#bawon

[heartmindalignedspirit]

[paines-heart]

Now, this is, evidently, an older drawing. But little did I know, at the time of drawing this, that it was the beginning of the situation I’m now in. 

You see, I am a vodouisant. Or voodooist, if you prefer. And this right here, is my patron Lwa. Baron Samedi. He’s more than just a patron to me, though. But that’s possibly something I might wanna talk about at a later point, since this is about the drawing. I decided to finally upload this, after having seen many posts about him, so I thought that I’d share this old piece. 

In Voodoo, you don’t pick what Lwa you wish to work with. The Lwa picks you. I didn’t even pick Voodoo. I was kind of just thrown into it. So Voodoo picked me. And in turn, the Lwa I currently work with picked me. And how he picked me? Well, might post about that later. But gods be damned, he scared the shit out of me, and I had no idea what had just happened, haha. 

Anyway. I just wanted to finally post this drawing, because I’m still awfully fond of it, though I’ve made many pieces featuring this guy since then. I’ve, naturally, evolved my drawing techniques since then. 

To think that it took me 4 years to actually kick myself in the butt hard enough to upload it. I need to get better at just uploading my drawings and cosplays when I have them, in stead of procrastinating XD

[kny111]

Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas (Haworth Gay & Lesbian Studies)

Here are some very interesting excerpts from a book on an initial search for LGBTQIA inspired information on particular spirits of Vodou I thought some of you might be interested in:

Now, so much of this is personally interesting for me because I was born a block away from a cemetery in La Vega that was so crucial to my upbringing. Consider it like the stoops of New York city where a lot of us grew up with countless stories surrounding it.

Not only would the locals including my family and friends would chill by it or on the boarders of the cemetery walls on the regular but as a kid my friends and I would play in it be it day or night time. The fear of cemeteries and ghosts or spirits wasn’t heavily instilled because we viewed the spirits as part of us and that for us to live normally near such spaces was to treat these spirits as one of us, which they are.

But when I was growing up with all this in mind I didn’t know the historically cultural implications and relations to such spirits that as I’ve learned today helped paved the way to freedom to so many Black folks and people all over the world in general. Now when I read things like this I read it with honor and respect not fear and loathing.

[madanm-bawon]

Introduction

Let’s start this off with an introduction. 

My name is Elisabeth, I’m a cosplayer, singer and artist, but I’m also a voodooist, or vodouisant, if you prefer to call it that. This blog will be for sharing my experiences, tips and tricks, and generally my passion regarding Voodoo. 

The Lwa I work with is Baron Samedi, Baron Kriminel, and Erzulie Dantor. Mostly Kriminel and Samedi, though. But Dantor stays around sometimes, since she was the first Lwa I came into contact with. I’m not here to brag about my relationships with the Lwa, since I know that everything is very personal, and changes from person to person. I might tell y’all just what kind of relationship I have with the Lwa I’ve mentioned, but my main goal with this blog, is just to have a place where I can share my experiences and stories. And freely be able to talk about Voodoo and magic in general, while keeping my personal blog related to my cosplays and my art.

I hope that people will find something of interest here!

~Elisabeth

[haitianartlover]

Seymour Etienne Bottex, Bawon Samedi

[blackhaiti]

#bawon

[rockofeye]

Who are the Bawons?

Hello!

The Bawons (sometimes anglicized as Baron) are a family of lwa who are the embodiment of death, or aspects of death. They oversee the Gede, who are the dead–spirits who were once human and have since been elevated (by a Bawon) to serve as Gede.

There are a LOT of Bawons. People tend to be familiar with Bawon Samdi/Samedi (despite the word ‘Samedi’ in Kreyol translating to Saturday, he is N-O-T Bawon Saturday. Coincidence.), as he is kind of the big boss of the Bawons–the Don Corleone of death, really–but there are a lot. Bawon Simitye/Simitiere/Cemitiere is the Bawon who oversees cemetaries, there is Bawon La Kwa/La Croix, Bawon Pwav,and more than I can name off to the top of my head.

Basically, Bawons run shit. They are the Mafia of death and oversee what Gede gets up to.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions. 

[haitianartlover]

Fet Gede