ORISHAS, GODDESSES, AND VOODOO QUEENS - LILITH DORSEY

First of all, I’m writing this on the 7th of September, a day that is holy to Yemaya, the Yoruba deity associated with the sea, and as someone who lives near the sea (or the sound, it’s not totally clear to me who controls the sound) I’d be remiss to ignore her. Anyway, I picked this book up because I’m always interested in African spirituality stuff and when I browsed through the table of contents in the library, I saw that there was both a Pomba Gira as well as a Santa Muerte chapter. Obviously, I’m quasi-obsessed with the Bony Lady so I was intrigued. Typically, her syncretism is seen as one that combines Indigenous American and folk European religious beliefs, though ever since I saw how popular “Las 7 Potencias Africanas” candles featuring S.M. are across Mexico. Dorsey claims that the ritual of blowing smoke (pot or cig) into the statue's face, which is a signature S.M. move, comes from African traditions. However, she also misidentifies La Catrina, who is also a Mexican folk figure and is often depicted as S.M.-adjacent, as Lolita. So maybe she’s not an expert on Mesoamerican deities. Atlantic, by which I mean West African coast, primarily Yoruba, as well as the Caribbean, primarily NOLA/Haiti/Jamaica, on the other hand, she’s all over. I enjoyed her intro,  Dorsey writes about wanting first to write about Goddesses generally at first before focusing on the regions, and I especially enjoyed her insight about centering the major religious question around the mysteries of birth rather than death. She also points out the book-about-mysticism paradox by repeating a Yoruba proverb about how you can’t get Awe from a book. The chapters themselves were interesting but a bit too practical for my taste. Each one takes a different subject, first going into their history and major myths and current resonances, which I liked, followed by a longer section about setting up specific shrines, tinctures, recipes, music, acceptable offerings, etc.. Interesting but less my interest. Dorsey does a good job weaving different traditions together and coming up with a really idiosyncratic list. Most of the main ones are major Yoruba or Haitian Voodoo entities but then she branches out. Not only does it have the aforementioned Santa Muerte and Pomba Gira but also real people Marie Laveau, Nzinga and Nanny of the Maroons, as well as quasi-real figures like Annie Christmas (who is sort of a NOLA-based Black female Paul Bunyan and/or John Henry). I liked this collapsing of real into religious that seems useful, New-World-y and in some ways connected to the ancestor worship that also animates these traditions. She’s also friends with the late Dr. John so I’ve got nothing but respect for her. 401 deities.