Definition of "loa"

Here, on the Island Below the Sea, the loa have their permanent residence, their primal location.

1953, Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen, McPherson & Company, published 2004, page 36

Some will caution you at great length about the dangers of Vodou. They will tell you that the lwa are jealous, thin-skinned, and hot-tempered.

2007, Kevin Filan, The Haitian Vodou Handbook, Destiny Books, page 3

Equally surprising is to find St Patrick so prominent in many Vodou shrines, until one remembers that he too had been a slave who had twice crossed the sea, the second time to freedom, and that he had particular power over snakes, like the loa (Haitian equivalent of orisha) Dambala Wèdo.

2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 714