Plugging into the house of spirits

In Swaziland there are many tinyanga and tangoma, what the West call witchdoctors. Though the tinyanga, strictly, are herbalists, almost all practitioners have some intimate connection with the spirit world, not least because being chosen by the spirits is usually the reason to pursue such a profession. The spirit hut is the indumba, a house of spirits.
But a sangoma is a house of spirits herself. She hosts the spirits who provide her power. And making love to a sangoma is a plugging into those spirits.
This thought came to mind after re-reading Kit Marlowe’s legendary play, Dr Faustus (c1590). Faustus sells his soul to the devil, but constantly the play suggests that repentance and a turning to God could still be a chance of escape from the descent to hell. However, there is a scene where Faustus makes love to a devil—in the form of Helen of Troy—and I am convinced that that signalled the end; there was no way back for Faustus after such an intimacy.
Tangoma are women too; they have natural and normal drives as women and they also have lovers. I cannot but believe that such liasons are fraught with danger for any of us who get involved that way.
Men who have lived in Mombasa, Kenya, have stories to tell of mermaids, beautiful women who ensnare men. These women cannot be seen from behind or in certain light, but they capture a man complete, not only his body. You know they’re not human like the rest of us, but you love them so much that you don’t care: they breed an inescapable madness in your soul. Farther back, they’re the sirens who tempted Odysseus to his doom. They’re dangerous women; dangerous, all of them.
Yet danger is tempting. There's a rush and a whoosh that comes with danger and often the danger heightens the passion. And when the sangoma is also beautiful...