Magic 501: Ego

There’s plenty more to say about ego than this entry.

If learning magic in vodou had final bosses, ego would be one. Ego would be a final boss precisely because we think it belongs to us. It is able to operate with impunity in the consciousness of most people precisely because they think they own ego, that there is any such thing as ‘my’ ego. We think our self-centeredness reflects our own ideas, our own importance, our own and rightful understanding of ourselves. Ego represents itself as the most intimate understanding of self, the only reflection of self we can or should recognize, and in fact that everyone should recognize. Ego represents itself as the only ‘real’ understanding of self and self’s interactions with the world.

Ego will tolerate no other focus, no other center.

The vast majority of the hurt feelings you can see on social media are ego and the misery that comes from demanding the world recognize whatever reflection of the self ego has given the person. That recognition will never quite satisfy, and is never quite possible. The person becomes a puppet, enacting a drama ego has given them and spreading misery wherever the drama is seen.

Many demons (or negative entities, if you like) are merely ego’s emissaries, sent to help people stay trapped in various cycles of fantasy or delusion and reaction.

Part of the reason humility is a repeating theme in these entries on magic is because it is a wisdom and discipline that reduces the influence of ego on the priest or spiritual worker. Anyone intended to do magic in vodou will have to contend with ego and ego’s emissaries one way or the other. The ability to reduce the influence of ego determines a host of factors in the life of that priest or spiritual worker, including the ability to tell the difference between a request made by a lower, lesser, or negative spirit and a lwa. Lower or negative spirits will also interfere in the magical work directly, via whatever influence they can have on a spiritual worker or priest.

The strategies for reducing the influence of ego vary a bit on the individual. Every priest or spiritual worker intended to bear certain types of spirits must go through a period where they contend with ego and develop the discipline necessary to employ those strategies. This period, in particular, requires a teacher.

Ego is pernicious and can be very subtle.