Vodou Is Everywhere
I’m going to take a brief hiatus from my magic series—it will resume tomorrow—and talk about a misconception people have about vodou. Vodou houses are small, relatively insular communities. People tend to enter them and stay for a variety of reasons, many of which have to do with a combination of the difficulty of finding a house/a house that fits, to the fact that if this is the house that fits them, they will quickly be immersed in spiritual work for their healing. Genuine spiritual work that can heal you tends to command your attention.
Priests and the people in a community are easy to see, easy to interact with once you’re in that community. It’s easy to think of them, when you think of vodou. This happens just as much in any church as it does in a vodou society. The religion becomes the community, and especially with vodou, because it is community oriented, the vodou house becomes vodou to the people in it.
The problem with this, though there are many problems with this, is that whatever failings, shortcomings, different ideals, unresolved issues, etc are in the community around you or the priest’s character also become vodou to you. This can lead to something that resembles a cult in all the worst ways. To some degree, even an experienced priest is powerless to completely stop this from occurring. People need something to identify the spirit with, and that is what a priest is for many people: someone that can be identified, can be seen, can be interacted with. If this is not a temporary stage for them, they will eventually stop working on healing, elevation, and growth. They will reach equality with the rest of their community members, or at least something that feels enough like equality, and it will be enough.
From there, it doesn’t take long for that person’s growth, elevation, and healing to start decaying. They stop actively pursuing a relationship with the spirit, which requires change, and start matching speeds comfortably with the people around them.
I answered a question on reddit the other day about loyalty oaths, and I tend to come down on the side of “the fuck you mean ‘loyalty oath’”, but it reminded me of this dynamic. The spirit is the spirit, and while the flavor of houses may vary, the house is not the whole of vodou. The priest is not the whole of the spirit. We can find vodou wherever we go and wherever the spirit is, it will know us. No one house nor priest is the whole of vodou.
Again, talking to another priest yesterday, I was reminded to say this: if you can find a better priest, no matter how long I’ve been your priest, go get them. Go find the spirit where you can. If you need me to remind you, I’m happy to, but I’m not confused.
Everything and everyone you can see is god, if you have the eyes to see it.
