Pantheacon (10) -- A Little Touch of Voodoo in the Night?

Yes—as I said:  “Full use of senses and emotions for ritual transformation.”  But that note probably was referring to the Feri Tent Revival, not the next workshop I attended, after dinner, but who knows?

I started the evening with Voodoo, of the Caribbean variety.  I’d been thinking, earlier that day, “I hope the Voodoo ritual is tomorrow; that will give me time to find white clothing to wear.”  But of course it was that evening, and I arrived clad totally in darker colors.  So I could not participate—though I could watch.  I’d attended a related event decades earlier, up in Oakland; but I’d been prepared then, and appropriately dressed.  Not this time.  So I watched with the rest of the “observers,” to the rear of the room.

Turns out, since no open flame could be used in the hotel rooms, only Danbala, the sky-and-snake father spirit, could be worshipped—which required the all-white apparel.  I watched and listened with interest.  From the rear of the crowd I couldn’t really see what was on the altar.  I imagined, from previous experience, the possibility of quite informal but practical and pleasing offerings:  Food, tobacco, alcohol.

The ceremony began with Catholic prayers and the sign of the cross—Voodoo combines Catholicism with African indigenous religion.  After that came musical call and response.  Some aspects of the ritual, it seemed to me, were done for the spirits, some for the liturgists, and some, perhaps for those watching.  Bells and rattles accompanied the singing.

The ritual structure included singing to create ritual boundaries, to call the spiritual Family together, and to seek the consent of the spirits being called.  The singing was accompanied by appropriate motions and dance, and special sounds—for example, clapping.  Water, candles and drink were used to approach the spirits.  Bread loaves were thrown to the four directions.  Ritual turns and dips, with clapping of hands (the motions reminded me of Dances for Universal Peace) led to the calls to Danbala.  Devotees wore white to work with Danbala; for other spirits other colors might be worn.

So:  “Full use of senses and emotions.”  The emphasis in this tradition is on experience, not dispassionate observation or “rationality.”  Earlier, we had been told stories of spirit “possession.”

As I watched and listened, I thought of my parents and family, who, so far as I know, have never attended a convention such as Pantheacon (I mean, of course, the Christian equivalent); much less anything relating to Voodoo.

But this event offered me the merest taste of the Voodoo tradition; then I was off to the last event of the evening:  A talk on Tantra, in another area of the hotel.