The poto mitan is the central post of the peristyle, the ceremonial hall of a Haitian Vodou temple, and it is at once the structural support of the roof and the road by which the spirits descend into the ceremony.
The centre of the ceremony
The post stands at the middle of the ceremonial space, and the drumming, singing and dancing turn around it, for it is understood as the axis down which the lwa, the spirits, travel to enter the ceremony and to mount their devotees, so that the whole rite is oriented to it. Offerings are set at its base, the ground drawings that call particular spirits may be traced around it, and the priest or priestess works in relation to it. The post is thus the focal point at which the human and the divine meet in the gathering.
Structure and cosmos in one
That the poto mitan is both the literal pillar holding up the roof and the cosmic road of the spirits is characteristic of Vodou, in which the practical and the sacred are joined in a single object, and it is often associated with the axis joining the world of the living to the world of the spirits and the ancestors. The concentration of the ceremony on the central post mirrors the concentration of the theology on the descent of the lwa, so the architecture states the belief. Within the peristyle the poto mitan is the indispensable centre, the point around which the community gathers and through which, in the understanding of the tradition, the spirits arrive to be among their people.