Lilith Dorsey, MA
Lilith Dorsey M.A., hails from many magickal traditions. Their traditional education focused on Plant Science, Anthropology, and Film at the URI, NYU, and University of London, and their magickal training includes initiations in Lucumi, Haitian Vodoun, and New Orleans Voodoo. Lilith Dorsey is also a Voodoo Priestess and has been doing magick since 1991 for patrons, filmmaker of the documentary Bodies of Water :Voodoo Identity and Tranceformation,’ and choreographer/performer for Dr. John’s “Night Tripper” Voodoo Show. They are proud to be a published Black author of 8 titles including Voodoo and Afro-Caribbean Paganism, Orishas, Goddesses and Voodoo Queens,Water Magic and the newly released Tarot Every Witch Way. Dorsey is also the Creative Lead for New Orleans National Vodou Day and the director of the NONVD Symposium.
They will be presenting at the symposium at New Orleans National Vodou Day on the topic of :
Vodou: Performance and Possibility - Magickal Modalities in CyberSpace
Their Presentation
Voodoo, Vodou and other African Traditions have been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Comparatively the history of the World Wide Web for public use only goes back to 1993. Placing an ancient religion within the confines of a new medium is certainly challenging. Back at the start of the internet, information was primarily dominated by businesses and educational organizations and what little was present specifically dealing with Vodou or Voodoo was seriously limited. One of the primary challenges of the religions is that they are at their core secret traditions. Secrecy helped to protect and preserve traditions that were often misunderstood. Access to sacred knowledge is gained through doing, through initiation, through experience. What form do these experiences take if they are carried out at a distance? Does it change the outcome? And if the internet has changed the modalities of the traditions, can the traditions change the internet?