Damballa is the Vodou loa of the masculine side of nature. He manifests in nature as a dignified snake. He is wise and generally cool, a Rada loa. Even if you fear snakes, you shouldn’t fear Damballa. He is Danbala in Haitian Kreyòl, although Vodou traditions are practiced throughout the Caribbean under various names.
Some traditions consider him to be the Sky Father/Mother (Supreme Being or God), others consider him to be a helper of God (like an orisha, saint, or angel).
Traditions where Damballa is the Sky Father/Mother, say he used his coils to create the universe, and then used them to sculpt the land on Earth. Water snakes around hills and mountains, so the association is easy to see. In some traditions that consider Damballa a helper, it is believed that he created the waters by shedding his skin.
Snakes are universal symbols of healing, and Vodou is a healing religion.
In the Americas, Damballa is often syncretized with St Patrick, who tradition says banished snakes from Ireland. So Damballa’s feast day is March 17.
Ritual offerings include white flowers and foods like milk, rice, coconut, flour, and especially eggs. Snakes like to eat eggs. The association with white is similar to Obatalá in Cuban Lucumí. Obatalá also plays a father figure role in the tradition.
Damballa’s wife is Ayida-Wedo. She manifests as a snake and rainbows. Damballa has a girlfriend in Erzuli Freda. Don’t get excited about the girlfriend. In many traditional cultures, having girlfriends in addition to your wife is very common, almost expected.
The first thing Damballa brought to our New Yorker mind was the modern long exposure image of star trails coiling around the north star. The north star has special meaning in African American communities because it lit the path to freedom. It also relates to the poto mitan, the central pole of a Vodou peristil (temple) that represents the navel of the universe celebrated by many traditions. Those star trails look like a coiled snake.
There is another possible connection. Many Caribbeans say our traditions are West African. They are, but many Vodou traditions come from the Kongo culture of Central Africa. The Kongo cosmological diagram, the Yowa or Dikenga Cross, is a cross with a counterclockwise circle. The centerpoint is you. That brings us back to the poto mitan or the navel of the universe. The four compass points represent the journey of life and death. They also represent the internal psychological journey of the stages of life through birth, youth, adulthood, and old age. That counterclockwise circle is a lot like the coils of a snake.
Religious teaching is not meant to be interpreted literally. It’s hard to understand, like the words of a snake. Religious teachings are spiritual poetry meant to be interpreted in the context of your own life. To describe the cycle of life as the coils of a snake is beautiful poetry, the true meaning of which, you can only interpret for yourself.