“Voodoo offers a religious doctrine
for people to live by. The doctrine helps
people to live honorably. Voodoo is particularly
instrumental in helping people cope with
the difficulties and sorrows of daily living
by providing a pantheon of deities –
spirits who move freely between the realms
– to assist them when they are in
need.”
Attempting to come to terms with a childhood
permeated by voodoo rituals, and prompted
by intuition, Sharon Caulder, a practicing
physical therapist with a doctorate in mythology,
undertakes a life-changing journey to Benin,
formerly Dahomey, West Africa, in search
of her spiritual roots. In this fascinating
book, Caulder recounts her immersion in
the heritage of her African Motherland and
her initiation into traditional Voodoo,
culminating in her creation as an African
Voodoo Chief. Caulder describes her challenges
as she adjusts to the culture and pace of
a small Benin village and relates with unabashed
honesty details of her growing romance with
the man known as the Supreme Chief of All
Voodoos, the imposing Daagbo Hounon Houna.
Caulder describes in vivid detail the rites
and rituals associated with this ancient
faith, a tradition that has been maligned
and misunderstood wherever it has appeared
in the world.
Caulder’s factual and colorful account
of true-life experiences among present day
practitioners of Voodoo is a valuable anthropological
tool for those interested in understanding
the role of Voodoo in the development of
the African peoples; it is also a rare,
detailed account of one woman’s discovery
of her vast spiritual potential and worth.
