Damballa Chant

### Purposes

To allow the user to perform certain forms of voodoo magic such as swapping souls into a different body or restoring a dead soul back to life (overall). To aid Charles Lee Ray/Chucky in both evading capture by the police and cheating death by desperately transplanting his evil spirit into a Good Guy doll (in Child's Play). To aid Chucky in transferring his evil soul into Andy Barclay (until in Child's Play 3). To aid Chucky in transferring his evil soul into Ronald Tyler (in Child's Play 3). To aid Tiffany in restoring Chucky's dead soul back to life with some helpful instructions from a "Voodoo For Dummies" book (in Bride of Chucky). To transfer Chucky's and Tiffany's souls into Jesse and Jade Kincaid with the aid of the Heart of Damballa (in Bride of Chucky). To aid Chucky, Tiffany and Glen in transferring their spirits with the Heart of Damballa in their attempt to make a human family of their own (in Seed of Chucky). To transfer Chucky's evil soul into Nica Pierce (in Cult of Chucky).

### Type of Villainous Item

Voodoo Magic

*“Ade due Damballa. Give me the power, I beg of you!”*

The **Damballa Chant** is an arcane and forbidden form of voodoo magic used to call forth the power of the ancient voodoo sky god Damballa and it is featured in the Child's Play horror movie franchise. It is used numerous times by Charles Lee Ray/Chucky using his knowledge in voodooism and it is able to transfer spirits into different living vessels.

According to the instructions manual "Voodoo For Dummies" (first appeared in Bride of Chucky) long before its namesake website "**VooDooForDummies.com**" (first mentioned in Cult of Chucky), there once existed the mythic talisman called the Heart of Damballa which amplifies voodoo magic practiced and used by its wielders.

## Damballa

In Voodoo tradition, **Damballa** (also known as **Damballah** and **Damballah Weddo**) is one of the most important of all spirit gods called the loa (also spelled "lwa"). Damballa is the sky deity and considered the primordial creator of all life. The veve of Damballah comprises 2 serpents prominent among other emblems. He is a spirit associated with death, however in respects to fictional villainy, Damballa is famous as one of the central forces of the popular Child's Play universe - being the entity Chucky calls upon to obtain immortality, as well as the spirit which Chucky tries to call upon whenever he engages in a specific soul-transferring spell.

Although used for evil by Chucky, the Loa Damballa is not entirely malevolent, as for Chucky's former master, the firm believer in voodoo named John Bishop (also once known as "Doctor Death"), viewed Chucky's actions as an abomination which makes Chucky indeed an outrage against nature, suggesting Chucky's particular branch of Damballa worship was heretical, (befitting his status as a serial-killer). Regardless of this heresy, it appears Damballa will grant Chucky his desires, as the deity has been seen to manifest briefly in many of the films as a giant storm-cloud, though so far Chucky has only succeeded once in the prayer to Damballa, which was how he became the "Killer Doll" that the world would never forget.

Common manifestations of Damballa are storm clouds and violent lightning, sufficient to destroy an entire toy-store (as occurred during the night Charles Lee Ray died) - there are specific rules to Damballa's power, however, and in every movie, Chucky has been foiled due to one or more of Damballa's rules (the most common being that his soul transfer will not work if he stays too long in a doll body).

## The Chant

### Translation

The chant may appear to be French at a glance, but it is not proper French. It appears to be closer to Haitian Creole which is loosely based off of French but has been subject to and modified by other languages. Further evidence that points to its Haitian origins is the use of “Damballa”, a reference to Haitian Voodoo religion. Damballa is a snake-god and lives in the trees near springs and hence is also known as the Draper of Wood. However, all of these claims are based on speculation. Nobody knows the true translation or the meaning of Chucky’s chant including the last phrase of the incantation. It could just be gibberish.

#### French

* Ade due Damballa [Au Damballa tout-puissant]. Donnez-moi le pouvoir, je vous en supplie! Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa! Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa! Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa!!! (x3)

* Ade beaucoup Damballa. Donne-moi tout le pouvoir, je t'en supplie!

#### English

* To the almighty Damballa. Give me the power, I beg of you! To the mercy of my soul. To the point of my death. Hear me out of from my condemned voice!!!!

* To alot Damballa. Give me all the power, I beg of you!

### Versions

This is different from the original Chucky chant which comes in different versions:

#### Version 1

Ade due damballa. Give me the power, I beg of you! Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour de boisette Damballa! Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Endenlieu pour de boisette Damballa!!! (x4)

#### Version 2

Ade due Damballa. Valinchella santeria. Oya shungo yenya macumba. Give me the power, I beg of you! Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour de boisette Damballa!!! (x3)

#### Version 3

Ade due Damballa. Give me the power, I beg of you! Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour de boisette Damballa!!! (x3)

#### Version 4

Ade due Damballa. Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa. Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa. Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Give me the power, I beg of you! Leveau mercier du bois chaloitte. Secoise entienne mais pois de morte. Morteisma lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endenlieu pour du boisette Damballa!!! (x9)

## Trivia

* In Child's Play, during the second version of the soul-transfer spell, 3 of the phrases make references to the Afro-Caribbean religion of Santería, Oya, the goddess found in Yoruba religion, Haitian Voodoo and other religious beliefs, and the Afro-Brazilian religion of Macumba.
* During the event of Cult of Chucky, Chucky manages to learn how to split his spirit into multiple dolls and bodies with the spell's alternative first phrase "**Ade beaucoup Damballa**". As the result, he is literally semi-immortal like Lord Voldemort via Horcruxes, but it can be 'safely' assumed that he might risk damaging his soul beyond repair like Voldemort and might have a chance to suffer the fate worse than death. By the end of Cult of Chucky, it is revealed that Chucky has lost two fragments of his soul caused by an unnamed person (presumably the last victim of Nica's possessed niece Alice in her final moments) and Andy.
	+ The new phrase of the "multiple" version of the chant is often misread as "**Ade vocouse Damballa**".
* The words "mais", "de" "morte", "mieu", "lieu", "pour" and "bois" are French for "but", "of", "dead woman", "better now", "place", "for" and "wood" ("Morte" is also Portuguese for "death").
	+ The chant shown in Cult of Chucky contains the French word "beaucoup", meaning "a lot".