Random Stereotype-Shattering Facts About the Voodoo Religion (15 items)

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  (#1) Voodoo Began in 1685

  The seeds of Voodoo's practices go back to ancient African tribal rituals, but it wasn't until around 1685 when slave masters began to instill a Catholic belief system in the Africans they stole from their homes that a syncretism began to unfold that would blossom into what is now known as Voodoo. Even though slaves began to practice Catholicism, the practices took on double meanings and many of the saints were soon viewed as deities that could be contacted via ritual. 
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  (#2) The Truth About Zombies

  Thanks to Hollywood, the most popular myth associated with Voodoo is a priestess or priest's ability to call forth a zombie to do their bidding. Depending on which arm of Voodoo you follow, the concept of the zombie changes wildly. In West Africa, the "zombi" is a creature without a soul, self-awareness, or intelligence. In Haiti, a zombie is a person who has been "bewitched" through a neurotoxic powder and used to work on plantations or do odd jobs.

  That might sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but in the early 2000s, a rash of crimes committed with the drug scopolamine, a powder that renders its users zombie-like and completely open to suggestion, broke out across Colombia and reinforced the idea of the Haitian zombie. 
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  (#3) It Takes a Full Year for a Spirit to Transfer to the Afterlife

  In a heartbreaking article about the Haitian earthquake in 2011, Edwidge Danticat explained the most important Haitian Voodoo death belief. According to Danticat, it's believed that when a person’s spirit leaves the body after death it becomes trapped in whatever nature is surrounding the place of death (rivers, mountains, trees, etc.). After a full year and a day, the family has a ceremonial celebration to commemorate the deceased being released into the world to live again. 
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  (#4) Bondye Is Similar to God

  For all intents and purposes, Bondye is basically Voodoo's equivalent to God. Bondye lives somewhere outside of human understanding and is a formless omniscient being that manifests itself through a variety of deities who act on Bondye's behalf. Bondye is sometimes seen as an amount of good, rather than a thing that walks around and teaches lessons. For instance, if everyone in your family got sick after eating dinner last night, you would say that there was a lack of Bondye in your life. However, if you had a great meal with everyone, there was much Bondye. 
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  (#5) You'll Never Memorize All the Loas

  Because practitioners of Voodoo can't deal with Bondye directly, they have to chat with a vast collection of demigods, or "les lois" (which translates to "the laws" in English), who are responsible for a specific domain or part of life. For example, if you are a farmer, you would give praise and offerings to the spirit of agriculture, Azacca.
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  (#6) Voodoo Priestesses and Priests Handle Everything

  The concept of voodoo queens as bone-shaking, chicken blood-spraying wild women is such a far cry from the actual role played by a modern priestess or priest. A modern day voodoo priestess or priest not only performs sacred rituals but is also known as a community leader and someone who can consult on a wide range of topics. 
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  (#7) Homosexuality Is Generally Accepted

  It depends on which priest or priestess you're dealing with, but most modern Voodoo practitioners don't have a problem including members of the LGTBQ community in their rituals, although in some countries with a larger Catholic influence there is a social stigma attached to being gay. Most historians believe that the reason homosexuals are included in most rituals is because Voodoo is not a fertility-based religion. 
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  (#8) Singing Is an Important Part of Voodoo

  One of the important parts of any Voodoo ritual is the inclusion of singing. Because slavery made it impossible for families to pass down a written document of rituals, or even a family history, songs worked as a way to not only give an oral history but also as a way to ritualize their everyday way of life and build their sense of community. 
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  (#9) They're Serious About Their Death Rituals

  In Voodoo lore, the soul is split into two parts, the gros-bon-ange and the ti-bon-ange. The gros-bon-ange reflects the part of the cosmic energy that turns into life force and the ti-bon-ange reflects the person's knowledge and experience and it shapes the type of person you become. Unfortunately, this part of the soul is also the most malleable to sorcery, and it can cause the most trouble after death. If the ritual of the nine nights isn't performed correctly to make sure that the ti-bon-ange stays buried, it's believed that it walks the earth to "cause misfortune" to others. 
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  (#10) Women Play an Important Role in Voodoo

  In Haitian Voodoo, women play one of the most key roles in their rituals by opening themselves up to be possessed by a loa (or servant of Bondye). It's believed that the loas "marry" a woman by possessing them through trance dreams or entering into the person and, in doing so, take a human form, creating a voodoo-si.
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  (#11) Voodoo Has a Complicated Relationship with Sex

  While it's true that many cultures which practice Voodoo are totally okay with male polygamy and their priestesses "marrying" a deity, they're completely against sex being used in a ritualistic fashion. Prior to a ceremony, Voodoo practitioners often abstain from sex. And in some cultures, some initiates are tasked with staying celibate for up to 41 days after they're initiated into a Voodoo circle. 
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  (#12) Voodoo Was Illegal in Haiti for Much of the 19th Century

  Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, a large population in Haiti began to practice Voodoo, melding various rituals into what would become modern Haitian Voodoo. Beginning in 1791, a revolt broke out amongst the Haitian people that was jumpstarted by their leader, Boukman, claiming that the spirits of the island had promised to support the people's quest for freedom if they were honored for the next 200 years. Even though the Haitian people won their freedom from France, they were still bound by trade laws and were forced to cease all practicing of Voodoo, causing the practices to go underground and grow even more entwined with the Catholic faith. 
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  (#13) Possession Plays a Massive Part in Voodoo

  When we think of possession, our minds tend to immediately jump to pea soup and heads spinning around backwards, but in Voodoo, the act of possession is something holy not meant to be taken lightly. During a possession ritual, following an animal sacrifice, a believer will begin to sing and rhythmically bang drums while a priestess works herself into a fervor. On the exterior, the possessed speaks in tongues or even goes into convulsions, but on the inside, the possessed is allegedly receiving guidance from a helpful spirit. 
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  (#14) Voodoo Is About Community

  The most important role of a modern-day Voodoo "church" is that of keeping their community together and thriving. After Hurricane Katrina, about 350 members of New Orleans' Voodoo community came together, crossing the once-monumental barrier of Haitian and New Orleans Voodoo, in order to help rebuild their city. In African Voodoo communities, the priest or priestess is known to act as not only a religious leader but as someone who can aid in solving familial disputes and as a local doctor. 
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  (#15) There's a Universal Soul That Lives Outside the Body

  Perhaps one of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of voodoo is their concept of the "universal soul." Practitioners of voodoo believe that while dreaming, or in an act of possession, their spirit will leave their body and make contact with the universal energy inherent in all life. Rather than being put off by the idea of possession or a roaming soul, this ability to make contact with the spirit world is considered to be a blessing. 

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