OTHER IMPORTANT LOAS

While the Seven African Powers are of obvious importance in the Voodoo pantheon, there are a number of other loas that are of Haitian and other origin that are equally as important in New Orleans Voodoo. A partial list of the loas, their purpose, and corresponding saint (when known) follows.

Adjassou-Linguetor

Adjassou Linguetor is the loa of spring water. She has eyes that bulge out and a terrible temper.

Agwé (Agoué)

Agwé is the New Orleans loa who rules over the sea, fish and aquatic plants, and is the patron loa of fishermen and sailors. He is alternately married to Erzulie or La Sirene, and references are made to an affair with Ayida Wedo, the rainbow serpent, and wife of Damballa.

Offerings to Agwe are left on constructed rafts which are floated out to sea. His color is usually blue, and he is syncretized with the Catholic Saint Ulrich, who is depicted holding a fish, or St. Expeditus. His vévé, or ritual symbol, is a boat with sails. He is associated with Bayou St. John, Lake Ponchartrain, and The Mississippi River.

Ayizan

Ayizan is the loa of the French Market marketplace, commerce, and herbal healing. She is associated with Vodoun rites of initiation. Ayizan is regarded as the first or archetypal Mambo (priestess), and associated with priestly knowledge and mysteries, particularly those of initiation. She is the protector of religious ceremonies. She is syncretized with the Catholic Saint Clare, her symbol is the palm frond, and she doesn’t drink alcohol. Her colors are most commonly gold, yellow, white, and silver.

Ayida Wedo

Ayida Wedo is a loa of fertility, rainbows and snakes, and a companion or wife to Damballa. She represents the sky powers and the rainbow is her symbol. She functions as protector of the cosmos and giver of blessings.

Long ago, the serpent spirit Damballa created the world. He used his 7,000 coils to form the stars and the planets in the heavens and to shape the hills and valleys on earth. He used lightning bolts to forge metals and make the sacred rocks and stones. When he shed his skin he created all the waters on the earth. And when the sun showed through mist settling on the plants and trees a rainbow was born. Her name was Ayida Wedo. Damballa loved her and made her his wife. They are still together today, the serpent and the rainbow: Damballa and Ayida Wedo.

Azaca-Tonnerre

Azaca is the loa of farmers, agriculture, and healing. He evolved after the Haitian Revolution when slaves were able to own property. Depicted as a peasant carrying a straw bag that loves to eat, he is kind and gentle and has no alternate sinister (petro) form. Azaca is identified with Saint Isadore. He is celebrated and affiliated with Labor Day in Haiti (May 1st). His color is blue and cornmeal or corn cakes are sacrificed to him.

Babalú-Ayé

Babalú-Ayé is the spirit of illness and disease, but is also the deity that cures same. Though originally associated with smallpox, many of today's worshippers appeal to Babalú-Ayé for healing from HIV/AIDS. In Santeria, he is syncretized with St Lazarus.

Babalú-Ayé is an Orisha, the son of Yemaja and Orungan. In certain places he is known to be the son of Nana Omolu, the Fon deity added to the Yoruba pantheon, and associated with female power and creation. As such, he is the rightful owner of the earth. He also is a special intercessor for the poor. Babalú-Ayé is traditionally pictured in blue, brown, red, white, purple, and is offered rice, wheat, corn, beans, chickpeas, garlic, onions, smoked fish and possum in divination rituals.

Baron Samedi

Baron Samedi is a loa of the dead, along with his numerous other incarnations Baron Cimetière, Baron La Croix, and Baron Criminel. He is the ultimate suave and sophisticated spirit of Death, usually depicted with a white top hat, black tuxedo, dark glasses, and cotton plugs in the nostrils, as if to resemble a corpse dressed and prepared for burial in Haitian style. He has a white, skull-like face, talks through his nose, and tells crude but funny jokes. He is known for disruption, obscenity, debauchery, and having a particular fondness for tobacco and rum. As well as being the all-knowing loa of death, he is a sexual loa, frequently represented by phallic symbols. He is the head of the Guédé family of Loa, and married to the loa Manman Brigit.

Baron Samedi stands at the crossroads, where the souls of humans pass on their way to Guinee. Baron is a protector of children and is petitioned for sick children. He has the power over zombies and decides whether or not people can be changed into animals. Since Baron Samedi is the lord of death, he is the last resort for healing since he must decide whether to allow them to cross over or to allow them to recover.

Baron Samedi is also the loa of resurrection, and is called upon for healing by those near or approaching death. It is only Baron who can accept an individual into the realm of the dead. He is considered a wise judge, and a powerful magician.

Black Hawk

Black Hawk was a famous leader and warrior of the Sauk American Indian Nation. Although he had inherited an important historic medicine bundle, he was not a hereditary civil chief of the Sauk; rather, he was an appointed war chief. During the War of 1812, Black Hawk fought on the side of the British. Later he led a band of Sauk and Fox warriors against settlers in Illinois and present-day Wisconsin in the 1832 Black Hawk War. After the war he was captured and taken to the eastern U.S. where he and other British Band leaders toured several cities. Black Hawk died in 1838 in what is now southeastern Iowa.

The Spiritualist churches of New Orleans honor the Native American Black Hawk. Black Hawk is considered a Voodoo Saint and is often included in ritual work wherein worshipers become possessed and gain the power to heal and prophesy. The Indian Spirit Guide has a big influence on Hoodoo and Voodoo today and can be seen on many hoodoo products such as Indian Spirit Incense and room spray by E. Davis Company.

Damballa Wedo

Damballa Wedo is one of the most important and popular of all the loa. He is both a member of the Rada family and a root Loa. He is depicted as a serpent god and is closely associated with snakes. Damballah is the wise and loving father of all the loa and, along with his wife Ayida Wedo, is the Loa of creation. His particular color is white. His offerings are very simple as he prefers an egg on a mound of flour. He is syncretized with the Catholic figures of either Moses or St. Patrick.

Dan Petro

Dan Petro is the New Orleans loa of farmers. He originated from the African Loa Danh.

Diable Tonnere

Diable Tonnere is the loa of thunder in New Orleans.

Dr. John

Dr. John is one of the loas unique to New Orleans. According to Dr. Snake, Dr. John was “the famed and flamboyant Voodooist who operated in New Orleans during the nineteenth century…specializing in healing, selling gris-gris and telling fortunes.” (2000, p. 34-36). Apparently, he claimed to be a Senegalese prince and had the ceremonial scars on his face to prove it. Dr. John was known for his money charms that served him well as evidenced by the large amount of wealth he accumulated while a Voodoo doctor. Because of the power of his mojo, he has been elevated to the status of loa in New Orleans Voodoo, often referred to as Father John.

Eleggua

The great trickster who owns the crossroads is called Ellegua. He enables mankind to communicate with the other orisha and is always honored first. He is known in New Orleans as Papa Legba.

Erzulie Freda

Erzulie Freda is the loa of romantic love. Beauty, love, and sensuality are her Creations. She is invoked to help find a lover, or renew a love relationship. She is also a powerful magician whose very presence nullifies poison and evil magic, and she can offer wealth and luxury to those who serve her. Her color is pink, her animal a white dove. She is associated with the Lukumi Orisha Oshun, and sometimes Changó (as Erzulie Dantor).

Erzulie Dantor

Erzulie Dantor is the Voodoo goddess of love, romance, art, jealousy, passion, & sex. Dantor supports independent business women and is the patron of women's finances. She is also the patron loa of lesbian women, a fierce protector of women and children experiencing domestic violence, and is the patron loa of New Orleans. Erzulie Dantor offers protection and possibilities beyond the imagination.

Erzulie Dantor is a mulatto woman who is often portrayed as the Black Madonna, or the Roman Catholic "Saint Barbara Africana". In New Orleans, she is often portrayed as Our Lady of Perpetual Help. She has tribal scars on her cheek, and is considered heterosexual because she has children, but she is also the patron loa of lesbian women. She loves women fiercely and will defend them to the death. Dantor loves knives and is considered the protector of newly consecrated Voodoo priests and priestesses, as well as of women who have been betrayed by a lover. She is highly respected and much feared due to her Woman Power. Most Haitian women serve Dantor, as do voodooists in New Orleans. Enlightened men also serve Dantor, especially men who honor, love and respect women. Many women invoke Erzulie Dantor against their partners (male or female) should they become violent.

Erzulie’s personal story is a tragedy. She was a warrioress who fought with her people during the Haitian revolution. However, her own people cut out her tongue so that she would not tell their secrets should she be captured. Thus, she is mute and can only speak a stammering monosyllable, "ke-ke-ke- ke-ke!" This is the sound of her tongue clicking on the roof of her mouth. She is often pictured with her daughter Anais, who serves as her translator and interpreter.

Gran Bwa

The Gran Bwa (Big Wood) is the Master of the Sacred Forest of the Island below the Waters, which is the place where the loa call home. This is the land to where the newly dead travel. He is the protector of all wild animals, knows the secrets of herbal medicine, and the secrets of magic hidden in the herbs. He is likened to Saint Sebastian and Saint Christopher in the Catholic tradition. He represents the forces of nature in New Orleans religion.

Gran Bwa is a very loving loa with a great sense of humor and full of advice. He is apparently proud of the fact that he has a big, stiff penis. Gran Bois can be petitioned for healing and prosperity and general advice. He is the loa that must be called upon before one is ordained into voodoo priesthood.

Some of Gran Bwa's favorite things include sweet potatoes, yams, green bananas, black pigs, goats, distilled rum, wild berries, acorns, and any type of food from the woods.

Grand Maître

The original supreme being of Haitian religion is Grand Maitre. He is considered by some New Orleans practitioners to be too remote for personal worship.

Guede

The Guede are a family of spirits associated with death. They live in cemeteries and visit Catholic churches at night. On November 2 the faithful visit cemeteries and light candles in honor of the dead. There are countless Guede spirits, with Baron Samedi and Papa Guede probably the most well known.

Kalfu (Carrefour, Kalfou)

Kalfou is Legba’s opposite Petro twin. Kalfu also controls the crossroads, but he controls the shadow forces of the spirit world. He allows the crossing of bad luck, deliberate destruction, misfortune, injustice.

Kalfu controls the in-between points of the crossroads, the off-center points. Legba controls the positive spirits of the day. Kalfu controls the malevolent spirits of the night. He is strong and tall, muscular. People do not speak in his presence. When he appears at a ceremony, everyone present will stop speaking because he allows evil loa to come to the ceremony. He claims that most of the important loa know him and he collaborates with them. Kalfu says that some people claim he is a demon but he denies this. He is a respected loa and he is not liked much. He is the grand master of charms and sorceries and is closely associated with black magic. Ceremonies for him are often held at the crossroads. In New Orleans he is known as Mait' Carrefour.

La Sirène

An aspect of Erzulie who represents the sea. She is seen as a mermaid.

Lemba

A deity of the Congo religion, worshipped in the African cults of Haiti, Brazil, and New Orleans.

Li Grand Zombi

Li Grand Zombi was the name of Marie Laveau's snake, a huge boa constrictor or royal python (Ball python) who was worshipped at her New Orleans Voodoo rituals on Bayou St. John. St. John's Eve, June 23, was the day the biggest Voodoo gatherings were held where even members of "polite society" were invited including reporters, prominent citizens, and the police. It is also the day that some believers claim the ghost of Marie Laveau rises from the dead.

In New Orleans Voodoo, snakes are not seen as symbols of evil as in the story of Adam and Eve; rather, they are as a symbol of man. Women often dance with serpents to represent the spiritual balance between the genders.

Limba

One of the New Orleans loa, believed to live among the rocks. He has an insatiable appetite and persecutes, kills, and eats people. Even his own devotees are not safe from his hunger.

L'inglesou

A Haitian loa who lives among rocks and ravines. He is said to kill those who offend him.

Loco

In the Voodoo religion, Loco (also spelled Loko) is a loa of vegetation, and a patron of healers, and healing plants, especially herbs and trees. He is a Rada Loa. Loco is the husband of loa Ayizan, and is considered the first Houngan (priest). As the spiritual parents of the priesthood, Loco and Ayizan are two of the Loa associated in the Kanzo (priesthood) initiation rites. They are both powerful guardians of “reglemen,” and the correct and appropriate form of (Haitian) Vodoun service.

Mait' Carrefour

The New Orleans Voodoo lord of crossroads and loa of magicians. He is the loa who stands in balance to Legba. Mait’ Carrefour is the loa of night and misfortune who brings bad luck and illness to the world. His symbol is the crossroads and his color is black. See Kalfou.

Manman Brigitte

In Voodoo, Ma'man Brigit (Grann Brigitte, Manman, Manman Brigit, Manman Brijit) is the mother of cemeteries, the loa of money and death, and the wife of Baron Samedi. She may be related to the "triple" Celtic goddess of poetry, smithcraft, and healing, Brigid/St. Brigit, as her name is Irish in origin. She is usually depicted as a white woman. The first woman's grave in a cemetery in Haiti is dedicated to her. Her colors are black, purple and white, her number is nine, and her particular days of service include Monday and Saturday. Her sacrificial animal is a black chicken. She drinks rum laced with hot peppers - "gaz lakrimojen Ayisyen" (Haitian tear gas), and like her husband and the rest of the Guede Spirits, she is a "potty mouth" and uses profanity. Ma'man Brigit is known to rub her private parts with hot peppers, and those who appear to be faking possession by her in a Vodou ceremony may be subjected to this test, which they obviously would not pass if their possession is not genuine. She is a very sexual dancer, and her skill in the banda dance is legendary.

Ma'man Brigit is invoked to cure those who are near death as a result of magick. She will protect gravestones if they are marked properly with a cross.

Marrassa

The Marassa are the divine twins. They are children, but more ancient than any other loa. According to Milo Rigaud, the Marassa are "Love, truth and justice. Directed by reason. Mysteries of liaison between earth and heaven and they personify astronomic-astrological learning. They synthesize the voodoo Loa as personification of divine power and the human impotence. Double life, they have considerable power which allow them manage people through the stomach. They are children mysteries."

The Marassa are somewhat different from standard Loa. While they are twins, they number three. While they are male and female, they are both male and both female - an example of the Haitian worldview's capacity to retain two seemingly contradictory concepts. The Marassa are commonly syncretized with the Catholic Saints Cosmas & Damien.

In Vodou, Marassa Jumeaux are a pair of dead twins, now ghosts. They are the symbols of the elemental forces of the universe.

Marie Laveau

The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. More than anyone else, Marie Laveau put New Orleans Voodoo on the map with her powerful magic and infamous ceremonies held in what are now Congo Square, Bayou St. John, and Lake Ponchartrain. Oral traditions suggest that the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic beliefs and saints with African spirits and religious concepts.

Marinette

Powerful and violent loa of the Petro family.

Mombu Mombu

This New Orleans Loa is a stammering loa who causes storms of torrential rain.

Nago Shango

Nago Shango is one of the more powerful loa in the New Orleans voodoo religion. Sacrifices of red roosters, tobacco, and rum poured on the ground and set afire are made to him. He is the patron Loa of smiths' fire and the spirit of storms. The machete or sable is his attribute.

Papa Guede

Papa Guede is the lord of cemeteries in New Orleans. He is a psychopomp. He waits at the crossroads to take souls into the afterlife and is considered the good counterpart to Baron Samedi. He has a very crass sense of humor. Papa Guede is supposed to be the corpse of the first man who ever died. He is widely recognized as a short, dark man with a high hat on his head, a cigar in his mouth and an apple in his left hand. It is said that he has a divine ability to read others' minds and the ability to know everything that happens in the both worlds. If a child is dying, Papa Guede is prayed to. It is believed that he will not take a life before its time, and that he will protect the little ones. He is married to Manman Brigitte.

Pie

Pie is a loa who is held responsible for making floods. Pie, a grave soldier, lies at the bottom of ponds and rivers.

Queen Esther

Esther is a queen of Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther. Esther is commemorated as a matriarch in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod on May 24 and revered in spiritualist circles.

Simbi

Simbi are a family of serpent deities associated with the element water. They are the loa of magic & psychic power, the bearer of souls to all places, and the creative principle. As the water-snake Loa, Simbi is the master of the rains, river currents, and marshes, and most closely associated with Moses and the Magi. Simbi oversees the making of charms, and is very helpful with all magical work, including divinations & granting second-sight. He has a very gentle nature and usually lives near marshes and ponds. As the master of all magicians, he can bring an incredible amount of power to any ritual or spiritual work. His color is green and his symbol is the water snake. Speckled roosters are sacrificed to him.

Sobo

A New Orleans voodoo spirit, particularly of thunder and lightening, one of the Rada loa. Sobo looks like a handsome soldier. He is believed to forge sacred thunderstones by hurling a thunderbolt to the earth, striking an outcrop of stones which forces a piece of stone resembling an axe head to the valley floor. The stone must lie there for a year and a day before it can be touched by a houngan. Sobo’s sacred animal is the ram.

Sousson Pannan

In New Orleans voodoo Sousson-Pannan is an evil and very ugly loa whose body is all covered with sores. He is known to drink liquor and blood.

Ti Jean Quinto

Ti Jean Quinto is a rude spirit who lives under bridges. He usually assumes the form of a policeman.

Ti Jean Petro

A New Orleans Voodoo snake deity, the son of Dan Petro.