The Haitian Vodou Handbook
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £2.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £2.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Kenaz Filan has succeeded where many before have failed. The Haitian Vodou Handbook (emphasis on the "handbook") is a highly practical and informative starter's guide. . . . Filan's book provides all the necessary information, and then some, to get one started in serving the Lwa. For those wishing to continue their exploration of the subject, the author provides extensive references and pointers to sources of information, internet resources and suppliers.
Product Description
Until recently, the Haitian practice of Vodou was often identified with devil worship, dark curses and superstition. Some saw the saint images and the Catholic influences and wrote Vodou off as a "Christian aberration." Others were appalled by the animal sacrifices and the fact that the Houngans and Mambos charge money for their services. Those who sought Vodou because they believed it could harness "evil" forces were disappointed when their efforts to gain fame, fortune or endless romance failed and so abandoned their "voodoo fetishes." Those who managed to get the attention of the lwa, the spirits honoured in Haitian Vodou, often received cosmic retaliation for treating the lwa as attack dogs or genies, which only further cemented Vodou's stereotype as "dangerous." In "The Haitian Vodou Handbook", Kevin Filan, a Vodou priest, explains how to build respectful relationships with the lwa of the Vodou pantheon and how to transform the fear that often surrounds the Vodou religion. He offers extensive background information on the lwa and instructions on how to honour and interact fruitfully with those that make themselves accessible, emphasising the importance of having a quickened mind that can read the lwa's desires intuitively in order to avoid establishing dogma-based relationships. He, also, discusses the role of Vodou in Haitian culture and explores the symbiotic relationship Vodou has maintained with Catholicism through the connections between the lwa and the Christian saints.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a sensible appraisal and description of Haitian voudou, by a white American practicioner(an initiate of the Societe La Belle Venus) aimed at those who would like an introduction to serving the lwa (spirits). Filan gives you some interesting Haitian history, a review of voudou today, and then spells out the way to approach and work with a variety of Rada, Petro and Ghede lwa, giving vevers (sigils) for each one.
Voudou is down to earth and practical. It is not, according to the author, "a religion where you sit back and listen to someone else talk about divinity. It's a faith where divinity comes down and talks to you". Filan also puts to rest the common idea that you have to be black to be a practicioner : "You may not be honouring (the lwa) in the way they are honoured in Haiti, but as long as you are honouring them, they will notice and will show their appreciation."
I've read a few books on voudou, and this one seems to me to be the most useful for a westerner and a beginner. It doesn't try and mix voudou with wicca, or any new age nonsense. It offers a common sense background to animal scarifice, but observes that you can, as in many Haitians already do, use food as an offering instead. It points out that although Voudou is an oral religion, initiation can only be conferred by a face to face teacher, and the priesthood is only for the few, it is both acceptable and normal to honour the lwa in your own home. Hundreds of Haitians do just that. With this book as your guide, you can do it too.
Why not five stars? Well, I would have liked a few illustrations (although I appreciate that this would probably have increased the price of the book)and I wasn't very happy with some of the web links, but on the plus side the author does encourage readers to take an interest in Haiti and its history, and gives both the addresses of appropriate charities, and some good information on relevant music and books.
Voudou is down to earth and practical. It is not, according to the author, "a religion where you sit back and listen to someone else talk about divinity. It's a faith where divinity comes down and talks to you". Filan also puts to rest the common idea that you have to be black to be a practicioner : "You may not be honouring (the lwa) in the way they are honoured in Haiti, but as long as you are honouring them, they will notice and will show their appreciation."
I've read a few books on voudou, and this one seems to me to be the most useful for a westerner and a beginner. It doesn't try and mix voudou with wicca, or any new age nonsense. It offers a common sense background to animal scarifice, but observes that you can, as in many Haitians already do, use food as an offering instead. It points out that although Voudou is an oral religion, initiation can only be conferred by a face to face teacher, and the priesthood is only for the few, it is both acceptable and normal to honour the lwa in your own home. Hundreds of Haitians do just that. With this book as your guide, you can do it too.
Why not five stars? Well, I would have liked a few illustrations (although I appreciate that this would probably have increased the price of the book)and I wasn't very happy with some of the web links, but on the plus side the author does encourage readers to take an interest in Haiti and its history, and gives both the addresses of appropriate charities, and some good information on relevant music and books.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have been reading around the subject a lot, and was very impressed with this book. I am not an expert on the spiritual / religious practice dimension (which is why I am researching the subject in the first place), and I found Filan's style accessible, fluid and clear. The discussion of the historical, political and cultural aspects of vodou and its evolution were most enlightening, and grounidng existing practises in the social and evironmental context of the present day (touching on such issues as poverty, deforestation and the experiences of the Haitian diaspora in the West) made the book feel relevant and current. Not many books on the occult would contextualize the subject in references to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs or Rousseau. The introduction to the lwa and the rituals of vodou and the comparative religion aspects of the text are also very helpful to someone researching the subject from scratch.
If you are intereseted in this fascinating religion and its practises, this should by no means be the only book you read on the subject, but as one of the introductory texts it is clear, lucid, intelligent and helpful.
If you are intereseted in this fascinating religion and its practises, this should by no means be the only book you read on the subject, but as one of the introductory texts it is clear, lucid, intelligent and helpful.
Format:Paperback
First of all I must say that I have read the book from the first page to the last. According to the contents of the book, the author seems more like someone who has read books about vodun than someone who has been initiated or has attended any real vodun ceremony nor ritual. The classification and explanation of lwas he does isn't exhaustive at all, just anything you can find on the internet or in other short books about vodun. Regarding the "oh so claimed" protocols that he names in the cover of the book, it's just reduced to some offerings and little more. Even the offerings are sometimes not clearly and exhaustively detailed. For instance when he talks about sacrifices, he does not tell you anything regarding which animals to sacrifice as in the Djabs chapter. In other chapters he talks about animals but always in a very general depiction of the ritual, nothing really practical. He is very general talking about the environment to be prepared for a ritual and says nothing about how to solve a specific problem in your life with the help of the lwas, not even a single prayer in the whole book. I expected this to be a practical guide because the title points in this direction. This book is everything but the handbook the title claims.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A great introduction to Vodou
I have to admit to knowing very little about Vodou prior to reading "The Haitian Vodou Handbook" by Kenaz Filan but approached the subject with an open mind. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. Fontenelle
voodoo
A real book on voodoo ect, i learnt alot from this book, i like the sections on the Loa
Published 19 months ago by nathan
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > Thought & Practice > New Age
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Divination
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Earth-Based Religions > Shamanism
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Occult > Occultism
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Occult > Shamanism
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Religions > Tribal & Ethnic
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
