The Crossroads, a cosmogram that encourages foresight and safe travel. a study of the vèvè.
12inx12in acrylic, chalk paint and collage
Written by Mitchell Pluto© May, 28, 2021
In Milo Rigaud’s Secrets of Voodoo he describes the les lois ‘the laws’ as intermediaries between human beings and the cosmic source. These unseen constitutional agents are waves known as Loas who superintend the pattern of the world. During ritual and geometric drumming initiates tune into a loa and a transmission ‘mounts’ a recipient, known as ‘cheval’ which means horse. From the outside the person is possessed or entranced-from the word entrance. Similar to an artist being a cheval ridden by inspiration (in spirit). The psychic transit arrives, stays and expires while vertical lines are cross bounded by horizontal lines producing a square (or diamond) that channels (even generates) cosmic awareness into a personal experience.
The psychic map contained within the veve’s is a cross road of any place, it is also at the same time a quantum world of everywhere. I do not practice Voodoo or any religion in a traditional process. What I notice about active practitioners in Voodoo is trance states and a deep relationship with inspiration.
Excessive emphasis on power points and direction makes space magical and useful. Realistically on a mundane level, lines retain power in structure, a sentence of words or even numbers counting paced events on a clock. The Veves in voodoo reflect such effects as points and lines being the living representation of a spirit who is a geometric being. This is not unlike other cosmograms using geometry, including the Sri Yantra, Kolams and Navajo sand painting to mention a few.
Health, abundance, growth and love are all recognized universally as good and beneficial directions for the best outcomes. Positive end results, efficiency, a management of temporal lobe quakes and a thriving neural network are in accordance to the patterns of Loas. It cannot be argued maintaining this pattern is essential to balance and living well. Magic’s best purpose is healing and restoring the incomplete.
Points and lines (or particles and waves) will appear serpentine. The serpent is an expression of a time tense, a movement of a day and night in space. Only a focusing meditating point can open an omnivoyant eye in the center square (or center diamond). Veve’s along with the crafted tiles made by Islamic artisans have fixed these particles and waves in a suspended state for us to study the hidden qualities of an interior state. In my limited personal experience spirits look more like unfolding flowers without interruption, then they look like replicas of people.
I intentionally borrow from authentic beliefs. I mimetically blend ideas together. My intention is not to marginalize the value of traditional Voodoo