Rating: 
Summary: Mami Wata & Vodoun Priest (Hounon)
Review:
Dear Buyer:To see this Book is both shocking, and saddening. I would not reccommend it to the serious seeker of the Vodoun Religion.
For awhile information has been streaming into me to garner some reaction or commentary concerning the latest information being published on the Vodou religion. More recently, at the Gathering of the Master's Conference in Atlanta this past October 12, 2002. Most of it unfavorable on what they have been observing and reading from this book, and interview's with Caulder. As hardworking Hounons [Priests], we claim no exclusive ownership of the Vodou religion. However, we hold some responsibility when the pubic demands a critique on information that might be confusing or bordering on the deceptive. It is in that spirit that I shall offer this one and final commentary, for the benefit of the spiritual consumer: We have just finished another year of initiations here in America this past Summer. Following this, another return from Togo and Benin doing initiations, this past September. In Togo, all legitimate priests are required to hold some license or permit to practice on the public in Lome, its major city. As a result, it is difficult for anyone to make false or misleading claims that could potentially deceive or harm the unknowing public. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Benin, where they have no such regulatory requirement. However, even if they did, corruption is rampant, and with the advent of the new tourist market in "initiations," it has made licensing easy to obtain by anyone who has the money to purchase it. Though it might appeal to popular culture, and is more Urban Legend then fact, there is no "pope" or "chief" of "All The Vodou" religion. We know because we are legitimate Hounons, and it is we who are initiating and installing the Vodou, Mami Wata, Tchamba (slave lineage's), and resurrecting the disrupted lineage's of the African-American diaspora as a result of slavery. We also know that it is both ancestrally and cosmologically impossible for anyone to proclaim themselves "pope or chief" of "All The Vodou". There simply is no such central authority or figure. For anyone to proclaim they are "the pope or chief" of "All The Vodou" is tantamount to proclaiming "I Am The Christ." It insults the Spirits and undermines all legitimate and powerful practitioners who are actually *doing* the work on the [Spirits & Ancestors] authority. This [African Vodou, article] is simply shocking. For the benefit of the public, the Vodou is not institutionalized and has no central authority of "power". This is so because each Spirit, ethnic group and level of Tche (power) and its path is different. For example, one can be a "Hounon" ("chief") of their own family or ethnic clan. However, when they are appointed "chief Hounon" of their ethnic clan, it is an HONORARY title bestowed on an Elder (usually) male, after many years of hard dedicated service, or before retiring to the village. In Togo, this central authority is called "Dukowo." If the chief has wives, or concubines (foreign wives), this title can be extended to them via a traditional marriage and series of ritual ceremony. However, it extends to the wife no spiritual power; it remains the sole ownership of the "chief." Further, there is no initiatory rank as "chief." Meaning, one cannot be initiated as a "chief," to any Vodou, Tchamba or Mami Wata. The rank of "Hounon" is the highest rank in the Vodou that one can be fully initiated to. That is what the word "chief" actually translates to "Togbui". Literally "Queen of the Ship." Additionally, it is imperative that the spiritual consumer be aware that since ancient times, it is the "Law of the Vodou", if one is making such a claim [as "chief" or Hounon"], they must have the Vodou shrines installed on their premises, because it is that which is the living manifestation of the Ancestors and the Spirits, and verifies their claims of a legitimate initiation as "Hounon or chief." You also have the right to ask: (2), who installed them, (3), what is their training, (4), when, and, (5), at what rank? Finally, we are legitimate Hounons with lineage, and the first such in America. We are very serious about our work, endowed with the full ancestral authority, spiritual power and professional competency to perform it. Our work is not a game, nor about ego, acquiring wealth, popularity or competition. We have also labored hard to present an accurate representation of the Vodoun religion to America. Many borrow our words from our website without crediting their sources. They "sound," legitimate. That is the risk we take in educating the public. However, we strongly caution the diaspora against being enslaved again, this time by their ignorance, and by accepting without question any hint of gross misrepresentations without critical examination. The Vodou religion is not a fad nor a game. It is foolish to promote it as such. History has shown time and again the irreparable harm to the public and to those who have misguided ambitions with the Vodou. I would never reccomend this book to the serious pracitioner of the Vodoun religion.
Rating: 
Summary: Rare insights into human spiritual evolution and realms
Review: Dr. Caulder brings you a one of a kind insight into the spiritual realms and human evolution. This is a collector's book, filled with rare experience, wisdom, beautiful and rare photos, and an engaging story! In her book we are given a very rare look at human spiritual evolution amidst a journey into a religion that has been commonly wrapped in mystery and perhaps trepidation. The author's journey keeps you flipping the pages in anticipation of what's to come.
Dr. Caulder has adroitly woven spiritual wisdom, healing, caution, and safeguards that she has gathered in her lengthy spiritual and educational journey. The reader is given a rare tribal chiefs insight into the very private world of the indigenous African religion of Voodoo. Remarkably, these insights are contrasted and blended with the dangers and shortcomings of new age spiritual paths. The reader is given profound insight into knowledge of the health, growth, and evolution of their true self, their spirit. Dr. Caulder brings us a unique view into the personal intimate life and work of the supreme chief of Voodoo, his own personal evolution, and the spiritual lives and beliefs and traditions of his people. We are given a rare and detailed look into the ancient relationship between the spiritual world and community leadership. Great insights are given into the realm of what is going on in indigenous ceremony, initiation, sacrifice, and the realm of deity, and communal wisdom. Fascinating explanations of what goes on in the spiritual realms during sex are also included. This novel is based on a real life journey; and is not about black magic or primitives peoples but about the knowledge learned by a people and a spiritual warrior in their quest for the evolution of their human spirits. This is one of a kind, rare book, written in a compelling style. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Not your typical Llewellyn book
Review: I came across this book while doing a research project on Vodoun from West Africa...and I loved it! There is something haunting about Caulder's story. I learned alot about vodou reading this book, and it made me think about Vodou and some of its practices differently. While there were things that Caulder said that I did not agree with, I respected what she had to say, and I found myself actively engaged with what I was reading. And several days after finishing this book I continue to think about what Caulder had to say. I usually HATE books published by Llewellyn. Seeing that a book was published by Llewellyn is usually a good reason for me to not buy a book; and I actually took this book out of the library originally because it was a Llewellyn book. Once I read it I realized that it is a *must have* for my personal library, and have now bought a copy. Read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Not your typical Llewellyn book
Review: I came across this book while doing a research project on Vodoun from West Africa...and I loved it! There is something haunting about Caulder's story. I learned alot about vodou reading this book, and it made me think about Vodou and some of its practices differently. While there were things that Caulder said that I did not agree with, I respected what she had to say, and I found myself actively engaged with what I was reading. And several days after finishing this book I continue to think about what Caulder had to say. I usually HATE books published by Llewellyn. Seeing that a book was published by Llewellyn is usually a good reason for me to not buy a book; and I actually took this book out of the library originally because it was a Llewellyn book. Once I read it I realized that it is a *must have* for my personal library, and have now bought a copy. Read this book!
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Summary: A Spiritual Journey on the Unbeaten Path Revealed
Review: I have read this book 3 times and am enthralled with every page . . still. Caulder allows the reader to accompany her on a spiritual journey that many would not have the courage of thought to entertaian: a strange country, a strange religion and a people so remote from her African-American experience yet so intensely and ancestral-y connnected. Caulder is a mystic capable of out-of-body travel and manipulation of energies. Yet more importantly, she is a woman sho courageously claims her spiritual legacy and birthright. Africa is the root of Vodu. Before Haiti, before New Orleans before any diasporic evolution of the faith. I keep this body of work handy and it has proven to be very enlightening on my own spiritual journey which is along the path of the Yoruba. This is wonderful work for women, in particular, who are contemplating a spiritual path or legacy that strays from mainstream religion. Caulder instills courage, caution and the wonder that awaits those of us who dare to knock at the doors not readily approached along the vast spiritual corridor at the core of the human experience. Ache! To Chieftess Caulder. Modupe! A Daughter of Ochun Salutes you . . .
Rating: 
Summary: Alternative Ethnography
Review: If we are applying Clifford Geertz's terms: "experience distant" or "experience near" to Sharon Caulder's book, Mark of Voodoo, Dr. Caulder would be regarded as "experience near," or "emic" as that is sometimes called. The book is a fascinating travelogue/memoir and is not intended to be a scholarly presentation. Nevertheless, from a perspective that is highly unusual to most western readers, her work is bound to be controversial. I have written about this book before, read it several times and spoken with its author. It is my understanding that the more scholarly material from which this book was drawn is yet to be published, as can be determined from Caulder's website.
That being said, I might also mention that the material in this book is interpretive and thus, again, subjective. If the reader assumes that this book is providing a definitive education on voodoo (as some readers will), that reader is mistaken and may well be disappointed. If the reader is expecting nothing in particular, he or she is bound to be entertained and to gain some new information which may inspire further exploration, also some misinformation about the practice of voodoo may be corrected. Some information may also be distorted in the eyes of serious practitioners. Previous reviewers have, in some cases, complained about Caulder's "clairvoyance" and claims of seeing spirits. Such claims seem appropriate to me, given her background of having been raised in a voodoo culture and, regardless of their truth or falsity, are not the point. The book is personal and thus one is free to accept or reject the writer's point of view. "Seeing" as Caulder claims she does, is not uncommon to those who practice actively in the spirit world, and should, I believe, be factored into an interpretation of the work at hand. The comments of mamalissi2 from Georgia are well taken and worthy of careful attention, but Dr. Caulder is, I believe, sincere in what she is doing. Her perspective may have been distorted by the romance that ensued, but her writing indicates a woman of great courage and determination as well as intelligence and knowledge. This last review provides some balance for the book, if readers have read nothing else. Like the religion, the adventure and the author, Mark of Voodoo is an intriguing and complex publication.
Rating:
Summary: Where to start?
Review: It is with great joy (and a truly elephantine portion of scorn) that I announce the good news... Vodou has acquired its own Lynn Andrews. Andrews, whose blond-haired blue-eyed attempts to become Native American on a magic carpet of credit cards are legendary, would be proud of Sharon Caulder, Ph.D. Beginning her saga with stories of ritual abuse at the hands (and other body parts) of "Voodooists", the reader is flung pell-mell through the author's first 40+ years of life in eight short pages. All is well, though, as we soon arrive in Benin, "home of Voodoo". Before we reach the village of Ouidah (and indeed throughout the book) we are treated to Ms. Caulder's own homebrew of African-American politicized beliefs, in which she berates the Africans for calling her "Yozo" (white), explains her own convoluted genealogy in an attempt to establish her "bona fide blackness", and returns frequently to how appalled she is that the West Africans are not as obsessed with the slave trade and its effects as she feels they ought to be. All that is European in origin is unclean, as Africa is the source of all goodness... or so we might be led to believe by Ms. Caulder's strident cry in the wilderness. A large part of the book is spent extolling the author's spiritual power and virtues (mostly predating her initiation into Voodoo). We are told in a matter-of-fact tone that Ms. Caulder can levitate easily through meditation (though she stopped this practice because it "wastes her life force"), repel negative sorcery, see auras, comprehend all languages through telepathy and clairvoyance, etc. etc. to the point of ridiculousness. The cautious reader, in a moment of lucidity, may be inclined to wonder why such a spiritually omnipotent being as Ms. Caulder need rattletrap around in an area where (another large section of the text tells us) she is exposed to AIDS, malaria, intestinal parasites, carnivorous roaches directed by the spirits (I'm not making this up), and so many other dangers and afflictions the mind reels. Nevertheless, our intrepid guide pushes on explaining the nature of Voodoo and the gods thereof. Ms. Caulder also seems quite proud of her own unwillingness to conform to the traditional initiation rituals, telling of any number of situations in which she defies the local practices. She explains to the Supreme Chief of Voodoo that his diet is incorrect, and sleeps with him while he is initiating her - though she does note in passing that this would be strongly disapproved of in the village where he is and that it must be kept secret. While I cannot speak with any certainty on Benin, I have read that in Haitian Voodoo the social punishment for this type of sexual interference with the initiate not only invalidates the initiation, but provokes extreme social penalties (sometimes the ultimate penalty) on the "teacher" who commits it. None of this bothers the fearless Ms. Caulder, however, who proceeds to brag of how attractive she is compared to the African women, and parade her affaire d'coeur in front of practically the whole village. She defies the local chiefs when she feels they want to take unacceptable liberties with her, ignores the social conventions of the location, and generally acts like a stereotypical American... all the while extolling the virtues of African culture, appearance, etc. The entire work alternates between statements of the metaphysical superiority of African religions and statements of how the author can help the benighted Africans improve and modernize their system so they can be even better. The style in which this is written combines the breathless travelogue of a sorority girl's first trip to Europe with the questionable metaphysics of an African Castenada. The entire book seems to serve no useful purpose other than being a lengthy paean in honor of the already colossally hypertrophied ego of the author. This work brings to scholarship on West African religions what Tim LaHaye brings to the theology of Aquinas.
Rating:
Summary: Constructing a Life
Review: Mark of Voodoo is many magnificent books in one: an accessible introduction to the religion of voodoo, a fascinating travelogue of an adventure in Africa, a compelling and passionate love story, a gripping account of a personal odyssey, and most importantly I think, a model of how to construct a life. Beautifully written, this captivating book challenges us all to make conscious, ethical, thoughtful choices about the lives we lead. Caulder, who forthrightly shares with us her own extraordinary awakening to her African heritage, implicitly asks us to explore our own pasts in light of the people we want to be.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful spiritual journey
Review: Mark of Voodoo should be read by all who are interested in gaining more insight into following their spiritual path. In this book Dr. Caulder is not trying to be an authority on the subject of Vodou. She makes no such claim! Dr. Caulder shares with the reader her journey of listening to and following her drum beats guidance to her "African Spiritual Heritage". This book is powerful and inspiring. Dr. Caulder gives you an account of her Vodou path experience, which gave her more insight into how to absorb and integrate what she was taught, into her current spiritual practices and growth.
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Summary: Beyond Voodoo
Review: Sharon Caulder got on my nerves early on in this memoir of her investigation into Voodoo, and she never really got off them. I don't know what she's like in real life, but she comes off as a preachy, More-Psychic-than-Thou pain in the neck. She is, of course, destined to be a Voodoo Chief, due to manifestations of her psychic power such as being able to visualize where she lost her glasses so that she can find them. I do that all the time myself. It means I have a strong visual memory, not that I'm destined to be a Voodoo Chief. She's also virulently anti-white; if a Caucasian wrote a book that was as racist as this one is, people would be burning it. Well, anyway, in her forties she begins to delve into her Voodoo heritage, wanting to know what lies behind ritual abuse she suffered as a child. She travels to the Republic of Benin. She's never heard of Benin; the name just pops into her head and she KNOWS she's destined to go there. She travels there and is introduced to Daagbo, whom she believes is the Supreme Chief of ALL of Voodoo. I saw no indication that he was the supreme leader of an organized, international religion. He seemed to be a LOCAL chief, first among equals on a council of LOCAL elders. I don't know whether he convinced her of his importance, or whether she convinced herself. Either way, the claim seems suspect. He charges her six thousand dollars to initiate her. At first aghast, she eventually agrees to the price, and begins the rituals. Daagbo doesn't seem much of a teacher; he never tells her what to expect or what protocol to follow before any ritual. But, of course, her psychic powers save the day by enabling her to intuit what she needs to know. Then Daagbo, who already has a passel of wives, breaks a taboo by hitting on Caulder. Now, what does this woman do now? The same woman who has been whining for weeks about the germs in the water and the possibility of catching AIDS from the sacrificial goats? Yep, that's right, she has unprotected sex with him. Then, she immediately demands monogamy from this man she barely knows. Being used to the sexual services of his followers, Daagbo of course lies about this. She then proceeds to lecture him about how his diet doesn't nourish his chakras. (Yeah, yeah, lecture me about health when you've learned about safe sex.) He proceeds to try to get more and more money out of her as she progresses deeper into Voodoo. I think, after Caulder left Africa, Daagbo had a good laugh about the one he pulled over on the American tourist. At one point, Daagbo does a bogus, perfuctory initiation for an Italian grad student who is writing a paper. Caulder is incensed. She says she's upset because the woman is (gasp!) white. I think it's possible her anger is due more to the fact that the "tourist" initiation hits too close to home. Daagbo refuses to give Caulder the facial scars of an initiate. She believes it's to spare her social ostracism in America. But I think it's to distinguish her from the "real" initiates. Daagbo seems to have taken her for six grand and for a walk down the garden path. I'm glad she wasn't sucked back in by him at the end. This book is very educational, but not in the way Caulder intended. I didn't learn much about Voodoo from it. I was too busy being mad at both Daagbo and Caulder to absorb much of the theology. But it did teach a valuable lesson about how not to get taken in by a charismatic cult leader.
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