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

E.A. Koetting/Baron DePrince
The Spider and the Green Butterfly
beginning of the dance creates an astral matrix for the
desire of the group, which is to call down a specific Loa
into solid manifestation in the ceremony. If the ritual is
being performed for a specific purpose, this too is drawn
into the spiritual matrix of manifestation. It is a psychic
"setting of the stage" for the climax of the Operation.
The tempo of the music intensifies, as does the
dance, and the Houngan or Mambo will begin chanting or
singing incantations to the Loa. The essence of the Loa
will rise and will attain a critical mass, wherein all will
recognize its presence, and will be affected in a minor, or
sometimes in a major way. Nearly everyone in attendance,
if they are fully engaged in the ritual, will experience some
degree of possession, the spirit of the Loa blanketing the
entire ritual area, but it will usually only find a complete
residence in a single celebrant. The Possessed will often
begin jerking as they are mounted, as the Loa climbs upon
his or her back and enters the body, struggling to send the
Petite bon Ange out of the body to take full control of the
person. Once the Petite bon Ange is ejected from the body,
the Possessed will fall to the floor, writhing as the Loa
takes home in the new vessel of flesh. Once the mounting
process has run its course and the Loa is in complete
control of the body, it will rise, and riding the Possessed,
will act as it will, not at all restrained by the limitations of
the human body.
The possession will be recognized by the
congregation, and often the dancing will stop to give
reverence to the presence of the Loa, and to communicate
with and to serve it while it resides within a body of flesh.
If required by the specific Loa being called, another
blood sacrifice might take place while many of the
celebrants are in various states of possession. This, too, is
drunk, at which point the state of possession in general
appears to deepen.
Unless a structured, initiatory ceremony is being
conducted, ritual pattern will fall away and will continue
under the direction of the embodied Loa.
When all that is desired, both by the participants
and by the Loa, has come to pass, the ceremony is closed,
often with an invocation to Legba to close the doorways of
the crossroads. If food animals have been sacrificed, these
too can be cooked, and a second feast may close the
ceremony.
The Petro Rite -
Ceremonies aimed at calling forth Loa of the Petro
family are virtually undocumented. While many U.S.
Voodoo Temples will perform some Rada ceremonies
before uninitiated spectators, rites and ceremonies
conducted with the intention of calling upon Petro Loa are
extremely secretive, usually taking place far away from the
passing-places of the uninitiated, and involving the
participation of only trusted and adept Bocors. Not only
are these rites forbidden, and therefore by necessity are
performed in seclusion, but the powers and spirits that rise
in these rituals are nearly impossible to control, requiring
that only the powerful participate in order to maintain a
manageable spiritual equilibrium.
Due to the clandestine nature of many of the Petro
ceremonies, there is no polite, social atmosphere. All who
attend do so focused entirely on the primary purpose of the
ritual, all movements and all interactions moving towards
that purpose alone.
Many Houngans claim that even the Petro rituals
are opened with the invocation of Legba, as He is the Lord
of the Crossroads and can shut the doors between the
worlds if he is displeased. There is another, however, who