Also known as: spirit possession, lwa possession, being mounted, chevaux, divine horsemen
Last updated: April 23, 2026
As Maya Deren documents in her ethnographic masterwork Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, possession is "the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter" - a transformation where abstract spiritual forces achieve concrete embodiment through human flesh. This practice represents one of the most distinctive and misunderstood aspects of Haitian religious life, serving functions simultaneously spiritual, psychological, social, and even political.
Cécile Fatiman was reportedly possessed at the Bois Caïman ceremony.
Mambos facilitate possession ceremonies as Vodou priestesses.
Possession by the lwa is the central ritual phenomenon in Vodou practice.
The phenomenology of possession is the subjective experience of lwa inhabitation.
Possession by the lwa is central to Vodou practice.
The mechanism through which lwa directed action
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"Possession." Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/concepts/possession. Accessed 2026-05-05.