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African Yoruban beliefs mingled with the Indians and  Catholic beliefs of the French settlers shapes Haitian vodoun. In reality, vodoun is a product of the slave trade. Whites forbade slaves to practice their native religions by pain torture and death, and they baptized slaves as Catholics. Catholicism became superimposed on native rites and beliefs, which were still practiced in secret. Tribal spirits, or loa, took on the forms of Catholic saints. Worshipers saw the addition of the saints as an enhancement of their faith, and incorporated Catholic statues, candles and holy relics into their rituals. 

Cousin religions of vodoun are practiced throughout the Caribbean region, including in Jamaica and Trinidad. In Cuba, Santería evolved from Yoruba foundations mixed with Spanish Catholic beliefs. All of these Caribbean religions are related in belief structure and similar pantheons, but vodoun has many characteristics that make it unique among the Caribbean belief structures. A highly malleable religion, vodoun beliefs and practices can vary hugely from community to community in Haiti itself. Still widely practiced in Haiti, vodoun has migrated with Haitians to many other parts of the world, with particularly strong communities in New Orleans, Miami and New York City. Each of these communities has spawned new evolutions of vodoun. Worldwide, vodoun has about fifty-million followers. 

Vodoun is marked primarily by a belief in the loa, the spirits forming vodoun pantheon. Devotees of vodoun believe that all things serve the loa and so by definition are expressions and extensions of deity. The loa are very active in the world and often literally "possess" devotees during ritual. Rituals are practiced primarily to make offerings to, or "feed", the loa and to entreat the loa for aid or fortune. 

Practitioners of vodoun come together in a community, called a société. The société centers around a houmfort, where rituals are performed, and a primary priest or priestess, called the houngan and mambo, respectively. Vodoun sociétés are very close-knit and provide a central organizing structure to small communities in Haiti.

 Unlike many other Caribbean, Yoruba-based religions, vodoun has a large, highly developed system of belief relating to the "dark" side of the loa and of human beings. Black magic is practiced by priests called bokors and by secret societies that splinter off from the main vodoun communities. The existing beliefs in black magic--though not practiced regularly, by any means--are the sources of many misconceptions about vodoun. Popular works of fiction and nonfiction and many voodoo movies have strengthened these misconceptions, which center mainly on false notions about cannibalism and zombification.

 Vodoun Creation Mythology

Damballah created all the waters of the earth. In the form of a serpent, the movement of his 7,000 coils formed hills and valleys on earth and brought forth stars and planets in the heavens. He forged metals from heat and sent forth-lightning bolts to form the sacred rocks and stones.

When he shed his skin in the sun, releasing all the waters over the land, the sun shone in the water and created the rainbow. Damballah loved the rainbow's beauty and made her his wife, Aida-Wedo.

 The revelations of the loa descended upon the first faithful in Guinea, a legendary city located in West Africa. Therefore, everything in life and all spiritual strength comes from Guinea. The homeland of all vodoun devotees, where Ifé is located, is Guinen, from where they were forced to flee in the African Diaspora. In death, the higher soul will return to Guinen to reside with the loa and the ancestral spirits. Because of this, most of vodoun refer to themselves as pitit guinin, sons or daughters of Guinen.

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