On a visit final yr to New Orleans, I needed to study extra a couple of custom with deep roots there: the one whose West African root is known as Vodún, turned Vodou in Haiti, and in New Orleans is at all times referred to as voodoo. The ebook I learn is Karen McCarthy Brown’s Mama Lola, which focuses on the Haitian model, so I’ll use the “Vodou” spelling. Any introductory dialogue of this custom at all times begins with an compulsory disclaimer about Hollywood stereotypes: little or no of it’s about zombies, and even much less is about sticking pins in dolls. However the actual custom is fascinating in its personal methods.
As a thinker, I’m practically at all times most intrigued by cultural traditions of their philosophical or theological side: what kinds of considering and reflection they’ve concerning the universe and learn how to reside in it. However that’s not all such traditions have to supply, and if I confined all my curiosity to the philosophy, I must have discovered Vodou a disappointment. Mama Lola, the Vodou priestess Brown discovered from, would frequently inform her “Karen, you assume an excessive amount of!” or “You ask too many questions!” Brown will get excited when a dialogue between Mama Lola and one other Vodou knowledgeable begins to show to the theological, however they rapidly drop the topic and by no means return. The custom is all about interactions with the loa or lwa, supernatural beings with the flexibility to own folks in ritual trances. However neither in Mama Lola nor in the rest I’ve learn or heard on the custom, do I see Vodou practitioners assume a lot about what precisely these beings are – regardless that there’s loads to marvel about, since most Vodou practitioners take into account themselves Catholics, and the connection of the loa to the saints and angels they’re recognized with, not to mention to any singular God (bondye), is hazy at finest.
However despite all that, there’s one ingredient of the custom that completely fascinates me and calls to me. And her identify is Ezili Freda.
Ezili Freda is the loa related to magnificence, romance, and luxurious. Within the poverty of Haiti these items are carefully linked: says Mama Lola, “Poor folks don’t haven’t any real love. They simply have affiliation.” So Ezili Freda is portrayed as light-skinned, because the Haitian élite usually are. Since slaves have been required to be formally Catholic and will solely practise their ancestral traditions in secret, the picture of Maria Dolorosa del Monte Calvario – a picture initially supposed to be the Virgin Mary, however with a sword by her coronary heart and surrounded by jewels and coronary heart shapes – in Haiti turned the enduring portrayal of Ezili Freda.
I don’t get the impression that Ezili Freda is certainly one of Brown’s favorite loa – Brown offers Freda solely six pages, in comparison with 24 for her angrier sister Ezili Dantor – however I discovered myself turning to these six pages time and again. For Ezili Freda is drawn to the identical issues I’m drawn to in my very own gender fluidity: the aesthetic trappings of conventional femininity, pink, frills, fragrance. I believe she calls to me moreover as a result of – not like so many divine feminine figures – she’s not a mom goddess. Most traditions affiliate femininity with motherhood. However for me I’ve by no means felt a calling to be a mom, or for that matter a father. Ezili Freda represents a femininity I acknowledge in myself. That she is taken into account a protector of homosexual males – the namesake of the New Orleans rapper Large Freedia, who loves his female facet – additionally makes me really feel that she connects to my very own gender fluidity.
Ezili Freda additionally has a psychological downside that I are inclined to have: seeing the world as by no means ok. She’s not snark over smarm precisely – she’s not an instructional or journalist – however like lecturers and journalists, actually like myself, she acutely sees what’s fallacious with the world. No matter else Ezili Freda is, she is gorgeous – and he or she desires the world to be stunning, completely stunning in a method that it could by no means be. She requires that choices to her to be good. She leaves each session of spirit possession in tears, as a result of one thing was not ok for her. Within the phrases of Vodou provoke and blogger Dykedon (who additionally calls himself Houngan James), “she mourns for the lack of an unspoiled perfection that maybe by no means really existed. The practical ugliness of the world wounds her.” None of it is a good trait, in her or in me; it’s not one thing to domesticate. However it’s relatable. And that does appear to be a part of the purpose: no matter else the loa could also be, they don’t seem to be ethical exemplars. Vodou practitioners are usually not inspired to emulate them, solely to have a relationship with them.
All of which is a attribute discovered in lots of gods throughout cultures, from Zeus to Krishna. (A New Orleans information did stress to us that the loa are “not gods, they’re spirits” – however the boundaries between these two classes will be fairly porous. One of many issues a Vodou theological inquiry might do could be to spell out extra clearly how that distinction works.) One of many many issues I like about conventional Buddhism is that it admits this function for the gods: you’re not purported to revere them (not to mention emulate them), they’re simply there. Many traditions take a god who begins amoral – just like the YHWH who punishes the pharaoh’s complete folks for an act that God made the pharaoh do – and attempt to flip him into an ethical exemplar. Within the historical past of Buddhism, quite than such gods changing into become ethical exemplars, the ethical exemplars – the buddhas and bodhisattvas – begin changing into gods. However Vodou takes a distinct strategy that I additionally like: the loa neither began as nor turned ethical exemplars, they simply are. Which appears more true to the universe as it’s – the imperfect universe that Ezili Freda weeps for.
By Haitian requirements, Ezili Freda has every little thing, and it’s nonetheless by no means ok. That’s a bracing reminder for me, since by those self same Haitian requirements I’m able one thing like hers – to a Haitian I’m light-skinned, and my upper-middle-class American way of life is a wealth unimaginable to most Haitians. And my Buddhist awakening in Thailand in some ways confirmed me how I will be an excessive amount of like her, so readily upset by every little thing that’s missing, regardless of (or due to?) my relative privilege. Ezili Freda is relatable as a result of she is each the female magnificence I need to be, and the depressing spoiled younger self I’ve spent so many a long time making an attempt to get away from – maybe what Jung may name a shadow.
One of many issues that I discover thrilling about Ezili Freda is that she calls to me from a non-intellectual, non-theological world – and that’s fairly uncommon for me. I are inclined to reside very a lot in my head: a gaggle of my buddies just lately had an exercise that concerned bringing one thing cherished from one’s childhood; the place everybody else introduced a stuffed animal, I introduced a ebook. The earthy, non-intellectual world of Vodou may be very, very removed from mine – however Ezili Freda calls to me throughout its boundaries. If it weren’t for her, I’d seemingly have personally discovered Vodou unappealing – however it’s a distinct story together with her there.
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