Hey, Papa? Can everyone else come out and play?
O Legba, Who Bars the Way, I Beseech You, Open the Gates
: The most basic of basics to any practitioner of Voodoo regardless of school, so vital to the practice that even calling it a Spell is to undermine its importance. To the Magus making use of Voodoo, invoking Papa Legba is one and the same as performing magic at all. Legba is the loa ruling over communications, who commands the gate between this world and the next, and without whom discourse between man and loa and thus man and divinity would not be possible. He is the loa above loas, and to lose his favour is to no longer be a man of Voodoo.
The particular rite used by Kit and most familiar with the Scorza tradition is inspired by the liturgy to Legba's Catholic equivalent St. Peter, likewise a man barring heavenly gates. Carve the sigil of Legba into redwood, using a blade whose handle is inlet with mother of pearl. Pour rum in copious amounts over the wood then, whilst chanting Legba's invocation, strike a match off of the wood
without igniting the rum or damaging the sigil and light a cigar. Performed successfully, Legba will permit communication between the summoner and other loas.
Tricksy Tarot!
O Erzulie, Who Knows the Rivers, I Beseech You, Show Us the Way
: A standard divination technique calling upon the loa family Erzulie, a collection of fierce female loas who understands the flowing of water and the passage of time, often associated with the greater deity Mami Wata. Inspired by dedications to the Virgin Mary, this rite calls for the use of that element so common in Louisiana Voodoo, the
gris-gris, a small talisman that takes the form of a tiny bag. In the gris-gris, place a small piece of paper containing the desired means of this divination, two petals carefully pinned together to resemble a heart (taken after the broken heart of Mary following her seven sorrows) and a thimble filled with the strongest rum available. Ensuring these elements do not mix, place the bag in a pot and then bury it under grave dirt. Drink half of the rum you have remaining, then pour the remainder of that into the pot as if watering a plant. Through this entire process, recite a particular romantic episode of which you are both particularly fond and have not shared with anyone before. Wait three days, then dig up the
gris-gris and retrieve the thimble.
Pour the liquid inside over your desired means of divination, and enjoy the bounty you have received. Kit's preferred means, as with most practitioners, is a set of Tarot cards, that when imbued in this way can be used for divination on the part of others for one year - they will terminate regardless of how long they have been in use upon the fifteenth of September, Mary's feast day, requiring the rite be performed again. As the piece of paper used contains instructions on how the divination tool is intended to function (in this case, the meaning of each card in Tarot), the medium can theoretically be anything. If asked why he uses his cards in particular, Kit would likely reply
"People trust Tarot, yanno? It hits 'em more when I turn over the Tower than if it was just the 'you've got some serious baloney coming up brother, best take care' card."
Totally Radacal
O Nibo, Who Once Was of Us Lost, I Beseech You, Teach Us to Live
: A ghede rite that invokes the spirit Ghede Nibo, a handsome youth taken from us too soon and so made a loa. He covers a diverse range of fields, ranging from medicine to the lost dead to the expression of sexual desire, and the particular rite Kit favours involving him is in essence a composite of his vast and varying portfolio. Technically, Nibo is not associated with any given figure, Catholic or Christian, and so it is in a fit of amusing heresy that Kit incorporates elements of the Eucharist into his performance, equating two mortal men who became that much more. Take wheat (the body) and recite a prayer to consecrate it, then submerge in a casket of white rum (the 'fluids') in the middle of a graveyard. Wait one week, then open the casket and toss in powdered bone from a desired individual. Wait one more week, then drain casket and retrieve soaked wheat. Grind wheat with tobacco, then roll into ten cigars, and store in packaging marked
N I B O.
When one of these cigars is smoked, the smoker is able to communicate with the lost spirit of the deceased whose bone was provided (if no bone can be recovered, use material from the parents and all immediate siblings to narrow it down), inheriting their last laments and wishes. In addition, much to the typical smoker's chagrin, these inherited regrets will oft include the deceased's failure to sate their sex drive before passing on, compelling the afflicted to receive and attend to their lusts. Should the spirit's wishes be carried out to their satisfaction, Nibo will reward the 'victim' by taking their afflictions and misfortunes with him into the great beyond, in essence healing them. An invaluable but irksome technique, fitting for Kit indeed.
Christmas Comes Early
O Linto, Who Grants Our Young Gifts, I Beseech You, Care For the Children
: Another ghede rite, this time calling upon Kit's personal favourite amongst their number, the kind and gentle Ghede Linto, the wizened old gent who cares for young children and spares them misfortune. Understandably, Kit's rites syncretise him with the good old Saint Nicholas, calling upon especially his commercialised version and the sphere they share as jolly fogies with a fondness for kids (not in that way). Fill a bowl with Florida Water, then grate a cigar into the liquid. Fold in milk and cookies, then stir until a paste. Strain this paste into another bowl, at the bottom of which you have placed a spool of thread, whilst reciting Linto's prayer.
If successful, the thread will float to the top of the bowl having turned a golden shade. When this thread is tied in a knot round a child's little finger, any member of the merchant class who sees them will perceive the thread to be genuine currency, and will trade it for an item of middling value, typically toys or candy. To avoid the issue of inspiring greed in these children, Linto will only permit that a person make use of his threads once every six months, and woe betide he who attempts to circumvent this restriction.
It's Your Funeral, Literally
O Brigitte, Who Consorts with Death, I Beseech You, Enshrine the Final Moments of the Two
: Yet another ghede ritual, and one of two Scorza-Voodoo techniques of Kit's own invention. Maman Brigitte is the wife of great Papa Ghede Samedi himself, and here Kit calls upon her association with marriage, passion, love and death to create the ultimate "love potion." Typically, rites regarding love call upon the sweetheart Anaisa, who holds dominion over the concept among loa; Kit's interests, however, lie not in creating or ensuring love but
testing it, verifying it, not merely "a love potion" but "a true love potion" that further calls upon Brigitte's syncretism with Brigid, goddess of flame. Soak red peppers in a mix of rum and chicken blood for one hour, all the while shouting obscenities regarding one's own sexual promiscuity (accurate or no). Remove two peppers, then hand them to individuals who have had the rite explained in its entirety to them, and invite them to feed each other their pepper.
If true love does not exist between the two, be it through deception or lack of honest emotion, then the pepper will rot fester and congeal in the stomach of the guilty party, bidding them to void their guts upon themselves for such treason as falsifying adoration. From that point forward, any effort at expressing false affection for the second party will result in an allergic reaction, triggering the same disgusting response. Should true love be present, however, Kit's rite ensures the two lovers will spend the rest of their lives together. By manipulating fate such that when one dies, the other is immediately consumed in flame and perishes with them. Brigitte will then bid her husband to move the bodies of the two, nec
romantically animating them such that they will move to rest with one another for all eternity, stirring again and dismissing all in their way should they be parted again.
This is, understandably, a technique rarely requested by Kit's business partners and customers, which brings to attention the second potential application of Brigitte's rite; marriage is, after all, more than merely love. Trust is a key element of any marriage, and if required this ritual can just as easily be used to check if trust exists between, say, a boss and his underling. Though given that the ritual requires both parties have the ramifications explained to them in full, it holds no value as an assassination technique, and more often than not the mere threat of its use is effective. Which is good, because unbeknownst to his colleagues, Maman Brigitte takes an
incredibly dim of her power being invoked in this way. She will allow Kit to call on this service but once a year, on the day of his birth.
Originally Posted by SleepMode
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