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Honoring the Lwa through Everyday Art, Journaling and Music

Honoring the Lwa thru Art!

• Introduction• Veves!!!• History • Flags• Visual Journaling and

Vision Boarding• Honoring Your Spiritual

Family• Honoring Your Ancestors• Musical Lwas!• Conversations

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Veves!!!

• Veves

Veves!!!• Religious symbols that represent the lwa’s and call upon them to serve you• When using the Veve’s to call upon the lwa, it is respectful to leave

offerings on them or next to them – generally in the form of food and drink!

• For example, Baron Samedi loves small gift of cigars, rum, black coffee, grilled peanuts or bread. He is SO generous and fatherly, and has an AMAZING sense of humor! Sometimes he gets very demanding and asks for a big old ceremony in his honour! AND … his own time is coming up just next week!

• How to draw your Veve? Simplest way is to trace it!• Do you feel like getting creative? Use Needlepoint (stitch ‘n bitch), paint

it, sew it, decorate cookies and cakes with Veves, grow it in your garden if you are REALLY creative!

Voodoo Flags & Haitian History

• Flag

Flags

• F

Visual Journaling and Vision Boarding

• Visual Journaling is a way to express life's experiences, feelings, emotional reactions, or our inner world - visually and verbally. Essentially, visual journaling can become a potential key to serving the lwa and finding your new directions.

• Visual journaling in my opinion, is perfect to use with Mambo’s Destiny Egg! So – get you scissors, glue sticks and old magazines and have a party!

Honoring Your Spiritual Family

• Calabashes (kwi) are commonly used for food offerings and may be painted with the image or sacred sign (veve) of the lwa concerned.

Sequin-decorated bottles are placed on altars to honor the lwa.• Libation bottles, decorated and undecorated, are placed on Vodou altars

and brought out for ceremonial libations.• Clear bottles with plastic doll torsos are arresting but rarely found on

altars. They are used in divination, and also as charms to keep away evil. • Cloth dolls are used chiefly as mediums: they carry messages to the spirit

world. Left at the graveyard or the crossroads, they may have notes in secret language pinned or tied to their bodies. China, rubber, and plastic dolls are sometimes also used to represent the lwa. Dolls stuck with pins

used for harm are a Hollywood fantasy and a staple of tourist shops

Honoring Your Ancestors: Day of the

Dead• So, this is my favourite time of year , it is Fall and things feel fresh and

new! It is also Baron’s Birthday next week, and mine too! It is SUCH a time of renewal!

• Day of the dead is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd – next week!• It’s time to celebrate, and have a reunion with your family who has since

departed• Making a Day of the Dead altar is a fabulous way for you to honor the life

of someone who was important to you, or just to remember your ancestors. There is never a right or wrong way to make a Day of the Dead Altar and it’s a great opporunity to be creative and make something that is meaningful to you

Day of the Dead Altar: Tips!

• Arches – are used to represent the passage between life and death. Sugar canes work well

• Use boxes or a small table, decorate with a table cloth or altar cloth• Photo or photos – place a photo of the persons to whom your altar is

dedicated. If you do not have anyone particular in mind, you do not need a photo and can honor ALL of your ancestors in that way

• Water to quench the thirst of the lwa. Represents life and purity!• Candles – to represent light, faith, hope and love• Flowers – marigolds are especially great for Day of the Dead because of

their pungent fragrance. Flowers can be in vases or scattered about• Food and Drink!• Incense

Day of the Dead Altars

• “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life” – St. Francis of Assisi

A Note About Voodoo Music!

• La Sirene is a marvelous spirit of music, pray to her for inspiration. • My Story: Several years ago, I decided to dedicate a CD to my wonderful

Spellmaker family and to our collective ancestors … in this project, I wrote different songs to honor the lwas and my family

• Lwa-Honoring Music: – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVwJbz-H-28– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPME6EWuPd4&feature=related

Conversations, Wrap-Up