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

E.A. Koetting/Baron DePrince
The Spider and the Green Butterfly
in the practices of Tantric Yoga. Unlike
many of the other Loa, Erzulie's potency
seems not to be over the elements of the
earth, but instead over the composition of
the unseen, of the stuff of hope, faith, and
dreams.
> Loco is the Loa given charge over the earth,
its produce, and its bounty. He can be called
down to deliver a good harvest, to aide in
the arts of healing, and for knowledge of the
mysteries of the plants and minerals of the
earth. Loco, along with his wife, Ayizan,
are the Initiators of mankind into the
mysteries of magick.
The Manifestation of the Spirits -
Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of operating
within the Vodoun current for me, coming from a
traditional spiritual and occult background, is the actual
manifestation and materialization of the spirits, the dead,
and the Loa.
I had become accustomed to interacting with
nonphysical entities in a very standardized and
conventional manner. Having spent years learning to not
only view them through scrying and other methods of
psychic observation, I had made it my forte to summon
forth entities to physical, visible appearance before me. I
had hoped that a simple system-crossover would be
possible when I began on the Vodoun path.
I was wrong.
It must be understood that the spirits known of and
worked with in the various western systems of Magick,
especially those of Kabala, are a very different sort of
entity than those found in Vodoun. While western spirits
have specific purposes and specific powers to fulfill those
purposes, the Vodoun spirits and Loa instead have interests
and preferences, but are unlimited in their ability to enact
any type of change in any degree.
The Vodoun spirits do indeed materialize in the
same degree of startling presence and fullness as can be
attained through western forms of evocation of a spirit into
a Triangle. Although, contrary to the popular beliefs and
wishes of the modern western occultist, the Triangle does
not constrain the summoned spirit within its boundaries, it
does provide a limited space wherein the spirit will
manifest, allowing it to alter both its own spiritual body as
well as the small special environment to fully manifest
itself. The Triangle, then, does not necessarily restrict the
presence of the spirit, but instead allows the spirit to
constrict its own presence to that area. When the Vodoun
spirits come, they simply are here. Their presence is as
unshakeable as it is unrestrained. The essence of the Loa
descends upon the Homfort or the ritual room as a blanket
of darkness and power, and until it decides to gather the
fullness of itself into one spot, it wafts between the bodies
dancing and singing and calling conjurations. Often, the
full manifestation of the Loa will not take place as it does
in traditional evocation, with the materialization of the
spirit, but instead the Loa will seize a worshipper by the
spine, will mount his skull, will drive out the Petite bon
Ange, and will ride him in full possession.
There are no Magick Circles that can protect against
their presence, nor are their any Triangles that can bind the
Vodoun spirit.
The spirits of western Magick exist in various
regions of the astral plane, and need to either be brought
here by the magician through doorways between the planes,
or have their attention directed through windows from their
world to ours. In a way, it could be said that the Loa and