So I'm reading this ridiculous book and I've started having the most fucked up dreams because of it. It's like it has seeped into my subconscious and is messing with my head. This is a little disturbing because it a historical fiction novel about the life of Marie Laveau. If you don't know who she is then open up another window, google her, figure it out, and then come back to me. So you see why it technically is a problem that the book is fucking with me.
There is a specific saying that comes to mind in this instance for me. It only works if you believe. This could be universally true for any religion but it is especially true when it come to Voodoo. So because I one hundred percent believe that some crazy shit can go down with Voodoo then it a little bit trips me out that subconsciously the book is messing with my brain.
Now I am not practicing Voodoo by any means but I grew up in the Dominican Republic, specifically Santo Domingo, and it is commonly believed that Voodoo was brought to the United States ( in this case, New Orleans) from slaves transported from Santo Domingo. And since Santo Domingo is, to use the words of Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize winning Dominican author, "ground zero" for the unleashing of the most evil destruction of humanity in history. In other words, Columbus arrived there first and began the utter decimation of the native Taino people which led to Spain's decision to traffic Africans into slavery, for many centuries believed to be based on a fucked up Old Testament story about Noah's son Ham ~ google that shit and see what I'm talking about ~
So no fucking wonder that African slaves who were literally snatched from their homes in the middle of the night or knocked over the head and dragged from their gardens never to see their families or home again, brought along with them the only thing they had; Their gods and their religion which happens to be, in my opinion, pretty hard core and not to be messed with as it was sometimes the only defense they had against the terrors that besought them.
Ok. let me back up. I'm of Spanish decent. I'm Catholic. I believe in God and all that the trinity stands for. But I understand why the African people and the native Indians had a pretty hard time converting to Christianity. Because the Christians who captured them and sold them into slavery and treated them as sub-human creatures weren't setting the greatest Christ-like example.
So I get why Voodoo and Santeria have prevailed throughout the centuries and have evolved to take on many characteristics of the Catholicism that was so closely intermingled by the close relationship (positive and negative) that arose from African slaves and their Spanish masters and mistresses. I believe that all these religions play an important part of our country's history and my personal history as a US born citizen of Spanish decent who grew up among descendants of Spanish masters and descendants of African slaves in the Dominican Republic.
So when I read a book, although fictitious, about a real woman who was believed to be the most powerful Voodoo mistress of all time and it makes me have dreams that I never would have conceived of having, then I'm not going to lie that it freaks me out a little. But her story is about her struggle with the goodness and evil of religions, Voodoo and Catholicism, and of finding a path to salvation in a world that chooses their version of good and evil based on what one believes and in many cases the color of their skin, not the goodness inside of a person. This is my biggest struggle in my path of faith and I totally identify with Marie Laveau in that sense. So maybe she's getting in my head to open it up further to an understanding of humanity and the choices we must make given the cards we are dealt.
