Sacrifice sous l'oeuil de Dieu
Sacrifice sous l'oeuil de Dieu
The Eye of God image has one of its sources in the Masonic iconography of the American dollar bill. The natural source is a common trick of Caribbean sunlight, which often casts evocative beams through small rifts in the rain clouds. In Haitian theology, Bon Dieu always stands above and beyond the pantheon of lwa; this single God is the ultimate divinity (as in Renaissance Hermeticism or the Catholic cult of the saints). By this reasoning, the believer can both serve the lwa and worship Bon Dieu, without contradiction.
The figures with large phalluses suggest the presence of Ghede, lwa of both Eros and Thanatos, who stands for death, the appetites, and generation. In other ways also, the darker energies of the image are harmonized with something more positive. The flame of the ceremonial fire is fused with the light of God's eye, and on the horizon there is something which looks like dawn.