Page 21 - The Flickering Cauldron Magazine - June 2022

The Mixing P Po o t t o o f f
Magic
Examining the cultral aspects and practice of Hoodoo
Written by Elisa M. Gray
Author of 'What Maketh The Witch?'
The mere mention of the word Voodoo, can, for some, bring with it a host of stereotyped mental images. The creation of Zombies, African witch doctors, potent black magic and a doll stuck full of pins. Most of these images are, sadly, racist. They have been spoon fed to us through tv and film in such a way that we may think that we know something about Voodoo. We know that it’s evil and causes nothing but harm. In thinking this, we would be wrong. Voodoo or Vodou as it was spelled, began as a religion, just as Christianity is a religion, and its development had to cope with the slave trade, where lives were violently uprooted, and people had to deal with a new way of life in a strange and hostile world.
Vodou originally began in West Africa and is an extremely complex set of beliefs with a moral centre. Vodou is a ‘diffused monotheistic faith that believes in a supreme God and several lesser deities beneath it.’
In Vodou, the human soul is understood as ‘existing in three non-divisible elements, all described by their actions during creation: Selido (personality) is the portion of the divine that lives inside the body; Semedo (mind or instinct), inhabits the body as it is melded and
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The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - The Mixing Pot of Magic | 21