The 9 Divisions of the Soul According to African Vodun
𞤜𞤮𞤣𞤭𞥊𞥅𞤲 𞤣𞤮𞤳𞤭𞤲 𞤩𞤢 𞤻𞤭𞤻𞤭 𞥂𞤢. 𞤠𞤫𞤣𞤫 𞤫𞤼𞤫 𞤥𞤮 𞤱𞤭𞤥𞤫 𞥂𞤮𞤲𞤼𞤫
Vodún dokun gba nyinyi kpa. Kpede ete mo wime kponte.
Vodún is a safely guarded secret. Even what you see in front of you is a mysterious illusion at best.
Many Afrikan cultures do not see what is commonly referred to as the "soul" as one entity. Anciently, many recognized the spiritual science of the soul as being composed of layers or divisions. This profound insight allowed our ancestors to have the most holistic view of spirit. For instance, someone may say "Her soul is troubling her". But from the Afrikan Vodún perspective, we would ask "which part(s) of her soul is/are troubling her?" This narrows down the spiritual "diagnosis" and allows us to maximize spirit as the resolution of the issues that may be.
We must remember that our spiritual sciences are intricate and very specific. This is why divination amongst us is so powerful. There is no general this and that. That is the incompleteness of what is called religion. Below we outline the 9 parts of the soul identified by the Ajã people and expressed through the ancient Vodún tradition. It should be noted that when a diviner is doing a divination for someone, they are accessing the person's soul. Different aspects of the soul may speak through that reading. This helps us, the diviners, to better serve the person and the community as we are now able to address the specific area(s) that may need repair, reconstitution, restoration, and/or upliftment.
Hopefully this article can lead to further convo about how we can best assist one another and our individual selves. It should cause us to ask within ourselves "What aspect of myself that needs the most assistance in relation to what I'm dealing with?" Learning more about the divisions of the soul leads to an even greater knowledge of self. These follow in no particular order.
𞤱𞤵𞤼𞤵 wǔtu - the physical body
𞤥𞤫 me - a person. By extension, one who is animated, or alive, but not necessarily someone who has evolved or is evolving.
𞤩𞤯𞤼𞤽 gbɛtɔ́ - authentic human being. One who seeks the higher order to live by divine law and ancestral code, or gbɛ́sù. Gbɛtɔ́ is the evolved/evolving being. Further, gbɛ́sù implies that which supports or upholds from within. It is the root of which, without, there can be no tree. It is the essential order of things, the integrity and harmony of the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos.
The 9 Divisions of the Soul
They are the Sɛ́, Yɛ , Sɛ́ me, Sɛ́ mèdo, Sɛ́ lindɔn, Sɛ́ Kpólí, Sɛ́ hoto hono, Zotɔ, and the Sɛ́ meklanto
𞤧𞤯 Sɛ́ - The soul or sɛ́ (pronounced “say”) is the spark of divine fire, being the essence given to the human by Sɛ́gbó ("the Overarching Great Sɛ́" or "Creator" in Fɔ̀n) and expressing all of the divine attributes, qualities, and principles. The sɛ́ is eternal, infinite, perfect, kwk. The sɛ́ is what people would be referring to when they refer to having a soul. Individual sɛ́ are formed out of the divine essence, are one with Sɛ́gbó and have the potential to return and merge again with Sɛ́gbó by dissolving their individuality. The sɛ́ can express itself in an infinite number of ways. The sɛ́ is assisted in selecting a suitable body by "heavenly counselors" who are masters of consciousness in charge of facilitating the entry of souls into human forms, their departure at death, and their education in between death and birth. These counselors are composed of a number of various spirits, deities, and one's Zotɔ. (See the Zotɔ entry below)
𞤴𞤯 Yɛ - (pronounced close to “yeah”) the "shadow" soul. It literally is represented by our shadow. Each sɛ́ is assigned a "master consciousness", if you will, that is always "higher" or more spiritually aware than the self consciousness of the physical person. Western religious ideology has erroneously referred to this higher self as a guardian angel. With the assistance of the yɛ, the sɛ́ consults with the pool of sàláwá (karma). The yɛ is aware of the life plan that has been chosen by the soul, the aspects of sàláwá that need to be released, and all the latent abilities and tendencies based on the past experience of the soul. During a lifetime, millions of conscious choices are made which alter and define the person's life. Thus, the life plan allows for many contingencies and branches of expression within an overall spiritual scope. Because of its association with our actual shadow, this is why ancient Afrikan beliefs inform us to not "step on" the shadow of a person or allow it to happen to you. Additionally, this is often the part of the soul most effected when someone has been spiritually worked, attacked, or manipulated. When the priest finds this out, it is this part of the soul, the yɛ, that is treated and protected.
𞤧𞤯 𞤥𞤫 Sɛ́ me (say meh) "basic" or animating self. According to Vodún, within twenty-four hours of conception, a basic self enters the fertilized egg within the womb of the mother. The basic self is responsible for developing the embryo and for maintaining bodily functions. The basic self comes out of a repository of basic selves and returns there at death. Basic selves can also in a process of evolution. The basic self is often referred to as the "lower self," but in many ways its awareness is very advanced and complex.
𞤧𞤯 𞤥𞤫𞥊𞤣𞤮 Sɛ́ mèdo - the divine particle in each person. The function of the sɛ mèdo, essentially, consists at maintaining the spiritual vibrations (awle) of that person and it is viewed as the breath of life that everyone alive possesses. The sɛ́ medo is a direct extension of the sɛ́ and enters the child with the sɛ́ at birth. It is said that basic selves are evolving to become conscious selves, which evolve to become higher selves. Yet experience shows that the conscious self, unlike the basic and higher selves, begins life as a blank slate; a tabula rasa. By observing babies, we intuit that there is something wonderful, majestic, intelligent, and joyful there, but it does not yet know how to operate the body or speak. The responsibility of the conscious self is to make decisions and be the ruler or master of all the person's affairs. Yet good cooperation and communication with the basic and higher selves is essential to optimal functioning. The conscious self can accomplish little or nothing without the support of the basic self. Obviously, since it is the part that is conscious, the conscious self is the easiest for us to overstand, while the basic and higher selves are quite difficult
𞤅𞤯 𞤤𞤭𞤲𞤣𞤽𞤲 Sɛ́ lindɔn. This component is immortal and indestructible. It is the spiritual principle of the person that could be referred to as the intellect. Its function is to allow the person to know, to understand, to reinforce her attention and to develop her aptitudes. This holistic system includes a belief in sixteen reincarnations and the experiences of the person in the previous lives are retained and fill the bag of the unconscious. The "Sɛ́ lindɔn" is the seat of intelligence, knowledge, reflection, memory and will. It enables the individual to make comparisons, judgments and to set oneself up in an equilibrium state that is better for the person. Very autonomous, that spirit is able to leave the body at any given time, to liberate itself temporarily and to act freely. In moments of trance, the Sɛ́ lindɔn is displaced, giving way to the intercession of the Vodún spirits.
𞤧𞤯 𞥂𞤮𞥊𞥅𞤤𞤭𞥊𞥅 Sɛ́ Kpólí. Contrarily to the other sɛ́, or Spirits of the person, this one is believed to reside outside of the body, in a star, as a “Star in the ocean of Stars”. It is from that belief that one usually says that one is born on a good or shiny Star, or on a dimly lit or bad Star. The shooting stars always indicate the death of someone or the fact that someone has left his body behind to change his spiritual condition. "He or she has passed away!" it is usually said. The role of the sɛ́ kpólí is to serve as the guardian of the Vodún go or "spiritual calabash". This means that all the events, good and bad, that should enrich the wisdom of a person falls from it as coming from an inverted spiritual gourd. Acting, then, in a manner somewhat analogous to what people in the western world would call fate, it provides each person with what is good for his amelioration and for his spiritual advancement.This latter sɛ́ is why the Zotɔ divination to see into one’s Ancestral purpose is so important among the Ewe and Fôn people. The sɛ́ kpólí manifests in this divine revelation and is the basis for guiding one to a fruitful life. It is your destiny. This is also where the nyínyǐ titeungbé, or real/true name resides.
𞤧𞤯 𞤸𞤮𞤼𞤮 𞤸𞤮𞤲𞤮 Sɛ́ hoto hono or the personality soul. It is how the spirit manifests upon reactions to influences from without. The sɛ́ hoto hono is also the se that is from both mother (no) and father (to). When the sɛ́ hoto hono is viewed as out of alignment one propitiates the sɛ́ lindɔn. This is an appeasement of the head. Lin means “to think” and dɔn means “to be far from”. It is a direct offering to the divine intelligence in the human.
𞥁𞤮𞤼𞤽 Zotɔ - This is your sponsoring ancestor on this earth and in this lifetime. This entity, also a part of the spirit, is always of the direct lineage of the person and of the same gender. Through proper divination from a Fá priest, called a Zotɔ Fá reading, one can find out the exact name, time frame in which he/she lived, and other things about one's Zotɔ. According to Vodun, this is critical to one's overstanding of ancestral elevation and empowerment. The word Zotɔ literally means "one who provides fire to the soul", as it is overstood in Vodún that the soul is composed of a primordial mystical fire. Thus, the Zotɔ is there at the inception of the person giving it the ancestral fire needed for the ancestral connection.
𞤧𞤯 𞤥𞤫𞤳𞤤𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤮 Sɛ́ meklanto - the sɛ́ that is the cord that connects all the divisions of the soul. It is that aspect of Sɛ́gbo (the Creator) that permeates through all sɛ́ and connects us all. It is the sɛ́ of the spiritual kinship of all 𞤃𞤢𞤱𞤵𞥊𞤬𞤯𞤲𞤵𞤩𞤯𞤼𞤽 Măwùfɛnugbɛtɔ (Afrikan people).
All of these souls aspects have different types of appeasements that can be done for a healthy spiritual life. The key is identifying which one(s) need what. The ideal is ultimately to align these 9 divisions. This alignment can effect our spiritual and physical health.