Voodoo priests and priestesses are first of all healers, diviners, and protectors from evil spirits, thus again showing their shamanic background.

In many ways, they are more dispassionate in their judgments than perhaps the Judeo-Christian religions and much misunderstanding has grown up over their use of poppets and image magic. Ritual killings and deliberate harm have as little to do with voodoo as Satanism does with Christianity. The idea of the wholesale sticking of pins into dolls is an unfortunate misapprehension derived from the media; the art of sympathetic magic used negatively makes good copy.

https://blackheartbrotherhood.family.blog/2023/12/31/how-voodoo-rituals-contribute-to-healing-and-wellness/