On Friday, October 27th, Houngan Hector started his spiritual labor as usual. Spiritual labor is hard, strong work and requires a fine hand in order for it to be accomplished. In Vodou Magic, there are so many different products used to perform work that in reality, the supplies could take an entire room by themselves. Sorting and organizing supplies is almost impossible, due to the high number of different works to be done on any given day.

Lighting a small white candle, Houngan Hector prays to God and invokes the Lwa to help him complete the tasks that are to be carried out today.

A separate altar has to be set up to do the work, due to the fact that the regular altar is already jam packed with offerings, works, candles, demann, and other things that have been done earlier in the week. Today, several seven day candles are to be prepared and burned. These are carefully prepared using the proper ingredients, herbs, powders and oils. Then they are lit while being prayed over fervently so that the client's desires can be realized.

Now it is time to set up lamps to make magic happen! Lamps are burned for a number of days, burning much hotter than candles; lamps make the magic more powerful, explosive, and attain results much faster. Each lamp has its own style and recipe. Recipes are also tweaked to make the magic much more personalized for the client. Each individual ingredient must be invoked and prayed over in order to make the work successful. Everything has a certain process and invocation, making a powerful, unbreakable, results-generating lamp.

Here you see Houngan Hector invoking and praying over two different ingredients necessary to make that lamp work. In the next photo, a braid is being constructed specially for this lamp. With prayers and invocations, this magic is made to "walk", or work. You will note the first lamp and another lamp have already been prepared and are burning away to bring a result for their people.

The lamp is complete and burning.

A final lamp is prepared under the pwen of Bawon and Brav Gede. This special lamp will bring two people together and strengthen their bond.