Magic 101: Force and Spirits

A reminder: do not attempt to learn magic alone. You need a teacher to bail you out. You will need to be bailed out. The spiritual world is not a hostile place, but it is not tolerant of ignorance. Ignorance can and will get you hurt.

There are a number of things a magician can do to create change in the physical world that don’t require the intervention of spirits, but much of what vodou does to create change relies on an established relationship of some description with a spirit. Vodouizans with enough force to directly communicate with spirits can use that connection to establish a working relationship with the lwa of their court or the various inhabitants of the spiritual or astral planes.

There are a few inherent difficulties with establishing that relationship, among them the requirement that you be an excellent lawyer, as the spirits with which you might make an agreement will actively seek loopholes in those agreements in order to enact them as they would like to enact them (or avoid having to do what you thought they were supposed to do.) How words or meaning are interpreted by people has little to do with how spirits interpret words or meaning. Spirits which are not attached to your court will often be particularly likely to try and reinterpret agreements. They have no reason to be beneficial or merciful in their attempts to subvert agreements. Spirits in your court who are sick of your shit, to be blunt, may do the same to teach a lesson.

Because spirits know what people forget—that we will come back to life as many times we need to—they do not think of consequences which may result in harm to you as being particularly bad. In fact, frequently those sorts of consequences are more efficient at teaching than a verbal warning, so an aspiring magician can expect lessons to have what they would likely consider harsh consequences.

One of the reasons vodou emphasizes good relationships with your court is in anticipation of what people consider harsh consequences. You’re going to fuck it up. Having a particularly understanding or mutually friendly relationship with your spirits inclines them to mercy.

But to be blunt, a truly loving relationship with a spirit of your court does not incline them to mercy. They know a magician will be dealing with less beneficially inclined spirits. Training a magician to understand those consequences is far kinder than allowing a magician to believe in a spiritual world in which they will not suffer serious consequences for mistakes. One of the reasons a teacher is important is because they can intercede if a new magician’s court loves them enough to let them experience serious consequences, but serious consequences are part of the process of being a magician.

The second of the inherent difficulties is being sure what entity you are communicating with. This is another reason discretion is an important part of the spiritual force available to a magician. Spirits have zero problem mimicking each other, and there are whole groups of spirits which will intentionally mimic the spirits of someone’s court in order to establish a relationship with a magician that lets them steal force or, in some cases, dominate a magician. Being able to tell the difference between a lwa of your court, something mimicking that, or something mimicking a spirit not of your court is a very difficult task. The more intelligent or powerful a spirit is, the more convincing they can be.

Finally, contacting a spirit unsolicited is a great way to find out that many spirits consider severe consequences to be the correct response to being pestered. Many people who aspire to be magicians but cannot manage a basic awareness of spirits as distinct intelligence and not either obliged to be kind nor figments of their imagination find out the hard way that spirits don’t need no trespassing signs. Most people don’t annoy a spirit twice. Sometimes, they don’t annoy any other spirits after they annoy one. Many spirits would consider that a good lesson to have learned.

Contacting spirits, even the spirits of your own court, is inherently dangerous. It is essential to being a magician as a vodouizan, but requires supervision and a teacher with an excellent, active relationship with the spirits.