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Haiti’s multi-soul complex proves a deeply enigmatic aspect of Vodou cosmology. This essay examines Haitian concepts of personhood and ‘plural soul’ philosophy in relationship to Vodou’s figurative mystic vessels, specifically the body-pot and head-pot. I introduce several African philosophies of multiple souls to contextualize Haiti’s multi-soul complex as a legacy of African indigenous thought regarding plural personhood. I argue that the physical body and head serve as primordial sacred vessels in Vodou, ‘filled’ with a collective of many soul-selves (i.e.,  gwo bon anj ,  ti bon anj ,  lwa mèt tèt,  etc.). Drawing from historical and ethnographic research, I investigate a person’s ‘private souls’ and the ‘plural/public spirit pantheon’ to explain the dynamics between inner soul-selves and communal guiding spirits. Ultimately, a person’s sacred body-pot and divine head-pot reveal how Haitian devotees exist as a multitude of souls, as Vodou initiation harmonizes relationships between their private soul-selves and the community’s public spirits.

Vodou harmonizes the head-pot, or, Haiti’s multi-soul complex