Conjure

Conjurism is a religion that first emerged in Haiti, during the time of navigation and discovery of the American continent, people were brought from the coast of Guinea to the island of Hispaniola. The people who were taken to Haiti to be enslaved were largely the Mawahus and the Agbes, during the time of slavery these peoples hid their divinities by disguising them as Catholic saints.

In Haiti, Conjurism suffered indigenous (Guatis) and Christian influences, differing from what was practiced in Africa, Conjurism began to become a unified religion that grew in Haiti and became popular.

## Peoples in Africa

One of the main differences was the unification of African deity cults, as in Africa a specific god was worshiped in one village and another god was worshiped in another, even though they were part of the same belief and mythology, they were worshiped separately in ancient Africa and then they started to be divided by peoples.

The Legbenins worshiped the local gods of the region to which they took possession and the Lagu-Legbenins did the same, the people who most kept the traditions and rites of belief were the Mawahus, who although they now have a smaller territory and a reduced number of followers they still kept most of the rituals and traditions.

## Gods

The Mawahus in addition to maintaining most of the belief, they also maintained a greater number of deities and qualities, the deities of the Mawahu people are called "Ereddim" it can be said that they are among the three peoples the deities with a greater power, as they preserved In most rites and traditions, the deities of both the Legbenins and the Lagu-Legbenins are called “Nagun”.

Before the separation of peoples took place, the deities were called Awon Emi, and the religion practiced in Africa has the specific name of "Eminism" and can also be called Conjurism but the term Conjurism is more associated with that of Haiti and Louisiana.

The gods are called in ceremonies for the purposes of worship with dances and songs, or by specific rituals of healing or purifying one or the environment, the gods taking possession of the devotee's body thus being physically present in the place.

The Naguns incorporate it into their devotees during initiation and into rites, rarely do they incorporate it outside of it, usually when they want to draw attention to something important, whereas the Ereddins they incorporate it whenever they want, even in minor rituals like an Ado (ritual with leaves and water) they may appear.

The worship ceremonies of both the Naguns and the Ereddins are held inside the hall for people who worship the Naguns the hall is called “Bale” and for the mawahus it is called “Cejuí”, some more specific ceremonies can or should be performed outdoors.

Here is the list of all Naguns and Eredins.

The male priest in the Legbenin belief is called "Pasó" and the priestess "Aya", whereas in the mawahu belief the priest, whether male or female, is called "Salori".

## Initiation

Eminism is an initiatory belief, uninitiated members can belong to the temple but there are rites that they cannot participate because they have not initiated themselves, they are also not possessed by Naguns or Ereddins, only from initiation.

The details and rites of initiation are “Haokibis” which would be “Secret of worship” that they don't tell the uninitiated. The uninitiated are called Boki in Legbenin belief and Lagu-Legbenin, and are called Gami in Mawahu belief.

In Legbenin initiation the initiates have their heads shaved and they go through purification rituals, then they go through a ritual in which they need to stay in a boat on the water, not being offshore or far from the coast, just under the water, being able to be in river, lake or sea. Most of the days of initiation they spend inside a small room called the “Suply”, the total time that the Legbenin initiation lasts varies between 14 to 20 days.

The Lagu-Legbenin initiation is practically identical to the Legbenin initiation, the difference is in the order of some rituals and there are rituals that replace others that are present in the Legbenin initiation, the duration of the Lagu-Legbenin initiation varies between 12 to 15 days.

In Mawahu initiation the initiates go through the same purification ritual, however they go through specific rituals of the main Ereddins of the house, mainly the ritual of Ereddim Houg and Ereddim Etel, they also stay in the room called Suply, or in some houses it is called Hakora. In the final initiation ritual they make a large offering to the deity or deities of the person(s) being initiated, this final ritual is performed outdoors and only at night, where sheep have their wool painted in the color. from the Eredins of the initiates, they are then scraped off and the painted wool offered along with the other offerings. The duration of the Mawahu initiation lasts 9 days, or 12 in some homes.

## Conjure in Haiti

At the time of navigation, a large number of African blacks were taken to the Americas, one of these places was the island of Hispaniola where Haiti is located.

Haiti was a French colony where enslaved Africans were brought, its majority was composed of the Mawahu people due to the capture area that France used was a territory of Mawahu domain. Eminists were prohibited from practicing their religion in Haiti, the French imposed Catholicism, causing eminists to disguise their gods by pretending to worship Catholic saints.

During this period, Conjurismo took shape, it was already a unified cult that had eminist, indigenous and Catholic elements. Conjurism primarily worshiped the Ereddins mawahus, being just one more aspect of eminism, with time new deities entered the pantheon and due to the historical and unstable moment the structure of the religion changed.

## Changes in relation to eminism

The Haitian Conjure started to worship deities now called Evók, different from Ereddins and Naguns, Evóks speak, keep their eyes wide open and not eyes partially open like the Ereddins and Naguns, Evóks as well as Ereddins come whenever they want and Evóks can prepare food.

In Conjure the male priests are called "Maitre" and the priestesses "Madam", the uninitiated are called "Lòt" and the halls of worship only called "Salon".

Initiation into Haitian Casting lasts approximately one week, each day of which they spend inside the temple learning about Conjure and the deity he is being initiated to, learn the basic spells of a spellcaster, go through purification rituals and other types.

## History of Louisiana Conjurism or New Orleans Conjure

With a political crisis taking place in Haiti, many Haitians migrated to the United States, to cities like New Orleans, Bridgeport, Chicago, Roaring Heights, the main region of the USA that received the Haitians was the southern region, more specifically in Louisiana, where the Conjure grew up among African American citizens.

Over time, the Conjure suffered from different influences, indigenous and local, separating itself from the Haitian Conjure. During a period the Haitian Conjure was getting lost in the USA, during the war period where there were many concerns and there were not many Haitians in the region as before, the Conjure had not yet been fixed in place so it fell into unpopularity.

## Madam Zoe

In New Orleans was born Zoe Beauvoir Edwards or later better known as Madam Zoe. Zoe was the daughter of an African American woman and her father was Haitian.

Her father taught her since she was little about the Conjure and about the Evóks, but she and her father weren't attending a temple because it wasn't so simple to find one there. At her fourteen her father died and she decided to work with her mother in a library, in her free time she would read books about cultures and get some more content about Conjure.

Zoe Beauvoir at 23 years old joined a conjurist temple there in New Orleans, it was not a very organized place and lacked resources, ceremonies were not very frequent in this place and were performed by frequency, Zoe worked in this temple and grew up within the religion becoming at age 33 a “Madam” a conjurist priestess. Madame Zoe decided to open her own temple where she sought to rescue the Conjure in that region, Madame Zoe had a lot of knowledge and her power was great, she performed consultations and magic works for people in the region, as well as performing cures and treating various types of trouble using her magic, becoming very well known in the city.

Her temple was gaining more people, she rebuilt the Conjure, readapting the cult to the region, Madame Zoe used local indigenous mystical elements and Tarot, several new things were added to the Conjure, including the emergence of new local deities.

Little Haitian/New Orleans Conjure Dictionary:

* **Azòn / Temple:** Conjurist Temple, where ceremonies and rites are performed

* **Evók:** Conjure deities that originated from the ancient Èrè chím (Ereddim)

* **Madam:** Female Priestess

* **Maitre/Mèt:** Male Priest

* **Èkbè:** Ceremony of worship to the Evóks, where they sing, dance and receive the Evóks in the temple

* **Kote / Settlement:** Settlement of temple Evók or personal Evók

* **Naissance / Consecration:** Conjure initiation ritual