Magic 501: Your Zetwal
Vodou divides the soul into many parts, each with a specific function in the existence of the person. Some of those parts persist after death, some are divided when an incarnation is ended and are allowed to decay.
The divine recycles. Endlessly.
Zetwal (star) is one of the persistent bits, staying a part of the individual’s soul no matter if that soul is incarnated or a spiritual entity. The metaphor of a guiding star is apt for it: a distant light that guides you toward a goal the same way a star can tell you what direction you face in the darkness. Stars were once one of the few ways of navigating in the night, whether on the ocean or across land. The star was a both an indicator of direction and a source of knowledge, telling the navigator what hemisphere they were in and what direction they were headed. It was stable, able to be seen all night long if you could see the sky. And the stars of a place, the stars and constellations visible in a place, were an indicator of home: your familiar stars, your familiar constellations.
Your zetwal is your knowing—the knowledge that your soul needs to be a part of divinity, in whatever capacity you have. You aim at your zetwal, using it to navigate in the darkness of ignorance toward that distant light. It is the knowledge you will need to do whatever job the divine will require of you, when you can do that job. It is specific to that job, as well. Not general, not generic, specific to what the divine has for you to do.
The wisdom from your zetwal can trickle into the rest of your soul under the right conditions: typically where the rest of the soul is in alignment, no matter how temporary, with the zetwal and the divine. The more the person moves in alignment with the divine, the more healing and elevation work they do, the more likely they are to have those moments where the contents of the zetwal filter into the rest of the soul.
The wisdom from your zetwal changes you. As is true of how knowledge is treated in vodou, the contents of your zetwal are a responsibility: there is no ‘neutral’ knowledge, no wisdom that you just ‘have’ which does not require anything of you. You are always the caretaker of the wisdom or knowledge you have. The contents of your zetwal alter your consciousness, changing your relationship to the world around you as it changes the other, persistent parts of your soul.
It is a mercy of the divine that you only get snippets of the contents of your zetwal until you are capable of containing it with the rest of your soul, until you are capable of caretaking that wisdom and knowledge.
It is possible, late in the process of incarnation, to merge the zetwal with the rest of your soul. This typically happens as the individual becomes capable of the work the divine has for their ultimate purpose. An individual whose soul contains the knowledge of their zetwal is very, very close to divinity.
