A Fool In Haiti

On March 18th 2010, whilst staying in a peristyle called Temp Chango Chawa in a town called Cayes Jacmel, we were visited by Manbo Mirielle AIN, A woman born in France who had worked at the foreign embassy in Haiti until she discovered Vodou. I had the fortunate pleasure of being able to interview her where we spoke very openly about Haiti, Vodou, the earthquake and her life as a Manbo (an initiated priestess of Vodou). Watch the interview and listen to her fascinating story.

If you are ever wondering who to make a donation to and how to help the situation in Haiti, look no further than Manbo Mirielle: an amazing community member who provides food, shelter, jobs and spiritual solace for many many Haitians. The website for the peristyle she started is here: Yagen Tanwe. Please contribute if you can

Updated to add: She speaks French from 19 minutes in, so if you are a French speaker you may want to skip straight to 19:00. The translation from the French is in the comments below

Whilst we were in Cayes Jacmel staying at Temp Chango Chawa, Manbo Paula celebrated her birthday and we did it in style! Here’s a few photos from that day. Such a wonderful joyful day it was – lots of singing, dancing, visiting Vodouisants, dogs, champagne and  spirit possession.

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Here are some photos taken from some amazing peristyles (Vodou temples) in Haiti.

I am not sure the photos do justice to the wonder of actually seeing them up close but here’s a glimpse into the world of Vodou…

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I have so many things to do before I can get back to Haiti and many things happened whilst I was there that I want to blog about. But the question being most often asked of me is what it was like to be possessed and so I shall write about that experience today…

I was staying in Temp Chango Chawa – a Vodou peristyle (temple) in the dusty seaside town of Cayes-Jacmel with my travel buddy Manbo Paula. Temp Chango Chawa is run by Hougan (Vodou priest) Ati Jean Andvenor Lundy, who is a big man in Haitian Vodou – he’s the South East regional chief of the Federasyon National Vodouisan Ayisyen (National Federation of Haitian Vodou).

Before I say more, I need to introduce a concept from Haitian Vodou and that is of the Met Tet – “the ruler of the head”. Every person has one or a few Met Tet – and this is akin to a “ruling archetype”, or a principle deity – it’s the deity that can most easily come through you. In plain language – in Western Pagan terms, it’s simply the fact that some folk will be more akin to Dionysus, others to Pan, some to Apollo, others to Eris, Aphrodite or Artemis (and myriad others).

The Haitian gods or spirits are called Lwa – and it’s a massive field of study to learn about them all if study is your thing, which for me it isn’t as I much prefer an experiential rather than academic approach to spirituality. It was quickly discerned through a number of conversations during my first week that my Met Tet was a lwa from the Simbi family of spirits. Simbi was something I had never heard of before but something I was very keen to learn about. But that is kind of the wrong thinking – one doesn’t “learn” in an academic read-about-it sense with Vodou, one learns by experiencing Vodou first hand. As we sat at the dinner-table, post-eating the the question was dropped, “do you want to meet Papa Simbi?”

“Yes,” I answered and within moments Mr Lundy poured me a shot of rum which I gulped, and then he was soon banging on the table as if it were a drum. His wife Manbo Yvette cleared away the dishes and came back to join us. Manbo Paula looked delighted.

The sound of the drum beat was wonderful and intuitively led me to get up and start dancing to the rhythms produced. Now in Brighton (and elsewhere) I spent a lot of time going to various shamanic dance workshops, groups and sessions. I love going to freestyle dance, kundalini dance, the Wednesday Wave and 5 rhythms even if the music is sometimes over-the-top cheesy and so I have a lot of experience just letting go of the body-mind connection and letting my body move to whatever music is at hand without conscious thought directing my movements. When I was taking part in these different workshops, I had no idea that freestyle dance would be such a great aid for bringing on spirit possession.

The drum beat was playing for a few minutes when Manbo Yvette started singing. I had no idea what the lyrics meant, but could discern “Papa Simbi” mentioned throughout. Manbo Paula joined in the singing as she was able to. Often with Shamanic dance I get more out of it when I close my eyes and direct all my awareness internally. I took another look around the peristyle – there were children, dogs, a couple of broken motorcycles scattered throughout, and the three initiates giving me their wonderful attention. I went deeper into the dance and sway of the beat and allowed the singing of Manbo Yvette to wash over me. She came closer and started to dance a little herself and continued to sing with now her voice much closer to me. Within moments of her coming close to me, I felt some other presence with me – it was like something else at the back of my neck was looking out of my eyes. Very strange experience! And the drumming had only started five minutes prior to this.

And still the drumming and singing continued, “♪♪♪♪ Papa Simbi ♪♪♪♪”

Intuition told me it was time to close my eyes and I did so and continued to dance, continued to allow my body to move to the rhythms, allowed the magical voice of Manbo Yvette to wash over me, allowed myself to be taken…

And taken I was: Very quickly after I closed my eyes, this really beautiful feeling came over me – it was really euphoric – bliss – wonderful. It took over my whole body and I kind of just started melting into the feeling of wonder. My conscious thought-process was thinking, “more! more! come on more!” but soon turned into a, “wow, whoa, what the f@ck, whoooaaa.” The last thought I remember was thinking about their being children and dogs in the room and having a small chuckle from within the bliss and then I was gone…

Gone to a place of bliss, of Euphoric feeling. Akin to a DMT trip but without the visuals effects that I’ve experienced on that drug. Gone to divine embodied magical place of ecstasy that words can’t give justice to… My body kept dancing but it wasn’t me moving it. Such a wonderful feeling oh my! At some stage I crumpled down on to the peristyle floor and just soaked in the bliss of sharing my body with such a wonderful delightful spirit known to me then simply as Papa Simbi.

I’m not quite sure what happened next but I guess I was out of it for about an hour, after which time I started being a bit more aware of things around me… There was conversation at the table and I was slumped on the floor. I felt post-euphoric which is a difficult thing to describe but I guess a kind afterglow of inner peace was with me. I tried to open my eyes but I was not able to. I even tried to pry them open with my fingers so I could see what was happening but they wouldn’t open, so instead I returned my awareness to the feeling of bliss that sat within me. For me, in my limited experience, Vodou would seem to be much more about feeling than seeing and so I stayed with the feeling for a while and just sat there.

After some minutes of soaking it up, I heard Manbo Paula say, “He’s back.” These words triggered something and I could see again. I opened my eyes but wasn’t ready to communicate with anyone. I sat on the stairs and felt peaceful, blissful, groggy and I later learnt that this post-possession feeling is called being “tipsy.” I signalled that I wanted a cigarette (I hadn’t had one in six months!) and one was brought to me or rather to Papa Simbi who was still within me in some way.

Now I’ve been taking part in Pagan ceremony for many years and many of them have been really beautiful and powerful. I’ve always been somewhat of a adventurer within the spiritual realms and have had many wonderful experiences. I’ve felt deity in many different forms and in many different ways. But nothing I’ve experienced compares to the absolute ease with with Papa Simbi was called into me. From sitting at the dinner table to full possession only took about 10 minutes! And there were dogs and children in the room!?! Actually, in retrospect I think having children in the room is one of the reasons the Manbos and Hougans find it so easily to connect with the loa. For them having grown up with it all their lives, it becomes a very easy common thing. Having grown up in that environment, of course contacting the spirits is completely easy and accessible to them. They don’t have to battle their conscious thinking minds to let the spirit in as their thinking minds are already open to these occurrences. Sing to Simbi and Simbi will come. Simple as that. With Pagan ceremony, the results are nearly always a bit unpredictable with people asking at the end, “did you feel anything? did you see anything?”

It was such a wonderful, beautiful and powerful experience, and so easily done that my inner adventurer simply craves to learn more and so to Haiti I shall return. I’m also wondering about taking other people with me to show them what I’ve seen, let them feel what I have felt. If you are interested in coming along, be sure to get in touch! It really was amazing. Look within and decide if it is for you.

I sat there tipsy for another half hour and then returned to the table for small talk, another cigarette and some wonderful dark strong sweet hot coffee made by the wonderful Manbo Yvette… and it’s not just the lwa and Vodou I am looking forward to returning for, it’s also the Haitian coffee.

Still in cayes-jacmel. Taken Outside the “other peristyle”.

the bull is not at all shy of showing his tackle

as well as working vodou and feeding people, i’m spending a lot of time entertaining the hougan’s grand kids!

Hello all! I’m now in in Cayes-jacmel staying at Temp Chango Chawa, the peristyle & south-east headquarters for the Federasyon National Vodouisan Ayisyen run by Ati Jean Andvenor Lundy. An amazing place and a wonder to be here. Local vodouisants keep turning up looking for food, money, gossip and to meet the 2 blancs.


This is Ati Jean Andvenor Lundy





Mr Lundy uses his motorcycle to visit the 150 peristyles in his jurisdiction – many of which have been damaged or destroyed and many are now without food. I am blessed to be staying in his home – his peristyle – a temple to Chango the Orisha and I send his request for help out to the world. Help can be sent to me in the first instance via my paypal account above.

Mr Lundy needs his motor cycle repaired ASAP and sends a request out to the mystics AND other concerned citizens of the world to aid him in raising the money – $US300 for the repairs.

If you speak Kreyol and are reading this, please call him on +50937522628. I’ll post up th details of the bank account for the Federaysyon shortly and money can be sent directly to it once that is organised…

This is his personal plea and I can personally vouch for the necessity and urgency of the situation here. All the money I’m receiving is going to great sources and really worth while people. I have full documentation of everything but not the resources here to upload every pic and vid I take. I hope to be able to soon.

I’m having fun, meeting some amazing people, having my eyes opened to new and strange and beautiful and powerful things and doing all I can do to help. Mambo Paula is well but still internet-shy. Thanks for reading! I’ll post again soon….

Love, Sean

there’s a massive story to go with this! but no time just now… It’s a peristyle in the wonderful little town of Cayes-Jacmel. Sorry to make anyone wait for the details

This is
La Bien – The Good Man

Check the link – see this is taken in the Peristyle. The Haitian Vodouisants use Machetes instead of daggers in their rituals…

The focus of ritual is always close to the ground – so seats are close to the ground too… including this car seat which is sat upon for meditations and more. Notice the pic of La Sirene in the background – beautiful goddess of the sea that she is.

La Bien feeds 25 people with the rent we pay him! His sort of vodou is called Natural Mystic or Natural Vodou… rather than the initiatory Peristyle vodou. Your donations have directly helped him feed 25 people! yeahh!!! Give more if you want and I’ll try to get more photos and videos up soon…

Best wishes from Sean

Hello all,

Well this is day 5 of my trip to Haiti – but feels like day 2000. I was really hoping to update this blog a lot more regularly with the photos, pictures and videos I’ve been taking, but the Internet Cafe (where I am now) is far far far from Auban… When I first made contact with Mambo Paula about coming here, she spoke of Auban. Well of course I quickly ran to google maps to look up where I was going! But there was no Auban and so I guessed it must have been a typo. But having arrived, I can see why it has no google-maps presence. There’s just nothing there at all….

And yet there’s so much there! The wonderful people I’m staying with in this remote world have barely got food to eat at the moment, but all the wonderful donations I’ve brought along are going a long way. Mambo Paula and I are paying $US20 each per day to stay on this family’s property – for food and accomodation. That $US20 is going a real long way – we’re feeding 25 people with it…

I hope my mate Clive (brighton, happy birthday mate!!) gets to read this – he donated a tent which four boys are staying in just next to the large tent Paula and I share with 3 or 4 kids.

So much has happened – I don’t know where to start – maybe with the sadness….

I have been heartbroken On the day we arrived in Auban we were led to a woman who was trapped under the EarthQuake rubble for 3 days – with her five now deceased children.

What can I say to a woman like that? What would you say? her five kids were taken in the 55 second quake and she is oh I don’t know what to say… but it is hard not to cry when she walks by. Mambo Paula and I administered first aid and made her a sling for her broken arm… We’re giving her pain killers for it too but nothing can take away the pain from losing all five of your children… harsh … oh soo harsh….

She is one of 25(ish) people staying on this compound I’m on… It’s a pretty special affair – if there was a bit more variety of food it would be complete idyllic eco-village… fruit trees: mangoes, coconuts, and animals running free: chickens and goats… just not so many as to feed all the people there… We are doing our bit for them and we’re feeling pretty good about what we’re doing here… Manbo Paula doesn’t take compliments too well – when people tell her she’s amazing she goes a bit bashful, so if you’re a friend of hers reading this – be sure to tell her how amazing she truly is!

So much to say errrrrmmm the big daddy of the place we’re staying at, at first I thought his name was Papa Baz but since have learned that Papa Baz is a term of endearment, like “bro”, “mate”, “guv” or whatever you might have heard… From day one of arriving here, he’s been immersing me in the family vodou rituals practiced in the area. there will be a huge amount written on him when time permits!!

I imagine a few people reading this want to know about the vodou – there’s (at least) 2 types of Haitian Vodou – peristyle vodou and family vodou. If you’re a western occultist the nearest analogy to this distinction would be High Magic and Low Magic… But even that doesn’t do it justice… Peristyle Vodou has an element of grades, initiations, secrets and allegiances to houses. Family Vodou is much closer to the Earth and more accessible. I’ve been introduced to both in some quite dramatic beautiful fashions and I’m really blown away by their beauty and simplicity…

Let me compare some vodou with Western Paganism (but bear in mind I’m only 5 days in!!!) – there has been no circle-casting in Vodou at all whereas in the West, there is a definite focus on casting a circle at the start of performing a ritual… people haven’t changed clothes, or taken their shoes off or turned their mobiles off to go to rituals… (oh that reminds me! there’s no food here, but there’s a fuckload of mobile phones!!! hungry people calling each other up on the local cell network… crazy!) There is also a big prayer element to the ritual – praying to deity is a thing not done so often in the West, but it is a powerful part of what I’m getting into here… too much to write, and so little time…. lots of candles and flowing water.

Money for Spirituality is something I find really challenging – always have… But here it’s an every day part of the magic and ritual.. if someone casts a spell or does a ritual for you, they expect to be proper paid for it… I guess that goes some way to display how confident they are with their prayers and rituals – you want something, they gonna cast the prayer and it’s gonna come true! Definitely hard to wrap my head around at first but now, it makes so much sense… Well, if I’m still doing it in a few months time let that be an indication of the success of the prayers said for me – for money.

And let’s just say one more word on money, coz I do feel deeply drawn to the vodou and have read much about it over the years… I tried to get involved and invited a number of times but found a number of dead-ends for myself… I kind of kept an eye on that door and wondered if it would ever open… I felt the sense of power behind it… And then woosh, the door is flung open and I’m pulled through… And I feel really keen to support it and the people who practice vodou, partly for its wonder and beauty but also for the sheer fact that I absolutely value the right to complete religious freedom.. and with this in mind, I’m really glad to be shifting my money in that direction.

I’ve been taken to 4 or 5 peristyles and they are amazing. I wish I could upload some pics from here but I can not and have no time right now to go into a big description… HOpefully I will before too long…

Oh back to Papa Baz – named Labien – the big chief on our plot of land… an amazingly generous man like few I’ve met in my life… supporting a number (6 or 7????) orphans… half of which were orphans before the earth quake. and these young children have the most adorable smiles and eyes. They are wonderful and I hope to upload some vids of them singing soon. They are a bit lost and confused – suddenly no parents. they earth shook. wtf??? but such delight when they see that people are being kind to them.. having a giggle and a laugh and playing thumb wars… and drawing pictures… lots of picture of flowers. haven’t quite figured out why, but the kids draw flowers incessantly!

“1 2 3 4 I declare a thumb war” but in kreyol…

Labien is one of those people who just gives every single thing he gets away… He lives really close to spirit/la mystery – and trusts in it implicitly… So he seems to feel he can give everything away and it will just come straight back and you know, it seems to… He has opened up his land for these orphans and this crushed woman (and some other people) as a part of his family vodou. I hope this would be some massive inspiration for more of the world’s churches and temples to open up their grounds to home the needy! Labien is a great man…

And I really feel like I’m doing some great work here. Before I came I was distressed and asked Manbo Paula if she was sure I wouldn’t be a drain on an already hungry population… she assured me that just by being here and paying for my accommodation I would be doing good… I doubted her but am so glad I followed through… just by being here I am helping to keep 25 people in food and tents and tarps and medicines… I never before felt I could contribute so much to our planet before. It is going to be hard to leave when the time comes but I may stay a little bit longer just to help out just a little bit more… I’ll stay if 1 – I still feel I am doing good and 2 – if I am able to afford to stay on doing this… If you have donated – thank you so so so so so so much! you are literally saving lives and I’m seeing it first hand… More donations are still welcome if you feel drawn to and there is a link on http://www.afoolinhaiti.me.uk/sponsors/ if you would like to… I will hopefully soon upload pics and vids so I can show you where your money is going…

I have learnt about 50 kreyol words and hope to learn more in the coming few weeks… I’ll sign out for now though. There is some ritual to St Jacques tonight I am going to – Instead of a ritual dagger/athame – we use a Ritual Machete – AYIBOBO!!!

Love, Seani Fool

(ps – sorry, i haven’t proof-read this)

I have said before that the main drive to go to Haiti at this time was to bear witness to, and hopefully in some small way discourage the forced conversions of Haitians to various Christian cults.

Forced conversion for food is simply outrageous!