E. A. Koetting and Baron DePrince - The Spider and The Green Butterfly

E.A. Koetting/Baron DePrince
The Spider and the Green Butterfly
indicates past actions, the reading uncovering unknown
realities of past occurrences. If the bones fall in the middle
of the cloth indicate that all actions and events are
occurring in the present, and need to be dealt with
immediately. Bones that are spread closer the left indicate
negative or harmful situations, and to the right indicate
positive or beneficial circumstances.
Again, it is only through the consecration of the
chickens and the bones as given above, through the gifts of
discernment passed to the Houngan or Bocor by his
practice, and by this ritual in particular, and by practice that
the bones will begin to "speak," and that the Sorcerer will
begin to hear.
Gazing into a Sea of Fire -
The method described at the beginning of this
chapter of looking into Guinea through a white bowl of
burning whiskey is a very potent form of divination and
Seership, and also is one which requires a good deal of
psychic development and spiritual attunement before it can
produce any real success.
There exist three great gateways between the
worlds: water, fire, and blood. A bowl filled with cold
water is often used as a scrying device by many Seers, and
while this is a definite gateway and also a window into the
other worlds, a bowl filled with fire is an even greater
opening, the energy of it splitting the veil in two before the
eyes of the Houngan.
It is important that this practice is not confused with
pyromancy. Pyromancy is the occult science of analyzing
aspects of a flame in order to determine future events, or in
deciphering messages from the worlds of spirit. Here, as
stated above, the fire itself is not being observed, but is
simply acting as a gateway between the worlds, as a hole
between the realms, through which the observant and
attuned Sorcerer may look and may see the goings-on of
the other planes, or even the invisible activities within this
plane. The past and the present may be seen through this
gateway, as well as the various possible futures, depending
on what actions are taken to steer the course of time in
one's own favor.
Whiskey or any other alcoholic substance can be
used as the base for the fire to burn, although due to its
sacred nature in Vodoun practices, rum should be avoided
in this practice. A white bowl, consecrated to the service of
the Loa, is to be set upon the Vodoun altar, which is to be
covered in red cloth for this Working. The bowl used by
DePrince in his former Temple in Brooklyn held a figurine
of two black men, one holding a rod and the other
balancing on the rod's center. This is an item that is
specific to DePrince and to his own level of Initiation in the
Vodoun Mysteries, and for the purposes of learning to see
the spiritual through the flames, such figurines are not yet
necessary.
Set the alcohol on fire and allow the flames to peak
inside the bowl. If you have undergone the ritual of Lave
Tet, having discovered the name of your Met Tet, call upon
that Loa. It will consume you and will become you, and
when you gaze back into the bowl of fire, it will be the
eternal eyes of the Loa that see, rather than your dying eyes
of flesh. If you have not gone through any such ritual, then
simply call upon Legba to open this crossroad before you,
and allow you to see into it.
Instead of searching the flames with your eyes for
images to surface from their tongues, allow your vision to
sink into the fire, beneath it, beneath the bottom of the
white bowl, beneath the red cloth, beneath the wood altar,
deep into the gateway that the flames have opened up.
Your mind will drop into a trance, and will travel away