VODOU WANGA AND THE BOOK OF THE LAW

Just about every Thelemite is familiar with the verse: “Also the mantras and spells; the obeah
and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach.”
(AL I:37) Wanga is a specifically Haitian Vodou term, perhaps originating from the Kongo word
nganga. [Obeah is Jamaican, and there is scholarly debate as to whether it originated with the
Ashanti or with the Igbo.] It has recently been stated that among Aleister Crowley’s books was
Obeah Simplified, the True Wanga (1895) by Myal Djumboh Cassecanarie. It has also been
suggested that this book was his first reference to those terms that made their way into the Book
of the Law. Although he never got around to following out the instructions of Liber AL to learn
and teach Obeah and Wanga, he mentions that his second wife Maria Theresa Ferrari de Mirimar
knew Voodoo. Unfortunately, what little of this practice he gained from her, if any at all, didn’t
seem to make its way into any of his writings. It’s true that Gardner went to New Orleans to
study Voodoo soon after he was initiated into the 3rd degree OTO, and that Jane Wolfe tried to
pursue lessons from an African-American man in Los Angeles for the very reason that wanga is
mentioned in Liber AL. It is also a well-known fact that Crowley spent a week as a guest at
William Seabrook’s farm in 1919. Ten years later, Seabrook would publish The Magic Island,
his racist and sensationalist account of his experience with Vodou when he visited Haiti.
So why did Aiwass command the Beast to learn and teach the obeah and the wanga? My own
research into the subject has produced some really intriguing coincidences. Let us proceed to
compare Vodou with Thelema:

Every man and every woman is a star. (AL I:3)

Vodou oungan and manbo speak of another dimension of the person called the zetwal
or star. This is not an inner presence so much as it is a kind of celestial parallel self. The
concept of the zetwal is rooted in the belief that each person is born with his or her fate
already foreknown and unchangeable. The regular movements of the stars and their
recurring patterns mimic, perhaps even direct, the larger contours of life in the human
community. Whatever control an individual has over his or her life thus comes in specific
moments and short run situations. (Karen McCarthy Brown, Afro-Caribbean Spirituality)

Zetwal, the star, is the vehicle of an individual’s destiny. This “destiny vehicle”, this
Star, is the Light of an individual’s Ancestral Essence. Houngan Max Beauvior has
written that Zetwal is the kreyol term for what's called Sekpoli by the Fon of Benin.
Sekpoli is a compound word: Se means law in Fon and kpoli means destiny. So it could
be said that Zetwal is an individual’s personal Law – an individual’s personal inborn
Lwa. The double Crossroads is where you meet your Ancestral Essence, your Destiny,
your Personal Lwa – what some call the Holy Guardian Angel. Who facilitates this
meeting? The Force that stands in the Center. This Force is your God Double – the
fragment of God that exists inside you. (SNAKE2G, Dealin’ at da Crossroads)

The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs. (AL I:8)
 This “star” or “Inmost Light” is the original, individual, eternal essence. The Khu is the
magical garment which it weaves for itself, a “form” for its Being Beyond Form, by use
of which it can gain experience through self-consciousness... This Khu is the first veil, far
subtler than mind or body, and truer; for its symbolic shape depends on the nature of its
Star. (Commentary on the Book of the Law)

In Voodoo beliefs, the soul is made of two parts, the gros bon ange and the ti bon ange.
The gros bon ange, or the “big guardian angel,” is the life force shared by all humans. It
enters the body at birth and leaves at death when it floats back to the Gran Met, or pool of
life force. The ti bon ange, or “little guardian angel” is the part of the soul that contains
the individual qualities of a person. (K.J. Bowen)

The z'étoile is the person’s destiny and it resides in the heavens. The gros-bon-ange
reflects the part of the cosmic energy that turns into life force and the ti-bon-ange reflects
the person’s knowledge and experience. The ti-bon-ange is responsible for deciding
individual characteristics, personality and will and is also the most vulnerable part of the
human make-up to sorcery. (Author unknown)

When I first saw a legitimate Haitian Vodou altar, my first thought was: “The other images
group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me.” (AL
III:22)
 Although there are many obvious differences between this Haitian altar and that of the Gnostic
Mass, I noticed that it could be approximately 44 inches by 7 feet wide, it has a super-altar, the
statue of “Our Lady of Lourdes” is against a background shape that resembles the Stele, and
there are lots of candles and flowers. There are also an extraordinary amount of similarities
between the Gnostic Mass and the basic Sevis Lwa. In the Gnostic Mass there is the priest,
whereas in the Sevis Lwa there is the Oungan. In the Gnostic Mass there is the Priestess, whereas
in the Sevis Lwa there is the Manbo. In the Gnostic Mass there is the Deacon, whereas in the
Sevis Lwa there is the Laplace. In the Gnostic Mass there are two children, whereas in the Sevis
Lwa there are two flag-bearers: one usually holding the flag of Dambala (a watery Lwa) and the
other the flag of Ogoun (a Lwa of fire). In the Gnostic Mass there are the Collects, prayers
addressed to the Sun, Moon, Gnostic Saints, Earth, Marriage, Death, etc.; in the Sevis Lwa there
is the Priye Djo and the Priye Ginen, prayers addressed to the Catholic Saints and to the Lwa of
Sun, Moon, Earth, Marriage, Death, etc. In the Gnostic Mass, the congregant eats a Cake of
Light and drinks a small glass of wine, then proclaims: “There is no part of me that is not of the
Gods.” In the Sevis Lwa, the congregant gets possessed by a Lwa, then drinks and eats those
things which have been offered to them. None of these are exact parallels, of course. But there
are enough similarities that make fascinating comparisons. Likewise, let us review the following
comparisons:
Milo Rigaud describes an opening ceremony that is a lot like the Lesser Ritual of the
Pentagram (Secrets of Voodoo). It is also interesting that both French ceremonial magic and
freemasonry became popular in Haiti during Eliphas Levi’s time.
The most important part of the Temple in Vodou is the Poteau Mitan, “the middle post” or, the
Middle Pillar. It is said that the Poteau Mitan is the Spine of Legba, the Messenger of the Lwa. In
Haiti, the catholic image of the Guardian Angel is often used to symbolize Legba. It is also said
that every Tree is a Poteau Mitan, and that the Poteau Mitan is used to represent the spiritual
world, with heaven at the top and hell at its base. I painted a picture 10 years ago, to represent
the path of Aayin, of Gran Bwa (Great Woods). Next to him is Kalfu (Crossroads) and Bawon
Simitye (Lord Cemetery). In Haiti, this Trinity is the patron of every Magician, sort of like an
all-male Hecate. [This painting can be seen on the next page.]

Legba is also said to be androgynous; hence, his vévé contains the symbol of his sexual
completeness, and he is invoked in matters related to sex. Both the Fon and Vodouisants
(as well as the Yoruba of Nigeria) know him chiefly as the cosmic phallus, and as the
imagery for him also expresses his androgynous nature, the potomitan of the peristil
symbolizes his phallus, and the open space around it in the entire ounfo is his womb.
Both as phallus and as umbilical cord, Legba is the guarantor of the continuity of human
generations. (Leslie G. Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods)

Compare the above description of Legba (and statue in Benin) to the concept of Baphomet...
“Instead of a man-God conceived of the Spirit of God by a virgin in innocence, we are asked to
adore the bastard of a whore and a brute, begotten in shamefullest sin and born in most
blasphemous bliss.” (Liber V vel Reguli) Although barely known outside of Haiti, the Royal
Panther is known as Agassou. In West African, he is thought of as the founder of the Kingdom of
Dahomey, which is also considered the birthplace of Vodu (African spelling). Agassou was the
son of a Tado princess and a leopard (or in some versions a brave Yoruba hunter). In Yoruban
Ifa, the Hunter is Ochosi.
Top: Legba statue in Benin. Below left: Gran Bwa by Antonio Lau. Below right: Ochosi
 Perhaps it is important to distinguish between oungan/manbo and bokor at this point. However,
most information given to outsiders tends to be inaccurate and controversial. A bokor is usually
defined as: “a Vodou sorcerer for hire who is said to serve the Lwa ‘with both hands,’ practicing
for both good and evil.” Or, “black magicians who create zombies and ‘wanga,’ talismans that
house spirits.”

Almost all Vodouisants create wanga (WAHN-guh), which are talismans, pieces of
jewelry, pakets (pa-KATES) (objects tied together in a cloth or placed in a bottle or other
container), or other ritual receptacles designed to permit a spirit to reside within, either
temporarily or permanently. Some common wanga, such as Pakets Kongo (pa-KATES
cone-GO, “Kongo Packets”) – pakets that contain herbs and natural and manmade objects
combined in a bag or cloth receptacle, itself decorated with mirrors, sequins, feathers,
ritual implements, and/or various other objects for artistic and magical purposes--are
created for use on Vodou altars to act as repozwa (wee-POSE-wah, “resting places”) or
homes for the Lwa whose altars they belong to. Some wanga are designed to be worn by
initiates as jewelry; others are made to be worn about the person or placed in certain
locations. The term is also used for the similar “wanga bag” (also called a mojo bag or a
gris-gris) of New Orleans Voodoo and African-American rootwork traditions, and
similar items are still constructed in West Africa by indigenous peoples for similar or
identical reasons.
Other more complicated repozwa are also created for Lwa and for other spirits, the
spirits of the dead, and even natural spirits for various reasons. These are sometimes also
just called wanga or sometimes by the term pwen (poo-WEN, one syllable, “point”),
meaning any object that can be used as a ritual focus or dwelling place for a spirit. A
pwen can be a constructed object like a Paket Kongo, or it can be an already-existing
natural or manmade item, such as a thunderstone, a shell, a clay pipe, or a fancy dagger.
Pwen can be made for Lwa and kept on their altars. They can be created for specific
purposes and then given or sold to others (sometimes called pwen achte, “bought
points”), or they can be used to imprison or enslave a spirit, much like the “genie bottle”
of Islamic magic. In this case, the pwen are often called pwen cho (poo-WEN SHO, “hot
points”), which some mambos and houngans refuse to make due to the ethical gray area
this sort of travay falls into. Many Vodouisants leave the creation of pwen cho and other
such pwen to the domain of the bokor, or non-initiate magician. (Mambo Chita Tann,
Haitian Vodou)

According to the Consulate General of the Republic of Haiti in Chicago:

Haitian Vodouisants believe, in accordance with widespread African tradition, that

there is one God who is the creator of all, referred to as “Bondyè” (from the French “Bon
Dieu” or “Good God”, distinguished from the god of the whites in a dramatic speech by
the houngan Boukman at Bwa Kayiman, but is often considered the same God the Roman
Catholic Church talks about). Bondyè is distant from his/her/its creation though, and so it
is the spirits or the “mysteries”, “saints”, or “angels” that the Vodouisant turns to for
help, as well as to the ancestors. The Vodouisant worships God, and serves the spirits,
who are treated with honor and respect as elder members of a household might be. There
are said to be twenty-one nations or “nanchons” of spirits, also sometimes called “lwa-
 yo”. Some of the more important nations of lwa are the Rada, the Nago, and the Kongo.
The spirits also come in “families” that all share a surname, like Ogou, or Ezili, or Azaka
or Ghede. For instance, “Ezili” is a family, Ezili Dantor and Ezili Freda are two
individual spirits in that family. The Ogou family are soldiers, the Ezili govern the
feminine spheres of life, the Azaka govern agriculture, the Ghede govern the sphere of
death and fertility. In Dominican Vodou, there is also an Agua Dulce or “Sweet Waters”
family, which encompasses all Amerindian spirits. There are literally hundreds of lwa.
Well known individual lwa include Danbala Wedo, Papa Legba Atibon, and Agwe
Tawoyo.
In Haitian Vodou, spirits are divided according to their nature in roughly two
categories, whether they are hot or cool. Cool spirits fall under the Rada category, and hot
spirits fall under the Petwo category. Rada spirits are familial and mostly come from
Africa, Petwo spirits are mostly native to Haiti and are more demanding and require more
attention to detail than the Rada, but both can be dangerous if angry or upset. Neither is
“good” or “evil” in relation to the other.
Everyone is said to have spirits, and each person is considered to have a special
relationship with one particular spirit who is said to “own their head”, however each
person may have many lwa, and the one that owns their head, or the “met tet”, may or
may not be the most active spirit in a person’s life in Haitian belief.
In serving the spirits, the Vodouisant seeks to achieve harmony with their own
individual nature and the world around them, manifested as personal power and
resourcefulness in dealing with life. Part of this harmony is membership in and
maintaining relationships within the context of family and community. A Vodou house or
society is organized on the metaphor of an extended family, and initiates are the
“children” of their initiators, with the sense of hierarchy and mutual obligation that
implies.
Most Vodouisants are not initiated, referred to as being “bosal”; it is not a requirement
to be an initiate in order to serve one’s spirits. There are clergy in Haitian Vodou whose
responsibility it is to preserve the rituals and songs and maintain the relationship between
the spirits and the community as a whole (though some of this is the responsibility of the
whole community as well). They are entrusted with leading the service of all of the spirits
of their lineage. Priests are referred to as “Houngans” and priestesses as “Manbos”.
Below the houngans and manbos are the hounsis, who are initiates who act as assistants
during ceremonies and who are dedicated to their own personal mysteries. One doesn’t
serve just any lwa but only the ones they “have” according to one’s destiny or nature.
Which spirits a person “has” may be revealed at a ceremony, in a reading, or in dreams.
However all Vodouisants also serve the spirits of their own blood ancestors, and this
important aspect of Vodou practice is often glossed over or minimized in importance by
commentators who do not understand the significance of it. The ancestor cult is in fact
the basis of Vodou religion, and many lwa like Agasou (formerly a king of Dahomey) for
example are in fact ancestors who are said to have been raised up to divinity. (Lesly
Condé)

A great beginner’s guide is The Haitian Vodou Handbook: Protocols for Riding with the Lwa
by Kenaz Filan. It includes suggestions for the non-initiate (“bosal”) on how to make wanga.
Unfortunately, none of the other books by Filan are worth reading, nor is Mambo Chita Tann’s.
 Another great resource to invest in is Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou edited by Donald
Consentino. “This abundantly illustrated anthology brings together sixteen essays by artists,
scholars and ritual experts who examine the sacred arts of Haitian Vodou from multiple
perspectives.” Inside this volume is a fold-out reproduction of Vodou Pantheon, a painting by
respected Haitian Vodou priest and magician Andre Pierre. Vodou Pantheon has the major
families of Lwa neatly divided into 22 sections. After years of careful deliberation, study and
ritual practice, I arrived at a satisfactory attribution of the Tarot trumps:
0. Legba
I. Simbi
II. Ayizan
III. Erzulie Freda
IV. Ogou
V. Bosou
VI. Marassa
VII. Ibo
VIII. Maman Brigitte
IX. Azaka
X. Agarou
XI. Agassou
XII. Agwe
XIII. Ghede Nibo
XIV. Damballah and Ayida
XV. Gran Bwa
XVI. Ti Jean Petro
XVII. La Sirene
XVIII. Erzulie Dantor
XIX. Loko
XX. Sobo and Bade
XXI. Baron Samedi

Andre Pierre painting of Baron Samedi, Maman Brigitte and Ghede Nibo
 To paraphrase Liber O, the Lwa “MAY (or may not) exist. It is immaterial whether these exist
or not.” The magician should probably read Appendix III: Notes for an Astral Atlas in Liber
ABA before jumping to any conclusions are what the Lwa are or AREN’T.
Anyhow, by doing certain things certain results will follow; my testament and those of many
others might only be anecdotal, but in my own case, things have certainly happened when I
created wanga. The results vary of course, but that is also true with all Magick. Creating wanga
is a lot like consecrating a talisman (and each Lwa has its own sigil called a vévé). Actively
petitioning a Lwa is similar to the practices outlined in Liber Astarte.
It should be well noted that the Lwa are not like Goetic Spirits; in any case they are more like
the Angels in the Tetragrammaton hierarchy (God-Archangel-Angel-Spirit), and a few of them
are even like the Archangels. One cannot simply command them and compel them to do
whatever the magician demands. Vodou is one tradition that literally insists that “all must be
done well and with business way.” (AL III:41) The Lwa expect food, gifts, and a place of honor.
Of course, ONLY an initiated Houngan or Mambo should be performing ANY sort of animal
sacrifice:

Haitian-American Vodou differs in some ways from practices in the homeland. I’ve
seen a few American Vodou services without drummers; while this would be unthinkable
in Haiti, hiring drummers is more costly here and often zoning and noise ordinances will
not permit them. Mange sec (literally “dry food”) parties, which do not involve animal
sacrifice, are more common here. Like most other Americans, Haitian immigrants most
typically get their food from the supermarket rather than their backyard and attendees are
more likely to be fed with items purchased from the store than livestock sacrificed to the
lwa. But the congregants are dedicated, the lwa arrive in possession, and the services help
to meet the social and spiritual needs of those who attend, be they natif natal Haitians,
second- or third-generation immigrants, or, in growing numbers, non-Haitians. (Kenaz
Filan)

Vodou Wanga is a serious business, and not particularly a tradition for every Thelemite.
However, there is a small but growing number of magicians who are not of African descent but
have been called by the Lwa. Many Afro-Haitian Vodou temples (“ounfo” or “sosyete”) do not
discriminate based on skin color or religion. Still, it should be treated with absolute respect.
Since I first took an interest in Vodou and other “African Traditional Religions” (as they are
called these days), my hope has been to create a bridge between Thelema and African-
Americans, Haitian-Americans and Cuban-Americans whose religions include heavy doses of
magical practice and ecstatic ritual.