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While - giving it the benefit of the doubt - this material may derive from some obscure Haitian line of transmission that Bertiaux has, it doesnt really play much of a role in Haitian Vodou per se. Much of the VGW is mad as fuck and is more the authors personal system of occultism than anything to do with African diaspora magico-religious tradition. For instance, the Lwa tend not to have astrological symbols and chakras appended to them! There is also crazy stuff in the VGW such as an ancient Atlantean system of sorcery that seems to basically amount to cottaging in gents toilets.
It's not an entirely constructive development that the popularity of the Invisibles and the VGW concept of the Scorpion Lwa has since conjured the idea in the heads of a million hapless chaos magicians that Vodou is all about dark, scary insect Gods. At the Zora Neale Hurston talk the other night, some geezer was "explaining", in the questions and answers section, how the Lwa fit into western magic as the inhabitants of the Nightside of the Tree of Life. I really had to bite my tongue as it wasn't my talk and I wasnt supposed to be answering the questions - but for fucks sake! The Lwa partake of the full spectrum of life and consciousness, they are not the "shadow side" of western esotericism.
Having said that, I have come across references to Insect Lwa, from sources unrelated to Bertiaux, in connection with the Ghede family. So within the sci-fi versioning of Bertiaux and Morrison, I do think that there is a thread of Haitian tradition that could perhaps be followed academically. I have no doubt that they exist - and you could make contact with a family of Lwa that represent the anamistic consciousness of insect life. However, I'm not sure exactly why you would do so. It's alien stuff and I shouldn't imagine they respond too well to tourists. So unless you actually are some form of international superspy assassin and have a specific need for non-human insect shaman powers - which you are fully prepared to pay dearly for - then I wouldnt really recommend knocking on the insect door. |
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