Vodou 501: The Inverse Virtues
Many of the traditional virtues are not necessarily what we aspire to, in vodou—again, speaking for my path. Pity, compassion, mercy, hope, etc: it is not that we show no evidence of them, it is what those virtues mean in context.
While we receive help on our paths, whether it’s a priest or spiritual worker the spirits have asked to help us or direct spirit intervention of various descriptions, the responsibility to walk the path belongs to the individual. You will choose to promptly learn the lessons in front of you or choose to stagnate in procrastination, choose to engage the lesson fully or try to weasel out of some portion of it. The consequences of these actions are on you, and will be transparent in your life.
People are strongly, strongly motivated not to engage lessons by a variety of factors. They often enlist others as reasons why they should not engage nor have to engage those lessons. Someone actively procrastinating those lessons will look for any reason to do so, and are often rewarded by others. When we look at someone in one of those circumstances and tell them we feel sorry for them, when we tell them they don’t have to get better, it’s not their fault (fault is completely pointless) nor should they feel guilty (also pointless), when we tell them they shouldn’t have to try or that they are owed a reward for their suffering, we reward them. When we claim on social media that we are owed, we are actively seeking that reward. When we talk on social media about our trauma, when we ask others to justify our decisions, we are actively seeking that reward. When we respond to someone doing this with pity, or compassion, or kindness, we reward them which rewards us by allowing us to pretend to goodness, engaging our own delusions.
It is not a mercy, not compassionate, not kind, not an act of pity to reward that behavior. The only thing we do when we try to reward that behavior and engage those dynamics is prolong someone’s suffering and encourage their delusions.
Vodouizan come at the virtues through something which does not look like virtue to the ‘virtuous’ and begins in a question: what actually shortens suffering?
It is the knowledge that help is available, the knowledge that the divine and the spirits actively seek to guide, to aid, on occasion to intervene. It is the knowledge that whatever messes or trouble one might experience in this life, you will get another chance. It is the knowledge that all experiences, from the most ecstatic to the most horrifying, are a part of lessons.
The knowledge of these things makes the question of intervention interesting. Certainly, few vodouizan will pity you for your problems: after all, those are just the process of learning at work. Generally, we let the spirits and the wisdom accumulated over our lives tell us when intervention is necessary. New vodouizan are generally counseled not to engage. This is not a lack of humanity at work, it is a very sophisticated understanding of the human psyche at work. People often need the incentive of their own discomfort to get off their ass and stop doing the thing which caused them problems in the first place.
Help is always available. The spirits are truly, deeply engaged with their children.
In a way, vodou is a truly hopeful religion. It is just hope through something that does not look like virtue.
