Monday, April 5, 2010

Vodou Money Magic Review


There was a time that I was so enamored of Vodou and the Lwa that I was planning on making it my life's path. I read everything I could and the small offerings that I made to the spirits always had immediate results: quicker than angelic magic, but longer lasting and surer than the Goetic results that I got.  In fact, three of the most important changes in my life were spawned by the intervention of the Lwa. One of those was during a Legba ritual overseen by Louis Martine when Legba told me "The Kanzo is not for you in this life. You can know me and serve me because I know you from another life, but nothing formal. I will show you where your destiny lies tonight". Later that night I sat down with Louis wife Mishlen who had just come back from seeing the Dalai Lama. Even though I knew more about Tibetan Buddhism than she did (John Reynolds is the one who got me involved with the OTO after all) it was that conversation that told me where my main spiritual destiny lay. It was Legba that arranged that meeting. He has been as real and constant a friend of me as any physical person could be.

I tell this story because some of the Lwa (not all) can be worked with by those that do not identify primarily as Vodousants.  I have never read a book that explained how this can be done that was better than Vodou Money Magic.

In Part 1 Filan lays down the basic view of this type of magic in vodou, and for wealth management overall. He explains that Vodou is about power. Without understanding Haiti, and what Haiti has been through, it is hard for people used to religions and new age trends talking a talk of peace (though not often walking that walk) to get used to a religion where the show of power is OK, and even desirable. He notes that a Mambo who's spirits will not harm their enemies or clients, will not have much business over all and that a Boko that is said to be in league with Le Roi Lecif (King Lucifer) may have to endure some neighborhood gossip, but will not likely have to endure burglary or kidnapping.

In Part 2 Filan spends a lot of time detailing the cultural and spiritual influences that have come together in Haitian Vodou. Slavery, Christianity, and Freemasonry all get a chapter. This is one of the best discussions of these influences that I have seen anywhere outside of academic texts.  In a book about Money magic though, you start to wonder why he is spending so much time on it until you get to the end of the Christianity chapter. Filan knows that many of his readers will be Wiccans and Pagans and other stripes of non-chrostian western Occultists. By showing how Vodousants deal with Catholic and Evangelical influence in their own country, respecting it and accepting it while quietly and discretely doing what they do, he points out a major problem that some Pagans have with getting ahead in society in general. When you are encouraged by certain segments to wear your pentagrams openly, make public issues out of getting paid pagan holidays, get pissed off when people wish you a merry Christmas yet wishing Christians a happy yule,  and generally make a big fuss about how you are PAGAN and have a problem with those darn Xtians, you are pretty much guaranteeing that you will have problems in the workplace.  In his chapter on Freemasonry, he drives home the idea of secrecy and silence as a tool in wealth magic. Wicca may be your religion that you are fighting to get accepted, but the use of magic to get ahead will always be upsetting to those that fear it.

In Part 3 Filan takes us through the primary Lwa that he uses in wealth magic: Legba, Dambhalla, Met Agwe Tawoyo, Philomena, Kouzenn Zaka, Ogou, Danto, Ghede, and of course our own Ancestors.  What I really appreciated about this section of the book is that rather than provide generic generic spells for wealth, Filan gives very targeted and dare I say strategic, sorcery. Legba is used to make clean starts and peruse want ads. Dambhalla is used to curb impulse spending and make rational financial plans. Agwe is used to smooth troubled waters. Philomena helps get along with others. Zaka helps save money and mind your business. Ogou helps overcome obstacles. Danto helps self-reliance, provides emergency assistance and is a special help to single mothers. Ghede can get you some small gambling winnings, and heal your failing business. Filan even provides a special spell for Ghede to help "Working Girls". Finally he has you calling upon the ancestors for help being thrifty and to break family money curses.
Kenaz Filan's writing is impeccable. He is at once dazzlingly intelligent and immanently accessible. His approach to working targeted strategic magic through developing relationships with the Lwa will almost guarantee results for expert Sorcerers and new practitioners alike. 

Do yourself a favor and click the link here so you can grab up this book ASAP. 

6 comments:

Kenaz Filan said...

Jason: wow! Coming from you, this is high praise indeed. Thank you so much for this review, and I am glad you found the book useful.

Jason Miller, said...

I meant to ask: Why no Sobo?

Al said...

What "link here"?

Jason Miller, said...

If you read it on my actual blog, there is a direct link with picture to Amazon

El Auria said...
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El Auria said...
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