Is France the origin of Voodoo?

I know that there was mixing of French blood in some African countries, and some others perhaps. Creole I knew a mention of. But Vietnam was originally at war with France, if not owned by the French, and there is Vietnamese Voodoo.

No, Voodoo is a combination of tribal African beliefs, and Catholicism, or at least the American and Haitian variants are.

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French occultism influenced Vodou. So did the indigenous religion of the area, along with the heavier influences coming from Catholicism and African polytheism.

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I know there will be some argument over this, but here is a nutshell version of the history of voodoo.

Slaves originating from the west coast of Africa brought their magic and religion to the new world. Some of the slaves wound up in Haiti. The religion/magic that was brought to Haiti was called Voudon. European magicians began to hear stories about the black slaves and their strong magic. Some of these magicians made the trip to Haiti and traded magical knowledge with the black slaves. The white, French, Catholic slave masters did not care for the black slaves practicing their indigenous magic/religion and threatened to beat seven shades of shit out of them if they did not abandon Voudon and take up Catholicism.

The black slaves complied, sort of. They syncretized their gods to the Catholic saints. They began setting out statues of Catholic saints and other Christian imagery on their altars to keep Massa happy when in actuality these saints were simply a mask for their ancient African spirits.

During and after the Haitian revolution, which lasted about 13 years, many former slaves fled to southern Louisiana. It was here that Voudon was further bastardized and became Voodoo.

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Okay, so how do we explain Vietnamese voudoo, from previous French occupation of Vietnam, then Portugal/Spain/Americas and Santeria, and other such practices? Is it just the white Europeans who spread it all?

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Interesting idea that the innate folk-magick elements that can arguably be found within the way Catholicism is practiced, such as the use of “idols” and focus on Saints and other intercessors, compared to Protestantism, would open a gateway for people to retain their indigenous beliefs, and perhaps accentuate their power.

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Santeria shares the same roots as Haitian Voudon. As far as Vietnamese voodoo goes, I suppose someone just stole the term and applied it to The indigenous Vietnamese religion/magic… it does kind of roll off the tongue… Vietnamese voodoo, Vietnamese voodoo, Vietnamese voodoo.

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Santeria?

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Nevermind, i read your next posts

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Santeria seems similar to Saint masked Voudoo practice.

The Catholic Church does have a history of borrowing traditions and ceremonies from other religions. I suppose it could work the other way around also.

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Think of Christianity. There are umpteen different flavors of it ( catholicism, presbyterian, Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, church of God, assembly of God, Methodist )but they all have the same roots.

Voudon and Santeria are the same way accept their origin is in central/ west coast Africa.

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For me personally being of a large mix of genes- I use Magic like Spices… Ingredients.

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No clue where this term started but there is a term called ngai for Vietnamese sorcery that from my inital skimming it involves working with plant spirits. A type and form of nature magick.

http://wizardforums.com/Thread-Ngai-magic

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There is also a Japanese nine stick grid used for Tengu curses and blessings. Related to Kuju-Kiri but not the same.

That was really interesting; I hadn’t heard of this before.

Puts “grow a poisonous plant that houses malevolent spirits and feeds on blood” on my bucket list… :smiling_imp:

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Like borrowing the virgin birth, the Winter Solstice, the man-sacrifice, not to mention the whole global flood thing, etc.

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