MISTAKES IN VODOU
. . . within your Temple, with Regleman, Sosyete . . .
MISTAKES IN VODOU. . . within your Temple, with Regleman, Sosyete . . .
Hello everyone, it’s me, Papa Hector, and I’m excited to continue doing these video blogs with you, and keep talking about different subjects, different subjects about spirituality, about me, getting to know y’all a bit more. So, today what I want to talk about is mistakes in Vodou, in the spiritual tradition, and elsewhere as well as with me.
So, the first thing is that I as a spiritual teacher embrace and have the belief that earth is the classroom for the Spirit or the soul. So therefore you’re going to make mistakes. You can’t get an A in every single class. You’re not going to pass with a hundred in every single area or subject of your life. You’re going to make mistakes. Mistakes happen, such is life, se la vi, anyone who knows me knows that they hear that constantly coming out of my mouth, se la vi, such is life. So it’s not about whether or not you make mistakes, it’s whether or not you take responsibility for those mistakes.
Now, when it comes to making mistakes in Vodou and making mistakes in the Regleman and la Regla and the way that we do things…one should acknowledge one’s mistakes and yet come to understand that acknowledging one’s mistakes and asking for forgiveness for one’s mistakes doesn’t mean that the Spirit still is not gonna require you to pay a penance or balance out the situation. The Spirit is all about balance and it’s going to rebalance out the situation and you may have to pay for some of your mistakes, take your punishment with resignation, deal with it and move on with life. Such is life, se la vi.
Number two is, a lot of common mistakes that a lot of people make – woo! – a lot of people make, is they make a mistake with their godparent or their temple, their Mama, their Papa, their Madrino, their Padrino, Mama Kanzo, Papa Kanzo, whatever it is…and/or their temple. And if you’re in the Vodou, and you’re an initiate in the temple and you’re a member of the temple, then you’re a child of the temple, you’re a ti-fey of the temple. A little leaf on the branch. And we expect that you’re gonna make mistakes.
If you make a mistake with your godparent, ask for forgiveness and deal with the fact that the Spirit is going to cause balance, respecting the law and causing balance with all things as the Spirit does. So just take that into account, and take into account that you’re going to experience the rubber-band effect of the balance that’s going to have to occur from the Spirit’s end. Bear your cross with resignation, acknowledge your mistake, ask for forgiveness, be sincere, and then get over it and move on.
If you have a godparent or a Mama or a Papa…me, I’m Papa Hector. I expect people to make mistakes, and therefore part of my job as a Houngan, as a Priest, as a Papa Hector, as being Papa Hector, is to expect that people are going to make mistakes, and se la vi, not holding mistakes against people. I’ve had many people who come back to me, who have made mistakes with me, who are scared to come back, or some people who have actually written to me, you know, I’ve been away because I’ve made such mistakes, and I’ve been scared or fearful to come back or what you would say, etc. Let me let you know this about me, is that I’m Papa Hector, and what that means is that, you know, as long as you’re sincere, you come back, you’re asking for forgiveness, you’re coming at me right, and you’re coming sincere, and you’re ready to do what it takes to resolve the situation, then there’s no need to fear and the situation can be resolved.
Just because, now, I’m Papa Hector, I’m a Houngan of Vodou, I practice Sanse, 21 Divisions, does that mean that just because I forgive the mistake that I forgot the mistake? Hell, no. Does that mean that we’re going to have the same relationship that we had before? Probably not. But we can rebuild some bonds of trust and working together and resolving things and moving towards a positive state and getting there. So that is how it works. Now, if you make mistakes with your temple, it’s the same thing, you know, ask for forgiveness of the temple, be man or woman enough to man up/woman up and basically say look, I’ve made this mistake against the temple, and I’m asking for forgiveness.
If you’ve left your temple and you’re returning because you’ve made a mistake, whatever the situation may be, you should go back and make an offering to the Spirits of the temple, the same thing with a godparent. You should make an offering to the head Spirits of the godparent, the head Spirits of the temple, the met kayla, that everything can be set right there, so that you can be held in a position of honour, and then again expect the Spirits to balance the situation out and to cause balance with everything, and such is life! You can’t worry about that, you just have to deal with what you have to deal with…
I’ve had a lot of people commit mistakes against me, lie on me, slander on me, you know, talk bad about me, do negative things to me, try to harm me, etc, and some of the things that I can recount to people, I have yet met someone who would have said that they would have forgiven a person for doing that mistake. And yet I’ve forgiven people for doing such mistakes, because I understand the world and the spiritual world and how this really works. And so I have that capacity to forgive all mistakes. I have that capacity to be able to look past that, look at the true you and the true nature of who you really are and where your heart is at. So that doesn’t matter to me.
But if you’re working on, you know, getting forgiveness of others, you should also be working on forgiving others yourself. Because you can’t expect to get what you’re not giving, you can’t expect for forgiveness and smooth sailing and smooth waters with other people, if you’re not doing the same thing, forgiving yourself as well as forgiving other people yourself. OK? You have to put that energy out so it’s coming back, vire byen, tounen byen, when you put out good, the good comes back, when you put out bad, bad comes back, that’s very basic Vodou for you.
And when you make mistakes with others, apply the same rules, like, pay respect to each other and individuals, take, you know, what’s going to be taken, some people are not gonna forgive you for your mistakes, some people are. And accept whatever you have to accept and move on with your life. Se la vi, such is life. You know, if the person doesn’t accept your apology, or doesn’t accept you coming back and doesn’t forgive you, then you work on forgiving more people your own self.
And if they can’t accept that, clear yourself of that…it’s up to them when they wanna accept that apology. If they choose never to go back into having a connection or a relationship with you in the same format, accept that as well, that’s an individual choice of that individual. And that’s to be expected. Because there is as with everything some cause and effect and you can’t expect everything to be washed away because you say “I’m sorry”. So, if that’s the situation that you have going on in your life, then this is how we properly as Vodouisants deal with making mistakes, which is what we’re all expected to do. So I hope that this has helped you,
until next time,
keep the faith.
Papa Hector.