WHAT ARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF VOODOO AS A RELIGIOUS SYSTEM?
R: Voodoo is characterized by a merging of African, African-American, Native American, and European beliefs and spiritual practices. As a spiritual system, it is continually evolving to serve a tremendously wide range of loa (spirits). There is no central force to define or enforce orthodoxy. Each Temple or Spiritual House operates independently, this lends itself to wide variability in theory and practice. Overall dogma is (thankfully) scarce. This wide variability in theory and practice makes Voodoo ver y difficult to define as a particular set of practices, rites, etc. All to the good! The absence of definition makes rational analysis difficult if not impossible. The Sacred Snake in Voodoo feeds by taking its prey whole. It is a characteristic of Voodoo that Voodoo can best be appreciated by a stretching of the fabric of self to approximate Voodoo’s borders. Dissection often leaves the searcher with a handful of nonsense and a headfull of “expertise.” Other characteristics of Voodoo
