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19/06/2021 What is the Temple of Yehwe

The
Temple of Yehwe is an
offshoot of Le Péristyle de Mariani
which
was founded in 1974 in
Mariani, Haiti by Max-G. Beauvoir.
Both institutions have been
dedicated to the understanding and
to the
promotion of Vodoun as the
Religion and the Culture of the
Haitian people.

Vodoun, is the popular system of


belief and the religious
practice of
the overwhelming majority of the
population of Haiti. Its moral
precepts, generally admitted as
unfailing, embrace all the many
aspects of
life. May them be in the
political, the social or the economics'
domains, may
them be in the foreign
affairs, or else, may them be in the
public, domestic
or individual fields
of activity, the fundamental tendency is to consider all
vital issues
from a Vodoun standpoint.

Family's disagreements, discords between employer and


employee,
disputes concerning land ownership, differences of opinion and of
point
of views, problems created by birth, education, health, work,
death...find their solutions in Vodoun, for that system of belief is the
interpersonal as well as the collective conflicts mediator of the Haitian
people.

For, implicitly enfolded in the entire Vodoun system, is a


"Code of
Ethics" which accurately fits the socio-cultural,
historical, political and
economic realities of the community and serves as an
instrument of
peace and harmony for everyone.

This gives all Haitians their psycho-social specificities.


Practicing
Vodoun, or not, all Haitians are Haitian. That is to say that all
Haitians
must accept the standards set by the community. That Religion, thus,
constitutes a motivating factor which conditions the Haitian's views
and
attitudes towards the World. One's appreciation is consequently
influenced by
the many forms of activities and the fundamental
aspects of that collective
human experience.

This finds some of its explanations and justifications in


the fact that
Vodoun has its set of Norms and Values to which everyone, by
devotion, conviction, attachment or by simple social conformism,
automatically
adheres to because the religion is lived by the majority.
The teachings are
revealed to very many Haitians and the precepts are
instructive to all who
naturally see the well founded grounds for them.
This explains why Vodoun,
whenever and wherever it is practiced,
gathers the adhesion of the majority of
the population.

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19/06/2021 What is the Temple of Yehwe
The mode of transmission of Vodoun's precepts isn't limited
to
individual and group revelations. There are also, carried through the
Tradition, a whole oral sapiential literature in the form of prayers,
litanies, religious songs, mythological stories, charades, maxims,
proverbs
and even some secular and funny anecdotes about boys and
girls that everyone
repeats across the country. They too carry the
norms of behavior as well as
the philosophical reflections about GOD,
the Great Master, or better yet, the
Great Mistress Who govern the
Universe; Nature, which is man's environment;
and reflections
concerning the human being.

In other words, the Theological, Cosmological and


Anthropological
conceptions are continuously expressed in appropriate terms
and in
simple language to everyone's cogitation. In the Vodoun sapiential
literature, one always finds, implicitly or explicitly expressed, two main
aspects:

1. The first one which deals with the subjects of PRACTICAL


AND
MORAL PHILOSOPHIES and exposes the popular wisdom born
from individual
and collective experience. It can be defined as
containing propositions
which convey the precepts of conduct
and of moral standards, objectively
recognized as being valid.
Those are willingly followed by everyone who
would like to
consider him/ or herself, and who also want to be recognized
by
others, as "REASONABLE" and as a "SOCIALLY
ACCEPTABLE"
person.
2. The other one which treats of problems concerning mainly
Religious and Moral life. Presented as SPECULATIVE
PHILOSOPHY, it deals
with what is generally considered "The
INACCESSIBLE" to the
individuals or to the collectivity by means
of experiences. It then
concerns three main subjects:

The existence of God

The immortality of the Soul

The Human being seen as Soul in a perishable package.


The Freedom of
Will is an important aspect of those considerations.

For about twenty years, Le Péristyle de Mariani held


public
ceremonies, services, initiations, counseling and the practice of
Traditional Medicine in Haiti. A group of scholars pulled together their
intellectual resources and insights. They founded a Cultural Center
named
Groupe d'Etudes et de Recherches Traditionelles

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19/06/2021 What is the Temple of Yehwe
(G.E.R.T) or Group for
Studies and Research on the African Tradition.
It quickly became a regular
source of Information to the National and
to the International communities,
principally to the press and to the
media.

Many movies have been recorded there. Numerous Conferences and


countless of articles have been published by this Organization on
African
Traditional Religion in Haiti and in the New World. Max
Beauvoir talked to a
large number of campuses in Haiti and in the
United States. He also participated
in various countries at conferences
of UNESCO on African Culture and Religion.

Unfortunately, since the death of the Emperor Jean-Jacques


Dessalines
in 1806, two years after the independence of Haiti, Roman Catholic
priests and Protestant pastors of the many Christian denominations
have set up
the social climate in which the Vodoun populations of that
country had to live.
Always powerfully seconded by the imperialist and
the neo-colonialist Nations of
the Western hemisphere and their
financial institutions, explains more than
sufficiently the reason why an
atmosphere of intolerance, of absolutism and of
despotism has
permeated all the political structures resulting in the condition
of
endemic underdevelopment which characterizes Haiti to-day.

Periodically they have launched movements of "Deshoukaj"


or of
"social uprooting and cleansing", which were pogroms against a
population greatly composed of Vodoun populations. They have thus
perpetrated
the most horrible acts of cruelty against the people. At the
time of the last of
such operation, in 1986, The "Groupe d'Études et
de Recherches
Traditionelles" created a special body known as The
Bòde Nasyonal.

That name came from a Vodoun expression of African origin


which
means The National Congregation of Vodoun populations and Vodoun
Defenders
for the protection of the people, their culture and their art-
of-living.

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19/06/2021 What is the Temple of Yehwe

Having understood that the generic name for all the Lwa is
Yehwe, the
decision has been made to name the new Corporation: The Temple of
Yehwe. The purposes for which it has been organized were many,
mainly:

- to allow anyone the possibilities of finding


another way of worshiping
God, in the manner that it was established
traditionally thousands of years
ago by the African Ancestors;

- to unite publicly with the Temple in the belief in,


and in the love of, the
Divine Power of the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the
Universe;

- to increase among its members the sentiments of


devotion, fraternity and
tolerance, by the practice of the religious
observance of the Vodoun rites
and rituals.

The Temple of Yehwe is a private Institution founded in


Washington D.C., U.S.A. in 1996.
It holds a Certificate of Incorporation dated
March 5th, 1996. Its character, its purposes, its
mode of operation and its
source of support have been determined by the Department of
the Treasury of the
United States of America as exempt from Federal Income Tax under the
section 501
© (3).

Next
 

 
 

© Max G. Beauvoir
- 1998 -2005

all  reproduction is strictly forbidden without express authorization

Author : Max-G Beauvoir


THETEMPLEY@aol.com
Tel :  (509) 458 1500
Le Péristyle de Mariani, Mariani, Haiti

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19/06/2021 What is the Temple of Yehwe
The Temple of Yehwe: President 
Nicole Miller, Tel : ( 516) 932-2331, THETEMPLEY1@aol.com

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