Offering Sacrifice:
Feeding the Lwa
and
Feeding the People
Greetings in the name of God, the ancestors and the lwa! I invite you to join with me and the members of the Roots Without End Society to offer sacrifice within the context of Vodou ceremony.
Our Vodou house, the Roots Without End Society, is based in Jacmel, Haiti. There, offerings of animals and other foods are ritually given to the lwa.
In our ceremonies we offer sacrifice. In the early morning, in the cool of the dew, we join to sing, drum and dance, invoking the lwa to come and claim their sacrifice. The animals are quickly and mercifully killed, just as they would be for any other purpose. The life energy of the animal is for the lwa, the meat is for the hungry congregation - in Haiti, most people are chronically undernourished. The meat is cooked during the day, and by the time of the evening's ceremonies, it is ready. The house members and the entire participating neighborhood are given meat, and other foods such as rice and beans, yams, and fruit juice. The lwa's portions of the food are set aside, and as they manifest through possession during the ceremony, they are fed. The lwa talk with us, and that is our opportunity to receive messages from them for those offering sacrifice.
Our sacrifices thus have a triple purpose. The lwa, the healing, beautiful, powerful guardians of our house, are invoked and fed. Simultaneously, the people of our house and our neighborhood, the living manifestation of the Vodou tradition, are nourished and strengthened! And their nourishment comes from Vodou service, under the roof of a Mambo, funded by Vodouisants and friends of the Vodou tradition worldwide! It's a remarkable statement of the power of this tradition to link people together in communities and across national boundaries! And finally, the lwa offer communications for those who offer them service.
You are invited to join with us! If you would like to simply light a candle for us in your own home and recite the prayers that you know, and give God thanks, that is very good! Or you can purchase a candle to be illuminated for you during our ceremonies, with your personal request.
If you would like to offer sacrifice or vegetarian offerings at our peristyle in Haiti, you can do so even though you are in the USA, or England, or the Netherlands, or Brazil! Wherever you are in the world, you can link and engage with this fount of positive energy as we invoke and direct it. I have made it possible for you to buy items used in the service, including sacrificial animals. Vegetarians can offer other food items used in service to the lwa. Whatever you purchase will be offered to the lwa you specify, for the reason that you specify. For instance, you could offer a rooster to Ogoun, a pig to Erzulie Dantor, or a candle for your ancestors. If you can't bring yourself to offer an animal, that's okay! Erzulie Dantor loves sweet potatos, and other lwa have other food requirements as you will see further down this page.
If you choose to offer an animal, be assured that we will know the correct color and sex to provide, and that we will make the correct invocations and service to the lwa of your choice. When you order, specify the lwa you wish to honor in the "Optional Instructions" field, or inclue this information in an email to me. If you would like to offer the sacrifice in the name of someone else, or in thanksgiving for the life of a particular person, you can include that information as well.
As with any sacrifice, the life energy of the animal is for the lwa, the meat is for the congregation. So in this way, you can help to feed hungry Haitian Vodouisants. Whatever you offer, think of it as a link between Vodouisants in the USA and Vodouisants in Haiti.
Sometimes we are able to photograph your animal, or the other food items you offer, and your part of the ceremony. When possible, I will send those photos to you in digital format.
I hope to hear from you! This is an excellent opportunity, which enables you to offer sacrifice without the difficulties involved in obtaining and butchering your own live animals.
Here are the items available for purchase:
Candles - $10 each
Rooster and hen - $100 the pair
Goat (either sex, appropriate color) - $150
Pig (either sex) - $400
Cow (either sex, appropriate color) - $500
(Note - the sacrifice of a cow is frequently referred to in Vodou songs, and is a good choice if you are serious about your work and able to afford it.)
Vegetarian Items
With these vegetarian items, you can add to the service, but you can not make an invocation to a lwa in the same way as with an animal. However, we inscribe a letter to each lwa and put it under the food offering, and we will add your name to the letter and speak your name to the lwa. In addition, we will light a candle in your name at the poto mitan, the centerpost of our house, at the beginning of our ceremonies. Your name will be spoken aloud to the congregation, and we will ask God and the lwa to see you and bless you!
Yam, Sweet Potato, Plantain, Coconut
These foods are necessary to the service of the lwa, just as much as animal offerings. What you offer will be delivered to the lwa and congregation of our house. You can buy a mixed sack of traditional yam, sweet potato, plantain and coconut - $50
Rice, Beans, Oil
These foods are served to the lwa, and the beans of the appropriate type and color must be added to separate pots, red beans and rice for Ogoun, black beans and rice for Baron, and so forth. Rice and beans are sold wholesale by the sack and in our house that is how we buy it, to enable more people to eat at a lower cost.
Sack of rice or beans - $50
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