I was raised a voodoo child. Seeing as how vodun (voodoo is what most people call it) was very popular with african americans in the 70's, especially down in Lousiana where my aunt is from. My aunt believed it should be passed on to me.
Unlike in the movies voodoo dolls were not considered 'real' to voduns. They were used to scare people, same with those wierd rituals that hollywood likes to use. So far the only close to correct movie i've seen is serpent and the rainbow (about to the serpent spirit Damballa and the rainbow spirit Aida).
We follow a spirit path (pantheon) called Loa. There are too many spirits for me to name. But unlike other cultures, these are not veiwed as gods, they are spirits that we thrive on. The only true 'supreme being' is Olorun. The only rituals still practiced are chanting and dancing on the veve, which I believe calls upon the spirits. We call it white magic. The hungan and mambos (male and female 'priests') are what collects the force. I, being as lazy and unwilling as I am, have not been to one of these in years since my aunt took me.
Now heres what hollywood gets their plots/stories from. The only phrase that can simplify the rest of this paragraph is: "The bad news makes the news.". Unfortunatly this is all too true. Bokors, are the people that use voodoo dolls, which now is only <usually> only done in south america. They center on black magic. Some hungan switch between black and white magic. They are not pure, however.
I hope this has cleared some stuff up... I have very bad grammar so i'm not sure if you will under stand half of this. >.>
