Things Found in the Dark

I’ve had quite a bit to say about evil, and not just because I spent my childhood being accused of it.

Vodou is shamanism. It’s a religion of nature, and nature is not especially known for being pleasant all the time. Good is not pleasant. Evil is not pleasant.

One of the recurring cycles in the lives of spiritual people is something euphemistically called “shadow work”—to dig into the aspects of one’s self which are not pleasant, the things we don’t like about ourselves, and face them. The goal of spiritual work is wholeness, to make the person whole.

The process is one part acceptance, one part exorcism, and one part guidance. Because we are not alone, because we are influenced by spirits of both the light and the darkness, by the dead, by the living, and by our own memories, the things we find in the dark are just as likely ours as they are things which have been foisted on us. It takes discernment to tell the difference between one’s ancestral trauma (that is, ancestors who aren’t trying to help us get better), the fantasies we have (our memories or attempts to predict the future), the impact of your experiences, and causa (that is, negative spirits.)

Guidance is a lot of how you can tell the difference. It takes someone who has been there before and has the spiritual sight to see what’s plaguing you.

I can say this: there is a great deal of wholeness to be found in the dark. I have found more wholeness in the dark than I ever found in the ‘light,’ as people wanted to identify it.