Tèt / konesans — head of awareness

Lwa mounting and altered knowing

The tèt, or head, is rendered as the principal site at which a lwa is said to mount or take hold of a devotee during possession. Konesans here means the changed knowing and presence observed in ritual, not a claim that Vodou reduces personhood to a single cranial organ.

Tèt / konesans — head of awarenessTèt / konesans — head of awarenessPoto mitan — ritual central axisGòj / voice — possessed speechKè — heart of relationshipVant — belly of entryMen — hands of servicePye — feet of danse

Point 1 of 7 in Haitian Vodou — Lwa Possession Body Sites

Cross-tradition overlaps

No overlapping points are registered for this point.

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Sources

Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti (scholarly_modern)

The ethnography's discussions of possession and the lwa mounting the devotee support the head as the primary iconic site; no fixed coordinate diagram is claimed.

Karen McCarthy Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (scholarly_modern)

Accounts of possession, spirit relationship, and altered bearing support the head/awareness rendering as a lived ritual observation.

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