OK, this is a pretty stupid kit. You have the Voodoo Handbook, and the Voodoo Doll, all packaged in a little brown box. If there were pins included, they are missing.
Obviously this is a toy. The handbook is worthless if you want to know anything about the real thing. And Voodoo is a real thing, a real religion.
I know little about voodoo, except that it has nothing to do with Satan, zombies, and dolls. As one internet site wrote, "Most Voodooist have never seen a Voodoo doll," except, of course, in a movie. Voodoo, the religion, mutated as it was carried by slaves from Africa, to Haiti in (?)1724, and to Louisiana in (?)1804. There is no written scripture. All its history is oral. The religion has no central authority, so there is no one true version.
When slave religions were banned, voodoo went underground and took on the trimmings of Catholicism. Add Spanish, French and American influences, and you get quite a mix. According to one site, both jazz and the Mardi Gras celebration came from voodoo's ritual music and dance. It is all really hard to understand. What is certain is the influence of Hollywood. 1932 movie "White Zombie" started it all. Tourists began coming to Louisiana wanting to experience voodoo, never mind what they wanted was make-believe. Of course, what tourists want, tourists get. So surprise, surprise, tourists were suddenly able to view voodoo rituals, if they paid a fee. Meanwhile the real religion went underground again, and pretty much still is.
Getting back to the doll we are selling. If you do buy it, know the rituals are based on Hollywood nonsense. In my opinion, there is much evil in the world, this just isn't it. Look for the kit on the ledge over the newly arrived books. The internet prices it at almost $30, but since it such garbage, you can buy it for only $5.
