Patreon live; catch the current blogging there!

January 4, 2018 By andezo

Bonswa!

As of late 2016, I’ve started a Patreon for all things Vodou:
http://www.patreon.com/chitatann

Please join us there. I make at least one public post per week, and many more for my Patreon subscribers, who get to see what I’m doing in my Vodou work and share information about Vodou education, Haitian culture and history, and other topics of interest. Patreons can subscribe to my private blog feed for as little as $1 per month, and for higher subscriptions more neat things are available including discounts and free publications from me, leson (card readings), and even Vodou work like candles and lamps for personalized purposes. Additionally, a percentage of the Patreon subscriptions is being sent as cash directly to my family in Haiti to help support the children and elders who live on our peristyle’s land. If we are able to meet the Patreon’s financial goals, I’ll also be starting a blog about the family and what our financial support is accomplishing there.

Thank you for your consideration, and for joining me as I consolidate my work into one place. The archives here will remain, but future posting will be on the Patreon unless for some reason I end up leaving that service. (Last month’s debacle around fees was a concern, for example, and so I am reserving the right to pull out if need be.)

12 January 2010 earthquake, Culture, Haitian history, January 12 2010 Earthquake, News, Paganicon 2017, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou

Nou la (we’re here)

January 12, 2017 By andezo

I don’t use this blog nearly enough. This year, I hope to change that. If there are specific topics that you might be interested in me posting about, please contact me (andezo at gmail dot com) and let me know! I’m collecting ideas to make this a much more regular space. Social media, which is useful for short-term and breaking news, is becoming increasingly less useful for talking about bigger subjects, and it’s time to return to the long form.

Today marks seven years from the major earthquake that killed many people in Haiti, including some of my own family members. Time continues its march forward. Some things change, some things don’t change. Haiti has (yet another) new president, but no less controversy. The US continues to meddle in Haitian affairs. The UN, which suddenly issued an apology for its causing the cholera epidemic post-earthquake (but most likely only because the outgoing secretary is thinking about a presidential run in Korea and wants to look good), sent more peacekeepers to the country this week, but didn’t bother to vaccinate them against cholera until a public outcry was made – and now only they are treated. (Nothing at all has been done for the Haitians who live where they are).

It’s heartbreaking and frustrating and rage-inducing to know what’s going on in Haiti (to be fair, we’ve got those feelings about places outside Haiti currently as well, don’t we?). It becomes a serious effort to stay focused and not let it get you into a pit of despair and anger that does nothing at all except feed on itself.

But that effort is important. It is perhaps even more important when the stakes are this high. Stay informed. Read from many sources. Check your sources. Check them again. Learn about what’s going on behind the clickbait and the headlines. Get out of your comfort zone. To borrow a phrase from the justice movements in the US: stay woke. Remind yourself and your world: we’re here. We’re not going anywhere. We will continue. Strength makes them see.

PS: I’ll be appearing at Paganicon 2017, and am also one of the sponsors of the Pagans of Color & Allies suite that will be open during the event. We’ll have Vodou programming among many other things. Join us if you can.

Culture, Interviews, Links, News, Paganicon 2016, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou

Paganicon 2016 Interview

March 2, 2016 By andezo

Nels at Pagan Newswire Collective Minnesota interviewed me last week, in advance of my appearance as one of the guests of honor at Paganicon in Minneapolis, March 18-20, 2016.

It was a long but very positive conversation. We got to talk about Vodou, what brought me to it, and how I think Haitian Vodou is the most valuable Western Hemispheric spiritual experience for many reasons other than why one might want to practice it. We also chatted about cultural relations, the problems and challenges of appropriation and privilege in such relations, religious experiences in a multicultural society, how activism and religious practice are and aren’t related, and other deep subjects. I enjoyed the interview thoroughly – it’s not often I get to talk about all those things at once! – and hope that you will enjoy reading it.

You can read a transcript of our discussion at the PNC website. I’m looking forward to meeting many new people and having a good experience at the convention. Hope to see you there!

Haitian history, News, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou

Happy Birthday, Haiti – See you soon!

January 1, 2016 By andezo

Another New Year’s Day is upon us, and it’s time for soup joumou. (Why? You can read about that in a previous New Year’s post, here.) You can also sing the Joumou rap with Haitian Jonas, here. These two things always make me smile.

What also makes me smile, is the knowledge that I’ll be in Haiti again in a week’s time. It’s been ten years, even before the quake that changed everything. Some things of course haven’t changed much – suspended government and a “president” ruling by emergency decree, MINUSTAH still not taking a damn bit of responsibility or concern for causing a cholera epidemic. But I’m sure others have. All the little kids in the lakou will be teenagers now. I won’t get to see my godmother (who died in the quake) or my maman hounyo (who died later), and a few other people who have passed. Coming home is well overdue, bittersweet, but good. See you soon, Ayiti.

And I’ll be back to post about it sooner than I did last year.

Haitian history, Sacrifice, Thoughts about Vodou, Vodou, Vodou 101

Sacrifices in Vodou (Excerpt from HAITIAN VODOU)

November 4, 2014 By andezo

A current trending topic among friends and colleagues is the discussion of sacrifice and its place in religious practice. Far more eloquent people than myself have said some excellent things. I’ve been asked to share my own thoughts, and I’d like to offer an excerpt on this topic from a book I wrote a couple of years ago as my response. It’s still as relevant now as it was then, or when I was asked to speak on a panel about the topic at PantheaCon last February. It’s a long read, but I think it will be helpful.

Excerpted from HAITIAN VODOU, Chapter 3: Sacrifices in Vodou

Getting back to Haitian Vodou, we address perhaps the largest confusion and/or controversy that outsiders to the tradition will confront: the nature of sacrifice, and particularly animal sacrifice. The Lwa of Haitian Vodou request, and are given, many things as offerings or gifts as part of their ceremonies and service. Some Lwa want special candles or tangible objects like perfume, mirrors, or drums. Some Lwa might demand various drinks, from cool water to fiery kleren (pronounced kleh-REN, a high-proof, raw rum). Still other Lwa want various kinds of foods including fruits, vegetables, fancy pastries, breads, candies, and specially prepared dinners. Very few of our Lwa are vegetarians, and most of our Lwa eat meat, just as most Vodouisants eat meat. Remember that the practice of vegetarianism, or other decisions about what to eat or not eat, are generally considered luxuries in a country where food shortages and famines are far too frequent.