Maria van Daalen, not only a Dutch poet but a Mambo Asogwe (the highest rank of priestess in the tradition of Haitian Voodoo), is perhaps the most enigmatic writer featured at the 2008 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Ubud, Bali. Amid her tight schedule, she received The Jakarta Post for an interview, in which she discussed her spiritual experiences and her writing. This is an excerpt:

Question: Could you tell the story of how you became a priestess of Haitian Voodoo?

Answer: I first became familiar with Voodoo in 1996 when I was living in Iowa, the United States, where for two years I was a scholar. I came across Mumbo Jumbo, a novel by Ishmael Reed. It is about Loa, 21 nations and a feeding activity.

I did not understand what the book was about, but I found it very interesting. I then told my editor in Holland that I wanted to translate the book, but needed more time to wholly comprehend the content.

I was still trying to understand the book, when, one day in Los Angeles, I unintentionally visited an exhibition on "Sacred Art of Haitian Voodoo" at a university museum there. When I entered the exhibition, I saw altars and many other objects. It was just what I had been looking for. I helped me understand the content of the book.

You mean you suddenly understood Voodoo?

I took a catalogue and later read more books about Voodoo. I learned that Loa (singular or plural) means angel/s of mystery, the 21 nations refer to spiritual nations and feeding means giving offerings to the spirits.

To me, visiting the exhibition was like opening a door of a mystery, just like the cult detective, the central figure in Mumbo Jumbo, who unveils a mystery. It took five years for me to study the rituals before becoming a Mambo Asogwe last year. Though, I have to say that, even after 12 years, I haven't translated the book.

What is Voodoo?

Like Christianity's many denominations (Catholicism, Protestantism and so on) there are many groups who practice Voodoo. In parts of the Caribbean including Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Brazil, there are a large number of religions and one of them is Voodoo. In Voodoo there are practical rituals. They are about making choices in the world, how to make our lives better, but in a more immanent rather than transcendent way.

In Voodoo, there are no followers, as we do not convert people, but there is a Voodoo community. There's no leadership. Voodoo entails initiation rituals performed in order to reach three levels of priesthood: first Hounsi, then Mambo Sur Pwen and Houngan Sur Pwen and finally, the level of Voodoo priesthood Mambo Asogwe and Houngan Asogwe.

What significant influence on your life and in your writing has there been since you became a Voodoo priestess?

At the time I was living in an upper floor apartment, then I moved to a house with a small, beautiful garden, where many trees and flowers grow. I just feel that the trees are growing with spirits of mystery and this affects my poems.

But as a poet I am always living on what is real to me, which includes the magical. I think it's always like that, that you don't know something at the beginning then you come to know it as it grows -- it's a process.

According to Voodoo, everyone has two souls, one will die when the person dies and the other will go to the land of mystery. When still alive, someone with a particular ability is able to send one of the souls to somewhere else, beyond his or her actual presence. I can do this, but it requires a lot of energy and is very tiring.

Since I returned home as a priestess last year, I became more active, I was the adviser for a Voodoo Exhibition and now I am in Ubud to speak about poetry and spiritual lives and to write, with the sponsorship of the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta.

What is spiritual life to you?

I believe in what is real, but that there's also magical things. Say I acknowledge God created the whole world in six days, to me it's magical. But certain science is also magical to me. But as a poet I live in reality. This is like what Helen Vendler, a critic, says, "The critics love the poem about the red beech tree, but the poet loves the red beech tree."

How would you generally share your life as a poet or writer with the Festival?

Good poets or writers can read the same book thousands of times without getting bored, but will get new notions each time they read it. I am now known as a mystical poet, but for me, to be a poet or writer is not about being famous. I feel I must write things really well that my readers can understand.

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Born in 1950, Maria van Daalen made her debut as a poet in 1989 with Raveslag (The Beat of the Raven's Wing), which she followed up with five more volumes of poetry as well as a collection of short stories and essays.

Her seventh book of poems and a grand essay on Haitian Voodoo, Mirror of Mysteries, is to be published soon. The poet, who holds an M.A. in Dutch Literature and teaches poetry at the Schrijversvakschool in Amsterdam, lives in Almere, a town near the capital of the Netherlands.

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