THE HALO CHARM

A working of Voodoo and Chaos Magick

Background:

The word Voodoo is composed of the words Voo (translation: introspection) and Doo ({into} the unknown). The religions generally lumped together under the term Voodoo are also known collectively as the "Cults of the Orishas (saints)."

The Verdoun, Santerea, Macumba, and Candomble religions of the Carribean and South and Central America are variations on the same "roots;" the Lucumi religion of Southwest Coastal Africa. The slaves captured there and taken to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries by the Spanish and Portuguese were faced with insult added to their injury; they were forced to adopt Catholicism or die.

However, the Africans outwitted their captors by adopting the Catholic veneration of saints as a cover for the continuation of their native religion. Their religion thrives to this day.

Many of the practices of Verdoun can be described by the term "Kitchen Magic;" simple spells, charms and amulets meant to ease the passage of the practitioners through their everyday lives. Considering their lot in life, the originators of the Orisha Cults needed all the help they could get.

This working creates a talisman of charisma, a fetish to be carried on one's person when going before a powerful or influential person in order to be granted some boon. Instead of using the traditional slice of garlic used in the original Voodoo rites, we will substitute a sigil charged by means of chanting a mantra over a spinning stone (a common central altar piece in Verdoun temples.)

Materials:

- Yellow paper
- Black pen
- Blue felt or velvet
- Needle and thread
- Blood
- A flat stone disk set upon a rotating base. (i.e. a "lazy susan")

Having background music of a recording of Carribean percussion music (or better yet, live drummers) gives a definite boost to the atmosphere of this rite -- highly recommended.

The Rite:

1. Sigils are prepared from the statement of intent given below. They should be drawn in black ink on yellow paper. A mantra to be chanted over it is simultaneously derived.

2. Statement of Intent:

It is our will to create talismans of Charisma, to be used to bring favor from those who can grant our desires.

3. The Houn'gan (male) leader recites this invocation:

(claps hands three times)

Mighty Orichae!
We call upon you in the name of
Olordumare, ruler of us all!
Obatala, grant us your favour!
Call upon your daughter Yemaya,
Mother of the 16 Orichae,
to command her son Ochun,
Master of river and money,
to fill our charms with his power!

Hear me, Ochun! Grant this boon!
As proof of our devotion,
we offer our blood to seal the pact!

4. Each participant draws a drop of blood from the thumb and places it on the sigil. One at a time, each sigil is placed upon the spinning stone and rotated clockwise, with the participant keeping hit eyes fixed upon it as hishi does so.

5. After several rotations, the sigil is taken from the stone by the participant, who returns to hir place while continuing to chant the mantra.

6. When all have completed their turn at the spinning stone, the sigils are folded and placed into a square of blue velvet or felt, which is then sewn shut.

7. Banish by laughter.

The charm should be carried on one's person, against the skin (but unseen) when it is necessary to influence someone who has the power to grant one's desire.

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