Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, As I have said in the introduction, I am a hougan of The Baron Samedi, and as well as that, I happen to know my bit of magic, shamanism, and the whole rest. If you want to know more, just ask, and you shall reccieve.

how I became a hougan? Well, of course not voluntarily. And, mind you, as far as the official part goes, I am still in training, because I just have been told s**t, and am seemingly not too much prooven before their eyes.
About the subsections of vodoo, well, maybe you in america have various, but we in germany have only that what we get. You know, most of the time I have been taught by my mentor, who went, untill the last year, under the name of Pappa rouge, a hougan of Dhamballah. Well, I better start with the first, because this way is just a rambling waiting to happen.
Well, it all started when I became very sick. Noone knew quite frankly what it was, but I got it all. Fever up to 42 °C, vomiting, and a whole lot of other symptoms. It was not pretty, and soon, I was in the hospital, after a neighbour had found me in a puddle of vomit.
I kind opf fell into a deep coma, and they later told me that I flatlined for a total of five hours, and that they had to reanimate me so often that they put me on life-support. Through this whole time, I was at that very dark room, with frequent flashes of me sitting in the corner of the hospital-room and watching me dying. I have heard you call that anm outer body experience. well, i am not sure what it was, but it was not pretty.
My mother finally deccided that that was not worth a life for her son, and that the plugs needed to be pulled. against the will of the doctors. I was out of it for almost 4 minutes. It seemed like hours. In a mix of out of body experience and visions/hallucinations, I was sawed open, died, got several components changed by a penguin wearing a dell-shirt, and got delivered to an old silvery snake who presented me to a skelleton in a suit with a strange hat. Well, as you can think, also not a pretty experience. Then, the skelleton promised me that if I would work for him, I could life with a purpose. Well, I agreed, and after flatlining for one last time, and without the help of life support over the distance, my brainwaves came back, I stood up, and asked if anybody had somethiong to smoke, because I felt weird.
Well, my recovery was pricelessly quick. in two weeks, I gained my full health back, and towards the beginning of the process, shortly after my comeback from the dead, I was strong enough to sneak out of the hospital-grounds and into the next bar to get a decent beer and somethink to smoke. Mind you, since the day of my return, I already knew that i was different, because I had times where my pulse was 60/89, and I felt perfectly normal, and because small dogs, cats, birdsa and rodents seemed to avoid me, and be afraid of me. Well, There in this pub, with my hospital-nightgown tucked into a jeans, I met my later mentor, pappa rouge, for the first time. I was kind of surprised to get to know that i was different, and I put it all on my sickness. He laughed, gave me his card, and said that if I changed my mind, I should just call him if I would see skelletons. I lauged.
Back in the hospital,there was this rather extremist catholic priest, who seemed to have made it his life-choice to convert all heathens like me into godfearing catholic soldiers on the one god. One evening, he had a bit of drink, and I had probably smoked a little too much cigars, because I saw a skelleton behind him, dressed in a rotting suit, one glass of a rayban broken out, pointing from the shadows at his holyness the preacherman, and in his other holding a sandwatch. He smiled (i came to know that the range of facial expression is limited), and disappeared. This very evening, the priest got into a car-accident, and died. During an almost four hour struggle, while burning in his car.
well, enough to that, soon as i found out about it, I got out of bed, and called Pappa Rouge. He explained to me that I have been a chosen one by one of the gods of the Vodoo, The loa that is known by the name of baron Samedi, and that I would make an exeptional priest, or as they said, a hougan. I was convinced by that, moved out of my mothers to the quarter where all the poor black immigrants lived, and started my work and training as a Hougan of the baron.
Well, it seemed to be of great importance that I had some skills at visualisation, and that I had this strange effect on animals other then raven or snakes, so I was trained in two ways: In the way how to be a good priest, and how to not use my magic, or as the people say, my hodoo. I got to learn much about how to help people, how to do all kinds of alternative medicines, and how to bring babies in this world, and how to help old men and women out of it. Well, at first, i was a bit gloomy, because I would have thought of it in a much more mystic way. But only now, it seemed, after my mentor had died in the ripe age of somewhat around 103, and I burried him with my own two hands in the ground after I stayed at his coffin, only now i begin to realise what my magic is. What he allways tried to teach me, and i was to much in stress to notice it. I seemingly started a third time over, and now I learned the ways how I could use my magic, and how I could get support from my Loa. Mind you, my training never touched a single writen word, and I guess I have not learned even a tenth of what he had in secrets.
The other hougans let me feel that my training is not completed, so I struggle each and every day, just to proove myself. I had to struggle against the baron, whom I sometimes see in my dreams and if I visualise him, he stayes like that, so that he would sing to me about the nature of the worlds, and their secrets. I strangely never had to so much as get a negative action from the hougan of Erezuille, because I seem to be not interested in her, and the beautiful maiden always was willing to give me what I needed.
I also had to struggle against racism, false friends, and much more. But I think I have now solved most of it up. The other hougans accept me, because i have been able to lead the dance to the drums for two days without dropping a beat. I have made kind of a peace with the baron, but I have to cardefully watch my back.
Well, Rituals and divinations..... Most things others use rituals with magic for, I use rituals with belief for them. I found out they worked as well. The kid suffering from horrible nightmares gets a my blessed baseball-bat. And all the demons disappear.
Well, If i have to use rituals with magic, I tend to cut them as short as possible, because as my mentor once said, if you use magic, something might come and want to see why.

As for divinations, I simply go to sleep, find my lucid dream, conjure up my Loa and simply ask him. The baron almost allways answers in some kind of riddle, with which I am not very good with. But the simpler the question, the simpler the answer gets. But strangely, not a singe one has been wrong so far. The trick is to ask simple, definite answers that have to be answered in a certain pattern.

So,as far as rituals go, I cannot really tell why you would need anything special. A mirror wall, or a protective cirle is drawn in the dirth on the floor with your shoe, and that goes as well for almost any rite I know. It just functions without anything fancy like chanting and such, just sometimes i have to visualize the effect a bit. but the effect always works.

Well, the onmly real conmstant in the rites is that the baron usually is more willing to cooperate if I use song and music as a pat of the rite. During my time, I can also say that that has led to me singing quite a lot of french folk, and being a talented man on the bongos.

If you are a bit more specific, I think i can provide you with better results.