One common saying is that Haitians are 70 percent Catholic, 30 percent Protestant, and 100 percent voodoo," said Lynne Warberg, a photographer who has documented Haitian voodoo for over a decade.

It was easy to meld the two faiths, because there are many similarities between Roman Catholicism and voodoo, Corbett said. Both venerate a supreme being and believe in the existence of invisible evil spirits or demons and in an afterlife. According to the Voodoo tradition — also known as Vodou — there is one supreme God, who is known by different names in different parts of the world. In Haiti, for example, he is called Bondye, which comes from the French phrase bon Dieu, meaning "good God." Regardless of which name people use, the primary god is immensely powerful and beyond the reach of ordinary followers. For this reason, Voodoo practitioners must rely on hundreds or thousands of other spirits to communicate with God.

American Museum of Natural History: Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/vodou/ U.S. Department of State. "Haiti 2018 Religious Freedom Report" (April 29, 2022) https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/HAITI-2018-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf In April 2003 an executive decree by then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide sanctioned voodoo as an officially recognized religion.

Christian crosses became symbols for the crossroads, which represents life-altering choices and steps in the spiritual path for followers of Voodoo. Catholic religious holidays became Voodoo holidays for the corresponding loa. For instance, celebrations for a family of spirits called the Gedes, who are personifications of dead ancestors, take place on All Saints Day and All Souls Day.There are hundreds of spells using a voodoo doll that are explained in this compendium with a lovely and precise writing style. Most people associate Voodoo with pin-filled dolls, designed to inflict pain on a cursed individual. ( Public domain ) What are the Beliefs of Voodoo?