Damballah
Damballah , Damballa , Danbala or Dam Ballah is the serpentine top loa (spirit) in the Haitian religion of voodoo . There are also other variants of the name with and without h and / or double l or n instead of m , but are less common.
function
Damballah is revered in voodoo as the father of all loa, people and guardian spirits. Together with his wife Ayida Wédo , who is also depicted as a snake (rainbow snake), he stands for the absolutely divine in its male-female duality. The couple embodies the well-meaning, "innocent" father or mother figure. He is the loa of fertility and sexuality , the preservation of tradition and cultural roots of all peoples. The creation by Damballah happened according to Voodoo belief on behalf of Mahou .
It is said that ordained priests who have been trained from childhood and who have reached the age of at least 40 years can communicate with Damballah. These people should have special empathy, good nature and peacefulness. According to the voodoo belief, Damballah shows itself to non-consecrated people only as a loving but uncommunicative presence, which is associated with harmony, optimism and joie de vivre.
Parallels to other religions
According to the Voodoo belief, Damballah also shows itself in religions, some of which belong to completely different cultures. In places these comparisons are based mainly on the fact that the foreign deities are or were also represented by snakes, e.g. B. the Greco-Roman Asclepius or the Hindu Kundalini .
Christianity
Due to the Christianization of many areas of distribution of Voodoo, Damballah overlaps with the person of St. Patrick and the representations of the latter also often serve to represent the god in the voodoo ritual. On the other hand, Damballah is also often compared to Moses , since the staff of Moses turned into a snake in front of the Pharaoh.
Other religions
Damballah, like his wife Ayida, is often given the nickname "Wédo". In addition, he is compared in the Santería with Obatala , for whom the scepter, the sun, the moon and the snake are provided as ritual objects in various designs on the altar. Obatala is called Oxalá in the Candomblé and, depending on the view of the believers, is viewed as an independent Orixa or two different Orixas. The believers of the religions Voodoo, Santería and Candomblé always like to point out that Damballa Wédo, Obatala and Oxala is one and the same Loa, or Orisha, or Orixa. Damballah Wédo and Ayida Wédo are also known as Oxumaré in Candomblé . In that case, both are of a hermaphrodite shape, with Damballah representing the earth serpent and Ayida representing the rainbow.
In addition, believers see a connection to Damballah in other deities associated with snakes and birds, e.g. B. the Quetzalcoatl of the Aztecs or the snake dance of the Hopi .
cult
In rituals, an egg is sacrificed to Damballah in Haiti , which he crushes with his teeth as a snake. If the loa "takes possession" of a follower in the ritual, i.e. if they fall into a trance , he communicates very rarely and tends to crawl on the floor in his body or to wriggle like a snake. In Sodo - a pilgrimage site in Haiti - you have the opportunity from July 13th to 15th to watch people go into rapture while sitting or standing by the waterfall.
In some places in Haiti there is a ritual on August 25th each year called "The Table" or "The Communion of Damballah". Damballah then reveals himself as a white Rada Loa who receives holy communion of Jesus Christ. This date is considered the holiest day of Damballah and is said to be related to the anniversary of the destruction of Pompeii . Communion stands for ritual cleansing. Believers and priests pray for peace on this day.
symbolism
According to legend, Damballah lives in the shape of a snake on a tree near a spring or he drives into a pool that has been built for him.
Its "divine" color is white, as sperm , which in the Voodoo conception stands for fertility, is also light in color. In later times the rainbow colors, especially for Ayida Wedò, were also included.
See also
- Rada , the entirety of the benevolent loa
- Nachon , umbrella term for the three main groups of loa in Haitian voodoo
- List of spirit beings in voodoo