Magic 101: Force and Discretion

Starting with the standard disclaimer: do not practice magic alone. You need a teacher, to guide and help you when you get in over your head. You will get in over your head.

When we speak of discretion in vodou, we’re speaking of a few things. We’re speaking of the capacity to identify what is interacting with you in spiritual or astral spaces, which is not just a matter of experience. We’re speaking of the capacity to make intuitive, accurate leaps in understanding which help you identify a situation or person’s motivation. We’re speaking of the capacity to accurately identify lessons in the things which happen to us or others, which in turn helps us resolve those lessons. We’re also speaking of the ability to accurately identify how a situation will end, or to identify enough in a situation to know (especially before it starts) that it should be avoided, or how to move in a situation to reduce problems.

The relationship of discretion to force is the relationship of direction to movement: you’re going to need the energy to move (spiritual force), but if you don’t have the ability to pick a direction (discretion), you’re just going to spin your wheels/stay locked in place. If you don’t have the ability to identify the right direction (also discretion), you’re going to get stuck somewhere along the way.

You are a lot more effective as a magician if you have discretion. You’re also a lot less likely to get in over your head, the more discretion is honed. There are plenty of entities out there which can easily (and convincingly) mimic spirits you’d rather be talking to. The more honed your discretion is, the more likely you are to avoid interactions with those entities which can result in problems in your life.

Discretion itself is a spiritual gift that, much like free will, must be honed by the intervention of spirits, a teacher, and your own willingness to hone that gift or ask for it, if you have been given opportunity to do so. As a fundamental part of spiritual force, if you don’t have discretion, you would be best served asking for it. You should just be aware that discretion is one of the more painful spiritual gifts to have or hone.

You will rarely, in terms of spiritual gifts, pay more for a capacity.