What do you know about Voodoo/Santeria?

[Ikarusion]

i saw some interviews on santeria, which evolved from voodoo.
i find it interesting and would like to know more, especially on the spiritual side of it.

do we have anyone here that has personal experience with any form of voodoo or santeria?
id also appreciate inputs from people that follow a different path. just trying to understand it better.

thank you.

[mosquito]

No, but I know a man who has.

Google "Ross Heaven", a British shamanic healer who trained with a voodoo priestess from Haiti. I'm sure you'll find all sorts of information, including his books.

Good luck

[Ikarusion]

ou, i read his book on plant shamanism, but i thought he's mainly focused on that. thanks.

hmm, after looking at the book reviews on amazon, i am sceptical.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vodou-Shaman-Haitian-Healing-Power/dp/089281134X?ie=UTF8&qid=1465300438&ref_=la_B001JP4URE_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1


This book is a joke to the Haitian religon.I take this book as an offense,as someone of Hatian descent.I am close to a real Haitian mambo and she said this book is a slap in the face to the religion.I hope the author is proud of himself for making a joke out of Vodou.

Ross Heaven has been initiated by a woman called Mambo Racine a couple of years back. Now he claims she is a fraud, that the initiations she performs are bogus and the knowledge she transmits to other people is not even worth mentioning - and indeed his claims are supported by 99% of the vodou community around the world!

But hey...he still claims to be a valid hougan, fully and truly initiated in Haitian Vodou? This makes no sense at all!

[raff]

To be interested in Santeria is to damn yourself to the evil of darkness. For more information on this subject go on to YouTube and type in: Ex Satan worshipper John Ramirez Testimony. Also anther one is: The dangers of Santeria and the Occult. Dont take my word for it listen to someone who knows.

[Ikarusion]

Dont take my word for it listen to someone who knows.
that's what im trying to do. :)
i thought maybe i get lucky and find someone here that actually practices some form of it, but alas, there wasn't even a thread on here before mine. :(

i dont know much, but i bellieve, like many things you can use these powers for good or evil.
but im especially interested in their world view, not just their rituals.

i'll check your input, thank you.

[shaberon]

Voodoo is not purely evil, but I'm not sure it's too spiritual either. It refers to "the family" and has a lot to do with the soap opera of regular life. So it has a tendency to use ritual and sympathetic magic to fix relationship problems. In that it also casts hexes, those are supposed to be justified, i. e. the "zombie" form of slavery is reserved for those who committed a serious transgression. But people will of course use the same tools for sheer spite; I once kept a poppett for about three years that had been used to put someone in the hospital. Just wanted to see if it had any other effects, which it did not.

When I was in Asheville, they opened a place called the Light Center or something like that, which was just a ritual space available for public use. You could do Wicca or whatever, no questions asked; but when the Santeria folks started killing animals there, they got kicked out. Blood rituals of any kind are just about the worst thing to do, and some practitioners use it to invite entities to possess them.

Now for example, when my girlfriend acts like an idiot, I could use a spell or potion or something to make her change; but I think it is more spiritual to only use the influence I can produce with my mind, transparently and obviously. If that influence is not effective, then I should accept the possibly painful karma that results. In an extreme case, if someone is about to commit suicide, or murder, perhaps such a spell is justified; but for general purposes, I don't think they are.

Papa Legba, Papa Damballa, Baron Samedi--I don't remember them very well, as I didn't get enough from their lore to hook me into it. I worked for a couple of years with a Louisiana Voudoun, and although he had a sense of humour, I saw him more as a drunkard whose mind was prone to dissolve in static. I'm not sure if the full belief spectrum keeps one focused on the "personal self", but I've seen nothing from the fringes that would suggest otherwise.

[Ikarusion]

wow, thanks.

from what i've heard santeria is often used to forsee problems one can encounter and things youd want to stay away from.
i was wondering why bloodsacrifice is so important and what is actually offered.

my theory, after death the soul leaves the body, but energy stored up in it gets released and this energy will be consumed by the spiritual beings you channel.
is that correct? and the bigger the offer, the more energy gets released.

i heard a practitioner say that we are all one, so when offering another life form, its still like offering some part of you. but i think that theyre making it too easy on themselves. we still live in division here and should all be sovereign. so youre still robbing someone of their current incarnation here. even if its "just" a chicken.

but tell me, how do these people view existance in total and how do they see themselves in the grand scheme of things?

id really like to know your opinion and knowledge on the subject in more detail if you have the time and grace to do so.
for example, why are blood rituals the worst thing to do? is killing bad and hence your ritual already put in a negative light?

thanks for your time,
ika.

[Althena]

I suggest reading The Serpent and the Rainbow. Great book.

[Ikarusion]

haha, i watched the movie. is the book completely non fiction?

[Althena]

haha, i watched the movie. is the book completely non fiction?

The book is much better than the movie and is based on a true story.

[shaberon]

for example, why are blood rituals the worst thing to do? is killing bad and hence your ritual already put in a negative light?


Most simply put, because there are different classes of entities that inhabit the "invisible world". Most of the ones that can be easily contacted are good actors...they can use your memories, the thoughts of people nearby, or communicate messages that seem profound. They might enjoy making you excited, or afraid. They basically block intellectual development, creativity, freedom and responsibility, and reinforce worldly illusions. Blood offerings are a primary way for these things to "crawl back" into our world, and yes, one chicken will do it, but thousands of humans will do more.

It's not so much that killing is bad in a strict sense of the word; that depends on the intent and the results. Most of it is fairly bad, but if you kill someone in the process of defending yourself, that would be justified. There are not many other circumstances that would justify it.

I can't say authoritatively, whether something like "Papa Legba" is the ghost of an old sorcerer that should have moved on 400 years ago. But I would say that there are such things, and the more we communicate with them, the more powerful they get, and I would have to question whether I would want to invoke such a being for its "future warnings", when it seems better that I should just sharpen my mind.

I believe they actually killed a goat at the Light Center. I don't know or don't remember "voodoo cosmology" or if there is such a thing; my impression is that it focuses on your "normal" relationships, family, friends, neighbors, but this could be incomplete.