Magic 501: An Ethic of Dirty Hands

I am, as I have mentioned before, a makout. Mambo makout are a number of things, among them the morally neutral purveyors of work other priests prefer not to get their hands dirty with. I don’t particularly like the use of moral here, for reasons detailed throughout the entries on this journal.

There are many reasons to do this sort of work. The spirits have to select you for it—no one gets to be a makout because they showed an interest in it. You either need to have a flexible character, which has nothing to do with how people generally define morality, or the spirits will give you one. You also need to be really good at keeping your word, or the spirits will make sure you are.

When the topic of this sort of work (or makout) comes up, people are often very sure anything they consider ‘dirty’ or ‘evil’ is motivated by hatred, malice, cruelty, or greed. They attribute it to negativity, to negative motivations, whatever they consider the be negative. This is because that is why they would do this sort of work. For them, there is either good work, the stuff they’re comfortable doing, or bad work, the stuff they think bad people do. Deliberately, anyone who does work that makes them uncomfortable is bad.

I find being a makout inherently holds a mirror up to people’s justifications. I will know something about their motivations by what they assume of mine.

I’d like to introduce a different motivation than people tend to think: love.

My gratitude to and love for the spirits knows no bounds, in such a direct way that I am willing to take on whatever work is necessary to maintain the balance. I’ll do this work for free, living in poverty, because of that love and gratitude. I am willing to serve while being despised, blamed for the consequences of others’ actions, while my name is being dragged through the mud. I am willing to spend so much to do this work that I starve, to go without sleep and acknowledgement.

I am already doing these things. They are part of the job.

I also know something that people generally don’t: this work is fundamentally healing. Healing a community requires a lot more than a few prayers or a candle. Healing someone whose life has been destroyed requires more than good wishes and the magic to rebuild their finances. The balance heals and makes room for healing.

There is an ethic in having dirty hands.