Voodoo Spirits

Voodoo Spirits

Read these presentation of voodoo spirits and memorise the information to complete a game at the end.

Vévés

Papa Legba

Ogun

Maman Brigitte

Damballah

Baron Samedi

Papa Loko

Index

Baron Samdi is the spirit of death. When someone dies, he digs their grave and greets their soul after they have been buried, leading them to the underworld. He is notorious for his outrageous behaviour. He is married to Maman Brigitte, but often chases after mortal women. He loves smoking and drinking and is rarely seen without a cigar in his mouth or a glass of rum in his bony fingers.

Baron Samedi

Papa Legba stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits, and is believed to speak all human languages. Legba facilitates communication, speech, and understanding. He is commonly associated with dogs. Papa Legba is invoked at the beginning of every ceremony. He usually appears as an old man on a crutch or with a cane, wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat.

Papa Legba

Ogun is a warrior and a powerful spirit of metal works.In some traditions, he is said to have cleared a path for the other orisha to enter Earth, using a metal axe and with the assistance of a dog. Ogun is the traditional deity of warriors, hunters, blacksmiths, technologists, and drivers.

Ogun

Maman Brigitte is often pictured with red-gold hair and emerald green eyes, and she is represented by a black rooster. Her duty is protecting and blessing the gravestones in cemeteries, provided they are properly marked with a cross. Maman Brigitte is also a healer and she is worshiped especially when someone is heavily ill and in a need for a fresh start. Her powers are not limited to healing physical illness, as she rules over spiritual death as well. In addition to having the power to heal, Maman is the one to decide if a person should be healed. If not, she would put the person in the care of Baron Samedi.

Maman Brigitte

Damballah is one of the most important of all spirits in Haitian Voodoo. He is traditionally portrayed as a great white or black serpent.He created the cosmos, formed the stars and the planets in the heavens and shaped the hills and valleys on earth, and created all the waters on the earth. As a serpent, he moves between land and water, generating life, and through the earth, uniting the land with the waters below.

Damballah

He is the spirit of vegetation, the guardian of sanctuaries and is associated with trees. Loco has an extensive knowledge of the pharmaceutical uses of herbs. He gives healing properties to leaves, and is the spirit and patron of the herb doctors who always invoke him before undertaking a treatment.

Papa Loko

Play

Vévés

All these voodoo loa (or lwa - meaning "spirits") have "vévés". In the course of Voodoo ceremonies, the reproduction of the astral forces represented by the veves obliges the lwa to descend to earth. A veve is usually drawn on the floor with powder (flour, brick powder, gunpowder, etc..