Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
18. Is Vodou (Voodoo) a religion?
Indigenous Religious Traditions in Five Minutes - Molly Bassett
James Padilioni, Jr. [+]
Swarthmore College
James Padilioni, Jr. is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College. His research and teaching foreground African Diasporic ritual cultures, ontology and critical race theory of Blackness, and deep ecology studies, with a particular focus in Afro-Latinx folk Catholicism, herbalism and pharmacopeia, and spirit ecstasy traditions. James also cohosts the Always Already critical theory podcast (alwaysalreadypodcast.wordpress.com).
Description
Healing and wellness are the core aspects of all Vodou practices. As Vodou holds to a holistic understanding of health, sickness and affliction may manifest in any domains of life -- physical, spiritual, social, psychic, political, etc. -- and migrate across to the others. The first premise of a Vodou cosmic is material impermanence set against the incessant recycling of soul energy, in a move not unlike Dharmic traditions.