The prophet's dictionary guide to the supernatural

with awakened and elevated natural faculties. Genesis 15:1; Isaiah 1:1; Daniel 9:23. 1580. Visions and Dreams—The customary way the Lord awakens the spirit of prophets to let them know they are ordained to fill the office. According to Numbers 12:6, these are essential prophet faculties without which the prophet ceases to be a prophet. Otherwise the lack of visions and dreams by a prophet is exhibitive of the Lord’s punishment for disobedience, rebellion, and misuse of the office’s crucial gifts. Daniel 1:17. 1581. Vodu—The name for the voodoo pantheon of ancestral spirits elevated to voodoo status. It is based upon the idea that the progenitors of a family line are elevated to deity or demigod status after death. They are believed to continue to watch over, govern, and guide the family from their eternal dwelling places. See Voodoo and Ancestral Spirits. 1582. Voodoo—A syncretic religion that incorporates many mystic elements of popular or enduring faiths. It was developed by African slaves in veneration of their departed ancestors who became objects of their worship. See Ancestral Spirits and Ancestral Worship. Departed souls are paid homage by their relatives in return for favors, protection, and guidance. In voodoo, their loas (deities) are the ancestral spirits themselves. Their spectrum of divine beings, called vodu, represents humanity before their creator goddess being Gran Met. Dambala Wedo is the head loa. His name means the Great Serpent and he is symbolized by a python or a boa constrictor. Pythons are always connected with familiar spirits, another name for ancestral spirits. In keeping with the pattern of earlier pagan and idolatrous gods, this religion’s deity, too, had a consort (concubine-wife) that was imaged in the form of a small snake. The serpentine element of the religion is insinuative of ancient tribal fertility rites. Needing their worshippers in a high frenzied state of ecstasy, voodoo uses music, intense rhythm, and mystical chanting to arouse them. By these means, worshippers prepare themselves to be inhabited by the familiar spirits who use their bodies to manifest and carry out their evil schemes. Characteristic of all religions, voodoo priests and priestesses become the interpreters of the loas’ words and will. Naturally, being occultic and demonic in essence, magic, sorcery, and pharmakeia drugs and intoxication figure prominently in the worship rituals. Ingesting them induces a zombie-like state where once