by Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen
Christian missionaries and polemicists in Haiti have long accused Vodouisants of polytheism, idol worship, and Satanism. Mambo Racine's answer — and it is the answer of Haitian Vodou itself — is theological precision: God is One, supreme, and the lwa serve at God's pleasure. The key witness is La Sirene herself, who sings, in the ceremony, that there is nothing greater than God in the country.
This post was written as part of a teaching unit on La Sirene conducted on Mambo Racine's Vodou Arts forum and cross-posted to alt.religion.voodoo in March 2005. It addresses the Vodou conception of God, the relationship of the lwa to the divine, and the practical devotional implications for practitioners. The Haitian proverb si Bondye vle — "if God wants" — runs through Haitian daily life as a theological reflex, and Mambo Racine unpacks it here.
As Vodouisants, we believe in only One God. This God is all-powerful, all-knowing. We believe that this One God is the same God served by both Roman Catholics and all the various types of Protestants, although they do not agree with us. In Haiti, both Roman Catholics and Protestants practice hate speech against Vodouisants. They slander us with the assertion that we "serve Satan," but nothing could be further from the truth.
The lwa are not God. They are lesser beings, and can only act with the acquiescence of God. This belief is so strongly rooted in Haitian psychology, no one says "See you tomorrow" without adding si Bondye vle — "if God wants." If a man says "See you tomorrow" and does not say "...if God wants," the person to whom he is speaking is apt to add it for him, since omitting this phrase is tantamount to tempting God!
Almost any statement about the future requires this qualifier. Bef mwen ap met ba demen, si Bondye vle — "My cow will give birth tomorrow, if God wants."
This does not mean that Haitians, or Vodouisants, are fatalists. If a person is victimized by ill fortune or by the aggressive attack of another, no one thinks that God has willed it so. Attacks, physical or magical, upon innocent people are a sin. However — and this is a big "however" — in rural Haitian communities, feuds over land, over women, over past attacks, can go on for generations. Sometimes it is not clear who is innocent and who is not. In these cases, Houngans, Mambos and bokors will all be working wanga, enthusiastically engaging in magical wars.
Under such conditions, a peristyle is a place of refuge, where the initiate children of the house are protected and nourished. And a lwa such as La Sirene, beneficent and powerful, is an excellent choice for a peristyle's ruling lwa. She is the loving Mother of All, the wealthy Queen of the Seas.
In our peristyle, the Roots Without End Society, La Sirene is a frequent visitor. She is served in the Rada portion of a Vodou ceremony, and when it is time for her songs and her dances, my initiate children are more than happy to prepare for her arrival! They make ready buckets of water with which to drench and cool her (and I suspect they get a kick out of rendering their disciplinarian Mambo soaking wet!), they place her offerings on the altar surrounding the poto mitan (centerpost), they tie their heads with beautiful pale blue satin kerchiefs. Anyone who has temporarily drifted away to the bathroom, or to chat with friends, immediately comes back into the ceremonial space, and all the initiates present draw closer together before the drums.
When La Sirene appears, she kisses and hugs and caresses her children. She drinks her champagne or anisette, and if her ceremonial food has been prepared she eats it, but she gives the greater portion of her offerings to her children, just as a good mother takes the food from her own mouth to insure that the needs of her children are satisfied.
There are many songs about La Sirene. Now I am going to discuss one of them. La Sirene is the Whale, the powerful mammal, the nursing mother that lives in the depths of the sea and knows its secrets. "I am the Whale," she affirms.
The next line is most significant in the context of our discussion. "There is nothing greater than God in the country," says La Sirene, before she goes on to announce, "I am the Whale, I command." In other words, La Sirene commands if God wants!
Therefore, those of you who will be making a service to La Sirene are encouraged to increase your devotion to God. Spend as much time serving God as you do serving the lwa, for only by the permission of God can the force and power of La Sirene affect your life.
Learn a prayer to the One God, if you do not already know one. The Lord's Prayer is a good choice. A Jewish person might say the Shema, which begins, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." You may serve God as Goddess, but make sure you understand this to be the One Most High, the Almighty!
I invite discussion of the nature of God, the relationship of the lwa to God, and our relationship to both.
Peace and love,
Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen
Se bon ki ra — Good is rare. Haitian Proverb
Colophon
Archived from alt.religion.voodoo. Message-ID: <[email protected]>. Posted March 14, 2005. Archived by the Good Works Library.
🌲