a lot of the Botanicas around here! When I walk into a Botanica, unless it's run by people who are also Pagan, I feel like I'm being watched like a hawk - politely, but a bit suspiciously.

Each time I stop by, Vargas asks how I am faring with the various issues we’d discussed during my reading, and says that we need to continue the conversation. I tell him that he’d actually freaked me out just a little, since he was talking about things that I knew I’d never mentioned before; topics that made my eyes well up with tears. He winks and tells me that’s his job.

Hee! Yup. I say similar on a regular basis. Or rather "It's in the job description." ;)

Vargas tells me I look “juicy,” which is probably a polite way of telling me I’ve gained weight, though he says it’s the Puerto Rican version of looking healthy.

No, honey, it's a way of complimenting you on gaining just the right weight.

-E-

Auf Deutsch, zaftig.

----

Here's something fun from Baba who? Babalu! :

When working in Dahomey, Herskovits recorded a very interesting story:

When people came into the world, they had no medicine. No one knew that
leaves could cure. When people fell ill, there was no knowledge of what
to do to cure them.

Now there were hunters in those days who went into the deep, deep bush. One
day a hunter came upon a mound of Earth in the bush. When he was about
to pass it, a voice spoke from inside it. The hunter’s wife was a leper,
and this voice said, “Hunter, I will show you a medicine to cure your
wife. When you give it to her, she will become well again.” Then the
voices said, “Turn your back to me and wait.” It was Azizan, the Forest
Spirit, who was in the mound, and as the hunter’s back was turned,
Azizan put the leaves beside him. When Hunter looked again, he saw the
leaves. The voice said, “Take these leaves, crush them, and mix them
with water. Then give some of this to your wife to drink, and use the
rest to wash her sores.”

When the hunter came home, he did what Azizan told him to do, and his wife was cured.

Now Azizan had also told him, “When someone in your village is sick, come
and tell me, and I will give you a cure.” So the hunter showed the way
to all who were sick, and these came to the mound of Earth and told
their troubles, and to each of them Azizan gave a medicine and explained
its use. Those who followed Azizan’s instructions were cured.

One day a hunter brought a sick stranger to Azizan, and this stranger went
to the king of his country and told him that there was a kingdom where
the sick only needed to tell of their ailments before a mound of Earth,
and they were cured.

The king said, “I will go there myself. I want to see.” So the king went to
the bush where the mound of Earth was, and took with a goat, a bottle
of rum, and some palm oil. He killed the goat on the mound of Earth, and
said, “In my country we have no vodun. I want to take you to my country
to be a vodun. If someone in my kingdom is ill, I will send him to you
for medicine.” And Azizan gave him magic and told him what vodun where
to be worshipped that his country might prosper. Azizan gave to this
king various deities including Sagbata (Babalú) and told him to build a
house for each of them. Azizan also said that if people wished to have
any of these vodun, they had only to come for some dirt from this mound.

So the vodun and the magic that is in the world were all given to people by Azizan. (See Dahomean Narrative, pp. 217-218, and Dahomey, Vol. ii, pp. 261-262.)

The entry goes on to discuss a possible relationship between Osain (herbs) and Babalu (healin'), as well as the role of the little people of the forest - ijimere or iwin.

That's a great story!


I can't see the word Babalu without thinking of this:

As you should. Because that's who that's about.

I know which makes me happy my childhood tv watching included it. The clip is/was one of my favorites.

SQUEEE

Hey, tomorrow's Voodoo Day in Benin!

Oh, and I just found this fun transcription of the (kinda racy) lyrics to "Babalu."

The google books' nested link to 'The rough guide to Cuban music' By Philip Sweeney in your link above, Grant, is drool worthy.

Small folk in the forests, who tell you things...

Voodoo hobbits waging magical warfare with Tom Bombadil and Nazgul?

I was thinking more of the resonances with European fairy lore, but w/e.

A Maine guide I know (first responder for hikers & educates kiddos about primitive skills) was talking to the spouse about wild food plants. The spouse  wondered how people figured out what to eat as they migrated to different areas suggesting SCIENTIFIC METHOD (BAH-BAH!). The guide agreed that observation had a great deal to do with it than quietly added 'sometimes the plants just tell you'.

For example, when you eat one and then get violently sick.

In that case the plant is telling you "don't eat me."

And don't forget the Universal Edibility Test.

Watch the bunnehs!  If rabbits can eat it so can peoples.  Or so I am lead to believe. 

Although things get a bit murkier when you look at plant products that require complex processing that would be vanishingly unlikely to come about by trial and error, or even dedicated study and investigation -- curare, for instance, or ayahuasca.  I'm not saying that plants talking is the only explanation for those things, I'm just sayin'.

Also watch your neighbors. If Ol' Jim died suddenly and messily after eating the berries that looked pretty good in those patch of woods... well.

Finding nuts and seeds that have been soaking in a natural puddle or a stream for a few days could inspire leaching and soaking processes, too.

All birds are edible. 

I imagine vultures could get kind of septic, couldn't they?

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't taste very nice. Other than that parasites would be my main worry.

I have it on good authority that you can cook a pigeon in a motel coffee-pot. But that is probably outwith the scope of this thread.

Tell more in Lateshift?

More informed people, tell me of the Hoodoo. More specifically, what is "six flower oil" for? I've seen it for sale in a botanica, and I know other spiritual supply places stock it too.

But what am I actually meant to use it for? What's in it?

I've never heard of it. Google only returns a couple of results, and those are all on shopzilla.co.uk. I wonder if it's a British-only thing. 

I've never heard of it, but I'm not all *that* well versed in Hoodoo.

I'd want to know which six flowers, and go from there, I suppose.

Oh, hmm, I have some other things I could look in... BRB, lemme dig around in my recipe books on herbalism and spell oil stuff...

[ETA] Nope, nothing in any of the herbalism and formulary books on my shelf, including:
Catherine Yronwode's Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
Talia Felix's Conjure Cookbook
Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs and Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews,
Carlos Montenegro's Santeria Candles, Herbs, Incense, Oils Formulary & Spellbook
Robert Laremy's Complete Book of Baths
Paul Beyerl's Master Book of Herbalism.

I give the list in case anyone feels like continuing the search elsewhere. ;p

-E-

It might be in Ana Riva's book. I don't think I've looked at that one in over a decade.

Well, I went back to the shop and asked the owner. All he could tell me is "it's Nigerian". He said he didn't know what flowers are in it or what it's used for. Apparently it comes in a plain white box.

....

I got nuthin.

-E-

Curious... never heard of such a thing.

Drivin' through for any insights info you might have on a dream. I don't at this point participate in any African Dispora practices.

Had a dream Sunday  that I went to visit a friend who practiced a African Dispora trad (wasn't specified) and we were all spiritworkers gathered together in her house for friendly conference thingmo. I slept on her couch (she was a very beautiful older African American woman who I knew very well in the dream) that was half inside the house with the back of the couch facing the garden. A liminal inside/outside couch, not on a porch rather the living room lacked a wall.

 As I was sleeping on the couch in the dream, I became aware of a heavy weight moving over me. I was very calm knowing it was a big ass serpent coming through the water outside of the house through the couch. I could feel his movements over the blanket (big boa/python heavy) and when he was up by my head I sat up and guided him back outside. My friend was coming into the room and she was very surprised at how calm I was. I told her it was a northern water snake and not poisonous (I used to own one IRL) and it would be more painful for the snake if he bit me. Everyone in the living room seemed weirdly impressed, though I was very casual as it seemed reasonable sleeping next to his water garden. Sort of as if the house cat walked on you, nice, but it's their house, innit? I was very appreciative of how beautiful the serpent was but I was mostly focused on not injuring him and making sure he was cared for. BTW, Northern water snakes are never that fucking huge.

When I was waking up either the woman or my own subconscious informed me the serpent was Damballa. (though I thought the spelling was different.)

Post dream I've been listening to Exuma's Damballa from Gypsy's Haunted Soundsystem vol 1.


It occurred to me that it is the year of the Water Dragon :)


Edit to add: He was very beautiful with the vibrant markings of a Northern Water snake.

Damballah/Danbala/etc. is often doubled in representations (I don't know if there's something with him and the orisha called The Twins* or not - he's considered to be a version of the same figure as Obatala**). And is linked to the rainbow, with all the stuff the rainbow often symbolizes - beauty (esp masculine, in his case), divine blessings, promise, prosperity. 

Well, yes, although usually one says the other snake is His wife, Ayida Wedo rather than Damballa again. I usually associate the white serpent with Damballa and the Rainbow with Ayida Wedo, but that's not always clearly the case, and Ayida Wedo is also associated with things like the Milky Way in the night sky - basically the two are associated with most serpentine ephemera, with Damballa being more physical and Ayida Wedo being more of an emergent property.

The two are the divide of a singular hermaphroditic snake deity Da, who I understand is still honored in Africa, but not honored as-such in the West, generally.

The Ibeji are always the sons of Xango, but not always clearly Oxun's. Some say they're Oya-Yansa's. However, that might just be the Brazilian perspective. I'm *pretty* sure it's the case in Cuban lore as well.

As to the dream, my response was simply OMG SQUEEE! *laugh*

-E-

Hahah, very cool thank you!

@Ember, yeah it makes me pretty much SQUEE too. Though, I'm not sure if any further action is required.

Wow, excellent. Does the friend in the dream seem to correspond to anyone you know in reality?

Nopes.  The dream friends all had that 'people who have held your hair back after a party' level of closeness but the hostess and I had a particular 'shared trenches on the front lines of woo' vibe. Everyone who was there was a spiritworker, but I think she and I were the same kind in different trads, maybe.

The AD context is the only one where I *regularly* dream of visiting other Houses of various trads honoring the Orixa or Loa or both in various parts of the world.

I'm told by a friend of mine who has recently made Santo that this is actually pretty normal.

XK, you may have gone walkabout. :)

-E-

EmberLeo said: The AD context

Please to unpack? AD

= African Diaspora?


Yeah, it's nice to think I get invited to the cool kids' parties, even if it's only in the Imaginary. ^_^

Mostly, I think it was in response to the story I'm working on as that was the night I finished the 1st draft. Been working pretty hard down in the deep layers of the myth mines. (Sybil like, huffing petro fumes from the fissures.) Kind of random what I dialed into considering my conscious predisposition.

Yes, AD = African Diasporic. I figured in this thread it would be okay to abbreviate, sorry.

Well, it was certainly less theatrical than the Morrigu fighting alongside Odin against the Darque Tentacle sorcerers dream I had a few months ago. (Which in my mind was clearly the result of watching too many corvid youtube videos and reading the Odin kennings thread.)

*laughs* That's fantastic!

-E-

Hey! Us dark tentacle sorcerers need love too!

I live in Innsmouth, I think I've covered that sufficiently in my previous dating life.

Vinia Mojica is "an initiated priestess of the orisha Yemaya" who sang this prayer to Eleggua on the intro to Common's Electric Circus:



Or did we cover that already?

Found her on AfroDiaspores.

AfroDiaspores has a brief thing on Aurora Lamar, priestess of Agayu, madam of the China de Maximiliano brothel and, apparently, queer religious icon.

The video is nearly incomprehensible to me, but the book's pretty interesting. Her house in El Cerro was both a religious site and a bordello.

Priestess of Agayu? Fascinating!

-E-

"Agayu" is an unfamiliar name to me... you know more?

Assuming it's cognate to Aganju and Agallu, yes He's the Lord of the Volcano, who is Nana's son, and Xango's father. He's very, very masculine.

For some reason I've had the impression that He doesn't generally choose women as His own children, but I'm not sure that assumption was well grounded in any patakis or anything...

-E-

For a friend -- has anyone ever heard of Damballa being equated with St. Patrick?

And if so, any sources?

If so, I'd love to know . . .

Absolutely. Not sure of the sources, it seems to be common knowledge amongst the Loa followers I know, actually.

It's primarily because St. Patrick is depicted with snakes.

Edited to add: Yeah, web searches pop it up all over the place, it's so common. I'm not sure how one would go about finding a "source" for it, per se, since it's not like Vodoun has specific recorded scripture or anything.

I did find one source on the subject I thought we'd all appreciate ;)
http://cleanlivingindifficultcircumstances.blogspot.com/2011/03/saint-patrick-dambala.html

-E-