Way cool.

also first

I knew purple was a good idea...
Your first colour experimentation was amazing, and this meets it right up there.

And to include something about Damballah was even more touching.
....Strangely, I just got back from a walk around the lake, and whenever I do, it's because something is hurting me inside, or I'm trying to cheer myself up...
Something, I felt, was watching over me.

This strangely captures what I feel when I think of that strange entity keeping watch over me.

I hope to keep getting better as I go! Playing with more palettes but trying to stick with the original colors intended for the lwa.
I still feel strange using so much purple for Damballah because purple is usually associated with Ghede, the lwa of the dead. >W< Buuuut it makes sense to me if the root of all life is also the root of death.

I like to imagine Damballah and his wife making a gigantic figure-eight of two interlinked ouroboros in the sky~ Just quietly turning in silence with each other. -w-

From death, comes life, and from life, comes death.
It's all intertwined.

And yes. Always turning in silence. Always watching over the earth, and those who inhabit.

It's still really impressive how tight a colour restriction you had to work with, yet still managed to be liberal with the purple (I don't mind, I love purple), and still captured the essence of Damballah. At least, I would hope so, since sadly, I know nothing of him.

The beautiful thing about the lwa, and one reason I'm attracted to vodou, is that they don't much care how you perceive them or how they appear. They won't punish you for changing their rituals to fit your mindset better. Now, they might not like drastic changes and will simply not respond to such, but something as simple as drawing their appearance the way you envision them is not going to land you in the gutter. c:

Personally, and I admit I really need to read more on it, I view Damballah as a very very old entity. He's old and wise to the point that he doesn't truly perceive time. He's quiet because he gains nothing from speaking and he's constantly thinking. All energies and other lwa borrow his energy in order to exist and in time they give it back. Damballah is like the great milky way making its way across the sky, reminding us that energy is like water in a river. It can be taken from the river but it always flows back downhill to collect again in the current.

...Not to compare myself to a god-like entity like Damballah, but I kind of see a little of him in me.
I rarely speak because I have nothing much to say, but people know so much from me by seeing me.
I think constantly about the "whatif" or "why" or "how" or things that could and should be.

And, while I'm not one to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church (my grandmother would kill me if she heard me say such a thing), I do believe that there are other powerful beings like Damballah living alongside beings like the Christian God and others like them

Mm, my common philosophy (I'm hardly religious but I'm rather spiritual) is that there are multitudes of archetypes in the world. These archetypes are things that humans have more or less formed in order to serve as a translating device between ourselves and the giant powers that be that we can't understand.
If that makes any sense. >W<

Essentially, all archetypes are simply broken up portions of this great energy, flattened out and personified so we can understand it. And, thus, many cultures and religions have similar archetypes. This is why we see so many gods of war; Mars, Aries, Allah, Odin, so on and so forth. They're all interpretations of the same archetype, fitted to the individual culture that supports it. c:

It seems so. :) I'm rather spiritual myself, but more in the sense that I believe that all sentient beings have some form of that higher energy in them
Humans carry a tiny portion of that energy, while plant life carries some, and animal life carries it as well

It's why I like to walk around the lake at night. It gives me the quiet and time I need to attune myself to my surroundings without outside interference.

You might like to try guided meditation and grounding while you're taking those walks, though it seems you're probably doing it just fine on your own~

Both try to harvest the energy inside of you and make it flourish and heal. Grounding, in particular, flushes out negative energy and pulls positive energy into you from the earth. c: I always find it refreshing when things are stressful.
I'd recommend both to people who aren't spiritual too, just because taking a few minutes to focus on your own body rhythm and breathing is important~

I do ground myself, actually :)
I walk around on my toes though, and even at night on a rocky path, I walk this way.

It does help me get in touch with myself, and even though it only places a small part of my foot on the path.
And while I walk, I listen to music based off my mood and the topic that is on my mind. It helps me sort my feelings out, and, especially at the lake at midnight, I sing them

The stars are my audience. I may not see them, they may not hear me, but they understand every lyric that leaves me.

So sweet...~ c:
Mmm, I love singing to calm down and ground myself too. Usually I do that in the car or at home, alone. I dislike having an audience and when I'm outside walking I prefer to be unheard. -w-

I'm the opposite.
I feel that whomever is in earshot is going to listen.

I refuse to back down when I catch someone listening to me,
I remember humming a song at the lake one night, and I heard rustling behind me.
An old man was listening to me sing, and when I turned, he started to look around as if he wasn't paying attention. I walked over, and simply said, "All you had to do was ask".
I performed the song, "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride for him.

He left that lake almost in tears.

Which Erzuli?

I want to draw Erzulie Freda and Erzulie Dantor in two separate pictures, actually. c:

Neat! Although, it's kinda weird because the 3 loa I've been contacted by are Erzulie(Dantor), Baron Samedi, and Papa Legba.

Mmm, perhaps you have a very strong and older energy about you. c:
I actually haven't been directly contacted unless you count the thunder and a few other strange coincidences that were just too perfect to be coincidences. My father served Ghede so there's a good chance I'll be contacted eventually, seeing as many of the links are generational.

I guess. I still have no idea why I was contacted. I'm a white guy living in the bible belt and the son of a fundamentalist Christian with no ties to voodou except for a friend on the internet. It's really humbling, tbh.

The way I see it, the lwa are ancestral beings that trace back to the roots of all of us in Africa.
Of course, the fact that we can still contact beings that are so generational says something about their age!

I'm just surprised that they're so...proactive, I guess, with their followers.

I think that stems mostly from the fact that they were once like us.
That's something about Vodou that I appreciate which really doesn't come from any other religion or spirituality. They were once in our shoes so they understand. We have a symbiotic relationship. They require our service and we require their's.
Even the 'son of God' in Christianity doesn't really strike me as human...

Because he was perfect. He was literally sent to Earth to live a pure, sinless existence, and then die for all of our sins. He was immune to temptation, to vices, to all the foibles and fallacies we deal with every day. It is literally impossible to live a "pure, christian life."

I agree. It is possible to live a life that attempts not to hurt anyone and also attempts to be kind, but it's practically impossible to live by a code of rules just because someone says so. We are not programmed to do that... and I think there is absolutely no point in just following the orders of an invisible man because he told us to. It completely misses the point of doing things or not doing things for the sake of actually knowing they're right or wrong!

I agree with that. I really feel that people need to find religion on their own. Having it forced down someone's throat isn't making it a choice, it's denying them one.

EPIC!!! and awesme picture as well, your art never seaces to amaze me

Thank you! c:

still lovin your art :D

Nothing to say but whoa!

Woah will suffice. c:

Where or what would you recommend to an interested party who wants to learn more about "Vodou"?

Books.
Lots of books.
Do some research first~

I'm reading Zora Neale Hurston's Tell my Horse and it's a pretty good introduction. Start there~

Thanks!

And here I thought it was somethign made up for the movie Childs Play. X3
Cool to know it's something real. :3
Love his hair and his eir of grace and poise. =3