Divine Horsemen – The Living Gods of Haiti

Divine Horsemen The Living Gods of Haiti

Includes photographs and drawings. Foreword by Joseph Campbell This is the classic, intimate study, movingly written with the special insight of direct encounter, which was first published in 1953 by the fledgling Thames & Hudson firm in a series edited by Joseph Campbell. Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen is recognized throughout the world as a primary source book on the culture and spirituality of Haitian Voudoun. The work includes all the original photographs and illustrations, glossary, appendices and index. It includes the original Campbell foreword along with the foreword Campbell added to a later edition.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Just try to find a book about Voudoun aka Vodou, etc.
Maya Deren was an experimental filmmaker in the 40's who traveled to Haiti in the hopes of making a film about Haitian dance. She was also a dancer. See "In the Mirror of Maya Deren," and definitely see "Maya Deren: Experimental Films."

Occasionally I think about voodoo, and this is the best book about the real thing I've ever seen. I know, she was the white daughter of a prominent immigrant psychiatrist. It's a bit of a time capsule if you look at it in anthropological terms. The film she shot in Haiti was edited into "Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti," after her death by a couple of her friends. It's beautiful.

If you've never heard of Maya Deren, buy "Maya Deren Experimental Films."

4 Stars Excellent!
This is actually the first book I read about Voudoun/Vodou etc. I found it informful, insighful, and personal. Maya served the Loa and it shows in her chapters dedicated to the individual Spirits. It is a shame that we lost her so early, Im sure she could have gone on and continued to aid the clarification of the negative misconceptions of Voudoun. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Haitian Voudoun, although be warned that parts read a bit too much academically (for me at least) and can make that section almost unbearable to read, but for the most part it is excellent.

5 Stars magic and cinema
The other reviewers do a good job of discussing Deren's history of Haitian Voodoun, however, it should be noted that regardless of the merits of this as an historical text, the book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in her film practice. Perhaps this is obvious, but it is unmentioned by some others.

4 Stars Very Brave
Being that Vodou is a verbal Religion,compared to Islam or Christianity Maya Deren did a fantastic job! She explains and understands the religion more than many practioners I know.The video is also fantastic! I applaud her tremendously! What major leap.Many writer in Vodou now stumble when they try to attempt what Deren has over 50 years ago.

3 Stars voodoo 101?
The story behind this book is more interesting then the book itself. Maya Deren was one of America's first avant garde film makers (wiki). In the late 40s, she won a Guggeinheim grant and went off to Haiti to study voodoo. Of course! She eventually produced Divine Horsemen, the Voodoo Gods of Haiti, which is represented as a definitive work on the subject. Having now read the book, I have to say that this fact, if true, reflects poorly on the english language literature on the voodoo faith.

Divine Horsemen was a damn sight better then the last book I read on Voodoo- Secrets of Voodoo by Milo Rigaud. Secrets of Voodoo is translated, poorly, from the french, and I couldn't understand a damn thing in it. At least Divine Horsemen is written in English.

The biggest negative in Divine Horsemen is Deren's writing style, which is trey "pompous undergradute." Towards the last hundred pages I found myself skipping entire paragraphs of hemming and hawing. On the positive side, Deren actually presents Voodoo as a comprehensible faith. Rigaud takes the approach of "Voodoo is crazeee," for example, he simply lists a bunch of voodoo gods in alphabetical order. Deren, on the other hand, creates a schematic organizing the voodoo faith on a vertical axis of "Principles": crossroads, underworld, earth, heavens, sea, fire, female & ancestral. Then she adds a horizontal axis of ethnicities that provide their own gods: Dahomey, Nago, Ghede, Juba, Ibo, Quita, Congo, Petro.

So then you have the Dahomey god ("loa") for crossroads, the petro loa of fire etc. Sure, it makes for multitudinous pantheon, but it's understandable.

Your basic Voodoo ritual is led by a Houngan(a priest) and then you have a series of sacrifices to one god from each principle. The overarching principle is that of "the crossroads" which in voodoo refers to the intersection of the real world/spirit world. Voodoo is totally non-hierarchical so none of this stuff is written in stone. Rituals take place inside a building called a peristyle. It's ususally a makeshift building that has a pole in the center. People gather around the pole, make sacrifices to the loa and then the loa possesses various people, dance around, demand food to eat and occasionally make prophecies.

So Voodoo- it's fun. Still haven't figured out how to make my own zombie, but I'm working on it.

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2 Responses to “Divine Horsemen – The Living Gods of Haiti”

1. Pip Chodorov says:

   July 19, 2009 at 2:59 am

   Click here to see clips of Deren\'s DIVINE HORSEMEN film. There is also an order page for the DVD.
   http://www.re-voir.com/html/derendivine.htm

   Reply
2. Computer Support says:

   July 19, 2009 at 11:05 pm

   Nice post..Good work dude and thanks for sharing

   Reply

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