Jeudi: Great Spirits

In Voudon, the lwa who rule the ocean are the one known as the Admiral, Agwe, and his powerful consort, La Siren (or Lasiren). Both lwa belong to the Congo nachon (although La Siren does have a Petwo aspect known as La Balen - the whale) and are therefor generally consider approachable, especially for those new to honoring the spirits of Voudon.

Agwe is envisioned as a broad shouldered naval commander. He is usually given the racial designation of mulatto and his eyes are invariably spoken of as green. His area of rule is the oceans and seas of the world and he is charged with looking after people at sea, ships and all those who make a living from the ocean. Agwe is syncratized with the Catholic St. Ulrich, who is often depicted holding a fish, and his altars are decorated not only with statues or pictures of the saint but also with boats, paddles or rudders and images of fish. Agwe, though slow to anger, can be responsible for terrible storms that sweep in from the ocean if he is not acknowledged with offerings now and again.

La Siren is always depicted as a mermaid. She is envisioned as very light skinned with blond hair and a beautiful, sparkling fish's tail. Her realm is the ocean depths where she has a magnificent home. Her favorite pastime is playing music or beautifying herself with the fruits of the sea. She is thought to be rich, her home and person decorated with silver, jewels and especially pearls. In her generous aspect, she is the teacher of priestesses. Some mambos claim to have met La Siren in dreams. While they sleep, they descend to the mermaid's magnificent palace below wave and she generously teaches them all the wisdom of ritual, healing and magick.

In her alternative aspect, as the giant black whale La Balen, La Siren is not so benign. Like her consort Agwe she can stir up storms. She can also punish individuals who have displeased her by luring them into the ocean with her haunting song. The unfortunate miscreant only comes out of his or her trance once they are too far out to sea to be saved. There, they drown in the salty water. This aspect of La Siren is also the one she uses to show her displeasure toward Agwe who is continuously unfaithful to her with her sister, the irresistible lwa of love and pleasure, Erzulie Freda.

La Siren is represented by Stella Maris, Our Lady of the Ocean, and in some cases St. Martha. Her altars are strewn with the offerings she loves: pearls, perfume, mirrors, combs, sea shells, champagne and sweet cookies with blue or white frosting.

The largest ritual performed in coastal communities in Haiti to honor the lwa of the sea is often referred to as the Barque of Agwe. A raft is especially made for the occasion and covered in blue and white cloth. Then it is laden with the foods and beverages that the lwa favor and towed out to sea with all ceremony, drums beating and songs to the lwa being sung. The barque, full of very precious items in a country as under served as Haiti, is then left to float as far out to sea as it may in hopes that the Admiral and his beautiful mermaid will bring good fishing, fair weather and - in this day and age - big cruise ships full of wealthy tourists.

These two are my personal lwa, and I invariably dress in blue or blue-green on their special day: Thursday. It surprises no one who knows me that the lwa of the ocean have claimed me. Destiny, after all, will out...

Header: The Mermaid by Howard Pyle via Wikimedia

Mardi: Herbal-Wise

Bayberry chips, which are rather like wood chips that one might find in a garden, are a wonderful little bit of magick to have around this time of year. Most of us spend too much at the Holidays - a tradition that, contrary to what many an anti-consumerism advocate would have us believe, has been firmly in place since Roman times when people went broke giving gifts at Saturnalia. I personally don't think this is a "bad" thing; when was making others happy labeled "bad"? But, we do need to pay the bills and refilling the coffers in January is not a bad thing to concentrate on, either.

So go get some bayberry chips (easily found at any herbalist) and try one - or all - of these old hoodoo tricks for getting back at least some of what you've paid out.

Keep a few bayberry chips in the place that you keep your paper money and coins. I've mentioned that I have an envelope that I stuff the stray dollar or five dollar bill into for safe keeping until the next time one of the kids "needs money" at six thirty in the morning. There are bayberry chips in the envelope and I occasionally add a little cinnamon for good measure. Though not full to bursting by any means, that envelope is never empty.

Dress a green candle with olive oil or, if you have it, Money Drawing Oil or Oil of Success. Put the candle in a sturdy holder and put bayberry chips in a circle around the holder. Visualize your need - a job, a raise, a good tax return or investment - and light the candle. Allow it to burn down and out with the confidence that fortune will come your way.

In a green flannel bag, place six bayberry chips, a cinnamon stick, a whole nutmeg, a sprinkling of thyme and a piece of pyrite (fool's gold) or a silver dime. Tie up the bag with yellow or gold thread and say the 23rd Psalm or recite out loud your need to good fortune/luck/prosperity. Feed the mojo frequently with whiskey or Money Drawing Oil and carry it with you.

As a final note, bayberry candles were originally made from wax from the plant - which is also known as the myrtle candleberry - and were burned to draw success and good fortune to the home. Modern bayberry candles by and large are only scented with synthetic fragrance and have, therefore, lost their innate power to draw luck. These candle should be dressed before burning when being used in magick, just like any other store-bought candle. Bonne chance ~

Header: Illustration by Coby Whitman via Mid-Century

Dimanche: Swimming

The Rhinemaidens Teasing Alberich by Arthur Rackham via Old Paint

Vendredi: Chthonian Histories

On January 11, 1696, a group of the jurors who sat on the Salem witch trials four years earlier signed a "Confession of Error" meant to relieve those tried and executed of the taint of witchcraft. Curiously these jurors, trying so hard to wipe the blood of innocent men and women from their hands, turned around and blamed Satan. Again.

We whose names are under written, being in the year 1692 called to serve as jurors in Court at Salem, on trial of many who were by some suspected guilty of doing acts of witchcraft upon the bodies of sundry persons, We confess that we ourselves were not capable to understand, nor able to withstand the mysterious delusions of the Powers of Darkness and prince of Air *; bu t were, for want of knowledge in ourselves and better information from others prevailed with to take up such evidence against the accused as on further consideration and better information we justly fear was insufficient for the touching ** of lives of any.

Whereby we fear we have been instrumental with others, though ignorantly and unwittingly, to bring upon ourselves and this people of the Lord the guilt of innocent blood... We do therefore hereby signify to all in general, and to the surviving sufferers in especial, our deep sense of, and sorrow for our errors in acting on such evidence to condemnation of any person. And we do hereby declare that we justly fear that we were sadly deluded and mistaken, for which we are much disquieted and distressed in our minds, and do humbly beg forgiveness, first of God for Christ's sake for this error...

* Satan
** some scholars translate this word as taking, although that opinion of etymology remains in question

You can read the Confession of Error in its entirety here

Header: Arresting a Witch by Howard Pyle from Harper's volume 67 1883 via Wikimedia

Mercredi: The Art of Beauty

Our stay in New Orleans was not long enough to permit our entering into society, but I was told that it contained two distinct sets of people, both celebrated, in their way, for their social meetings and elegant entertainments.

The first of these is composed of Creole families, who are chiefly planters and merchants, with their wives and daughters; these meet together, eat together, and are very grand and aristocratic; each of their balls is a little Almack's, and every portly dame of the set is as exclusive in her principles as a lady patroness.

The other set consists of the excluded but amiable Quadroons, and such of the gentlemen of the former class as can by any means escape from the high places, where pure Creole blood swells the veins at the bare mention of any being tainted in the remotest degree with the Negro stain.

Of all the prejudices I have ever witnessed, this appears to me the most violent, and the most inveterate. Quadroon girls, the acknowledged daughters of wealthy American and Creole fathers, educated with all of style and accomplishments which money can procure at New Orleans, and with all the decorum that care and affection can give; exquisitely beautiful, graceful, gentle, and amiable. These are not admitted, nay, are not on any terms admissible, into the society of the Creole families of Louisiana.

They cannot marry, that is to say, no ceremony can render an union with them legal or binding; yet such is the powerful effect of their very peculiar grace, beauty, and sweetness of manner, that unfortunately they perpetually become the objects of choice and affection. If the Creole ladies have privilege to exercise the awful power of repulsion, the gentle Quadroon has the sweet but dangerous vengeance of possessing that of attraction. 

The unions formed with this unfortunate race are said to be often lasting and happy, as far as any unions can be so, to which a certain degree of disgrace is attached.

~ from Domestic Manners of the Americans by Frances Trollope

Mrs. Trollope was an Englishwoman who traveled through the U.S. from 1827 to 1831. Her book is full of dislike for Americans and, as this passage shows, certain misunderstandings - and surprising insights - of and into the customs she encountered.

Header: Frances Trollope by Auguste Hervieu c 1832 via Wikipedia

Mardi: Yet More Meta...

And so I was, for the first time in my life, officially diagnosed with influenza yesterday. I'm on medication now but still feverish and a little loopy. Putting up a real post would be hard to do - and hard for you all to read. I hope to be up and running again later this week. My apologies for the necessary if unexpected break.

Header: The Inexperienced Babysitter by an unknown French artist c 1860s via Old Paint

Mardi: Happy New Year!

HQ wishes you and yours a happy, healthy 2013 with plenty of excuses to party and magick all around.

Header: Dancers at the Bon Temps Carnival Ball in New Orleans c 1953 via A Harlot's Progress