The Assen

The Assen

The Assen is another synthesis in Voodoo, a greater one, it might be said than the Veve. It is a iron object, a rod surmounted by a round plate fastened horizontally, which from a hermetic standpoint relates to the loas of fire and the forge who, beginning with the siderial action of the heavenly bodies, are at the base of Voodoo doctrine and revalation. This, although the veves by geometric sympathy attract the astral powers of the loas in order to oblige them to "work" in the peristyle or in the oumphor or anywhere else, the power of the assen, if it has been prepared well, is stroner, in the sense that it is more compact and more concentrated. by its magickal principle which is the finest and the most highly developed, it serves, as a ritual object, to make an unfailing success of any intercession in the form of a prayer or a sacrificial offering. For this reason govis and candles are placed upon the assen, the ritual form of which may be anything from that of a stake or a simple cross to the most complex shapes, more complex, in fact, than the cabalistic form of the parasol.

Placed upon the assen, the govis (small jars believed containing spirits of ancestors) and candles have a remarkable power of intercession. Coinsequently, every sacrificial offering presented in proper fashion upon the small iron plate atop the assen has a much greater chance of being accepted by the mysteres for whom it is intended.

In Africa, at any rate in Dahomey, from the moment a person is initiated into Voodoo, he automatically aquires his or her assen. There are even regular markets specializing in the sale of assens.