POSSESSED!

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Possession, the return of the spirits to the body, completes the sacred cycle: from human to ancestor, from ancestor to cosmic principle, from principle to personage, and personage returning to displace the identity of man or woman. Hence, while Vodounists serve their gods, they also give birth to them. The ultimate experience in Vodoun ritual is the moment when the loa responds to the invocation of the drums and rises from the earth to inhabit the body. In many ways Vodoun is the most quintessentially democratic faith, for its believers not only have direct access to the spirits, they actually receive the gods into their bodies. That moment of spirit possession--what dancer and author Maya Deren described as the white darkness--is by no means a pathological event. On the contrary, it is the manifestation of divine grace, the epiphany of the Vodoun faith. As Haitians often say, "White people go to church and speak about God. We dance in the temple and become God.

Wade Davis is the author of Shadows in the Sun (Island Press), from which this article was originally excerpted. Adapted from Shambhala Sun (Jan./Feb. 1999). Subscriptions: $24/yr. (6 issues) from 1345 Spruce St., Boulder, CO 80302-9682. Reprinted by permission of Island Press. Copyright © 1998 Island Press.

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