By David Witter
Then Gator got a job at a major downtown trading office and became convinced that in the haphazard world of trading it couldn’t hurt to practice a little voodoo economics. He asked Steele to build him a voodoo altar.
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Gator opened a can of black paint and began painting the top of the altar black. Steele worked on the sides of the altar, using gold paint and stencils to reproduce the patterns of sigils, the intricate symbols of the spirits they would solicit. “The spirits are all female, because women are in charge of sustenance, which is associated with money,” Steele said. “Lucia-fer, Brigitte, and Charlotte represent a tripartite or holy trinity, with Lucia-fer being the mature woman, Charlotte the young maiden, and Brigitte the wise old woman. As far as trading goes, women are also more calculating, wiser, and less likely to take dramatic risks. I have used derivations of this in charting my trading, so hopefully the use of these female spirits will infuse Gator with some of their cunning.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Photo of altar by Chip Williams.
