Influences include: Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Spiritualism, and the many Afro-Diasporic faiths like Haitian Vodou, Santería and Espiritu religion.

These latter are the original zombies, occurring in the West African Vodun religion and its American offshoots Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo.

) In addition, many of the 41. 5 % of the population that refer to themselves as Christian practice a syncretized religion, not dissimilar from Haitian Vodou or Brazilian Cadomblé ; indeed, many of them are descended from freed Brazilian slaves who settled on the coast near Ouidah.

In the Vodou religion, Agassou ( also Ati-A-Sou ) is a loa, or deity, who guards the old traditions of Dahomey.

In Vodou, ( the Voodoo religion ), Bacalou is a feared loa ( or spirit ), represented by a skull and crossbones.

In the religion of Vodou, Captain Debas ( also Debard, Deebat ) is a loa of the Guédé ( or Ghede ) nation of gods, and is sent by the Barons ( Samedi, La Croix, Cimetière ) as a soul collector, guiding souls into the underworld.

Sobo is a spirit or Lwa in the Haitian Vodou religion.

In the Vodou ( Voodoo ) religion, Sousson-Pannan is a hideously ugly loa, covered in sores, who is known for drinking copious amounts of both liquor and blood.

Voodoo dolls are not a feature of Haitian Vodou religion, but have been portrayed as such in popular culture, and stereotypical voodoo dolls are sold to tourists in Haiti.

Animal sacrifice is also found in the Cuban religion called Palo, which derives from African religion of the Congo, and in Haitian Vodou, a religion that derives from the Vodou religion of Dahomey.

The folk religion of Vodou commingled Catholic liturgy and ritual with the beliefs and practices of the Vodun religion of Guinea, Congo and Dahomey.

Candomblé can also be distinguished from Umbanda, a religion founded in the early 20th century by combining African elements with Kardecism ; and from similar African-derived religions such as Quimbanda, Haitian Vodou, Cuban Santería, and Obeah, which developed independently of Candomblé and are virtually unknown in Brazil.

* West African Vodun-West African religion, an antecedent of Haitian Vodou

: See also: Afro-American religion, for a list of related religions, which are sometimes called or mistaken for Vodou / Voodoo.

But in 1989, BOUKMAN EKSPERYANS introduced a revolution in Haitian music that helped to revitalize interest in Haiti's traditional culture and religion ( Vodou ).

BOUKMAN was also a priest of the new Afro-Haitian religion called Vodou that helped to unify the Haitian slave to carry out the revolution.

A significant percentage of the population also practice Vodou traditions approximately 20-25 %, but these claims are denied by a significant amount of the strict Roman Catholic populace.

The Loa ( also Lwa or L ' wha ) are the spirits of Haitian Vodou.

The vodun are the centre of religious life, similarly in many ways to doctrines such as the intercession of saints and angels that made Vodun appear compatible with Christianity, especially Catholicism, and produced syncretic religions such as Haitian Vodou.

Glele's symbols are the lion and the ritual knife of the adepts of Gu ( Vodou of fire, iron, war, and cutting edges ).

In Haitian Vodou, the Guédé ( also spelled Gede or Ghede, pronounced in Haitian Creole ) are the family of Loa that embody the powers of death and fertility.

In Vodou, the Marassa Jumeaux are the divine twins.

In some houses they are not channelled through possession in Vodou ritual, but served first after Legba.

The ecstatic, possessory form of invocation may be compared to loa possession in the Vodou tradition where devotees are described as being " ridden " or " mounted " by the deity or spirit.

The country has many magical tales that are part of the Haitian Vodou tradition.

The trances are described in familiar anthropological terms, with characteristic movements ( such as the backward head flick found in all trance-inducing cults ) found today in Afro-American Vodou and its counterparts.

Homosexuality in Haitian Vodou is religiously acceptable and homosexuals are allowed to participate in all religious activities.

Haitian Vodou views sexual orientation as a part of the way God makes a person ; homosexuals are free to pursue members of the same sex just as heterosexuals are free to pursue members of the opposite sex.

In Haitian Vodou, male homosexuals are seen as under the protection of the Erzulie Freda, loa of love and beauty.

There are, however, views among other Vodou practitioners that overt identification as homosexuals has no place within the tradition.

In Vodou, Mounanchou is a group of powerful spirits known as loa, revered in Haiti.

Gwydion later purchased and moved to Annwfn, 55 acres ( 223, 000 m² ) of land in Mendocino county he later deeded to the Church of All Worlds as a gift, and worked psychedelic group shamanic and Vodou rituals.

Vodou Adjae is the first album of the Haitian music group Boukman Eksperyans.

In the Vodou of Benin and Haiti Ayida-Weddo ( a. k. a. Aida-Wedo, Aido Quedo, " Rainbow-Serpent ") is a spirit of fertility, rainbows and snakes, and a companion or wife to Dan, the father of all spirits.

In Haitian Vodou or Vodou, Erzulie ( sometimes spelled Ezili ) is a family of lwa, or spirits.

Ezili Dantor or Erzulie D ' en Tort ( also spelled Erzulie with Danto or Danthor ) is the Petro nation aspect of the Erzulie family of lwa, or spirits in Haitian Vodou.

These religions usually involve ancestor veneration and / or a pantheon of divine spirits, such as the loas of Haitian Vodou, or the orishas of Santería.

Category: Vodou deities

Category: Vodou deities

Duvalier's paramilitary police, officially the Volunteers for National Security ( Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale – VSN ) but more commonly known as the Tonton Macoutes, named for a Vodou monster, carried out political murders, beatings, and intimidation.

Haitian Vodou ( also known as Voodoo in the United States ) is a syncretic mixture of Roman Catholic rituals introduced during the French colonial period, African beliefs, with roots in the Yoruba, Kongo and Dahomey mythology, and folkloric influence from the indigenous Taino Amerindians that once populated the island.

In Haiti there is a Vodou denomination known as Makaya that is similar to Palo.

Houngan is the term for a male priest in Haitian Vodou ( a female priest is known as a mambo ).

* Sakpata Boys: for a long-time the most popular crew in Cotonou, known for using chants and other elements from Beninese Vodou