Desounen

Vodu Belief

The word desounen is French in origin and implies the extraction of sound from a voice and, by extension within the world of Vodu, the removal of the life substance from the body. The life substance or spiritual entity is removed or extracted immediately following the death of a Vodun practitioner. This delicate ritual is meticulously carried out by a priest who is familiar with the guardian entity that first possessed the deceased. The main purpose of this ritual is to properly remove the guardian Iwa and mèt tèt that were placed into the practitioners' head when they were initiated or called out by the lwa/loa. This process has also been referred to as the dispossession of the gwobonanj, which is the essence of one's soul.

According to Vodu belief, the soul resides in the body and consists of at least two aspects that are of particular relevance for the desounen ceremony. The gros-bon ange and the tibonanj comprise the soul and represent the spiritual and physical natures of an individual. The ti-bon-age is responsible for one's personal character, and it is this aspect of the soul that stands in judgment to account for the life one has lived. The ti-bon-age is related to the Egyptians' Ka or one's double, which is responsible for bestowing personality; it possesses an independent existence. It is one's tibonanj that lingers around the body for 9 days after the funeral and finally goes to a place to receive judgment. After this, the tibonanj will not “mount” another horse (any living person in spirit possession), nor can its powers be accessed for any use.

The gwobonanj, in contrast, is the primal substance that gives life to a human being. It is the divine essence of an individual, and it derives its force directly from Bondyé, the Supreme Being, whose presence permeates the cosmos. Unlike the tibonanj, the gwobonanj is recycled and given a new life to continue its eternal mission, which is to carry out the will of the Creator. The desounen ceremony, therefore, aims to extract this sacred nature or vital force from the deceased to ensure that it ends up in the proper place.

Extracting the gwobonanj from the deceased properly removes the force and sacred substance that makes one fully human. Releasing the gwobonanj provides for a new body to be given the mission of the Iwa and, on the completion of its obligations, it too will be received among the community of spirits in Ginen, only to be rebirthed again in another's soul. Hence, death is not the ending, but simply an essential part of the cycle of life.

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