Post date: Feb 12, 2012 1:16:03 AM
I made mention on Facebook that I was reading a book on Haitian Vodou and how it was possible that Ogun, being one of the technical lwa might be useful to practitioners of software engineering. But I think, at least for me, now that I have read the book, that the Simbi are a much better match. To see why, let's do a quick description of each...
Ogun is the lwa of iron and the forge. He is also a mighty warrior. If you think of a cross between Mars and Vulcan, you will get the idea. So, although Ogun can be used for technological purposes, he is much more suited to designs of rifle barrels and predator drones than run-of-the-mill technology. In addition, Ogun is a very powerful and prominent lwa. Asking Ogun to help with normal computer issues would be like using a tactical nuclear weapon to swat a fly.
In contrast, Simbi, the water snake, is able to exist in both salt and fresh water and, as he mediates between these two world, he also mediates between the upper realms and the crossroads. He one who leads souls from the visible to the invisible starting at Legba's crossroad and who leads the invisible to the crossroad to accept the sacrifices of those who are visible - he is the hermetic Mercury. More importantly, he also is the lwa of rain. And, just as the rain brings creation to the parched earth, so does Simba bring the creative element in his wake. In addition, just as water heals the earth, so is Simbi a healer whose knowledge of the herbal world allows his followers to heal others. As the lwa of communication at the speed of light, he is very handy with computers and other telecommunications devices (which are often in need of repair). Finally, he is much more tractable than Ogun and more useful to ask for help in more common technology matters.
In addition to being attracted to Simbi's aspect of healing the world, I was also born under a water sign, further connecting me. His water aspect explains my love of long baths and showers (the reason my house has two water heaters), and his serpent nature explains why Kundalini was the only form of Yoga that ever resonated with me.
And, I think this morning he helped me get my audio interface working again. I had an insight that maybe I was plugging the unit into my Firewire card instead of the PCI interface card. I looked at the back of my computer system and at the connection and It all looked OK. I deracked the interface unit to get its serial number to register it so I could submit a trouble ticket. As I re-racked the unit, something continued to nag at me. As I looked at the back of the computer system one more time, I realized that the first time I checked, I was mistaking the audio interface's PCI card as a video card because of the connector at its bottom that looked like a VGA socket. Connecting the audio interface to this card made the system work - the initial insight was correct.
Now I can't say for sure whether or not this insight came from Simbi, but just to be sure, I left him a cup of cola under a nearby tree (I didn't have any black coffee or rum on me, and he said cola was fine).