Terms and Spirit Listing
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Paquets Congo

(V.ENC) A small packet constructed by a houngan that offers protection to its bearer.

Pé

(V.ENC) An altar or altar stone called the pé is located at the center of each chamber inside the hounfort; ritual tools and other items are placed on this platform, which is the height of a man's chest. A jumbled, chaotic assortment of objects that have symbolic meaning within the beliefs of vodou covers the pé, including candles, food, money, amulets and ritual necklaces, ceremonial rattles, pictures of Catholic saints, bottles of rum, bells, flags, drums and sacred stones. Govis, or clay pots that contain the souls of revered ancestors, also sit on the altar. The altar represents the door between this world and the spiritual world where the immortal spirits reside, and so performing a ritual at the altar can call its god from the spiritual world. The houngan may invoke the loa by leaning upon the pé and calling the loa down into its clay jar or govi. The priest uses traditional chants to attract the loa in this form of invocation. He can then consult the loa residing inside the govi, asking for advice on matters of importance to the community or requesting that the god to reveal the future.

Peristyle (peristil)

(V.ENC) The peristyle is a roofed but otherwise open space where the public ceremonies take place. It has a floor of beaten earth, and a low wall, four to five feet high, borders it so that curious spectators who aren't a part of the société can watch the ceremonies from outside without making themselves too conspicuous. A perpetual fire burns in the center of the yard, with an iron bar in the middle of the fire representing the forge of the powerful warrior god Ogoun. A model ship hangs from the roof of the peristyle, symbolizing Erzuile, the vodou goddess of love and the moon.

(SV) The peristyle is the partly enclosed and usually roofed courtyard adjacent to the holy of holies of the oum'phor. It is the place where the elaborate mass ceremonies and rituals of Voodoo are performed, and it also is the place where the sick usually are treated.

Petite Pierre

(DL) Petite Pierre is a gluttonous and quarrelsome spirit who tries to pick fights with the audience.

Petro (Pethro)

(V.ENC) The Petro are the dark gods, the balance to the benevolent forces of the Rada. By "dark," I don't mean that the Petro loa are evil; just as no person is wholly good or evil, neither is any god. Rather, they are necessary for balance, to perform the acts that the Rada loa cannot accomplish. Petro rites originated in Haiti where conditions were very different than in the homeland of Dahomey, although the roots of the Petro rites, dances and loa can be traced back to the Congo and Ibo tribes of Africa. The Petro rituals and gods also show the influence of the natives of Haiti, the Carib Amerindians, and an Amerindian may have actually founded the cult, a houngan named Don Pédro. The Petro cult developed because the stability and traditional patterns of the African tribes were disrupted and violated by the brutality of slavery. The gods could no longer take a defensive, passive role; rather, action was needed. As a result, the Petro loa, the patron spirits of aggression and action, were born. The Petro cult gave escaped slaves the organization and moral rage to lead the revolt that freed all the slaves of Haiti in 1804, the only successful slave revolution to have taken place in the New World. The Petro loa are more powerful, quick, and magical than the Rada gods. They are also more violent, demanding, fierce, and practical, and they emphasize death, vengeance, and aggressiveness toward adversaries. They can make quick cures of illnesses and perform powerful acts that the Rada loa are not capable of. However, they will only work for someone if the devotee makes a promise of service to them, which often requires an expensive sacrifice, and the god will take revenge if that promise isn't kept. Petro rituals are characterized by red ceremonial clothing, off-beat syncopated drumming, and frenzied dancing. As sacrificial offerings, they demand hogs, goats, sheep, cows and bulls; the most common sacrifice to the Petro loa is a pig. A Petro ritual is never held in a hounfort where Rada ceremonies are performed. Although the Petro loa are important to vodou, the gods who are invoked in the overwhelming majority of all ceremonies are the members of the Rada pantheon. Many of these loa do have one or more Petro aspects, as each loa has many faces representing a different but related natural force or archetypal principle.

(DL) Petro comes from a new nation of spirits forged directly in the steel and blood of the colonial era. They reflect all the rage, violence and delirium that threw off shackles of slavery. The drums, dancing, and rhythm are offbeat sharp, and unforgiving, like the crack of a rawhide whip. The Bizango is an extreme form of the Petro and is sometimes described as the wild Petro. Bizango occurs by night, in darkness that is the province of the djab, the devil.

Pierre-loa

(V.ENC) Smooth river stones, often called "thunderstones," that are inhabited by the loa and are often placed on the pé.

Pomba Gira (Bomba Gira)

I haven't been able to find much information about Pomba Gira. I believe she's from the Brazilian Umbanda tradition. She is the wife, or female counterpart to Exu (pronounced Eshu), and I've heard varied things about her - that she's a patron of sex workers, that she watches over women that suffer the many painful tests that life puts them through - and that she also has the mannerisms of a fine, delicate woman who likes champagne, cigarettes, and licorice. I think there are many different types of Pomba Gira's, but again, I haven't been able to talk directly to one of her devotees or to somebody that follows the Umbanda path. Apparently there is a good book out there on Pomba Gira that was translated by Carol L. Dow: Pomba-Gira: How to Invoke the Formidable Powers of the Female  Messenger of the Gods It seems to be extremely difficult to track down, though.

Possession

(V.ENC) In vodou, true communion with the divine comes through possession, or "the hand of divine grace." Possession occurs when a loa temporarily displaces the soul of a devotee and becomes the animating force of the body. Because possession is the way that the loa make their instructions and desires known and how they exercise their authority, it is common phenomenon in vodou, and it is thus considered perfectly normal by practitioners of the religion. In fact, devotees deem it an honor when an especially powerful god selects them for possession. Through possession, every vodou devotee not only has direct contact with the spirit world, but actually receives it into his body. Often, the possessing loa is the one invoked at the ritual, although other loa who haven't been called, particularly Guédé, often show up unexpectedly. When a loa possesses a person, for the length of time that the god controls the body, the actions and attitudes expressed are those of the loa and not of the person who is being possessed. A child possessed by an old loa may seem frail and decrepit, while the elderly when possessed by a young loa may dance and cavort without regard to their disabilities. Even facial expressions change to resemble the loa. That's why when a male loa possesses a female devotee, the pronoun "he" is used to describe the devotee, and vice versa. A loa may choose to possess a devotee for many possible reasons. He could possess someone to protect that person from danger or to confer a special power that enable the person to successfully accomplish a difficult task; for example, an ocean spirit may possess someone who has been shipwrecked and doesn't know how to swim, enabling the person to get safely to shore. The loa may mount a devotee to cure and illness or to prevent suffering. Loa use their horses to give advice, proscribe a remedy for a problem, or to treat an ailment. They also speak through the mouths of the possessed to point out a forbidden ritual, to warn of danger, or to punish devotees who have angered them in some way. Finally, they often take possession to preside over a vodou ceremony or to receive a sacrificial offering. When a person is possessed, the loa enters the person's body as if with a blow at the nape of the neck or in the legs. The person being mounted struggles against the shakes, the muscles are flexed, and there are often spasms in the spine. Suddenly, the person stops fighting and the loa takes full possession, manifesting the characteristics peculiar to that loa. The houngan can look at a possessed devotee and say which loa rides inside him. The priest acts as an intermediary to summon the loa and to help the loa depart when his business is finished. A loa who mounts a devotee is also required to salute the houngan before going about his business. Possessed devotees exhibit the characteristics of the loa who has taken control, often dressing in strange clothing or cross-dressing. The loa can request his own special emblems, such as costumes, kerhiefs, beverages, or cigarettes; each loa's accessories are kept on-hand in the hounfort in case the loa chooses to possess someone. The symbolic nature of these objects helps the loa to perform his magic more easily. The possessing loa also smokes, drinks alcohol, and eats, partaking of the physical pleasures that the spirit cannot normally access. While possessed, a horse often speaks in ancient African tongues called language, which only other loa can understand, tells the future, and even performs magical acts. He can feel no pain, and can, for instance walk on hot coals, grasp a red-hot iron bar without pain, or eat fire. The person also exhibits great strength and energy while possessed, followed by exhaustion when the loa leaves. When the loa leaves his horse, the possessed person immediately drops any objects he's holding and slumps to the ground. After possession, devotees fall into a state characterized by complete indifference to the loa's actions during the possession. They are physically exhausted by the loa's powerful presence inside them, especially if one of the major members of the vodou pantheon mounted them. They can't remember what they said or did while the loa possessed them, and so they can't be held accountable for their actions while the loa controlled them.

Poteau-mitan (poteau-Legba, poto Legba, potomitan)

(V.ENC) The poteau-mitan, or center-post, is located in the center of the peristyle. The houngan salutes this center-post at the beginning of every ritual, and the rest of the ritual revolves around it. A flat-topped base made of cement at the foot of the center-post called the socle serves as a place for food offerings to the gods. In conjunction with the socle, the center-post forms a cross, the symbol of the most powerful of all the vodou gods, Legba. Usually, a whip hangs on the side of the post, representing penitence. The post is painted in bright rainbow colors in horizontal or spiral bands that represent Aida-Wedo, the matriarchal leader of the vodou pantheon. In vodou belief, the top of the post is considered to be the center of the sky and the bottom the center of hell. Thus, the spirits can travel down the post from where they live among the stars, enter the hounfort, and take part in the rituals.

Pots-de-tête

(SV) Jars containing by magic part of the spirits of the people who worship at the oum'phor.