Vilokan

Vilokan, the mythological abode of the Vodou spirits (lwas). Vodou, an African-derived religion, was taken to Haiti during the colonization period (1492–1804) and has maintained many West African religious traditions; among them are those of Benin (formerly Dahomey). Vodouists believe that Vilokan is in Africa, and they conceive of it as a city in the mythic land of Ginen on an island below the sea.

Vilokan features prominently in Vodou’s worldview and ritual observances. Vodou’s mythology conceives of the cosmos as a sphere made of two inverted halves of a gourd whose edges match perfectly. Inside that sphere are two mutually perpendicular and intersecting planes that, perceived in a cross section of the sphere, represent the arms of a cross. The plane along which the two halves of the sphere are conjoined constitutes the horizon. The perpendicular line of the cross that transects the horizontal plane forms the second arm of the cross and joins the top to the bottom of the sphere. Both planes provide the framework and supporting axes of the cosmic sphere. Moreover, Haitian and Beninese mythologies conceive of Earth as floating on water and stretching flat along the plane of the horizon in the centre of the sphere. Far beneath Earth is Vilokan. The vertical arm of the cross that conjoins the top to the bottom of the sphere is said to pierce through the centre of Earth to plunge into the city of Vilokan.

That vertical arm serves as the point of contact between Vilokan and the world of the living, because during a ceremony the priest (oungan) or an assistant (laplas) invokes a lwa by drawing its geometric tracing (vèvè). As the community intones the appropriate song, the officiant traces the vèvè on the floor of the temple by sifting corn flour between his thumb and index fingers. Vodouists believe that those auditory and visual media summon a lwa to the temple, and, at the appropriate moment during a ritual, the lwa leaves Vilokan and climbs on the vertical arm of the cross to manifest itself in the body of a devotee in spirit possession. Spirit possession is an altered state of consciousness in which a spirit is believed to mount a devotee like a horse. Through that medium, a lwa is given a voice with which to impart its sacred wisdom to a community and, conversely, ears to listen to community concerns.

At the outset of Vodou ceremonies in the temple (ounfò), devotees make contact with the lwas in Vilokan by invoking Legba (or Elegua) through the medium of the priest or his assistant. Vodouists believe that Legba holds the keys that open the gates through which the lwas pass to “visit” their devotees. Moreover, the lwas are said not to speak the same languages as their devotees; Legba translates the supplications of the devotees to the respective lwas in Vilokan. In short, he is the mediator between Vilokan and the profane world.

Moreover, Vodouists believe that Vilokan is the inverse of the profane world. That symbolism makes it clear that Vilokan is not a vague and mystical place. It is instead a cosmic mirror that reflects the images of the profane world but reverses them. That mirrored image is symbolized by a number of ritual observances. First, the lwas are referred to as reflecting the deportment and personalities of the living; they bear names such as Loko-Miwa (meaning “Loko in the mirror”) or Agasou-Do-Miwa (“Agasou in the back of the mirror”). (Alternatively, those terms could also be taken to mean, respectively, “Loko we came” and “Agasou knows that we came.”) A second mirror symbol can be noted when a possessed devotee greets another: the two bow while facing each other, reflecting the inverse movement of the other, and then they perform a number of clockwise and counterclockwise turns to represent the mirrored sites of the profane world. Third, the community performs the ritual dances by revolving in a counterclockwise motion around a central pole (potomitan) in the temple. That pole is analogous to the vertical arm of the cosmic cross described earlier.

The principle of inversion is fundamental to Vodou’s worldview, theology, and rituals. The relationship between Vilokan and the profane world takes the cosmographic image of a cross that divides the four quarters of cosmic space, symbolizes the fact of communication between Vilokan and the profane world, and expresses the nature of the difference between those worlds’ modes of reality.