La Sosyete Belle Fleur Ginen is very happy to announce its first annual “Experience Vodou in Haiti” seminar.  The sosyete has decided to make this tremendous opportunity open to the public. You will have the wonderful chance to experience the beautiful tradition of Haitian Vodou in its' traditional setting. During your time with us you will be staying in our magnificent home in Petionville, which is luxuriously appointed with many of amenities you may already be accustomed to such as running water, flushing toilets, and electricity. The seminar's fees are all inclusive. Your meals, in-country transportation, and housing are all included!  Your only financial responsibilities will be your air-fare and a few small ceremonial items. For your convenience and safety you will always be accompanied by several translators so you won't miss a single Vodou beat!  

This week long seminar will take place during the summer of 2007.  We will make frequent trips to our peristyle, which has become a major nexus of daily life! At any given moment the peristyle is occupied with some of our amazing initiates who will work to help facilitate your education and Vodou experience.  By the end of the seminar, you will be exceedingly confident in your service to Ginen.  

Schedule of Events: 

Day 1:  Bienvienue! This day will mark your arrival into Port-au-Prince.  Of course we will be there to meet you at the airport to safely transport you and your belongings to our home in Petionville. Naturally, after a long flight, you will be hungry and tired. So, once we arrive at the house you will be fed an authentic Haitian dinner and allowed to unwind and relax.  After you are settled in and have have had your fill of the delicious food we will progress with the rest of evening getting to know each of you personally.  We are especially interested in hearing how you personally started down the road to Ginen! We will enjoy a quiet night of conversation food and drinks!  

Day 2:  In the morning, you will each receive your own personalized cleansing bath.  This bath will be composed of hand picked Haitian herbs and spiritual waters.  We always pick the herbs with appropriate ceremonies, invocations and songs.  Everything will be specially consecrated and prayed over so that the bath will be most advantageous for you. This bath will serve to remove all those negative things that you may have been carrying around with you for a long time.  All those things that irritate you cause you agony and are harmful to your life.  After this bath, most people feel such a sense of relief and peace that they just cannot stop smiling.  We will invoke the Lwa to bless you during this strong cleansing. 

You will then be fed a healthy brunch.  Strengthened, cleansed, blessed and fortified you will be feeling far superior than you have most likely ever felt in your life.  After you've had a moment to take all these experiences in, we will take you on a short ten minute ride over to the Peristyle.  Here you will meet the Peristyle's Haitian membership as well as have a tour of the humfor. Once you have had the tour, we will start an introductory workshop.  You will be instructed on the Lwa from all the nations.  You will be taught how to salute Lwa and how to dance the beautiful dances of Vodou.  We will show you how to do the beautiful, snake-like, yet difficult yanvalou. You will be shown how to dance to the  staccato rhythm of the Petro Lwa, the salty banda and the gouyad of the Ghede Lwa. That's not all; you will also learn the dances of the Ibo and Kongo Lwa. You can be certain that by the end of the workshop you will be more than confident in ceremonial participation! We will also take the time to teach you some of the lwa’s most sacred songs! The beautiful songs will be translated and slowly sung so that you will be able to learn them.  This way during the ensuing ceremonies you can participate to the fullest of your abilities.  Most Vodou songs also have hidden meanings; these will be explained to you also so that you can take the knowledge of Vodou home with you. After this exhausting yet exciting day, you will be ready to come back to the house and eat.  We will go home and have a magnificent and relaxing dinner, after which you will have plenty of opportunity to rest because the following day will be even more exciting!

 Day 3:  After breakfast, we will travel to the peristyle for another workshop.  This workshop will focus on Vodou magic and the construction of sacred pwen. You will be instructed on how to work effective magic that can change your life and the lives of others. During the lesson, you will be taught how to tie one of the most popular, powerful money pwen. This pwen will focus the power of a specific Lwa to work for your personal financial stability. You will also be instructed on how to use this very powerful pwen. This pwen alone is worth the price of the seminar! It has been known to work miracles in people's lives.   

After the pwen are tied, you will enjoy a very relaxing lunch.  We will also go over any dance steps that you may have forgotten.  We can review songs so that your memory will be refreshed in preparation for the evening’s festivities!  On this night we will partake in a lively yet stately Rada dance! A Rada dance will be directed to the spirits that come from Dahomey. You will have your first chance to practice the beautiful yanvalou that you learned.  You can be certain that the Lwa will come! We never know who will appear at the dance but get ready to receive some of the best advice, blessings, and gifts in all of Ginen. Ayibobo!

 Day 4: Private consults will be done this day at an individual charge if you so desire.  One of the Houngans/Mambos will help you find the solutions to your problems.  The truth about your situation will be defined.  An appropriate solution will be suggested if any is needed.  Many who have had consultations with us before have stated that what the reading revealed was remarkable.  Oftentimes information revealed in a lesson will be startling to the recipient.  After a restful day, everyone will need to prepare for a dance that night.  Kouzen Zaka will be our main focus of this night's service.  Kouzen Zaka is a strong Lwa who works tirelessly for those whom he chooses to help.  Also known as Azaka, he is a spirit that is popular all over Haiti!  If you are lucky, Kouzen will decide to fix a problem for you.

 Day 5: On this day we will show you the beauty of Port-au-Prince. We will take a trip to the National Museum as well as to other stops depending on time and interest! Throughout the day you will be able to see Haiti’s natural beauty!  We will have Dinner at the Historic Oloffson Hotel.

The Oloffson is known for its beautiful Vodou inspired artwork.  Some say it's like a Vodou museum.  Vodou based music groups often visit the Oloffson.  The Vodou Pop group RAM is known to have concerts in the Oloffson quite often, and if we are lucky we might be able to catch one of their enchanting concerts!

 We will also arrange for some of the best flag makers in Haiti to come to our home with their flags so you will have the opportunity to purchase an amazing piece of Haitian art.  Vodou flags are used during dances and as altar pieces.  They are extremely amazing pieces of sequined art that are used to serve the Lwa.  You will be able to compare several flags and find the flag that is best for you and your spirits if you so desire.

 Day 6: In the morning you will each receive further instruction on the Petro lwa and Petro service.  Petro Lwa are known to be very magical and are commonly known to work rather quickly. Petro Lwa are often involved with leaves.  One of those Lwa is Met Gran Bwa. You will be learning on this day the amazing magical power of leaves.  You will be taught how to use certain leaves in magic and how to use them to create results for yourself. We will also teach you how to introduce yourself to the leaves, how to wake them up, and have them lend you their power to increase the effectiveness of your own personal magic.
 
Then you will need to prepare for an intensely hot Petro dance. You will get to meet the Petro Lwa.  Petro dances are energetic and exciting!  If you've never been to one, you should take advantage of this.  Personally, I love Petro dances the best.  You might encounter the strong Met Gran Bwa, who earlier lent you his leaves and have a chance to thank him. The fierce Erzulie Danto, a very popular Lwa and frequent guest at our house, will undoubtedly be there to confer her protection and power upon you.  A Petro leaf bath will be administered to you in order to increase your own magical ability.

 Day 7: You depart for your home cities.  I am certain that by this time you and our Sosyete will have had an amazing time together.  We will be very sad to see you leave but hope you will come back to see us very soon again.  We will send you home with a departing gift including your very own pwen.

 Spaces are limited, we strongly recommend that you sign up immediately by paying a nonrefundable deposit to secure your seat! We are going to limit the number of people who attend because we strongly feel that one-on-one individualized instruction is exceedingly important! We hope you will come with us to begin your own journey of transformation, spiritual discovery and self empowerment and visit our lovely home in Haiti and experience Haitian Vodou and the Lwa!

Click here to email Houngan Dylan about registration information!

Ayibobo!