Voodoo

I have been trying to write this blog daily, starting with the scent that I wear, but I have not been able to keep this up for the past two days. However, since Voodoo was the subject of my very first entry, i really wish to write more about it now that I have more writing practice.


I may be wrong, but since there are more BPAL scents of which descriptions point towards Louisiana Voodoo rather than Haitian Voodoo, I expect that it is indeed Louisiana or New Orleans Voodoo that was the inspiration of this perfume. My knowledge of Voodoo is limited, so I had to do some reading and as so often this led to more confusion and more reading. So I can not say that I really know about Voodoo now, but what i learned is this;


Louisiana Voodoo or New Orleans Voodoo is one of the many religions rooted in West African Dahomeyan Vodun. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful West African country from the 17th century to 1894. From 1894 to 1960 it was part of French West Africa and when it regained independence it was first called the Republic of Dahomey and in 1975, because this was more neutral, the People's Republic of Benin. So when you are looking for the place where these religions have their roots, look for Benin. (The republic, not the kingdom because that once was where now Nigeria is. Did I confuse you?) The West African Vodun religion was practiced in a much larger area, but the Dahomeyan kings were very active in the slave trade, which may be why the Dahomeyan variation of the religion found its way to Louisiana.


Louisiana Voodoo can not be completely separated from Haitian Voodoo, but it is not the same although both are religions. Hoodoo, which also started being practiced in the Southern states of the US including Louisiana, is less structured than Voodoo and more like a folk knowledge traditinally passed on from person to person, usually lay people within a Christian community. And to make things more complicated, Hoodoo is often a part of New Orleans Voodoo. It was through New Orleans Voodoo that concepts like gris-gris (a talisman or voodoo amulet consisting of a small bag originally with Islamic scripture) and voodoo dolls became more commonly known. The structure and hierarchy in Louisiana Voodoo seems to start with the Voodoo Queens and once the Voodoo Queen is mentioned Marie Laveau has to be mentioned.

Marie Laveau was believed to be born free in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the daugher of a white planter and a free Creole woman of color. On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or perhaps his name was Santiago) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from Haiti and who died in 1920 under unexplained circumstances. In fact, there are more suggestions and stories about Marie Laveau than there are fact, but it seems quite obvious that she has been very important in the development of New Orleans Voodoo. Although in popular culture Marie Laveau is often referred to as a witch, she would be properly describes as a Voodoo priestess. (But of course all modern witches will tell you that they too are priestesses, so there seems to be no real contradiction there.)


Lets not forget to save some space for the description of the perfume:

A midnight scent, evoking images of flickering golden firelight reflecting off the sheen of glistening skin and the jerking shadows of bodies suffused with spiritual ecstasy. A deep, powerful, resonant blend of myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, lime, vanilla, pine, almond and clove.

I remember that the first time I smelled it I was not pleased with it at first, because of the lime. Lime can be very sharp in its initial stage, but after a few minutes it softens and blends in with the other components. And in this case it makes this a very favorite scent for me. In fact I think I like it more than some that I have bottles of. So it's name may show up more often in the future.