Samedi: The Lady Bath

I've spoken of Milo Rigaud and his 1953 publication Secrets of Voodoo here at HQ before.  I’ve also mentioned the Voudon ritual known as a Lady bath.  Both converge in the book where Rigaud, a native Haitian and a student of law, ethnology, psychology and theology, discusses the ritual and the hymn to Erzulie Freda that can accompany it.  Per Rigaud:

The “Lady” bath is the bath taken under the magic auspices of Erzulie.  Generally speaking, it is desirable to summon the mystère Erzulie to come in person and administer the bath…  The bath Erzulie used to be much in vogue, but it is no longer as popular as it once was.  Nowadays initiates are content to take a substitute Erzulie bath by rubbing themselves with water in which Erzulie, while possessing somebody, has herself bathed.  The bath water used in this fashion is thought to produce good fortune and cure illness.

Rigaud gives the ingredients of the Lady bath as follows:

… three bunches of basilica leaves, seven sweet peppers, a measure of zo-douvant (Eugenia crenulata Wild) powder, baume du commandeur, tincture of benzoin and Florida Water.  Perfume may be added in any desired quantity, perfume being the most important element in Maitresse Erzulie’s toilette.

This bath is generally taken no more than once a year and this hymn to Erzulie may accompany it:

Ce chance oh! O, ce chance oh!

Ce pas wanga ou gangnin;

Ce chance oh!

Grande Erzulie Freda

Ce chance ou gangnin,

Ce pas wanga ou gangnin;

Ce chance, O Maitresse.

It’s luck, oh! O, it’s luck, oh!

It’s not a magic charm that you have;

It’s luck, oh!

Grande Erzulie Freda

It’s luck that you have,

It’s not a magic charm that you have;

It’s luck, O Mistress.

The emphasis on luck in this chant delineates the intention of the Lady bath.  The voudonist is not looking for Erzulie’s assistance in love or good looks, but specifically for her favor.  Everyone in Haiti knows that those who are favored by the beautiful Maitresse are the luckiest of all.

Header: Marilyn Monroe photograph via Mid-Century; my Erzulie is very fond of having pictures of MM used to represent her and I cannot but comply

Samedi: Voudon Chants

One of the largest parts of any Voudon ritual is music.  Drums are a staple at the oumphor; in fact each one usually has its own name and resting place for when it is not in use.  The rhythmic stomping of feet and clapping of hands is also part of the tune and the clear voices of the worshippers raised in song completes the sound. 

The songs, or chants, are slightly different in each oumphor, but their meanings and their use in worship are the same.  Some are sung in Haitian Creole and some are sung in French; in New Orleans voodoo, the chants may also be sung in English.  None of this changes the importance of the songs, which can address a specific lwa or a lwa nachon.  Either way they are sung to entreat the spirits to help in a specific working being undertaken by the mambo or houngan.  They are similar to the raising of power done by groups of Wiccans or the prayers repeated by an entire congregation of Catholics.

Milo Rigaud, a native of Haiti born in the early 20^th century, recorded many of the old chants in his book Secrets of Voodoo.  Published in 1953 and still in print today, the book is a careful study of Haitian Voudon that, despite its somewhat titillating title, should be on the shelf of any serious student of the religion.  Rigaud documented many of the chants, in Creole or French and English, so the words used when he was writing are still available to us today.  To my knowledge, not much about them has changed.

As an example, here is the Yanvalou (part of the service-lwa or ritual of worship) to the Queen of the Ghede Maman Brigitte as sung in Port-au-Prince according to Rigaud:

Maman Brigitte!  Maman moin!

O! Ououe ca?

A l’entour caille-la

Gangnin dif e la-dans ni

Nous cache bois

Pou Nous semble dif e;

Nous cache d’l’eau pou nous

Touye dif e.

La plus par tome

Ou pas our?

Terre-la glisse.

Mother Brigitte!  My mother!

Oh! See that?

Around the house,

There’s a fire in it.

We gather wood

To build a fire;

We gather water to

Extinguish the fire.

The rain does not fall.

Don’t you see?

The ground is slick.

Maman Brigitte is thus called up to protect not only the oumphor but the worshipers within it as well.  An appropriate chant, I think, on this her holy day.  Bon Samedi ~

Header: Maman Brigitte painting via Vudu Mexico

Samedi: Possessed

Aside from zombies (the actual term in Haitian Creole is zombi), the thing that seems the most off-putting about Voudon is spirit possession. Americans in particular, at least those I’ve conversed on the subject with, can’t wrap their brains around the idea, usually falling back on Hollywood stereotypes (just as they do with “zombies”). Of course this is foolishness on many levels.

Spirit possession is a far more common phenomenon than most people think. Native cultures in Thailand, Ethiopia, Brazil, the Philippines and even here in Alaska – just to name a very few – believe in forms of spirit possession, spirit wandering or both. Why the tenant of spirit possession in Haitian Voudon is so frightening to so many can really only be attributed to ignorance (I’m looking at you and your ilk, Pat Robertson) and the fact that true spirit possession lacks a lot in shock value (your turn, Hollywood).

Spirit possession, or mounting as it is known in Haiti where the individual who is “ridden” by the lwa is called a cheval (horse), is a very real thing to voudonists. In fact, it goes beyond the experiences of the oumphor or temple. It can occur at any time in anyone’s life.

Milo Rigaud, in his book Secrets of Voodoo published in 1953, gives an instructive list on times and situations when an individual lwa might choose to mount a person. Rigaud, who was born in Port-au-Prince in 1903, was a voudonist and life long student of Voudon tradition. He studied ethnology, theology and psychology in France and obtained a law degree in his native Haiti. A brilliant man with much insight into the interweaving of Haitian life and Voudon belief, Rigaud’s book is very much worth your while if you have a serious interest in Voudon, Haiti or both.

Here are the reasons a lwa will possess a person as laid out by Rigaud:

1) To protect him.

2) To confer upon him a power or faculty that he needs for the successful accomplishment of a task, which he does not ordinarily have. [Rigaud gives the example of a man in a shipwreck suddenly being able to swim to shore when he never could swim before.]

3) To permit him to remove himself with supernatural speed.

4) To cure him of illness or to prevent him from suffering.

5) To give him counsel. In this case, those who speak to the possessed person repeat to him the advice that the loa gave during the “loa-crisis”.

6) To give some other person a treatment or simply to prescribe or to compose a remedy.

7) To punish the “horse” for some offense. [This can be a horrible ordeal for the person possessed, including the dislocation of limbs, breaking of bones, utter exhaustion and/or illness and probably comes closest to the Hollywood image of “possession”. It is also exceedingly rare and usually occurs only when the person in question has transgressed beyond anything most people could even imagine.]

8) To point out some forbidden ritual.

9) To give warning of danger threatening an individual or the community.

10) To preside over, or to assist at a ritual ceremony.

11) To come and get a sacrificial offering.

This list gives a clearer picture of spirit possession in the context of Voudon. It might also give one pause; how many of these instances sound like things done by common men throughout history that we have attributed to heroism, bravery, leadership or a deity. Just a thought, after all. Bon Samedi ~

Header: The Voodoo Dance by Granger c 1885