Voodoo in William Gibson's Neuromancer Trilogy

Beauvoir, trying to explain voodoo to Bobby Newmark, tells him that he doesn't have to worry

whether it's a religion or not. It's just a structure. Lets you an' me discuss some things that are happening, otherwise we might not have words for it. . . . You think religion, what are you thinking about, exactly'?

"Well, my mother's sister, she's a Scientologist, real orthodox. you know'? And there's this woman across the hall, she's Catholis. My old lady . . . she'd put the se holograms up in my room sometimes, Jesus or Hubbard or some shit. I guess I think about that."

"Voodoo isn't like that," Beauvoir said. "It isn't concerned with notions of salvation and transcendence. What it's about is getting things done. You follow me? In our system, there are many gods, spirits. Part of one big family, with all the virtues, all the vices. . . . Voodoo says there's God, sure, Gran Met, but he's big, too big, and too far away to worry himself if your ass is poor, or you can't get laid. . . . Voodoo's like the street. Some duster chops out your syster, so you ddon't casmp out on the Yakuza's doorstep, do you? No way. You go to somebody who can get the thing done. Right? [CZ 76-77]

Voodoo and Cyberspace

Bobby took a deep breath. "Lucas said that Jackie's a horse for a snake. Can you run that by me in street tech?"

"Certainly. Think of Jackie as a deck, Bobby, a cyberspace deck, a very pretty one with nice ankles." Lucas grinned and Bobby blushed. "Think of Danbala, who some people call the snake, as a program. Say as an ieebreaker. Danbala slots into the Jaekie's deek, Jackie cuts ice. That's all."

"Okay," Bobby said, getting the hang of it, "then what's the matrix? If she's a deck, and Danbala's a program, what's cyberspace?"

"The world," Lucas said.