The concept of Death as Africans saw it.

Death, although a dreaded event, is perceived as the beginning of a person's deeper relationship with all of creation, the complementing of life and the beginning of the communication between the visible and the invisible worlds. The goal of life is to become an ancestor after death. This is why every person who dies must be given a "correct" funeral, supported by a number of religious ceremonies. If this is not done, the dead person may become a wandering ghost, unable to "live" properly after death and therefore a danger to those who remain alive. It might be argued that "proper" death rites are more a guarantee of protection for the living than to secure a safe passage for the dying.

Many African peoples have a custom of removing a dead body through a hole in the wall of a house, and not through the door. The reason for this seems to be that this will make it difficult (or even impossible) for the dead person to remember the way back to the living, as the hole in the wall is immediately closed. Sometimes the corpse is removed feet first, symbolically pointing away from the former place of residence.
Many people believe that death is the loss of a soul, or souls.

Herbs and extracts

ADAM & EVE ROOT
Classic voodoo love root from a rare orchid that grows only in the South of the U.S.A. Used in countless love spells.

ANGELICH ROOT
Said to be under the influence of the "Holy Ghost", a potent purification agent. Used in charm bags to attract money, love and purity and also to drive away evil.

ASHFOTIDA POWDER
An almost legendary magical herb. Believed to destroy psychic attacks, curses, hexes, jinxes and evil spirits. To free oneself and home from evil energies.

ARCHANGEL HERB
Carry in a grey mojo bag to be rid of negative energies, alternatively place the bag over the front door of the home.
Boil a teaspoonful of the herb and a 1/4-cup of salt in a cup of water for 10 minutes. Let cool and add a 1/4-cup of wine alcohol (vodka, rum etc.). Add a few drops to the bath wash and scrub water to purify and protect the home and self from all forms of negative energy.

BATS BLOOD POWDER
Bats blood is mentioned in most books of herbal magic and voodoo. It is considered the most potent hexing or cursing agent available. Bats blood is usually used in spells designed to curse another.

BONESET
Used often in magic. Wards off evil. Make a tea and sprinkle around the home to be rid of all forms of evil.

BLACK SAMPSON
A powerful herb when used to attract men in love/lust spells. Comes with a sexy love spell. Herb used in some of the more famous love potions mentioned in magical texts.

CALAMUS / SWEET FLAG ROOT
Calamus has a great reputation for overturning evil and is used to bind and strengthen spells.

CAMPHOR, pure gum.
Pure gum camphor is difficult to obtain. Used in magic formulas and spells to avert evil. A tiny amount burned in charcoal as an incense is said to rid the area of any negative energy.

GRAINS OF PARADISE
A Voodoo / Hoodoo & Santeria staple, considered essential in many formulas and spells. A very sexy herb used in the magic of passion and lust. Said to make sexual partnerships sizzle when used properly.

LODAGE ROOT
The classic love root. Generally used to attract and hold a lover. Often used in the bath to become more attractive.

MASTER WORT
Said to grant physical strength and great courage to all that use it in a special spell. Also said to aid the user to overcome adversity, one of the best protective herbs.

DITTANY OF CRETE ROOT
Dittany of Crete is often used to attract success and power to whoever carries it in a yellow mojo bag anointed with John the Conqueror oil.
Said to be a potent psychic herb used in the magic of contacting the spirits.

DRAGONS BLOOD POWDER
Dragons blood is mentioned in most books of herbal magic and Voodoo. It is considered the most potent uncrossing herb available. Dragons blood can be added to the bath, burned as an incense or carried in a mojo bag.

DRAGONS TEARS
Dragon's Tears are small vivid red seeds of a magical herb believed to overcome hexes, crossings and all negative energy. It is considered one of the most potent uncrossing herbs available. 13 Dragons Tears are usually boiled in 1 cup of water the resulting liquid then being added to the bath, scrub or wash water. Dragon's Tears can be carried in a red mojo bag to ward evil away.

HI JOHN THE CONQUEROR ROOT
A rare Voodoo root mentioned in the books of Voodoo and Santeria. Used in love, money, success and uncrossing magic, this herb should be carried in mojo bag, used in the bath, added to incenses etc.
Note this herb is toxic and should be kept out of reach of children and can never be eaten

SOLOMONS SEAL ROOT
A powerful herb when used to overcome evil in exorcism spells. When carried in a green mojo bag is said to bring money.

SPIKENARD
A herb used to attract men or woman in love/lust spells, also used to keep a spouse or lover faithful. Spikenard is often used in formulas and potions as well as incense.

STAR ANISE
Also known as Septagram Seeds. Said to attract luck when anointed with Five Finger Grass Oil. Carry in a lucky yellow charm bag or place in the home above the front door. Renew the charm every 2 weeks.

TORMENTIL
Torments a person who has wronged you. Bury with their photograph (or sample of their handwriting) in a wild place. Sprinkle under the bed of an unwanted guest. It is said that they will soon leave.

UNICORN ROOT HERB
Yes this is a genuine unicorn root! A very rare herb indeed, used to overcome hexes, crossings and all forms of negative energy. Even ghosts and poltergeists flee from this herb. Unicorn herb should be carried in a grey mojo bag when affected by negative energies.

VETIVERT REED
A classic and very rare Voodoo herb used to attract a lover, improve finances and overcome negativity. Used in hundreds of spells from New Orleans.

WAHOO BARK
An extremely rare Voodoo herb mentioned in the herb books of Anna Riva and Donna Rose. Wahoo is used in uncrossing magic and to overcome hexes.
Note this herb is slightly toxic and should be kept out of reach of children and cannot be eaten

WONDOR OF THE WORLD ROOT
Said to attract love, health, sexual potency and prosperity to all that carry it. Also used in the magic of wishes. This root is often used as a substitute for the mandrake, which is extremely expensive.

Voodoo in Mainstream Art and Design

The Birth of a Voodoo

African Voodoo Gods/Goddesses

Gods/Goddesses

• Anansi- god of wisdom and trickery
• Avlekete- goddess of the sea
• Buluku- god of the sky
• Dam-Ayido- god of serpents and death
• Eleggua- god of crossroads and communication
• Ezili- goddess of love
• Gorilla God/Ghekre- god of judgement
• Kibuka
• Legba- god of gateways
• Lusa- god of the sun
• Mahu- goddess of the moon
• Moondog
• Nana
• Ogun- god of war
• Oya- goddess of wind
• Sagbata- god of death and disease
• Shango- god of thunder and lightning

Anansi

• Real name is Kwaku Anansi
• God of wisdom and trickery
• Enemies are Dam-Ayido and Sagbata
• Has super-human strength that can life up to 25 tons, which also includes stamina and resistance to injury
• Can tap into and manipulate ambient and magical energies for a variety of effects like shapeshifting
• He intorduced the concept of day and night.

Buluku

• Real name is Nana-Buluku
• God of the sky
• Enemies are Set, Chthon, and Thanos
• Superhuman strength, stamina, and resistance to harm
• Can manipulate the universe's ambient cosmic energies but has not been demonstrated yet

Dam-Ayido

• Real name is Dan-Ayido-Hwedo and sometimes known as Damballah
• God of the dead and serpents
• Enemies are Marie LaVeau and possibly the Avengers
• His powers consist of being imortal, like all of the African Voodoo Gods. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all terrestrial diseases and if he is wounded he is healed from his godly life force in superhuman speed. In order for him to even come close to dieing, it would take something in great magnitude that it disperses a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. And even that may not kill him.
• Takes the physical form of a snake but can shift into other human or non-humans forms
• Has the power to control others
  

• Shango (left)
• Gaea (right)
• Moondog (bottom)

The individual deities of voodoo have all the character of the gods of ancient Greece -- some capricious, some seductive, some full of wrath. In Cove, Benin, the voodoo faithful gather to dance and thank the god Sakpata, a powerful divinity of the Earth, for recent rains. Women dancers sway in bright dresses with a mottled pattern imitating the scars of smallpox. Sakpata can bring life-giving rain, but the god is responsible for the dreaded disease, too.

Early History

This word originated in Ghana

If you bring together the religious practices of dozens of West African cultures, mix vigorously, and season with Catholic Christianity, you will have something like voodoo. That is what happened in Haiti as slaves from Africa were brought to the island to work plantations there, starting in the 1500s. They were baptized as Catholics, but instead of praying to the saints they worshiped their familiar tribal gods, called loa. Their rituals, led by voodoo priests or priestesses, involved offerings to the loa and sometimes possession of the worshipers by the loa. Since the loa were very powerful, some followers of voodoo used rituals to enlist their aid in black magic.

Again and again the Haitian authorities, first Spanish and after 1697 French, tried to suppress all African religions, rightly seeing the potential for defiance and rebellion, but such efforts only strengthened the determination of the slaves to continue their practices in secret. In 1791 it was voodoo priests who instigated and guided the rebellion that eventually led to Haiti's independence in 1804.

Despite opposition from the Catholic Church, voodoo has continued to thrive in Haiti and places to which Haitians have gone, including Louisiana. It is there that we have early attestations in English. A Carolina newspaper reported in 1820 that in New Orleans a house was being "used as a kind of temple for certain occult practices and the idolatrous worship of an African deity, called Vandoo." The form we know in English today, voodoo, appeared in the writing of New Orleans author George Washington Cable in 1880.

Voodoo mixes many African cultures. According to one source, it incorporates elements from "Fon, the Nago, the Ibos, Dahomeans, Congos, Senegalese, Haussars, Caplaous, Mondungues, Mandinge, Angolese, Libyans, Ethiopians, and the Malgaches." The name voodoo also has a number of possible sources, including Fon vodun and Ewe vudu. Since the Ewe form is closest to modern English, we will use it here.

Ewe is spoken by more than one and a half million people in Ghana, about 15 percent of the population, and it is an official literary language there. Nearly a million people in Togo also speak Ewe. It is a member of the Volta-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

One other contribution to English from Ewe is the obscure and obsolete name John Canoe. In pre-Civil War North Carolina, that name designated the leader of a group of slaves who went from house to house at Christmas time singing and asking for gifts. According to research by Frederic Cassidy, the name came from an Ewe word sounding like John Canoe and meaning "sorcerer-man."

Common Symbols.

Voodoo=Vodou

National folk religion of Haiti. It combines theological and magical elements of African religions and ritual elements of Roman Catholicism. Practitioners profess belief in a supreme God but give more attention to a large number of spirits called the loa, which can be identified as local or African gods, deified ancestors, or Catholic saints. The loa demand ritual service and attach themselves to individuals or families. In turn, they act as helpers, protectors, and guides. In ritual services, a priest or priestess leads devotees in ceremonies involving song, drumming, dance, prayer, food preparation, and animal sacrifice. The loa possess worshipers during services, dispensing advice, performing cures, or displaying special physical feats. A well-known aspect of Vodou is the zombie.

Text book definition.

VOODOO.

n., pl., -doos.

1. A religion practiced chiefly in Caribbean countries, especially Haiti, syncretized from Roman Catholic ritual elements and the animism and magic of slaves from West Africa, in which a supreme God rules a large pantheon of local and tutelary deities, deified ancestors, and saints, who communicate with believers in dreams, trances, and ritual possessions. Also called vodoun.
2. A charm, fetish, spell, or curse holding magic power for adherents of voodoo.
3. A practitioner, priest, or priestess of voodoo.
4. Deceptive or delusive nonsense.