Terms and Spirit Listing
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Healing

(V.ENC) One of the houngan's chief occupations is as healer, a very important role in peasant villages that typically make do without the benefits of modern health care. But you shouldn't confuse the houngan with the stereotypical notion of a witch doctor. Rather, the houngan is more akin to a folk healer, drawing on a considerable knowledge of herbal remedies often have a strong psychosomatic value as well as a purely medicinal one, which seems to bring about miraculous cures. Nevertheless, members of the société with serious illnesses are referred to a medical doctor by the houngan.

Hoholi

(V.ENC) Sesame seeds that are placed in a coffin to prevent a bokor from disturbing the corpse.

Hoodoo

(V.ENC) In New Orleans in particular, a new form of African-American vodou has spawned. This offshoot of vodou is sometimes called "hoodoo," a term that refers to the African-American tradition of folk magic. This form of vodou emphasizes magic rather religion, and the initiatory traditions of the original religion have largely disappeared. However, as more Haitians have emigrated to New Orleans, they have brought the religious aspects of vodou back together with the African-American folk magic traditions.

Hounfort (houmfor, hunfor, oum'phor, ounfò)

(V.ENC) The temple where rituals are performed and where the members of the société gather together. Only one houngan or mambo presides over each hounfort. The hounfort must contain many basic elements for rituals to be held there properly. A square house, the hounfort proper, is located adjacent to the peristyle and contains the altars to the loa.

(SV) The temple of voodoo. It closely resembles the design used by Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle as described in Exodus. It consists of a large area, covered or uncovered, called peristyle, in the middle of which is a center-post called a poteau-mitan. Adjoining the peristyle on one side is a square house that is the oum'phor proper. In the square house that is the oum'phor proper, there may be one or more chambers. One room, called the djévo, is where Voodoo candidates are examined and initiated. In a large oum'phor of several chambers, each may be reserved for the worship of a single Voodoo god, each having its own separate altar dedicated to that god.

Houngan (hungan, ougan)

(V.ENC) The houngan is the priest of vodou, its religious leader. The houngan acts as a community leader as well as a spiritual leader, and he serves many functions within the société. His maintains absolute authority over the community, because he is the only person who is fully trained to interact with gods and to interpret the complex body of belief that makes up vodou. Houngans are highly revered members of the community, someone who can be relied upon to offer sound advice, with all the force of the spirit world behind it. Virtually nothing is done in the community without first consulting the houngan. The houngan has many means by which to contact the gods, including dreams, ritual invocation, and fortune-telling using cards, palm-reading, or figure drawings. Each société's spiritual leader also has the power to alter the vodou ceremonies of his community, tailoring them to the particular gods that are revered by that community, which explains why vodou practices can vary so dramatically even in villages that are right next-door to each other. As well as priest, the houngan acts as confessor, confidential adviser, financial adviser, and prophet for the people in his community. Generally, the houngan inherits his office from a parent. The current priest trains future priests from a young age, and the new houngan is not fully initiated until he reaches his early thirties, usually at the age thirty-one.

Houngénikon (hounguenicon, ougenikon)

(V.ENC) The houngan or mambo has one female assistant, who is next on the priestly hierarchy-the houngénikon. She leads the chorus that chants during the ritual. She also supervises the sacrificial food offerings made to the gods.

Hounsi (hounci, housih, hunsi, ounzi)

(V.ENC) Once initiated, a vodou devotee becomes a full-fledged hounsi, outranked only by the houngan and his immediate assistants. The hounsi can now takes a more active part in the rituals-as a member of the chorus of chanters, for instance. They are also more likely to be possessed by one of the gods during the rituals. As the initiate receives more training and instruction, he or she may eventually become La Place or the houngénikon, and so continue on the long journey toward eventually becoming a houngan or mambo. The term hounsi means "bride of the spirit" in the Fon language of Dahomey (although a hounsi can be either male or female).

Hounsi bossale (bosal, ouzi bosal)

(V.ENC) An initiate who is not fully trained and so is given more mundane duties during the ritual; also means "wild" or "untamed."

Hounsi canzo (ounzi kanzo)

(V.ENC) The chorus of fully initiated female members of the société. Performing under the direction of the houngénikon, they sing to the gods in the astral plane and so call them down to earth.

Hounsi cuisinière

(V.ENC) The sacrificial cook during a ritual.

Housi ventailleur

(V.ENC) The initiate who obtains the sacrificial animals for a ritual.

Hountor (huntor)

(V.ENC) The spirit of the ritual drums.

Hountorguier

(V.ENC) One of the three male drummers.

Human sacrifice

(V.ENC) Many people mistakenly believe that vodou requires the practice of human sacrifice or cannibalism. Vodou first got this reputation in the mid-1800s, when Sir Spenser St. John, an English consul who despised blacks, spread the rumor that the Haitian people as a whole practiced the sacrifice of children. As with all sensationalist rumors, this one was quickly picked up and repeated, particularly by yellow journalists. However, no one has ever found any convincing evidence that human sacrifice was ever practiced in vodou ritual. Sometimes, when a person's death is brought about through the means of black magic or by an evil spirit, that spirit is said to have "eaten" the person. You shouldn't take this to mean that the person was literally cannibalized; rather, it means that the evil spirit consumed the person's life force.