Thursday, September 13, 2007

Ma'man Brigit


In Vodou, Ma'man Brigit (Grann Brigitte, Manman, Manman Brigit, Manman Brijit) is the mother of cemetaries, the loa of money and death, and the wife of Baron Samedi. She may be related to the "triple" Celtic goddess of poetry, smithcraft, and healing, Brigid/St. Brigit, as her name is Irish in origin. She is usually depicted as a white woman. The first woman's grave in a cemetery in Haiti is dedicated to her. Her colors are black, purple and white, her number is nine, and her particular days of service include Monday and Saturday. Her sacrificial animal is a black chicken. She drinks rum laced with hot peppers - "gaz lakrimojen Ayisyen" (Haitian tear gas), and like her husband and the rest of the Guede Spirits, she is a "potty mouth" and uses profanity. Ma'man Brigit will protect gravestones if they are marked properly with a cross. Ma'man Brigit is known to rub her private parts with hot peppers, and those who appear to be faking possession by her in a Vodou ceremony may be subjected to this test, which they obviously would not pass if their possession is not genuine. She is a very sexual dancer, and her skill in the banda dance is legendary.

Ma'man Brigit is one of my best selling dolls. To make a Ma'man Brigit Voodoo art doll, I start with the basic two sticks and Spanish moss and then I wrap her in white vintage laces. I craft her face out of polymer clay and give her a white complexion and bright red lips, pointing to her Celtic roots. I try to make her very beautiful, as that is the way she comes to me. Her hair is made from fancy yarns and Spanish moss, and I drape more lace over her head and shoulders. She wears a necklace with a lamp-worked glass skull bead, signifying her relationship with the dead.

To learn how to make your own Voodoo doll, please visit The Mystic Voodoo.

Read more about Ma'man Brigit...

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