That Urban Voodoo book, if it's the one I've read (some connection with Christopher Hyatt, I think) is basically chaos magick & ceremonial stuff masquerading as/appropriating tropes from Voudun. There's some info, but it's all jumbled up.
The best online source I've found for the Haitian variety is Mambo Racine.
I've read more about the Afro-Cuban stuff, (fairly obviously), and there's a pretty good network here, and some really nice foundation myths here. The recently established public face of Yoruba-Cuban religion is here. (This is the outfit that went to the Supreme Court for their right to sacrifice animals.)
You might get some good, meaty info at this Yoruba religion site, but I haven't surfed it yet.
The depth and significance of the Catholic iconography will vary depending on who's talking and who they're talking to. For a lot of people (probably most - definitely all that I've personally encountered), the orisha are the saints. They don't refer to Eleggua at *all* in conversation, but to San Lazaro or (my preference) San Antonio.
My feeling is that the "secrecy" which most anthropologists and observers see in Yoruba syncretic religions (Voudun, Santeria, etc.) is a lot more intimately tied with "mystery" than they let on. The interesting part is the way the double-naming is used to avoid authority and suppression, but the popular practice simply attributes that relationship to "mystery" and leaves it in the realm of the spirits. Just an unscientific hunch, that.
What spurs this interest? What are you finding compelling or interesting or disturbing? |
In response to your question, I'm interested because Voudoun has been mentioned by at least three friends/acquaintances in the last week, in all cases unexpectedly. That and I'm fascinated by the syncretist movements that crop up around the edges of Christianity, how it merges with other traditions... given that I'm trying to found my own special kind of heresy (I bet it's all been done before by the time I'm finished).