Magic 501: Spiritually Ruthless
Vodou is full of wisdom that can feel counterintuitive, even like nonsense. Sometimes, it can seem like dangerous nonsense, something disruptive or potentially hurtful. The things vodou can say about survival can seem unbearably harsh, even cruel.
It is more accurate to say that vodou is full of wisdom that does not reflect what many cultures think of as common sense, and that vodou is inherently and inexorably tied to survival in environments that can be incredibly hostile. It is a healing tradition, but not necessarily a tradition of peaceful healing. Often, healing is something we fight for and more than that, conquer for.
It’s a lot easier to consider fighting or conquering other people than it is to conquer the self, which is where many people tend to avoid opportunity to heal or grow. People love a problem outside them, a problem they can blame on someone else and hate. Anything that keeps them from recognizing their own interactions or feeling overwhelmed by guilt, which has nothing to do with what the spirit requires of us. Guilt, hate, and looking for problems outside us are all distractions from what the spirit gives us to do.
What is within us to fight is either conquered or what is outside us will conquer us. The things outside us are flexible, conditions ever shifting, opportunities rising and falling. If you can do nothing but the same canned reactions because you are run by the unhealed and unelevated patterns within you, you will always be overcome by the world around you. You might be able to hire a priest to help you with that fight, to help you adapt, but the responsibility is always yours.
The thing that distinguishes true spiritual ruthlessness is not what we do to others, it is how ruthless we are with ourselves—how we discipline ourselves to do the work the spirits give us to help us. It’s in how we discipline ourselves to get up, to do what we don’t feel like doing, to trust what the spirits give us. Spiritual ruthlessness is not found in insulting the self, harming the self, dishonoring or disrespecting the self. Those, much like seeking problems outside yourself, are distractions from doing what you need to do to heal, grow, and elevate.
People who have learned to be ruthless with themselves survive longer. They can operate freely in their environments.
