This is the draft category page for the topic of Vévés.
Vévés (veve, vever, pron. "VEH-veh") are religious symbols representing individual spirits used in the context of spiritual practice. They are "drawn" on the floor to honor a particular spirit, using ground cornmeal traced by hand. Some vévés are intricate and complex, some are relatively simple. It is believed that the use of vévés derived from the beliefs and practices of the native Taino peoples; it has been suggested that there is a link between vévés and the kosmogram of the Kongo peoples.
In the Universal Temple of Spirits, we draw vévés at the beginning of our services to honor the spirits who will be called during the course of the service. If a vévé for a particular spirit is already known, the participant will likely draw that vévé. For spirits outside the Candomblé traditions, we create our own vévés for them. Some of these designs are representations of signs and symbols known to be associated with that spirit; sometimes the designs are spontaneous and inspirations that occur to the celebrant at the time drawing.
As the service progresses, celebrants dance on the floor, scattering the cornmeal of each design.
List of pages in this category:
- Haitian-pantheon vévés
- Other Candomblé-pantheon vévés