Two books give Haitian Vodou an Egyptian pedigree

Louis Maximilien published Le Vodou Haitien in Port-au-Prince in 1945 with a chapter arguing that the religion rested on metaphysical ideas still alive in Africa which could be lit up by ancient Egypt, by Herodotus and by the Greek and Roman mystery traditions. Milo Rigaud published his own study in Paris in 1953 and tied Vodou cosmology to ancient Egypt as well, along with European magic, cabala and freemasonry. The genealogies were invented. Their effect was real. Learned priests in Port-au-Prince read both men, took the arguments to heart, and began working masonic and cabalistic material into their own temples. A history written to give the religion a respectable antiquity became part of what the religion actually did. Anyone reading Haitian ritual for African survivals after the middle of the twentieth century is reading practice that two Haitian writers had already altered.