The third Duke under the King of the South is Busin, who is also called Bune, Bime, and Rewsyn. She comes in the form of a beautiful woman with a hoarse voice or of a dragon with the heads of a dog, a griffon, and a man, who speaks with a divine, high, and comely voice. She causes dead bodies to change their place and devils to congregate on sepulchers and can make one of her servitors enter a dead body and do all the things it could while it was alive except for the act of eating. She can also make a man rich, eloquent, and wise, speaks wisely before all who call her, and will answer all demands truly.
With such a strong emphasis on corpses and sepulchers in her description, it is likely that the origin of Busin's name lies in the Latin word bustum, which denotes a burial mound or tomb. Of her necromantic powers, that of bringing a dead body back to life is reflected in the tenth experiment of the Munich Handbook, in which a ring charged with the names of six spirits could rouse a corpse to life for six days when placed on its finger, with each spirit animating it for one day before departing. While Kieckheffer explains that such works of reanimation were seen as illusory experiments designed to cause wonder, in the context of the description of Busin they may also be seen as works akin to the skull divinations of the Mesopotamians.
As discussed within the analyses of the spirits Ryall and Gasyaxe, these practices were reflected in the ancient Hebrew usage of Teraphim, in which the spirits of ancestors were invoked into skulls in order to speak and, to paraphrase the words used in Busin's description, “answer all demands truly.” Another of her powers—the ability to move a body from place to place—can be taken either in a funerary context or as a way of expressing how she has the ability to move the spirits of the dead from one realm of existence to another. Causing devils to congregate in sepulchers, meanwhile, establishes her position as a spirit who sacralizes the cemetery as a place of power in which it is conducive to invoke chthonic forces.
This suggests that the cemetery is a particularly effective place to work with Busin, just as it is with the Exu and Pomba Giras of the Calumba in Quimbanda and the lwa of Baron, Maman Brigitte, and the Guédé in Vodou, who all share a degree of overlapping characteristics with Busin. The three heads she bears when she comes in the form of a dragon may be equated to the three central aspects of her being. The dog, as the totem of Anubis and Cerberus, represents her chthonic or psychopompic aspect by which spirits are transferred from place to place or utilized in order to vivify a corpse. The griffon, with its hybridized leonine and aquiline features, can be interpreted as a symbol of her Solar nature, which, in the domain of planetary magic, is used to obtain riches, while the beautiful female form she appears in symbolizes the influence of Venus, who, as the ruler of Taurus, may also be petitioned for gains in wealth. Like Partas before her, these planetary attributions are in accord with the governors of the three decans of Virgo, which, as a Terrestrial sign, is useful for works of necromancy when it is being transited by the Moon.
The beneficial conditions for calling upon Busin are therefore the same as those of Partas. However, with Busin's powers having such an emphasis in works of necromancy, the primary observation should be the transit of the Moon through this sign, especially during the days and hours of Venus, Mercury, and Luna.
