The consultation is the economic and practical core of the religion. A person arrives with a specific difficulty — a persistent illness, a court case, an American visa application, an unfaithful partner, a business failing, a child in trouble — and the oungan or manbo works out what is behind it, sometimes by playing cards, sometimes by reading a candle flame, sometimes by consulting the lwa directly or being mounted. The diagnosis identifies a cause: an unpaid obligation to a lwa, a neglected ancestor, work sent by an enemy, a broken promise. The prescription follows: a bath, a lamp to be kept burning, a wanga to be prepared, a service to be held, or frequently an instruction to repair a relationship with a specific living relative. Payment is negotiated openly. Reputation rests on outcomes, and Haitians assess a practitioner in the terms they would use for any professional.