Nettle Rose-Intro to Voodoo

Introduction

Voodoo is a system of beliefs, a religion, and a practical magical system with its roots in black Africa.The centers from which voodoo spread thorugh the world and developed are Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, south-east Gana and Senegal in Africa, where the terms Vodou, Vodoun, Vudu and Vudun are in use, and Haiti, where the term Voudon is in use.The Haiti islands are a specific background, where a special system developed , that consists of original elements and cults form black Africa mixed with creole legacy and catholic cult; further mixing with catholic cults and religion is noticed in Brasil, but we will deal with this later on.
The foundations of voodoo lie in the worship of ancestors and a multitude of Loa or deities, as well as a supreme being, the creators of all Universe.The basic purpose of voodoo as a practical system is to influence daily life, and to communicate with ancestors and deities through which that influence is made possible, and also the travel of the man's soul into spiritually higher realms.Although there are a multitude of Loa (this term signifies the singular as well the plural), we will focus our attention only on main Families of Loa, which are three in number, and which are common to all systems of voodoo.The Loa are forms given to manifestations of the divine force, in order to make easier the communication between them and the human race.That communication is not possible with the Creator, the Supreme Beings, who are away and beyond the realms of human existence, and serve as the upholders of the Creation, the Ones who make certain that all functions well and flows in its course; a good parallel would be Orlog, the eternal law, above humans and gods, from the ancient nordic tradition.Now we will deal with those Supreme Beings and the Loa.
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Yes indeed another fine site I found thru entrecards. It is a very fascinating religion. We went to visit New Orleans and stopped at the Voodoo museum. I hope it wasn't hurt during the storm.