so-sleepie:

shittyalchemist:

I’m high as shit and I’m just carrying around this lantern like a fucking guardsman

tags from @cromerholt

(via kissingagrumpygiant)

horsedestruction:

shaunofthedead:

(via grox)

buddwyer:

buddwyer:

Did you know there’s creatures in the forets? I saw them

I saw them

(via c3rvida3)

pinkcomputervoid:

seravph:

seravph:

being so fr when I say that transmisogyny has put feminism back like 50 years

what i thought we had distanced ourselves from was the reduction of women to vaginas and wombs and the ability to bear children. i thought we had progressed past ‘dresses are for women and pants are for men.’ i thought we progressed past the idea that someone is less of a woman if she does not adhere strictly to beauty standards. i thought we progressed past the idea that naturally being comfortable adhering to highly feminine standards is vulgar. but i (sarcastically) guess no one could have predicted that trans-exclusive feminism would be the downfall of all the progress we’ve made

“We’re in danger of losing what the entire second wave of feminism, what the entire second wave of women’s liberation was built on, and that was ‘Biology is not destiny’. ‘One is not born a woman,’ Simone de Beauvoir said, ‘one becomes one’. Now there’s some place where transsexual women and other women intersect. Biological determinism has been used for centuries as a weapon against women, in order to justify a second-class and oppressed status. How on Earth, then, are you going to pick up the weapon of biological determinism and use it to liberate yourself? It’s a reactionary tool.”

— Quote by Leslie Feinberg, from TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism, issue 7, volume 1. 1995.

(via riben)

stormclouds-chainmail:

skykittywhatchamahcallit:

I think this is an incredibly important video to watch

[Video description

A stitched TikTok video by AlexHogy with the text, “stay for the end.”

Original clip by kelly_cadigan, a light skinned person who says, “the only transition that’s taking place really is your pronouns.”

Response by AlexHogy, a light skinned person.

Hey Kelly. I’ve seen a lot of people calling you out right now. I just want to extend my hand and say that I get it. I felt the exact same way and I wanna talk about why I don’t feel that way anymore. I can put and transitioned a decade ago and trans people weren’t on the map. There wasn’t all this great representation. There wasn’t all this terrible legislation. We were just bopping around under the radar. Then more and more of us started coming out and transitioning, which you think I as a trans person would be stoked about but it actually pissed me off because a lot of these people weren’t transitioning the way that I thought they should. When I came out my goal was to transition and then never talk about the past again. So when all these people came out, transitioned, and stayed out, I was like, “What are you doing?” Then I started to see people come out and not transition and I was like, fake, you, no, that’s not real. And then I started seeing non binary people and I lost my damn mind. I could not wrap my head around how a person could not identify as either a man or a woman. Meanwhile, there is an entire sect of the population that feels the exact same way about me. What I realised was that there was something in me that was deeply hurting and it was triggered by seeing people authentically express themselves. I have never been bothered by people with tattoos. I don’t have tattoos. I don’t want them. I’ve also never been bothered by people who have tattoos and then get them removed cause it sounds like a whole bunch of none of my business. But when it came to trans and non binary people it felt like my business. In reality, I wasn’t advocating for myself. I wasn’t willing to speak up when I was uncomfortable. I wasn’t willing to ask for more from society because deep down I didn’t feel like I was worthy of it. I was settling for crumbs and getting mad at people who had the audacity to ask for more from life. But now, I don’t accept crumbs. I do ask for more from life. I take up space now in a way that I never allowed myself to in the past even after I transitioned. And suddenly, this part of our community doesn’t piss me off anymore. Their existence and demand for approval and acceptance, does not mean that there is less love for me. Them taking up space is actually evidence of how authentic I can be. And I’m just so grateful. If I can offer one piece of unsolicited advice, I had the privilege of unpacking all of this offline and I think that saved a lot of collateral damage to real people. So I encourage you to find a safe space where you can speak as freely as you need to to get at the root of whatever is going on, whatever is so upsetting about seeing non binary people. Without risking the harm of people who are just trying to exist. I wish you much love on your journey.

TikTok logo and sound.

End description]

(via boba-t-butch)

repassthemovie:

pada-viya:

The Haitian Vodou exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

The objects in this exhibit were collected by Marianne Lehmann, a Haitian citizen. She began the collection in 1986, and it’s one of the most important collections of Vodou objects.

1: Pwen Ibo

2 & 3: Iwas Ti Jan Petwo, Chen, & Grann Batala.(the alliance of two protective Iwa & their dog)

5: Èzili Frida, Iwa of love, beauty, & sensuality.

8: A Gede (representing life & death)

“Despite having Christianity forced upon them, & despite the ban on the practice of religions other than Catholicism & the severe punishment, & even death, risked by those who disobeyed, African slaves refused to give up their ancestral African religions. Throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, & eighteenth centuries, they continued to practise them clandestinely.

… Haitian Vodou was forged essentially when indigenous & Christian spiritual elements were grafted onto West African spiritual traditions, especially those originating in the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), which is considered the cradle of Vodou.

Little by little, Vodou became a means of cementing identity & a source of resistance against the French colonists.”

 

This is an extraordinarily powerful exhibit, & everyone should see it.

http://www.therepass.com/pages/join/join.html

(via satsekhem)

rockofeye:

In many ways, all spiritual and religious systems and communities are about confronting thresholds and crossroads; within ourselves, within community, and with the spirits who are near and dear to us. Each threshold marks a point in time and reminds us of who were before we found our feet in that particular spot and who we might become. Each crossroad represents what choice we must make in the moment and what choices are created when we set our feet to one particular decision. We cross thresholds and find that a door may close behind us while others open faster or slower, depending on factors we might find out of our hands. We traverse crossroads and confront desire and self-determination mixed with demand and consequence. We might walk down a road only to find it deeply undesirable or filled with brambles we can’t fight through, and backtrack to find the crossroads of our past decision…only that is has changed and the roads stretching out from it are no longer the same as they were.

This is cause and effect, decision and consequence, and this is where we find Legba, Mèt Kafou, and the liminality that Haitian Vodou embodies.

The Western mind has a drive to categorize and create likeness based on our initial understanding of what is in front of us. We are expert puddlejumpers, and we crash in oceans of belief like toddlers in rain boots: we think we know depth and breadth at the initial jump-off and we reach conclusions that might not actually exist, and then are shocked when we find ourselves soaking wet and up to our knees (or over our heads…) in confusion. This is cultural relativism in action and there is really no better example than the Internet Understanding ™ of Atibon Legba and Mèt Kafou.

This isn’t a sometimes cranky houngan throwing shade; it is honest-to-god truth. We are fallible creatures and we approach culture and cultural religion that we have grown up outside of with a flawed understanding birthed from problematic antique anthropological viewpoints that all can be understood inside our own cultural understanding. We do it, and it inevitably throws us for a loop when the spirits show us our lack of understanding.

Happily, we can undo that.

If you Google around or search Tumblr for information about Legba and Kafou, you inevitably come up with a literal mess of information:

• You should propitiate Legba at the crossroads
  
• Mèt Kafou is the literal Devil
  
• Legba is just like American Horror Story made him out to be: a baby-eating, coke-blowing, tophat-wearing, red-eyed demon
  
• Legba and Kafou are brothers or twins or the incarnation of the astrological symbol of Gemini
  
• Legba/Kafou is Esu or Eleggua
  
• Mèt Kafou is an evil being bent on destruction…yet can be easily approached by anyone bearing a bottle of rum and a printout of an Internet veve
  
• Legba is the sun, Kafou is the moon
  
• Offer Legba a skull and he’ll Do A Thing…
  

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Haitian Vodou can be a great example of ‘many stories, all true’, but there are some things that are just not correct.

Where does the misunderstanding come from? Largely, it springs up from false equivocation (Legba is Eleggua, Kafou and Legba are twins/brothers) born from the idea that since Legba and Kafou embody similar ‘jobs’ they are the same and, in some subtle ways, a colonized idea of what Vodou is, drawing from racist tropes made popular years ago.

Let’s start with Legba.

Krèyol sonde miwa, o Legba e!

Legba is sometimes said to be the most important lwa in Haitian Vodou, and there is some truth to that. He is vital to all work, all ceremony, and all priests because it is he who stands at the gate at the end of Gran Chemin/the Great Road and opens it so that other lwa may pass and come down or participate in work or ceremony. He goes by many, many names that denote his standing or the particular 'face’/personality/affinity he is coming with, and he is most often greeted as Papa, an honorific in Vodou that denotes respect and the place a lwa holds in the religion and in the hearts of the sèvitè/servant.

Additionally, there is a Legba for almost every nasyon/nation/family of spirits in Vodou. If someone just says 'Legba’, they are likely referring to the more Rada (generally cooler and more stately) Legba called at the beginning of every ceremony, but Legba is legion…there is Legba nan Nago, Legba nan Petwo, Legba nan Ibo, Legba nan Kongo, Legba nan Sinigal, and on for most nations of spirits (Nasyon Gede does not have a Legba…they are their own Legba, which is another topic for another time). There are also numerous Legba that may have specific affinities for particular work or particular places, like Legba Bwa. In all these 'faces’, Legba has humanity which translates into a feeling of familiarity.

Legba is served at the door or the gate and, in ceremony, is saluted in a particular way that draws his influence into the temple. He is a rare-ish lwa to see in possession, but when he does come he most often arrives as an elderly man who cannot walk or stand for long and so sits in his chair and is given his accouterments there: a baton or cane, a particular style of Haitian bag woven from palm, perhaps a Haitian hat, and often a bottle of rum. He might enjoy a taste of siwo kàn/a dark sugarcane syrup, or his pipe with some tobacco. He takes a wide variety of colors, depending on region of Haiti the lineage comes from, but he Does Not take black; folks who conflate him with Eleggua often give him red and black, and that’s not correct. Likewise, giving him an Eleggua head is inappropriate and he does not come as a child, so giving him toys is likely to get a raised eyebrow and a hand-off to the Marassa.

Legba can be approached by anyone, initiate or not, because he sits at the gate in this liminal state that is both in and out. All people who come to Vodou either pass into the religion through him or through Gede, so all people come under his purview. He can be an excellent resource in opening the door for someone who wishes to participate in the religion, if it is indeed the right place for them. He does whatever work he sees as beneficial or that he can be negotiated into doing by the talents of a learned vodouizan.

He is not without his price, though, and he can be absolutely impossible to deal with if he is displeased or feels he has been cheated or not paid for his favors and blessings. A rather infamous story about Legba can be found in Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn by Karen McCarthy Brown. A party is in full swing but Legba has not been propitiated properly for his blessings. He arrives in possession and sits down on the floor and sobs until his food is quickly prepared and brought to him. He refuses to let the party continue because he says he has been forgotten and no one loves Legba. If he doesn’t open the door, nothing happens.

When we move deeper into ceremony, Legba does not fall to the side; he is sung for each time a ceremony moves into a different rite or nasyon of spirits. Consequently, Legba is sung for again when the Petwo rite (when the Petwo spirits are sung for and saluted) arrives and only then do we welcome Kafou.

Mèt Kafou (sometimes seen as Kalfou or Maître Carrefour in French) is a lwa who is the actual embodiment of the crossroads. It can be hard to conceive of until you meet him, but he is a spirit who stretches across multiple explanations of who he is; a divinity and a place all in one. He is often addressed as mèt/master as a term of deep respect denoting his seat, and expertise. For the Petwo rite, he can be the pivotal lwa in terms of whether something goes well or goes deeply awry. There are specific ceremonies where his oversight is so important that even a mistake in his salute can be so disastrous that the risk is only assumed by the head priest, and if that priest is not available for the salute no spirits will come or be called into possession for the entirety of the ceremony. The community will work but will not risk Kafou’s displeasure by bringing spirits past him.

When I was at the very beginning of my participation in Vodou and was trying to understand how Kafou could be grasped (not understood…trying to understand him in totality is a mistake), my mother said something profound: if Kafou is unhappy with you, you have nothing. He can close all things in all ways until he is placated, and that can be a lengthy and costly process. Imagine driving on a road and never really getting anywhere. You find yourself continually passing the same bush on the right and the same abandoned gas station over and over, ala Groundhog Day, because all roads are closed to you and you only have the same quarter mile to drive over and over and over again.

This is Kafou. He is notoriously temperamental, like many of the Petwo lwa, and can be quick to offense and exacting and thorough with his consequences. A mistake in his salute can open the door for him to strike back for care not being taken and proper respect not being shown. A cultural misunderstanding of this says this sort of behavior and personality are evil but that’s a deep misread. Instead, it is reflective of the general amorality that Kafou (and the religion at large) can embody; he is neither good or evil but simply is. If you treat him well, learn how to serve him, and are careful to be extra observant in your service, he can be a great ally. Treat him like a divine gumball machine that exists to give you what you want and he will show (and use) his teeth. Hilariously, the previous sentence originally came out as ’..to give you what he wants’, and that is basically on point.

Amorality trips folks up when they are looking into Vodou, because the Western idea generally is that divine beings are basically invested in your well-being and are your invisible friends in the sky who want to give you stuff and won’t ever harm you. This does not apply to the lwa or to Vodou in general, and specifically not to lwa who walk in the Petwo rite. There is pain there, and the lwa can be impatient, fast-moving, and less interested in spiritual handholding and hair-petting. They come to work and to achieve what needs achieving. Even seasoned priests handle Kafou carefully because the crossroads can shift in any direction, depending on how the wind blows.

It is a rarer occurrence to see Mèt Kafou come down in ceremony because he is a force to be reckoned with. He often comes down screaming and throwing his chwal around the peristyle or, most often, around the crossroads where he is most commonly invited into possession. He may be saluted with a flaming log or something else on fire, and he particularly enjoys dancing in a fire set for him. Mèt Kafou rode the head of a brother of mine and threw himself into a huge bonfire and rolled around on the logs and lay there long enough that the gathered crowd thought for certain that the chwal was dead. Perhaps, if Kafou was suitably annoyed, he might have been but Kafou emerged from the flames with his chwal unburned and only smelling slightly of wood smoke.

In some ways, it can be said of Kafou what is said of some of the other Petwo lwa: Kafou has no friends, only acquaintances. I find that this is because of Kafou’s lack of humanity because he is the embodiment of something that is decidedly not people: he is the power and depth and breadth of the most liminal of places, where the confluence of stuff and power and people comes together and becomes one thing which, for Vodou, is Kafou. When I have been present for work done with Kafou, it is like feeling this massive…thing just unfurling itself and watching you. When I have seen Kafou in my dreams, he has presented himself almost like a stalker: he stays in the shadows and watches me and tracks me almost like I am prey. He has no cause to eat me, so I don’t worry but it can be unsettling because it is a reminder how deeply not human he is.

Knowing all of these things, I cringe when folks who have zero connection to a teacher who can guide them through interacting with Kafou talk about going to a crossroads, tracing what they think might be a veve for Kafou, and then asking him for something. While anyone can talk to Legba and have some manner of assurence that Legba will not rise up and eat them if they accidentally give him something that he may not really enjoy, even a priest is fair game for serious consequences with Kafou if they bring the wrong bottle or buy the wrong goat. Beyond that, if you do not have the license to seek out and ask Kafou for his assistance at a crossroads, you have no way to make sure that what shows up, if anything, is what you are naming it. Lots of things will be happy to take those offerings and muck around in your situation with no ritual obligation to do the work or speak the truth.

Legba sits at the gate, but he is not the gate itself. When you leave an offering for him at the gate, he may take or not depending on whether it’s something he wants or if it is what he has negotiated as his payment for what you are asking of him. If he doesn’t want it, it’s just there and he pays it no mind.

Kafou, on the other hand, is the crossroads and whatever is brought there is being left on him. If it’s not what he wants, it’s still on him. If it’s an inappropriate offering, it’s still on him. If it wasn’t meant for him but it was left there anyways and who it was meant for isn’t coming to take it, it’s still there. Imagine your unhappiness if someone shoved some peanuts M&Ms into your pocket. They sit there, they melt all over you, you can’t put your phone in your pocket, and you definitely do not like M&Ms and may even be allergic to peanuts. If you are having a good day, you may end it at telling everyone around you what a thoughtless bastard the M&M person is. If you are having a shit day, maybe you track them down and punch them in the face a few times to make the point that M&Ms do not go in your pocket.

Kafou, being the crossroads, also stretches from Vodou into Vodou-adjacent rites often referred to as secret societies. Being a liminal amorality, he is happy to stretch into rites that conceive of spirit relationships in different ways that a Ginen-based priest or lineage will. In those rites, he may be worked for things that a Ginen priest does not work for. Folks who research Kafou on the Internet and come up with associations and service for him that rise from those Vodou-adjacent rites may find that Kafou is happy to respond to that form of service and rise to the occasion to behave in the way you are unwittingly communicating to him that you expect. All is fair game when it comes to the crossroads.

Like Legba, Kafou is not Esu or Eleggua. He is served with black and red, but giving him items that belong to Esu or Eleggua is asking for a bad time. He is not willing to speak with anyone that knocks on his door as Legba often is but, if he is annoyed with what amounts to pestering, he might respond in a way that expressed his dislike. He is not a 'level up’ in dealing with the lwa in that there is no sort of prestige or badass points assigned for dealing with him. I would never expect a reputable priest to suggest a non-initiate to go deal with Kafou on their own, nor would I expect a reputable priest to easily problem-solve someone’s Kafou issue. Like, if someone approached me with a disaster stemming from missteps with Kafou, I am unlikely to be willing to offer advice without at least laying down some cards to see what exactly was done and speaking to Kafou on my own to see if this is something that can be mitigated and if I am the right priest to do the mitigating.

Outsiders tend to be attracted to Kafou because he is a master magician. He can work miracles or mayhem, depending on how he is served, and his skill can be unmatched if he chooses to engage and is paid appropriately. Folks who don’t have the backing to approach him for this work routinely get burned. It is pretty self-destructive to approach him without an appropriate guide. After all, kafou a se tè glise.

With all of that in mind, I am not afraid of Kafou—after all, he is key in the creation of a priest–and I don’t think people should be afraid of him. For me, I maintain what relationship I have with Kafou by a) not bothering him and b) approaching him on his terms, which is engaging how I have been taught to. I think the most useful tool in relating to Kafou, and Vodou in general, is to forget whatever you are bringing to the door and holding yourself in a position of humility with the understanding that Kafou and Vodou has a different way of relating to the world and, in that world, humans are not the top of the food chain or the center of everything.

It is in both Legba and Kafou that we see liminality: both of them embody 'yes and..’ in different ways. Through these fundamental concepts of difference in the religion, we find comfort in uncertainty. When we stand at the door and knock, the answer, if it arrives, is not certain. When we arrive at the crossroads, we can find passage of some sort but what we gain there is not ours to determine or control. We step into a particular uncertainty in that we hand over outcomes trusting that we have been taught well and that we will be received in a manner in line with how we have arrived.

I give thanks for the lessons of Legba and Kafou, as different and unique as they may be, and I give thanks for their role in the formation of who I am. May we embrace what they can bring to us with gratitude even in the most difficult times, and may we step into uncertainty trusting that the separate liminalities of Legba and Kafou will come find us where we are at.

Anonymous asked: hello! would you be willing to talk a little bit about the different ranks of priests/kanzo? I had a leson recently and was very surprised when Papa Loko came forward and told me I could do kanzo and possibly be sou pwen. I’m trying to research if this is something I want (and how to go about it if so) but mostly finding just the difference between hounsi v asogwe.

rockofeye:

Hi there,

Sure! In lineages that utilize the asson, there are three generally accepted levels of initiation:

Hounsi (sometimes hounsi kanzo or hounsi senp) is someone who has passed through the djevo and come out member of the lineage/sosyete. Hounsi are intrinsic to the function of a temple, particularly in Haiti, as they are the folks who support the ceremony functioning and the house running smoothly. Hounsi assist priests with saluting the spirits, making sure the temple is ready for ceremony, assisting with singing and prayers, and are called upon for any number of support tasks to make everything come together. They have no license to do spiritual work for others, teach, call spirits, utilize the asson, or act as a priest….but hounsi are often the folks who hold a huge body of knowledge that can rival some priests. In Haiti, hounsi are often the ones who know how to cook all the sacred foods in particular and prepare garments and vessels for use.

A houngan/manbo sou pwen is essentially a junior priest in many ways. A houngan/manbo sou pwen can take up the asson in ceremonies for salutes and similar, but does not have the license to confer it to others or utilize it broadly. A sou pwen may learn traditional divination systems (in some houses; in some lineages that is asogwe only) and may be able to learn some forms of spiritual work, but a sou pwen does not have access to all spirits or all knowledge and generally cannot work for others independently in all situations. A sou pwen can sometimes take up particular ritual roles/titles that require some specialized training (such as laplas/guardian of the house), and sometimes specialized roles require a sou pwen initiation (such as hountogi/master drummer).

A houngan/manbo asogwe is considered a complete or senior priest, in many ways. An asogwe is a priest who has the asson conferred upon them and, in turn, may confer the asson to others, as dictated by Loko. Asogwe priests are who have the license to know all secrets and do all work. Folks who comes out of the djevo made for the title can speak to any spirit on behalf of a client or themselves, and can do any work necessary. The flipside of that is that an asogwe is expected to know every part of every ceremony required for initiation, feeding spirits, building a temple, etc including songs, dances, leaves, spirit language, spiritual technology, full language fluency, and on and on and on. Like, if it was the end of the world and kanzo still needed to happen, an asogwe should be able to carry the entire ceremony on their back, start to finish. 

With all of these things in mind, it should be remembered that initiation is a beginning in that no asogwe emerges from the djevo ready to put their own ceremonies on. It takes quite a bit of time spent at the proverbial knee of their parent learning, with their hands in the work with their parent. For someone who grew up outside of the religion, that is quite a journey.

It’s common in Haiti for folks to apprentice to a temple for significant amounts of time and earn their way through an initiatory cycle in order to gain the ceremonies they need to arrive where they need to, as dictated by the spirits, because the cash economy is so tight that folks would likely never have the money needed for ceremonies.

For folks coming from outside of Haiti, it is much more practical and common to initiate to the level dictated or needed right from the beginning. It is financially much more feasible (pay once versus paying several times) and the benefits of an asogwe initiation can be accessed immediately, as one of the mysteries of kanzo is that it can literally prevent someone from dying, reverse an illness, or redirect serious misfortune that is coming for someone. So, for many folks that need the djevo, delaying those opportunities to have the full and complete work of kanzo can prove damaging in some ways.

As you mention, Loko is consulted along the way and has one of the final says as to how someone initiates. There are reasons someone may not initiate further than sou pwen, but if someone has health issues or serious situations that the lwa indicate need the intervention of the djevo, Loko must be consulted and appealed to so that life-saving measures may be undertaken. 

If there is indication that someone may be asked to take up the asson as a houngan/manbo asogwe, it is generally a pragmatic approach to wait until an asogwe initiation can be undertaken, as there is no religious reason to go step-by-step or pay multiple times. Some folks talk about how an initiation to asogwe is intense and that spacing things out sometimes makes it easier, but there are built-in mechanisms that process through that intensity as indicated in post-kanzo restrictions/taboos and the support of the family in those times. 

And, of course, there are folks who take up the trappings of Haitian Vodou to charge enormous fees for what they state are basic, mandatory initiations. I’ve seen upwards of close to $8,000 asked for hounsi kanzo and heard first-hand about folks charging $25,000 for an asogwe initiation where the would-be priest walks with nothing. None of these things are reasonable and legitimate priests do not present that sort of financial ruin packaged as initiation.

For someone who is interested in undergoing ceremony, the ground floor advice I give is to go to a lot of ceremonies first. Build a relationship with the house you are interested in and see how they do things. Most sosyetes hold a couple open ceremonies each year; go to them and see how the religion works and see how that sosyete works. Sit with the lineage/sosyete head and chat with them about what kanzo means in their house and what the obligations–both personally and in the house–are. Kanzo is a personal and community commitment, and they should be able to indicate how that takes shape in the lives of the initiatory children of the house.

The biggest mistake folks make is not taking time to get to know the people in the sosyete and jumping into ceremony with no real base understanding of what the religion is. The way to combat that is all of the above. Folks often rush when there is no real need to rush; the lwa can communicate with us when it’s time to get a move on for ceremonies if we know how to listen (which is built through a relationship with a house..) and there are very, very few situations where the lwa will say ‘right now’ that can’t be negotiated into a different timeline. 

This is particularly important for folks who are going to initiate as houngan/manbo asogwe, as there is no undoing that or overwriting it–it’s binding and indelible. That means, overall, to move slowly. For me, I attended regular ceremony at my mother’s US temple for almost two years before kanzo was brought up by the lwa and had spent a decent amount of time speaking with her on matters involving the lwa. I studied intensely (once a week for several hours, plus regular ceremonies) for a year before I entered the djevo, and, for me, that was still faster than I think I preferred (but I historically dragged my feet on things at that time). 

As with many things in Vodou, the road to kanzo should develop organically with the lwa as someone continues to know their spirits. The lwa definitely nudge when they feel like someone is taking too much time, but all things fall into place at the right time when the nudging is listened to. In particular, there is really no place for pressure from the presiding priest or sosyete. No one should feel pushed into kanzo or any ceremony, and there should not be a hard sell (unsolicited messages about kanzo, offers to do lower prices if you bring friends, etc). Many sosyetes have a loose schedule that they may keep if someone has indicated that they are planning to kanzo soon, like a vague outline of how to break down the financial planning or deadlines where the presiding priest may need to know a firm ‘yes, I’ll be there’ or ‘not this year’ so they can plan materials that will be purchased in your name, etc. 

But….those are things that develop over time. The most important part of Haitian Vodou is relationships, everything else (magic, possession, healing etc) are secondary. Relationships that you build are what carries you into and through initiation.

So…this was probably more wordy that you were hoping for! I hope this was helpful in some way, and please let me know if I can be clearer with anything or explain further.

sableleatherywingsopeninthe711:

sableleatherywingsopeninthe711:

his pussy was like a Whataburger frier. and brother. i was the last rat in texas

This post is Not about supernatural.

(via meowtalhead)

lanahex:

I summon my Trans Horse-Girl GF in Attack Position! Then I set two cards face-down and end my turn! *chuckles and pushes up my glasses and they glint in the light* Your turn.

Anonymous asked:

Hello again, I'm the one who asked about Gads. Hope you're doing well I wanted to also ask about how many nations of Lwa there are and why theyre normally only counted as Rada, (sometimes Nago), Petro, and Ghede?

rockofeye:

Hi,

There are lots! I think in diaspora outside of Haiti, folks usually refer to Rada/Petwo/Gede because it’s easy and because in diaspora those are often the least challenging to serve in temples housed in private homes (with some exceptions). It’s also true that not all sosyetes or lakou serve all the nations of lwa. Some have regleman for some but not all, and some only focus on one rite/nation, like in the various lakou in/near Souvenance in Haiti…there is a lakou that focuses on the Dahomey rite, one that focuses on Kongo, and one on Nago.

It’s generally accepted that there are 21 nasyon of lwa, but what those nasyon are can vary based on lineage, location, and general knowledge. Here’s how I know them (give or take…I am probably forgetting a couple), with various differences noted.

I refer to some of the nations as rites because there are particular ways these spirits are served…it’s not just that there are all these nations are they are treated the same.

Dahomey: this is a rite that isn’t usually practiced in asson lineages or really much outside of Haiti. The biggest center of this rite is at/around Gran Lakou Souvnans not far from Gonaives. It’s considered a direct tie to the kingdom of Dahomey in Lafrik, to the point where it is believed there is a direct passageway through the earth that emerges in modern day Benin. I really love the drumming of this rite.

Rada: A really well known rite, often associated with the yanvalou rhythm among others. The lwa who reside within this nation are considered royalty in a lot of ways, like the Dahomey rite there are pretty direct connections to Africa. Lwa like Danbala, Agwe, Loko, Ezili Freda, and others live here. Folks consider this a very calm rite BUT I think that is an underestimation. These lwa can be very slow to anger, but think of what could happen if the great white serpent who spans the space between heaven and earth decides he is unhappy, or if the embodiment of the oceans turns against you or the first houngan decides you have betrayed him. It’s complex.

Nago: A blended nation; many lwa within this rite originated in the Yoruba kingdom and quite a few sprang up directly from the island itself as Bwa Kayiman began. These lwa are not the same as orisa, which is an understandable confusion for some folks. They have the same root, but those roots diverged across the Middle Passage. Lwa like Ogou, Jean Pòl Nago, and others live here. Lakou Badjo in the Souvenans area has it’s own Nago rite, which is different than how many other lineages hold Nago.

Djouba: This is where Kouzen and his family live. Some folks call this Matinik or Djouba-Matinik; this has a couple different possible origins. Some stories say Kouzen is originally from Martinique, some folks say Matinik refers to the drums and/or drumming style used for this rite. There are all different set ups for drums depending on what nation you are playing for, and there used to be specific drums made for the Djouba rite. Stories say there was one lakou in Haiti that had a set, but that the knowledge to make them (since the making of drums is highly ritualized) was lost and once that set was no longer playable the specific drum style was lost.

Petwo/Petro: A nation known for it’s firey spirits. Some of the rites after this get folded into the Petwo rite in many lineages since they are so similar and the lwa within them are served similarly. Many of these spirits are the spirits of revolution who work hard and fast and burn like fire. Some folks do not serve them fully in the US because of space and logistical constraints (hard to have a bonfire at a crossroads in most places..), but many of the names are familiar to folks…Mèt Kafou, Ezili Danto, Simbi, Ti Jean Petwo, Kriminel, etc.

Kongo Fran: Another rite focused in a specific area in Haiti at Lakou Soukri. While most lineages in Haiti celebrate Kongo spirits, they are honored in other rites…lots of Kongo spirits like Ren Kongo and Wa Kongo and to some extent Lasiren are honored in the Rada rite, and some are honored in the Petwo rite, like Simbi. Lakou Soukri and areas surrounding have the Kongo Fran rite, though. Some folks will often name a Kongo Savann rite which I have understood as being closer to Petwo style service.

Gede and Bawon: Gede and the various Bawon get grouped together because they deal with various aspects of death and because the drums are often the same. Different labels are used for reasons that are known in particular lineages. Gede is often referred to as a fanmi/family, versus a nasyon/nation, and the various Bawon are often referred to as a divisyon/division. The family of Gede is full of spirits who were once people, but the various Bawon are the actual embodiment of death; there is a Bawon who oversees cemeteries, there is a Bawon who is the first man buried in each ceremony, there is a Bawon who is head of all the Bawon and oversees the Gede and the creation of new Gede. It’s kind of like a mafia family to be quite honest..there are bosses and capos and soldiers. Sometimes it gets even further broken down to divisyon Lakwa etc.

From here, things get a little more wobbly. Some folks will say that a particular nasyon is not really a nasyon or they are a part of another or have a different understanding. None of it is necessarily wrong, but just different, and not everyone will deal with all of them. Most vodouizan can recognize maybe a dozen or fifteen different nasyon..but there are lots. Here’s a vague list of others I know of and others that I have seen folks recognize:

Takwa*

Sinigal*

Wangol*

Bonba/Bomba*

Kita*

Anmin*

Kangale/Kangale Kanga*

Manding/Mandingue*

Ibo**

Makaya***

Zandò*

Moundong Mousay/Mousai*

Bizango or Chanpwel/Sanpwel****

*These nasyon are often sung for alongside Petwo regleman, and some of them will arrive in the Petwo rite, like Kita, Makaya, Zandò

**Ibo is often sung for alongside Kongo spirits and will arrive around then too

***Makaya is sometimes called a nasyon and sometimes called a completely separate rite, not unlike Bizango, Chanpwel, etc

****Some people hold to Bizango and Sanpwel/Chanpwel being nasyon alongside others, but I have seen them most held as separate sosyete…lots of folks call them secret societies, but that’s really based around structure versus existence and what happens within those societies. Some sosyete are fran Ginen and Bizango/Sanpwel/Zobop etc and have both within one lakou but generally they are held separately…like, they would not do both in the same ceremony.

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Depending on how folks consider things, that’s what usually makes up about 20 nations. A lot of folks hold to nation #21 as being L'Univers or similar…basically everything that we may not yet know or that may not yet have a name or that belongs to Bondye. Kind of like leaving the door open for Bondye to work how it wants.

Maybe this was more than you hoped for? Don’t know…please let me know if things are not as clear as they could be.

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