Damballa (Danbala Wedo) is one of the oldest and most revered of the lwa of Haitian Vodou, imagined as a great white serpent whose coils uphold the cosmos and whose primordial movement set creation itself in motion. He belongs to the Rada rite, the family of lwa associated with the older, cooler, more benevolent spirits of West African (especially Dahomean) origin, and he is honoured as an ancient father of great dignity and purity. Damballa is associated with purity, wisdom, rain and the life-force, with white things and with water; he does not speak in words but communicates through hisses, and those he possesses in ceremony may move and flick the tongue in the manner of a serpent and be offered white foods such as eggs. His companion is Ayida Wedo, the rainbow serpent, and together the two serpents, encircling the world, are a figure of wholeness, continuity and the generative power that sustains life.
In the correspondences that practitioners draw between the lwa and the Catholic saints, Damballa is often associated with Saint Patrick, who is pictured with serpents, or with Moses. As one of the most senior and gentle of the spirits, Damballa offers his devotees peace, blessing and renewal, a cool and steadying presence; to be mounted by Damballa in a service is a serene and honoured event. Vodou is a living faith, and Damballa is among its most cherished spirits, the ancient white serpent of purity and life whose slow, encircling movement is felt as the very foundation and continuance of the world.