Deren: "The loa are the souls of the cosmos" (Ayiti, 1947–54; book 1953)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1947 · Places: Ayiti, Central America
SUMMARYDeren: "The loa are the souls of the cosmos" (Ayiti, 1947–54; book 1953) [Connections: Ayiti spirit, first-person, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDMaya Deren arrived in September 1947 on a Guggenheim to film dance, and ended up initiated and filming ceremonies until 1954. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1953; McPherson 2004 ed.): "I had begun as an artist... I end by recording, as humbly and accurately as I can, the logics of a reality" (p. 6); "The loa are the souls of the cosmos" (p. 86); of her own possession: "I must call it a white darkness, its whiteness a glory and its darkness, terror" (pp. 258–59). Her footage was finished into a 52-minute film by Teiji and Cherel Ito in 1981 (Wikipedia; other sources say 1977). OUTSIDER-SYMPATHETIC witness, initiated
PATTERNA first-person account of being "ridden" by the lwa, offered as theology, not horror
LENS (WW9)The horse speaks: the divine rides, it doesn't devour
OPENConfirm the film's completion year
SOURCEStępnik article (open.icm.edu.pl); Divine Horsemen, Wikipedia; Grey Art Museum, NYU.