(The following is by Debra Kelly of ListVerse.com)
Thanks to popular portrayal by Hollywood, voodoo is perhaps one of the world’s most misunderstood religions. Most depictions of voodoo show a dark, mysterious religion that revolves around animal sacrifices, casting harmful spells, and using dolls to hurt others. That’s about as far from the truth as you can get.
There are three main types of voodoo, each drawing their sphere of influence from a different place. West African voodoo is still practiced by around 30 million people, particularly in nations like Ghana and Benin. Rituals and beliefs are extensive, and largely untouched by the outside influences that have shaped other types of voodoo.
Louisiana voodoo is a unique brand of voodoo practiced, as its name suggests, mainly in Louisiana and the southeastern United States. Though brought over from West African voodoo, this form has been heavily influenced by the practices of Spanish and French settlers, as well as the Creole population.
Haitian voodoo, practiced in Haiti, has been largely shaped by its French influence as well as Christianity.
In the case of Louisiana and Haitian voodoo, many Christian traditions, beliefs, and figures have been incorporated into this flexible religion. The spirits are central to the practice of voodoo, and many of the central figures have Christian counterparts.
Voodoo in Haiti and Louisiana (as well as in Haitian communities in Miami and New York City) is derived from West African Voodoo but blended with the superficial aspects of Roman Catholicism. This came about when slaves were brought to the New World and pressured to convert to Roman Catholicism. They mixed West African Voodoo with Roman Catholicism, thus forming an underground type of Voodoo found in Latin America, Cuba, Haiti, and Louisiana. In Cuba, this blend is usually called Santeria; in Brazil, it is Candomble. In Haitian Voodoo, worship is directed to the loa, deities who serve the one god. The loa became associated with Catholic saints. Women in Louisiana Voodoo who presided over rituals and ceremonies and used charms and magical potions became known as Voodoo Queens. The most well-known Voodoo Queen was Marie Laveau of New Orleans who also considered herself a devout Catholic. Because of this, further syncretization between Voodoo and Roman Catholicism ensued.
Ephesians 6:12 – For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Voodoo is a West African word meaning “spirit,” and comes from term vodun. The basic ethos of the religion is that everything in the universe is connected. Nothing happens by chance in this world, and there are no accidents. Everything that one person does to another, he is doing to himself, because he is that person.
Religious ceremonies contain prayers, dancing, and rituals, as well as animal sacrifices. The figure of the snake plays a major part in the rituals, and the high priest or priestess will embody the serpent’s power. Spirits of wealth, nature, and happiness possess the bodies of believers at the ceremony. Dancing and music are also major elements. In the West, the dancing has often been portrayed as sexual, but that is not its main purpose: it’s a way to connect with spirits and the spirit world.
In 2003, the government of Haiti sanctioned it as an official religion, so believers can be baptized and married within the practice. There are millions of people in Haiti alone who share this faith.
(WiseGeek.org)
Pope John Paul II has spoken at length about the esteem with which he holds practitioners of voodoo, acknowledging the “fundamental goodness” inherent in their practices, teachings, and beliefs. He even attended a voodoo ceremony in 1993, helping to cement the amiable coexistence of these two seemingly opposite religions.
Deut 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, 11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. 12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Voodoo dolls are more complicated than they’re usually portrayed. A voodoo doll doesn’t actually symbolize a person in the respect that what happens to it, happens to the person. Instead, a doll is only associated with the person in question—usually by attaching a picture of the person, or something that was in intimate contact with them, such as a lock of hair (attaching this personification is actually the purpose of the voodoo straight pin usually seen in a voodoo doll, which is commonly believed to be an instrument of pain). [Thus, the pin going into the ‘voodoo doll’ is not to inflict harm on the person it is associated with, but to attach a ‘personification’ (picture, lock of hair, etc.)]
Other things are usually added to the doll, and these vary based on the intended purpose. Garlic, flower petals, perfumes, or even money can be added—not as a direct message to the person, but as an appeal to the spirits to open themselves to the doll and the wishes of those involved. The voodoo doll can be used for a huge variety of purposes, and most are benevolent.
2 Corinthians 11:14 – And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Voodoo practitioners see themselves as servants of the spirits. They don’t actually tell the spirits to do anything; they provide offerings and honor, and then ask. Voodoo priests and priestesses undergo a long period of training before performing any ritual that opens themselves up to spiritual possession. During these rituals, one of the two spirits that inhabit the body—the ti bon ange—leaves the body so the spirit of a loa can possess it. The ti bon ange is the portion of the spirit that contains the individual, and must be protected when the individual is hosting a loa. The other part, the gros bon ange, is a spirit that is shared among all the living.
2 Kings 21:6 – And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Leviticus 20:6 – And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
Much of voodoo centers around healing and herbalism. One of the most important reasons for summoning a spirit in a voodoo ritual is to ask for aid in healing the sick and the injured. Healing is a spiritual idea as well as a physical one, and practitioners can focus on healing a broken heart or changing a person’s luck for the better, as well as healing the body.
Many cultures recognize white magic as the good, healing sort of magic, while black magic is the darker sort. In voodoo, there is no distinction between white and black. Instead, when an evil spirit is conjured or bribed by an evil person to do something bad, it’s called red magic. The color of the spirit is red, and when a practitioner allows an evil loa to take possession of them, their eyes turn red, showing that evil is present.
Sometimes a benevolent spirit can turn evil by the wishes that are imposed on it. This is in complete contradiction to the actual teachings of voodoo, which center around the good and the charitable. Part of the role of a female practitioner
(a Queen) and a male practitioner (a Doctor) is to stop red magic before it happens.
Acts 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. 14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
In another striking similarity to Christianity, the voodoo pantheon has three main tiers. At the top is a single God (Bondye), who is a present yet distant figure. The loa make up another tier—spirits that interact with mortals on a regular basis. The individual’s deceased relatives play an important role in their spiritual life as well, as honoring one’s ancestors is an important part of voodoo. The third tier is the mortals themselves.
One of the fundamental concepts of voodoo is the relationship between these tiers; Papa Legba is one of the most important of the loa, as he is the gatekeeper between the mortal realm and the divine. All mortal contact with the loa goes through Legba, and it is said that he opens the gates between worlds.
The images of you commonly see of voodoo practitioners dancing with snakes aren’t done for the shock value. The snake is hugely important in the mythos of voodoo. Damballa is the serpent god and the oldest of the voodoo pantheon. He is said to have been the one to create the world. Damballa created the water from his shed skin and the stars in the sky from his coils. He is married to Ayida Wedo, the rainbow, in an eternal love that represents the balance between the male and the female.
He represents wisdom and the mind, and is associated with symbols like the color white, eggs, bones, and ivory. The protector of the helpless and young children as well as the handicapped and the deformed, he is said to transport the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Priests and priestesses can be possessed by the spirit of Damballa, but they do not speak; instead, they hiss.
Animal sacrifice has always played an important part in voodoo rituals, but the reason is not because of a morbid fascination with death or blood. The loa use energy in their communication with mortals, along with the general running of their day-to-day affairs. By sacrificing animals and offering them to the loa, practitioners believe they are combining the life force of the animal with the life force of the loa, rejuvenating the spirit.
The meat and blood of the animal is often cooked and consumed as part of the ceremony. Some spirits have animals that are typically associated with them in sacrifice; chickens, for example, are often offered to Damballa. (end Kelly quotes)
Leviticus 19:26 – Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
By blending polytheistic spirit worship with a superficial form of Christianity, Voodoo has effectively denied the primacy of Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross and the need for redemption solely through faith in Christ. Voodoo, therefore, is incompatible with God’s Word in three ways: the true God is not worshiped, Jesus is secondary to the spirits, and occult practices prevail.
2 Kings 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.