The Origin of Everything

The Vodoún Fá
A COSMOGONIC AND GENERAL VISION OF VODOÚN-FÁ
(VOODOO)

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 The Origin of Everything
The Vodoún Fá
A COSMOGONIC AND GENERAL VISION OF VODOÚN-FÁ
(VOODOO)

By
Gustavo A. Carcaño R.
(Faniife)

Cover design and photography:

Ile Afrika A.C.

Lilith Vudú ™ Ediciones

2019

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The Origin of Everything, The Vodoún Fá © 2019
by Gustavo Adolfo Carcaño Ricalde

N. º de ISBN: 978-0-359-96628-8

No part of this work can be used or reproduced by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage systems or
virtual clouds without the express written permission of the author.

First Edition 2019

Lilith Vudu Ediciones

www.lilith-vudu.com
info@lilith-vudu.com
Printed in The United States of America

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 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION..…………….……………….………………………………6

CHAPTER 1
The dark arts of Africa ……………….…………….…………………………8
The Afro-American syncretism ……………………….…………...………….9

CHAPTER 2
The Vodoún-Fá………………………………………………………………...11
The deities of Vodoún-Fá……………………………………………………...12
The goddess mother of Vodoún.. …………………………….…………....….12
The 7 african powers .………………………………………………………....13
The Lwas ………………..……………………………………...………..….…14
The Vodoún-Fá and the Gods of Egypt. ………………….……………….…15
The ennead of Heliopolis ……………………….……………………….….…15

CHAPTER 3
Fá…………………………………………….…………………………………18
The geomancy of Vodoún-Fá ………………………………………………...19

CHAPTER 4
Animism and African polytheism……………………………….…………...23
The blessing and the curse in Africa…………………………………………25
16 reincarnations…………………………….…………………....……….….26
Jijo Jilé .…...………………………………………...………………….……...27
The ethnic-tribal priesthood of Africa ……….……...………………………28
Ta Fifá and Edún.……………………….………………….…………………31

CHAPTER 5
The Vosá or sacrifice.…...…...…………………………….…………..……....33
The philosophy of Vodoún-F...….………………………………….…...….....34
The O´bó……..……………………………………………………….…….… 35
The magic of Vodoún-Fá …….……………..…………………….………...36
The reading of vikandos ……………………………………………..…….…37
The Vosá and the O´bó ……………………………………………..………...37
Vévé, the sign of deity ………..……………………………….……..…...…...37

CHAPTER 6
Vodoún-Fá as a personal belief ……………………………………..….….…39
References………………………………………………………….………..…42

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INTRODUCTION

The first trade in African slaves was made by the Portuguese Antonio
Gonzales in the Guinean region in 1441 because of the interest of
Portugal in gold and sugar trading; originally the concept of slave was not
as we perceive it now, as a human being is possessor and owner of
another, but rather a paid servant, such was the vision at that historic
moment in Africa.

Europeans realized that the African worker was strong and resilient, so
they began to reach agreements with African Kingdoms, some of them
unscrupulous, for transferring Africans to their lands since Europeans
themselves did not enter Africa for fear of pests and malaria.

The slave trading African Kingdoms that reached agreements with the
Europeans to negotiate with them the human trafficking were, among
others, the Kingdom of Oyó Yoruba, the Kingdom of Koya, the Kong
Empire, the Kingdom of Khasso and Kabu, Ashanti Confederation, etc.
since these kingdoms had more power over weaker tribes it was easier to
catch their inhabitants.

Spaniards were the first to traffic African slaves into America in 1501,
into the Island of Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic),
in fact, the Spanish Crown monopolized the slave trading through a
company called: Royal Company of Guinea and the Asiento, with
headquarters in Paris to which a fee was paid for every slave who was
traded.

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Due to the ambition to conquer the lands that would become America,
slave labor increased so much that countries such as Portugal, France, the
United Kingdom, Holland, etc. were unable to cope with the slave trade.

In 1619 the first African slaves were brought to the United States by
Dutch merchants who finally settled down in the Alabama and Louisiana
areas and this led to the apotheosis of the slave trading that took place in
the late eighteenth century when what was simply a commercial deal of
domestic servants and workers became a brutal massacre where the
human being was enslaved and bestialized.

The African slaves took their beliefs with them into the new world and, in
that diaspora, various types of religious syncretism were born, mixtures
of Christianity and tribal African religions, known today as Santeria, Palo
Monte or Mayombe, Candomble, Quimbanda, Umbanda, Hoodoo,
Haitian Voodoo, etc., and among such a whirl of tribal and syncretic
religions, one of them remained almost pure from its origin: The
Vodoún.

This work presents to the reader an overview of this belief, pretty

unknown even today, but which contains so deep and ancestral
knowledge as it is contained in other parallel cultures such as the
Egyptian or the Sumerian, thus, it is well worth learning more about, and
perhaps it may give us a new perspective of life.

Autor

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CHAPTER 1

THE DARK ARTS OF AFRICA

In the Western world the idea is that Africa is plagued by tribal black arts
and black magic, but this is just a fallacy, as the African continent is
divided and claimed by two major world dominant religions which
occupy it almost equally:

A) The Islam that operates in almost the entire northern and central half
of the continent.

B) Christianity, (Catholics and Protestants) operating in the entire lower

half of central and southern continental area, being the first religious
force with more than 50 percent of the believing population; we are
talking here about a total population of almost 1.2 billion human beings
across the "black" continent that is almost equally split into these two
religions.

Then, where are the so called great and enormous "black" African arts
and magic, if most Africans go to Christian churches and/or mosques?

The countries where traditional African religions are most widely

practiced include Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Central
African Republic, some areas of Mozambique, South Sudan etc., but
where African tribal religions have really flourished the most is not in
their cradle but in their diaspora, mainly in America in countries such as
Brazil, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, the Southeast of the United States,
among others; in these places, they flourished in a syncretic way subtly
mixed with Christianity and other non-African beliefs, but never in a pure
and original way.

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THE AFRO-AMERICAN SYNCRETISM

African beliefs and religions do not follow the same protocols as Western
ones, when the sad period in human history of the black slaves trading
occurred, they took their beliefs with them when they were brought to
America, but because of the strong and often violent indoctrination of
Christianity, these beliefs had to be adapted to the protocols and liturgies
of the dominant religion; in this way was born what would later become
the African syncretism in America.

Through this syncretism, a way of peaceful coexistence between the two

faiths was pursued, giving the iconic and liturgical priority to Christianity
over the ethnic beliefs and practices of Africa; resulting in the
establishment of new religious ideologies.

These new beliefs in America followed the protocols imposed by their

captor: liturgy, prayers, masses and offerings to Christian images, etc.,
the practices derived from beliefs of African origin were often carried out
by slaves behind closed doors because of their "dark" nature.

In fact, not only the Africans were enslaved but also their beliefs, forcibly
adapted as lions in a circus to do the activities as indicated by their tamer
and captor.

Christianity itself did not take anything from African beliefs but they had
to take everything from Christianity to subsist; in reality, there is almost
no pure religion in the world as in one way or another they all took
something from others in their forming process, but it is one thing to
borrow something and quite another is to be forced to adapt and merge
with something else in order to survive.

As we said the official ethnic religions in Africa do not follow the same
liturgical protocols as those of their diaspora in America and that is why
the way to become official religions is through originality and this word
refers to "origin", so, no one can make a religion official if they use the
images from another without express permission, that would simply be
cultural plagiarism.

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ILE AFRIKA AC COLLECTION

FÁ TÉ CARYATIDE

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CHAPTER 2

THE VODOÚN-FÁ
(Vudú, Vodún, Vodoún, Voodoo)

Vodoún has its cradle in the Fon villages among others, located in the
former Kingdom of Dahomey, in the geographical area currently
occupied by the Republic of Benin in West Africa.

Vodoún, which is the correct name (pronounced Voodoo in the diaspora),

has ancestral origins and it is currently the official religion in Benin and
neighboring countries such as Ghana and Togo.

Vodoún spread into the diaspora with significant settlement in Haiti,

Dominican Republic and the South of the United States (Alabama and
Louisiana).

The Vodoún arts are very extensive and since they do not contemplate the
existence of good or evil in their actions, there is no clear border to
recognize what in the West would be called ethical or not.

Its arts encompass all sorts of actions for every possible or necessary
purpose; it is well known in the West due to the Voodoo charms and the
Gris-Gris, mostly used in the diaspora, but the range of actions goes
beyond, even to zombification and theriomorphism.

Vodoún also considers a positive vision since the word Vodoun or

"Voodoo" itself means spirit or of a spiritual nature and its arts are also
aimed at the empowerment of the human being, in order to become a full
and harmonious being through a predominantly animistic philosophy,
such as the case of the Shinto religion in Japan.
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THE DEITIES OF VODOÚN-FÁ (Voodoo)

Within the Vodoún Fa, the origin of everything that exists begins from an
unknown deity called Nana Burunku (Buruku, Bulunku) this deity being
androgynous manifests itself in its feminine essence, giving origin to the
first deity of matter, which besides being androgynous is hermaphrodite,
and can also be divided into male and female at will, its name is
"MAWÚ-LISA".

In other West African beliefs, the deity Mawú is equivalent to the deity
called Oduduwa, and Lisa to the deity Nla or Obatalá, remembering that
unified, it equals Olodumare, Edumare or Olofin depending on the
geographic area of the belief concerned.

As we have mentioned, the deity Mawú-Lisa can be separated in

masculine and feminine at will to give birth to the universal duality, being
Mawú the female deity and Lisa the masculine one, and they had seven
pairs of male and female twins that are the 7 African powers from which
all that exists comes, we have as an example the deity "AGE" that is the
regent of animals and plants, that teaches hunting and agriculture arts to
mankind (also known by the Yoruba as Ochossi and Ozaín); we also have
the deity of the metal "GOU" that among the Yoruba is known as Ogun,
deity of the metal.

THE GODDESS MOTHER OF VODOÚN

Nana Burunku, as we explained before, is the supreme goddess in the

African religion of Vodoún Fa, of the Fon, Ewe and Akan people, with
influence in the African diaspora in Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, etc., and
in their religious expressions such as in the Candomblé Jeje or Ketu.

In the Mythology of the Kingdom of Dahomey, Nana Burunku is the

supreme creator of every mother; she gave birth to everything existing
and then went away to the sacred sky to permit the natural development
of life, she is the eternal female, androgynous and indivisible that
manifests herself as feminine to give way to the creation of Matter itself
and then she unfolds herself into an androgynous-hermaphrodite divisible
being, masculine and feminine and that gives origin to the duality of
Matter and that can also exercise a neutral force when combined.
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It should be mentioned that in the beliefs of other surrounding African
communities as the Yoruba, for example, the Supreme Creator is
masculine (Olodumare) and not feminine (Nana Burunku); these
communities frequently accept this deity in a secondary role, because of
the influence of Judeo-Christian beliefs settled in the region in the era of
colonialism and even degrading her, in some manifestations of the
diaspora, ignoring her precisely for being a "female".

THE 7 AFRICAN POWERS

Within the Vodoún Fáthere are 7 controlling forces of nature and

elements, but in other tribal beliefs and in their diaspora such as
Candomblé, Umbanda or Brazilian Quimbanda, Santeria Cubana, Palo
Kongo or Mayombe, Haitian Voodoo, Colombian Lumbalu, Jamaican
Obeah or American Hoodoo, etc. they are not always categorized in 7
divinities, except in Yoruba religion, where they are considered 7
dominant forces of humanized context but not exclusively as spiritual
energy.

In the Vodoún Fa, the native of the Kingdom of Dahomey, the family tree
develops essentially as follows: Mawú-Lisa, once created, unfolds and
gives way to 7 pairs of twins, known as Lwas (Loas or Orisas); each pair
is a male and a female who are called the 7 powers, so they are dual but
unknown in that way in the other tribal African religions already
mentioned.

These 7 couples are:

1.-Da Zodji, deity of the earth and wealth and her twin Da.
2.-Soggbó, deity of heaven and thunder and her twin Heviosus.
3.-Agbé, deity of the sea and waters and her twin Xu.
4.-Agé, deity of animals, birds, etc., in other words, flora and fauna in
general and her twin Agué.
5.-Djo, deity of the air and his twin Jo.
6.-Gu, deity of metal and forge and her twin Gou.
7.- Legba, deity of communication and a messenger, her twin is known as
Kalfu, deity of crossroads and complex arts.

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In the Vodoún Fa, special treatment is given to the twins called Marassa
because the cosmocratic deities of the worlds were born in this manner.

Another important aspect that distinguishes Vodoún Fá from other beliefs

of its genre is that these deities are not worshiped on representations as
icons of stone, metal, ceramic wood, etc. but on symbols of the mudra
style called " Vévé" (they are not ajitenas, ajitenas or dimamangas),
which are formed with soil on some surface, and erased once the offering
is finished.

The 7 dual cosmocratic powers unfold themselves to give birth to a broad

genealogical tree, complex but interesting, where the ruling deities of all
human aspects such as love (Erzulí) or disease (Sakpata) will be created;
Fá and Dou are the deities of time and space respectively, and that are the
same "Mawú-Lisa" and this is why they are supreme deities being
hierarchically above the others.

THE LWAS
(Loas or Orisas)

Within the cosmogonic tribal vision of Africa, human beings interact with
forces of supernatural order that possess intelligence and power, these
forces are known in the world of Vodoún Fá as Lwas (Orisas in Yoruba
vision and Loas within the diaspora in America) which control the
elements of nature Water, Air, Earth and Fire and their permutations.

It is in the African diaspora in America that the genealogy of the Lwas

grows, creating 21 different groups or "nations", being the oldest of them
the "RADA" nation; in it the Lwas are peaceful and very spiritual as the
case of lwa Legba (Elegua or Esu) or Erzulí Freda.

The "PETRO" nation, born in Haiti (La Hispaniola), is aggressive and

focuses on destruction, teriomorphism, zombification, its Lwas do not
identify with the Yoruba Orisas and are Warriors such as Erzulí Dantor or
Met Kalfú, Lord of the crossroads and dark arts.

These two groups are the ones with more adepts, but there are “minor”
nations like Ghede, where the Lwas are festive and playful, but at the
same time dangerous, such as Baron Samedí or Mama Brigitte, who like
alcohol and parties, as well as the sumptuous meals, other well-known
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nations are Kongo and Nago, which focus on the arts of poison and
healing, as well as the subtle war, respectively.

There are 21 known nations, and there may be many other hidden ones
that make up the world of the Lwas, forces that help, punish or destroy
the human being to maintain the universal balance through the law of the
Salawá.

VODOÚN-FÁ AND THE GODS OF EGYPT

In the Kemeth Lands (KMT) now known as Egypt, in the North African
area, one of the most enigmatic and complex cultures of the ancient world
flourished; there is this tendency to think that Egypt was Arab or had
strong Arab influence but it is quite the opposite, the Kemeth (Egypt)
influenced the development of other Western cultures, but it is believed
that it had no influence on Sub-Saharan Africa since the Egyptian gods
do not appear as such in the tribal cultures of Central and West Africa as
the Bantu, Yoruba, Nago beliefs or religions, etc.

This perception is not entirely wrong, for while many tribal cultures in
central, western and southern Africa did not accept the Egyptian deities,
other nearby cultures had points of convergence with them and one of
these was Vodoún-Fá.

THE ENNEAD OF HELIOPOLIS

It is interpreted and translated as the "City of the Sun" (Ra) located near
Cairo, it was an influential area in ancient Egypt to such an extent that its
divinities were accepted by all of Egypt along the Nile, with minimal
variants; the ennead refers to the nine most important Egyptian gods
within the cosmogony and pantheon of Ancient Egypt.

The genealogy of this Heliopolitan Ennead develops as follows:

"Before the creation there was an androgynous neutral force called NUN,
that was the primordial chaos where everything was contained, this force
empowered itself in a force called ATUM, creator of everything, an
androgynous force, already manifested in Matter and which would later
give way to Ra (Sun), Atum-Ra or Amun-Ra"

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This male deity has as its feminine side the goddess IUSAAS; this
creative force gives birth to a dual force that will no longer be
androgynous, and these are: SHU (Air), male, and TEFNUT (Water/
Wetness) female, to whom he gives life with his breath and his saliva,
later they will give birth to a new couple: GEB, the land that is masculine
and NUT, the sky, which is clearly a female deity.

At the order of Atum this couple should not unite and thus procreate in
the matter, but concealed by SHU, they succeed and give way to the birth
of two primordial couples that will be the four most representative deities
of Ancient Egypt: OSIRIS AND ISIS, SETH AND NEFTIS

Thereafter, multiple offspring and thus new enneads would appear as a

result from both the original creators and their descendants, besides
bloody battles between the brothers Osiris and Seth, where Seth would
finally dismember his brother Osiris and both sisters (Isis and Neftis)
would embalm him, so Osiris would become god of the Underworld, and
Seth the god of War, Chaos, and Drought.

Osiris would return to earth only to have with Isis his firstborn: the god
Horus, who will sustain constant fights against his uncle Seth, beating
him in the end, thus becoming Horus the maximum god of Egypt; later
Seth would go with the great god Ra, since Seth was his favorite.

By that time Neftis gave birth to his firstborn, God Anubis, not being
clear who in is the progenitor (Osiris, Seth or even Amon-Ra); this would
be in short, the cosmogonic drama of the Ennead of Heliopolis, the most
influential and known Ennead of ancient Egypt.

Considering that the Heliopolitan Ennead of ancient Egypt and the

Dahomeyan Vodoún Fá are Africans, we will see below some of the
cosmogonic similarities of both:

-In the Vodoún Fá everything originates from a neutral androgynous

force in the antimatter that is Nana (Burunku), and in Egypt this force is
called Nun.

-Mawú-Lisa ", child of Nana Burunku is the first manifestation in the

Matter of a hermaphrodite being that functions well as one or as two,
male and female, which would be the creative binomial Atum (Ra) and
Iusaas.
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-In the Vodoún Fá, the deity Mawú-Lisa has pairs of twins of both sexes,
male and female who possess similar characteristics, as in Egypt the case
of the siblings Osiris and Isis, the binomial of order and the daytime, and
Seth and Neftis the binomial of chaos and obscurity.

-In both cultures the deities of the created and the uncreated have no
iconic representations, they are allusive and exist only through their
descendants, that are already in contact and interact with human beings.

- In both cultures the uncreated divinity (Nun and Nana) is related to with
a serpent or a serpent’s head.

There are many more points of convergence between these two cultures
that will motivate those interested in the African cosmogony to read more
about it, but we only want to show the reader the similarity between them
through their mythological aspects.

MA´AT

EGYPTIAN DEITY OF BALANCE

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CHAPTER 3

FÁ
(The most powerful Deity of Vodoún Fá)

Fá (called Ifa on Yoruba or Afá land in other regions) is a Mesopotamian

deity of androgynous origin that settled in North Africa on KMT lands in
what is now Egypt, being taken through the Nile to the central and
western parts of Africa to the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Republic of
Benin) in the 16th century, where it prevailed in secret until today.

It was taken and adopted in Yoruba (Nigeria) and Bantu (Congo) lands,
where it is syncretized with the tribal beliefs of each area, in fact as
mentioned before, the Alaafin of Oyó in Nigeria, Obá Dr. Adeyemi III,
heir to a lineage dating from several centuries of successions, clarifies
that in the annals of the Kingdom of Oyó and obviously the rest of the
Yoruba land, there is no historical data of Ifá (Fá) before the sixteenth
century, this kingdom was one of the most influential in reference to
African religion both historically and in the manifestations of its current
diaspora in Cuba in the Americas.

As a deity, Fá possesses the quality of knowing and managing time,

moving it forward, stopping it, returning it and even disrupting it, so Fá
knows the beginning and end of everything and therefore its intermediate
process.

Fá communicates with the human being through an oracle that allows to

know what will happen, as well as the method to modify that future if it is
adverse; it is important to clarify that no deity knows the future of
anything or anyone, so no matter how elevated the other deities may be,
they don’t know their own future or the outcome of their actions; so the
power of the deity Fá puts it on top of most African tribal cosmogonies;
although it was adopted, it adapted and syncretized perfectly with the
beliefs in which it was received.

Fá speaks through 16 signs that swap in their parts that are traced on the
soil or sand; this geomancy was already known in Persian and later in

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Arab lands before its settlement in Egypt and Africa, it is called Ilm Al-
Raml, name that implies reading the sand or earth.

These geomantic signs, according to tribal mythology, were created by

another major deity called Dou (Odu on Yoruba lands) which delivers
this Art to Fá as a language to communicate with humans, a mostly
interpretive language based on mathematics rather than linguistics; it is
worth mentioning that hermetists like Cornelius Agrippa used the Fá-
dous syncretizing them with Astrology and giving them Latin names.

The human being who can interpret the oracle of Fá is called Bokono or
Bokonon (babalawo in Yoruba lands, Al-Darib in Arab lands) in Fon-Gbe
language, It is believed that the first man to receive the oracle of Faith in
archaic times and to interpret it and then teach it was the Islamic prophet
Idris (Idrass).

The Oracle of Fá was secretly used for centuries, and it is believed to be

the foundation, for example, of Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest
religions, and it influenced hundreds of hermetic occultists; but it should
be noted that it is in Africa where Fá is recognized both as a deity and as
an oracle simultaneously; the deity Fá (Ifá) and the ancestral Oracle of
Dou (Odu) are an intrinsic part of the origin of humanity in Vodoún Fá.

This Oracle tells us how to respect the will of creation itself and improve
our lives with a destiny in harmony, instead of imposing our small and
egocentric human will all the time.

THE GEOMANCY OF VODOÚN-FÁ

As we mentioned, Fá communicates with humans through a geomantic

system of binary signs called "dougans".

This is carried out through traces on the ground which are drawn with the
middle and ring fingers of the left hand on a previously delimited area on
soil, sand or animal skins, called "fá té".

The traces drawn on the soil or sand are simple or double vertical lines,
made in four levels representing the four elements: Air, Water, Earth and
Fire as well as the four levels of the body of a human being: head, heart,
belly and feet.

19
These lines result in sixteen signs called "dougans", which combine to
result in 256 signs called "vikandos", and if they are doubles or twins,
they are called "Fá-Medji".

The first sixteen simple signs are called in Fon language:

The sixteen geomantic signs

These signs are distributed in pairs of male and female, for instance:
Ogbe is male, and Yekou is female interspersed.

The eight male signs are odd and positive, precursors of the visible and
daytime world, and the eight female ones are even, negative and
precursors of the world of the invisible, the dark or the night.
20
Once the signs are drawn, they are interpreted by the Bokonó, a character
who has no correspondence in the other ethnic groups around Central
Africa; the Babalawo is the most similar to him but not synonymous with
him.

Based on the ancient sacred writings of the Vikandos (Odus), which is a

compilation of thousands of ancient stories of Fá, this expert will be able
to explain to the consultant about his or her destiny by reading the
manifested signs and interrelating them with the sacred writings of Fá.

In short, the geomantic art of Fá will allow us to know what the

consultant’s destiny holds and how to correct something negative or
fortify the positive through the O´Bó of Vodoún Fá.

21
ILE AFRICA COLLECTION

FÁ-TÉ

(FÁ READING AREA)

22
CHAPTER 4

ANIMISM AND AFRICAN POLYTHEISM

On the African continent, believers of tribal and/or ethnic religions do not

even represent 1 % of their population as explained before; Africa as a
continent with more than a billion inhabitants is largely divided between
Islamic and Christian religions in their various branches.

Most tribal and/or ethnic religions and beliefs in Africa are polytheistic
and they present offerings to different deities, some of which are
anthropomorphic; there is an abysmal difference between polytheistic
religions and animist religions, as monotheism, an animist religion has no
icons and only one key deity.

Not all African beliefs are animist, the vast majority of them are
polytheistic for, as we have said, they worship and present offerings to
different entities that may well be heavenly or ascended deities of
ancestral lineage, disembodied entities or even subhuman entities.

During a stay in Japan, I was able to observe the technological and social
evolution of this country, one of the richest in the world regarding their
nominal GDP; there, I had the opportunity to witness some of its Shinto
rites; Shinto or Sinto is the oldest religion in Japan and the most
influential, it is an ethnic animist religion where the sun, the goddess
Amaterasu, is the key deity; being there, I saw a rich, clean and tidy
country, yet things were not, and still are not like that in Africa today, nor
in its diaspora; it is enough to compare photographs and anthropo-social
studies between both societies to notice their big differences.

Observing these abysmal differences, the compulsory questions are:

If African polytheistic religions with all their mythological deities, many

of them anthropomorphic, are the solution for a better society, then why
did Africa not evolve like the rest of the world?
23
Why is Africa, as a continent where human beings originated, not rich
and prosperous today?
Why do African countries not have the technology and power that other
countries have?
Why is Africa relegated if it has powerful ancestral deities and natural
wealth?
Why did these theoretically powerful deities not give the Africans
intuition and bravery against such brutal colonialism and allow the
conquest and enslavement of their people?

This happened not only in Africa but also in its diaspora; the bad versions
of these religions like Kongo, Yoruba, even Voodoo, etc., affected the
societies of the countries where they were located.

To be clearer the wealth of the world is settled on two types of religion or

belief: monotheism and animism, which have much in common; those
who do not want to see the truth are perfectly within their rights,
nevertheless a philosopher said that knowing the truth will set us free.

The real fact is that today’s polytheistic African beliefs are rather a
multicolored craftwork than a serious religion, rather a tourist attraction
than a philosophy of real life.

If someone wants to move forward and evolve, he must begin by focusing

and understanding that, in any case, a deity is more than enough to
worship; that the monotheistic animism, as the Vodoún Fá or the
Japanese Shinto, will bring wealth, power and wisdom to its practitioners.

One should not confuse the concept of veneration with the concept of
adoration, polytheistic religions venerate their deities almost equally and
make peace offerings to keep them calm; in monotheistic religions such
as Catholicism, saints and angels are venerated but God is adored;
something similar happens in animist religions such as Vodoún Fá, where
the forces of nature or Lwas are venerated and the higher deity Fá-Dou
(Mawú-Lisa) is adored, or as in the Japanese Shinto, where the Kami or
forces of nature are venerated and the Sun goddess Amaterasu is adored.

24
THE BLESSING AND THE CURSE IN AFRICA
(Dzo Nyui and Dzo Von)

The concept of good and evil, of good or bad fortune is known as Dzo
Nyui (Ire in Yoruba language) and Dzo Von (Ibi in Yoruba language,
Osogbo in the diaspora in America).

This concept defines that the human being is born with good or bad
fortune marking his destiny, but also that this is reversible through works
and arts known as "O´bó" (Juju in Yoruba, "Obras" in the diaspora).

O´bó may be to cure or bless (Bó Dagbe), or to destroy or curse (Bó

Gnagna), but the distinction between blessing and curse is not very clear
to the Western perspective, since the "Works" of blessing are essentially
aggressive and obviously the negative ones even more.

This ambivalent nature often occurs in the beliefs of Africa in general

because a deity can be invoked, for example, to create health or sickness,
grace and misfortune, and so simultaneously in everything.

This has a positive side because the one who causes misfortune is the one
who can turn it into grace and blessing, " O´bó " is a spell, but also a
cure, it is a curse, but it can also be a blessing, it depends on the executor.

Within the Vodoún Fá the one who drives the " O´bó " is called Bokonó
(Babalawo between the Yorubas and Bokor in Haiti); the Bokonó
manages this ambiguity that we have mentioned without any problem,
since black and white magic (Bó or Gbó) are essentially the same,
everything depends on the objective; for example , if a someone goes to a
Bokonó in order to reverse a negative work or spell put on them, this
work itself that would be a blessing to them, would be a curse to their
enemy, something like an instant karma or the so called Salawá, since
you cannot decompensate the balance of nature the damage that is poured
into someone must harm the one who originated it, there is no forgiveness
as understood in the West, it is all more a matter of cause and effect.

Within Vodoún Fá it is used the term Salawá, which would be a concept

comparable to the concept of Karma in the West, it is conceptualized that
we are spiritual essences that take a physical body in order to learn more
about the aspects of matter, but there is a warning about this, since
interaction with other beings in the world of Matter could generate a
25
series of causes and effects that would translate into debits or credits in
human interactions; obviously a person who has violated universal or
Matter laws must pay for it in his present life or if he dies before paying
he will be obliged to return to the Matter world to conclude his payment.

With this, the spirit risks to be caught up in a spiral from which it could
take eons to come out and its knowledge of Matter would be vast; not all
spiritual essences risk being trapped in this tangle and that is why they do
not incarnate.

In Vodoún Fá we are believed to be beings that have three parts: an

instinctive being, a conscious being and a spiritual being, which can be in
disharmony with each other creating a series of interpersonal conflicts
and consequently a bad decision making in life, thus generating us
"Salawá" and trapping us in cycles of existence, sometimes in precarious
situations of life.

16 REINCARNATIONS

The Soul or Spirit is called "Se" in Fon Daxomé language, and it

incarnates to obtain knowledge about Matter, its laws and evolutions; this
can be done for up to 16 times or reincarnations, but there is a risk: the
density of Matter can catch the Spirit and it can lose consciousness of
itself as a spiritual being inside the Matter and see it as the only real
thing.

This scenario would create a polarization where Matter would be "what is

real" as well as the science derived from it, the spiritual world would be
very imperceptible and meaningless or baseless.

This loss of spirituality will generate "Salawá" in the individual because

when surrounded by the density of Matter, he will come into conflict with
his fellow men precisely because of "material" issues, it can be said that
material issues are not solved by spiritual means but by material ones, for
example, a person who has a legal problem with someone must resolve it
by legal means; offerings to deities will help the individual to make better
decisions but will not "magically" solve the problem.

We clarify that Vodoún Fá is an animist technique that affects Matter

with Matter itself, hence the importance of the "Vosa" (Ebbo) to affect
26
Matter; by harming a person, animal or any other expression of life, a
lineage is offended, so that offense must be compensated or paid, with
pain, sickness or poverty, life after life, if it was not accomplished in this
one, there is no divine punishment, as we said, it is all just the result of
cause and effect.

JIJÓ JILÉ
(The return of death)

JIJÓ JILÉ is a Vodoún Fá concept, understood in the Western world as

reincarnation, this concept does not exist among the Judaeo-Christian
beliefs, but it does in others such as Hinduism or Buddhism. The idea of
returning from Death and reincarnating is normal in the tribal African
way of thinking, in Egypt, this concept was related to the principle of the
Emerald Tablet which refers to the axiom of the cause and effect law that
says:

"Every cause has its effect, every effect has its cause; everything happens
according to this law, luck or chance is the name given to an
unrecognized law, there are many levels of causality, but nothing escapes
this law."

This axiom and the others of the Emerald Tablet are attributed to the god
of wisdom Thot that the Greeks later related to Hermes the three times
great hence he is later known as: Hermes Trismegistus, the three times
great god Ibis of Thot that taught all kinds of arts in ancient times,
Language, Architecture, Mathematics, Astrology, etc., hence he will be
named the god of wisdom; his knowledge arrived to Egypt through the
Phoenicians.

So, the reason for human suffering and joy is attributed to JIJÓ JILÉ
because it is here, on the physical level, where we negotiate our debts
from past lives, we pay, or we collect.

In tribal Africa this physical level is perceived as a market, which is

where we come to negotiate our debts; the return to the physical level
after death is logical in an immortal universe, and in balance, as
conceived in the mind of the creator, as indicated by the African God
Thot.

27
The one who caused us harm must pay us until he learns to maintain
balance and harmony, and the damage we cause must be paid as well; the
loss of memory between lives is given to avoid the sadism or excessive
collection that would derive from knowing and learning who owes us, not
only referring to money collection but also to acts of cruelty and
arrogance carried out against us or by us to a third party.

The African context indicates that only the deity Fá can tell us how to
negotiate the Salawá or law of cause and effect, as well as accelerate
payment or collection and avoid states of return and recurrence.

THE ETHNIC-TRIBAL PRIESTHOOD OF AFRICA.

In all cultures of the world, no matter what religion, the religious

representatives of each one of them are expected to set an example of
ethics, morality and virtue for the followers of each belief.

In the Vodoún-Fá today the same is expected, also in the ethnic religions
of the surrounding areas such as Yoruba, Bantú, Akemi, etc., the Tribal
Priest be called Bokono, Houngan, Babalawo, Nganga, Sekepo, etc., is
expected to adhere ethically to the guidelines that mark their religion or
belief.

There is an idea in the Western world that the African priest is an

unscrupulous and unethical sorcerer or shaman who focuses on harm and
evil, but this is far from the truth; the most common guidelines shared by
the spiritual leaders of Ethnic-Tribal religions of Central and West Africa
are:

1.- ADVICE AND AID:

They are expected to be counselors of the young and of their society,
forming councils of elders, in order to preserve the social order, for the
more years the more wisdom even among the Bantú, old age elders are
related to the strength of ancestors.

2. ETHICAL LIFE AND HARMONY:

If you are a counselor and also know the arts to improve the destiny of
others, it is expected that your own life will be harmonious and orderly,
avoiding drugs, alcohol or insane vices, sustaining this harmony in your
family and couple life as well.
28
On this subject of couple life there is a taboo subject for the West, but it
is very clear for tribal religions: the majority of ethnic religions in Central
and West Africa do not accept that their priests are homosexual.

In Africa, as everywhere else in the world, there are opposite views on

the acceptance of sexual intercourses between persons of the same sex,
but let us see what the general position on this subject is: as we have
mentioned, in the main tribal religions and beliefs of West and Central
Africa homosexuality is not accepted under any circumstances; for
example, among the Yoruba, in the sacred texts of Ifá, specifically in the
Odù Òfún Ìrètè, Ifá says in Yoruba language:

“Epo Se E Je'su
Isu Se E J'epo
Akaso Dun-Un G'aka
Obinrin Se E Ba Sun J'okunrin Lo
Okunrin Se E Sun Ti J'obinrin Lo
B'okunrin Ba N B'okunrin Sun
Bii Koko, Bii Oowo
Bi Iku Bi Agbaarin
B'obinrin Ba N B'obinrin Sun
Bi Epete Bi Oorun
Bi Erofo Bi Eeri
B'okunrin Ba N B'obinrin Sun
B'obinrin Ba Nsun T'okunrin
Bi Enf'ola Yun'pun
Bi Enf'ola Yun'ra
Igi Ogun-O-Rete Lo Ro Gangan-Olele
Dia Fun Apon-Ako
Ti Nlo Ree Fi Olele Omo Olofa Saya
Apon p'Olele O Je O
Ko Ju Ohun Ti'fa N Se Lo O
Apon p'Olele O Je O
Ko Ju Ohun t'Ebora N Se Lo O”

Translation of the text:

"Palm oil is good to accompany the yam to consume,

And yam is good as a complement to eating palm oil,
The ladder is good for climbing the beam,
29
A woman is better at making love to a man than another man,
A man is better at sleeping with a woman than another woman,
If a man sleeps with a man,
It will result in bruising, boiling water and teeth,
If a woman makes love to another woman,
It will result in pain, bad smell, dirt and irritation,
If a man makes love to a woman,
And a woman sleeps with a man,
The result is feeling at the top of the world,
The feeling is like having unlimited and indescribable enjoyment,
Òfún Ìrètè’s organ is strong and bulky,
This is what Ifá said to a bachelor,
When he was going to marry Olele in Olofa’s spring,
The bachelor called Olele, but she said no,
The problem is no more than Ifá can solve..."
It is seen as unethical behavior that the priest conceals the verses of Fá
(Ifá) that do not suit him or the client or misrepresent them; it is
understood that this subject applies only to priests, not to followers of
these religions or beliefs, who have no problem to be accepted because of
their sexual preferences.

3. GOODNESS:
In such a materialistic world goodness has been lost, malediction, deceit,
greed, and violence are quite evident now, so the spiritual leader is
expected to be a source of goodness and, through his arts, to cure, to
defend against injustices, to improve the destiny of others, to be a good
example; a priest, whatever his designation, without ethics, without
respect for his directives and without goodness in his daily duties, is
merely a phony.

Because of the Salawá some people will take spiritually crooked people
or charlatans as religious guides, in this case all they can do is asking Fá
(Ifá) from their hearts that Fá himself be the only guide to compose their
bad destiny.

Any priest, king, spiritual guide or leader will always be an example and
teacher, either to improve our lives or to teach us to avoid repeating their
mistakes.

30
TA FIFÁ AND EDÚN

Ta Fifá is the name given to the act of meditating in Vodoún Fá.

African beliefs and its diaspora’s are rather sought by people to obtain
through its arts material pleasures such as love, money, power, or even
revenge and obstruction of enemies forgetting the spiritual side; in fact, it
is often unknown that African tribal beliefs have systems of meditation
and prayer, as well as a foundation of mystical and spiritual order, even
by their own priests and group leaders.

Without a mystical vision in the world of spiritual beliefs you are nothing
but a simple comedian or illusionist who performs showy or shocking
spectacles of high paraphernalia and multicolored gadgets that sometimes
work by mere placebo effect as they are lacking in art of spiritual nature
and impact.

The mystical vision cannot be developed in someone full of ego, full of

Edún (emotions) because their personal interests and frustrations come
before the spiritual; Ta Fifá is the technique to obtain that mystical vision,
but a self-haunted heart full of ego is not easy to heal, as the Fá-Du Tula
(Odu Otua or Otura) teaches us: Without mystical vision you are only a
blind man in the world; you have to symbolically develop the Wadjet
Eye, also called Horus Eye to see your destiny.

31
ILE AFRIKA COLLECTION

NKISI NKONDI
PROTECTION FETISH

32
CHAPTER 5

THE VOSÁ OR SACRIFICE

The Ritual Sacrifice in Africa

African religions and their diasporas are known and seen by Western
religions and cultures as primitive and barbaric because of their animist
beliefs and ritual animal sacrifice, but a funny thing is that animal
sacrifice is and has been something normal in other non-African beliefs,
for example, in the Bible’s Leviticus, which is the third book of the
Pentateuch, we find that chapters I to XVI are devoted to the rituals of
animal sacrifices; the animal offerings to God, gods or deities was
something accepted and practiced in Islam, Judaism, Mormonism,
American Indians, etc., the lack of study of sacred books and broad
disinformation gives the idea that ritual sacrifice was unique and
exclusive of African beliefs as we said.

Today the "ritual sacrifice", those massacres that some beliefs practice
even today, are in reality mere paraphernalia for a tremendous show
mounted for "the customer", sometimes with malice, sometimes by
ignorance on the part of the priest of pseudo religions in order to impress
their viewers, this action has no foundation, and it simply generates
Salawá (Karma) for both parties: the executor and the client.

Whoever believes that through the torture or suffering of other species

will obtain power and wealth is wrong, it is only a placebo effect in their
psyche, and once the drunkenness of blood passes, they must pay for it
with pain and poverty.

Those of us who really know about these arts are well aware that in
African beliefs there are three "bloods": the red, the white and the black,
which are actually liquors, honey, plant reductions, etc., so the slaughter
of animals is not justified; for example, in the Vodoún Fá, deities receive
offerings of all kinds, there are deities that receive only metals or
semiprecious stones, others only fruits or flowers, some receive the mist
33
of humans and thus the variety is extensive, there is even a sacrifice in
which captive animals or birds are released and sent to a deity with a
message without shedding their blood; in short, there are more alternative
actions which are respectful of the living species to make offerings to
deities with no need to mistreat or carry out slaughters of animals, which
are often performed only to satiate the human morbid fascination, or to
make the "work" for the client more expensive.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF VODOÚN-FÁ

As we have already explained, the concept of good and evil does not exist
within Vodoún Fá but rather a concept of right or wrong, and since
duality is inevitable within this material level, the idea of right and wrong
does not really make sense because, for example, a war would be bad for
some and good for others, but the question is whether such an action
would be right or wrong.

To give a clearer example we will propose the hypothetical case of a man

facing a feline, let’s say an adult tiger, obviously in that unarmed fight the
result would be unfavorable to the human, and it would be absurd to
think, after the massacre towards the human, that the tiger was "bad" for
devouring the human who was "good", in fact, seen from another
perspective, it is a "right" act on the part of the feline due to its predatory
animal nature.

Similarly, the actions that are carried out in this plane in the eyes of
Vodoún Fá are not analyzed in the light of good and evil, but of right or
wrong.

The African concept of balance comes from Kemeth (KMT), Egypt

today, and teaches us through the deity Ma´at that neutrality is the basis
of order and peace, and that when someone violates the neutrality and
peace of someone else, the Salawá (Karma) must act as a compensating
force, after an Anubis trial, and in case of violation of the neutrality of
others, such action is considered as predatory and incorrect and must be
compensated to the counterpart with some "correct" payment; it is
therefore vital to understand the concept of neutrality and balance that
governs Vodoún Fá, since nature itself teaches us that to live in extremes
such as temperature, emotions, organic chemistry, etc., can be highly
detrimental to the human being.

34
THE O´BÓ

The concept of O´bó within Vodoún Fá refers to all activities and actions
aimed at the improvement of the human being for greater plenitude such
as love, wealth, health, prosperity, etc., which are common goals of all
human beings and in one way or another the approach of life is aimed at
those goals, however, obstacles tend to appear in the way, some of them
impossible to overcome and they frustrate the desires of a person.

There are five graces and five misfortunes concerning the human being
recognized in Vodoún Fá, and the graces would be:

1. Prosperity with long life.

2. Wealth of all kinds.
3. Full development in life.
4. Good and honorable family.
5. Overcoming obstacles.

Likewise, the misfortunes are listed as:

1. Death or total or partial disability.

2. Disease.
3. Conflict.
4. Poverty.
5. Loss of all kinds.

These graces or misfortunes manifest themselves in sequential order, for

example, a person who loses his employment of years will generate a
certain degree of poverty and obvious conflicts accordingly, ranging from
family to legal, once feeling pressured, physical-genetic weaknesses will
appear with the consequent appearance of a serious illness that will later
result in paralysis, disability, or death itself.

Conversely the graces will be formed online once we overcome obstacles,

so we will have in consequence an optimal circle around us, including
family, partners, friends, etc., besides open ways to a better and greater
development of oneself; money will not be long in coming, and logically
prosperity with it and if there is no Salawá to be paid, then long life and
prosperity will manifest.

35
But then, where do the philosophy, mystique and magic of Vodoún-Fá fit
in these cases? In the fact that through O´bó, a bad destiny can be
affected or changed, no matter in stage of misfortune it is, into a grace or
good destiny.

Through the arts of Vodoún-Fá, any necessary changes to obtain a good

destiny are carried out, as well as the works to correct any wrong action
that violates our neutrality, balance and peace, in simple and concrete
words: to carry out actions to improve our life, and to collect or amend
incorrect or negative actions on us by third parties; the fundamental idea
in Vodoún-Fá is living in balance and peace.

THE MAGIC OF VODOÚN-FÁ

In this part we will focus on the issue of the actions to be performed in

order to obtain a destiny full of grace and to balance or conjure the
predatory actions of any enemy, but first we must take certain premises as
a basis:

• FÁ-DOU is the maximum deity, it is androgynous in nature and dictates

the guidelines to make O´boses.
• There is the Salawá, which affects our life and must be compensated if
there is something negative to improve.
• There is the right to change a negative destiny into a positive one.
• If someone invades our personal space of any kind and especially in a
violent way, we have the right to do what is correct, and that someone
must compensate us.

If we take these premises as a basis, then we could conclude in synthesis

that:

"It is our right to have a good destiny with all kinds of graces: love,
wealth, health, prosperity and peace, and through the guidance of Fá-Dou
we can obtain it, and if something prevents us to achieve it either our
karma or enemies, the deity Fá-Dou will guide us in the process of
removing these obstacles through the O´bó of Vodoun Fá."

The O´bó exist for every human situation, whether to enhance graces or
eliminate misfortunes, including "negotiating" the Salawá (Karma), the
most common topics that are consulted concern wealth (money) and love,
followed by protection, health and prosperity; the procedure is as follows:
36
1.-READING OF VIKANDOS (ODUS)

At this stage, a reading of Vikandos, which are as we saw the signs of Fá,
is opened on the Fá-Te, so it will be possible to read in it everything
related to the questions or doubts that the consultant has; the Bokonó will
expand the topic on the reading performed, and will give the consultant
the guidelines for the development of the appropriate O´bó.

2.- THE VOSÁ AND THE O´BÓ

In this second part an offering will be made to the deity Fá-Dou, in order
to carry out the O´bó previously indicated in the reading, then the O´bó
will be made; at the end, there will normally be, as a result, two objects
that will be carried by the consultant from now on:

A-The Spell, which is a kind of talisman.

B- The Santé, which is an essence of various uses.

During the elaboration of the O´bó, several Vosas (offerings) can be

presented to deities as indicated by the reading of the Fá, the animist
signs of these deities will be presented for this, these signs are known
with the name "Vévé" and they will be given offerings before using them.

VÉVÉ
THE SIGN OF DEITY

All the deities in Vodoún-Fá have a distinctive sign, even Fá, is not
exactly an ajitena, a firma or a patipemba, as we said before, but rather a
bidimensional icon, more precise than the icon of other African cultures
where carvings are made of wood, stone, shell, bone, etc., of a more
tridimensional but more imprecise order, this is because there are objects
inside the Vévé almost impossible to reproduce in a wood carving such as
the fire, the sky, etc., or even combined geometric figures.
These signs are part of the Bokono’s power objects to be used in the
O´bó; some Vévé are very simple in their stroke and others extremely
complicated and layered; once the O´bó is finished, the consultant will
carry the Spell and the Santé with him or her most of the times; if any

37
offerings remain to be made, this will be carried out at the end of all
works.

The effect of the works carried out should be seen in the coming days, but
it is VERY important that the consultants do not doubt what the Bokonó
did, because they would cancel their own work, since it was their will to
do so, it is their will to cancel it too.

VÉVÉ, GEOMANTIC SIGN

38
CHAPTER 6

VODOÚN-FÁ AS A PERSONAL BELIEF

The material world is the only real plane we know, some philosophical
dissertations promote the idea that man creates God and not inversely;
believing or not in a Divinity is a personal choice, but applying the
mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal’s known "wager" from the
16th century, where he poses four scenarios, we can find a fundamental
column to accept the spiritual world:

1.- You can believe in God and if he EXISTS, then you will gain eternal
glory.
2.- You can believe in God and if he DOES NOT exist, then you will gain
nothing.
3.- You may NOT believe in God and if he DOES NOT exist you will
gain nothing
4.- You may NOT believe in God and if he EXISTS you will gain
nothing.

The mathematical and philosophical reason is that, although the

probability of God’s existence was very small, such smallness would be
compensated by the great gain: eternal glory.

Based on this reasoning, Vodoún Fá, like any other religion, takes logical
sustenance, but we have also seen that it is a highly interactive animist
religion, so the positive results will be evident in our daily lives.

To live day by day in the world of Vodoún Fá, we have to decide to

believe in a deity, the highest of this belief: Fá-Du (Ifá and Odu), but not
as a saving deity or guru but as a counselor, a friend who recommends us
to be better every day, without pressure or punishment, respecting our
free will to do or not to do things.
39
Fá-Dou can advise us in a thousand ways how to improve our destiny,
when reading a book or a publication on a street, through lucid dreams,
hunches, etc., and also puts at our disposal the Oracle of Fá-Dou, one of
the most sophisticated ancestral oracular systems that exist to know more
about ourselves, as well as to defend ourselves from injustices and
enemies.

In Vodoún Fá, it is considered that we have four conglomerate levels as

human beings that are interpreted as bodies in concentric layers with
levels of density, that go from the subtle incorporeal to the dense or
corporeal; and they would be:

-Body of the Spirit; which is the subtlest, called "Se", which is a spark
from the great universal spirit called "Segbo".

-Mental Body; called "Ye" which is the one that manages the harmony of
the Salawá and Jijó Jilé in each human being.

-Energetic Body; called "Me" that controls the conscious, unconscious

and even subconscious mechanisms that move each Being.

-Material or Physical Body; the densest and most obvious for us.

We will live an aspect of total fullness when harmoniously develop our

four bodies, we must remember that the origin of universal life comes
from an androgynous deity that manifests itself in female form, and the
Fá-Dou that is androgynous-hermaphrodite is manifested in male or
female depending on the situation; since in the cosmogonic vision of this
belief it is not perceived a "god" but a "goddess" as the supreme being,
the Vodoún Fá must be understood from a feminine angle but it would
not be thought that because of this the Vodoún Fá is a candid or tenuous
belief, it must be remembered that in the Voodooist Kingdom of
Dahomey the woman was held in high esteem to the degree that this was
the first kingdom to have a royal army of elite warriors consciously
trained and formed only by women, who were known as the Mino and
defended this kingdom for centuries.

Historically the influential religious expressions have been and continue

to be controlled by patriarchal guidelines, and women who want to have
the same rights as their counterparts are considered "witches" and they
40
are obviously censored or repudiated, but within the consciousness of
Vodoún Fá, women have power in every sphere and offer the arts to
facilitate their growth.

In 1946, a series of more than 900 manuscripts dating from

approximately 200 B.C. to 70 A.D was discovered by chance in Qumran,
near the Dead Sea. In them the early Christians known as Gnostics and
followers of the teachings of the Christ indicate that the creator of all was
a female deity who was even above Jesus Christ himself; they called her
Sophia, whose story is told in a manuscript called Pistis Sophia; as we
can see the parallelism with the Vodoún-Fá is impressive, since that
unknown feminine origin of everything created, which later gives way to
duality, is the basis of both beliefs.

The practices of Vodoún Fá, even if coming from a female deity, are not
exclusive of the female gender, and they are carried out by both genders;
but it must be remembered at all times where power comes from in this
ancestral belief, which is the preexisting source of life and the origin of
everything.

41
REFERENCES

2011 La Corona de Española y el Trafico de Negros

Fernandez Duran, Ed Ecobook
1993 Les Mystères du vaudou. Paris, Gallimard («Découvertes»).
1999 Das fingierte Geschlecht. Inszenier-ungen des Weiblichen und
Mannlichen in den kulturellen Texten des Oriha-und Vodun-Kulte am
Golf von Benin. Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang («Europaischer Verlag
der Wissenschaftten»).
1988 De l’idolâtrie. Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Paris, Éd.
du Seuil («Anthropologie»).
2003 Les Mysteres de O´siris Christian Jacq ed,ox
2106 cult/vol18/16 Ikú baba yeye Alaafin de Oyó, Obá Olayinola
Adeyemi III

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