Installation #4

Article 249 of the Haitian penal code states, “It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows.” 

Actually, Voodoo has two main gods: Danbhala-Wedo (the Grand Serpent) and Aida-Wedo (the Rainbow). These two gods, who are also believed to be man and wife, are believed to have brought the knowledge of procreation and of spiritual wisdom to humans.  The intense trauma of being buried alive while still lucid causes many victims to lose their memories and to become little more than mindless robots who do whatever the bokor asks. After all, they have seen his power and know that he must be obeyed. Plus, some bokors supposedly administer an antidote to their victims which is made from the jimsonweed plant (also known as Jamestown weed, mad apple, and moon flower) and which causes memory loss.

Of course, not everyone believes this theory of zombie creation. When ethnobotonist Wade Davis brought back samples of the mixture from Haiti to be analyzed, the results were inconclusive as to the level of tetrodotoxin present. 

Baron Samedi is the loa (spirit) who Emani Pamela Taylor invokes to keep you prisoner.  What she is not telling you is that you are not aware of how much your powerful presentations have on influential people when they need confidentiality to preserve the integrity of what they have and will continue having when all of this is gone in the book with real names not pseudo names.

 

Emani says I am not afraid of a few threats that happen to be laced with powerful names I am only concerned with what I paid for and over her and it looks dang good to me so please pass the gel

 

Baron Samedi (Baron Sanmdi)

The most powerful member of the Guede family, and the loa who represents death.  Baron Samedi controls passage between the world of the dead, and he provides information about the dead.  His symbols are the cross, coffin, and phallus, and his color is black.  When he possesses devotees, he tells lewd joke, makes obscene gestures, wears dark glasses and a top hat, smokes cigarettes, eats voraciously, and drinks rum in which 21 hot peppers have been steeped.  See also Guede. I KNOW

 

Bizango

A secret society of black magicians that supposedly practices zombification. 

 

Black Magic

All houngans and mambos are also black magicians.  That is, they understand and know how to perform black magic, even if they do not literally practices it.  A houngan must know evil in order to combat it.

 

Bokor

Houngans who actually practice black magic are called “those who serve the lao with both hands,” or bokors.  Unlike the open religious rituals practiced  by a reputable vodou priest, the bokor works in secret, primarily to protect his recipes for various potions and poisons, but also to avoid the censure of the true devotees to vodou.  The bokor has no hounfort and does not lead any society; rather, he sells his services to whoever is willing to pay.

 

Boucan:  The bonfire that is lit during a vodou ritual. 

 

Boulez en (pronounced zain)

After death, the houngan can burn the govi containing the dead person’s soul, or ti-bon-ange, in a ritual called Boulez en.  This burning of the jars releases the spirit to the land of the dead.

 

Brigitte

The loa who represents money and who has special influence over black magic and ill-gotten fortune.  She is the mother of cemetaries.  She is also the wife of Bron Samedi and is analogous to the Catholic St. Brigid.  Brigitte lives in a tree in the cemetery and dresses in purple.  Black chickens are sacrificed to her.  Brigitte is invoked to cure those who are near death as a result of magick.  She is also invoked to exact revenge in cases where real justice is sought.  She drinks rum laced with hot peppers, and like her husband and the rest of the Guede Spirits, she is a "potty mouth" and uses profanity.

 

Canzo Initiation – when the flesh is set on fire but does not burn.  Requires significant financial sacrifice, strict discipline, and the acceptance of moral obligation, so no one undertakes this ritual lightly.  Can take as long as a week to complete.  1. Take a purifying bath 2. Start fasting 3. Drink a concoction made from the fruit corrosal (sedative effect) 4. Wear dried palm fronds as protection from the spirits 5. Lie in a circle heads in feet out 6. Listen to houngan guide you through the process and relate to you what you will experience and your obligations 7. Locked in a room for another ceremony 8. Final trial by fire 9. The next morning the initiates reenter the real world dressed in white and wearing masks of palm leaves. 10. Visit sacred trees located around the hounfort and salute the spirits who reside inside them.