Mambo (priestess)

Marie Laveau , a famous mambo from New Orleans . Portrayed by George Catlin after a painting by Frank Schneider

Mambo is the honorary title of a priestess in Haitian voodoo .

background

In voodoo there are three terms for clergy:

• Mambos : priestesses who partly limit themselves to white magic , partly also or only practice black magic ;
• Houngans : priests who deal exclusively with white magic and wholimitthemselves to the worship and invocation of the peaceful Rada-Loa and - as part of the ancestral cult - the neutral Ghede-Loa ; and
• Bocore : priests who also or only deal with black magic; Unlike houngans and white magic mambos, their work is often of a paid nature.

There are no different terms for priestesses by which the content orientation can be recognized.

tasks

The tasks of a mambo include the following ceremonies , which can be held outdoors or in voodoo temples :

• Healings as the main purpose of voodoo;
• spiritistic acts ;
• Initiation of new priestesses with handover of the Asson ( rattle for priestly rituals );
• Precognition and dream interpretation ;
• Spells and curses , which can range from love spells to - in extreme cases - to death curses ; such as
• Making potions , also for many different purposes.

The tasks can be performed both for a fee and free of charge.

symbolism

The official symbol of the mambo and the houngan is the rattle called Asson .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bob Corbett, Descriptions of Various Loa of Voodoo . Webster University , Spring 1990
2. ↑ Google Books , sample text from Emmanuel Felix junior: Understanding Haitian Voodoo , p. 191. Xulon Press 2009, ISBN 9781607914877
3. ^ Bob Corbett: Introduction to Voodoo in Haiti . Webster University, March 1988