Vodou Sorcerer: Ancestors, Saints, and Conjure: An Act of Confession

Confession: Alleviating the Burdens of the Soul

There are many who come to me saying that they do not know where to start in their spiritual practices. They often have a sense of heaviness about them and are looking for the ability to improve their lives and make real changes within themselves. They will oftentimes carry on about their past, ways in which they felt they have been slighted by others, and ways in which they have done wrong for themselves.

My first piece of advice is generally to go before their ancestors and confess themselves to bring relief to their sense of burden. Generally, that is not the spiritual advice they are looking for as most want a quick fix to their problems, they want a bath or a juju bag to improve their condition or sense of self-worth. While spiritual baths, candle workings, and charms do improve certain conditions for them, if the root cause is not addressed the problem will continue to persist.

The Medicine for Our Souls

As human beings we have to navigate a labyrinth of difficult choices. Deciding a course of action that we feel best suits our personal belief systems and motivations. Inherently lazy, we will often times choose the easiest path and act a though our decisions have little impact on others or that they may have “had it coming.” Sometimes, someone may have it coming, but if we are continually finding ourselves in opposition to others then we should spend some serious time in introspection. Regardless, our choices have an impact, and at some point we must acknowledge that impact and take responsibility for the decisions we make.

Confession is good for the soul. It allows us to move beyond mere introspection, giving us the power to evoke our flaws and weaknesses so that they may be addressed and banished. Moreover, the act of confessing ourselves before our ancestors and spiritual court demonstrates our humility and respect not only for them but also ourselves. We may find that those long-answered prayers suddenly begin to manifest in our lives, our luck seems to become boundless, or even we are graced with some extra money; all of which comes from the grace of the spirits that see our sense of humility.

Confession and Contrition: a Practical Tool for the Magician

Many of the Grimiores suggest that the magician goes through a period of purification before evoking spirits. The Abramelin insists upon a daily confession during the period of preparation for the evoking of the Holy guardian Angel. Not only should the magician spend his time reciting psalms and purifying himself externally, he should also be purifying his soul to call upon the spirits by the names of various divinities.

A magician that finds himself in a predicament of being under spiritual attack can also make use of confession and contrition. This is very useful if the magician is being wrongfully assaulted. He may wish to begin doing reversal work on his assailant, while simultaneously confessing himself for any wrong-doing that may have caused this situation. Sometimes, his own arrogance attracted an enemy that may just want to test and humiliate him.

I will give a personal experience and how I dealt with it:

In my own arrogance I had unknowingly created an enemy. I had no idea that somebody that I didn’t know had it out for me over the fact that I had written something on a forum that they didn’t agree with it. Rather than simply ignore the person I antagonized them. They had such a chip on their shoulder over the experience that they hired a serious worker to mess with me. My own spirits came to me and said that I had created the situation out of my own arrogance, and that I had to dig myself out of the ditch!

Instead of being paralyzed by the experience I turned my focus on the problem: me. Naturally, I began a reversal to send the magic back to the source, reciting Psalm 54 is very useful for matters like this. But I then began to express my guilt for the role I played in the situation to the spirits. Each morning I would wake up and confess myself to my ancestors and spirits and follow with the Catholic Act of Contrition. Each night I would pray for forgiveness from my ancestors and examine all the ways in which they had helped me.

Eventually things turned around and improved. The other worker allegedly got what was coming to them, and I grew tremendously as a magician. My spirits also expressed to me that they had a greater respect for my humility and I feel that our bond is stronger than ever.

How to Approach Confession

For those that want to put the theory to the test here is a recommended set of practices:
Recite Psalm 119:161-168 and anoint yourself with Kabbalah Oil
Begin with the Kabbalistic Cross
Perform the Middle Pillar Ritual
Begin to carefully examine your wrongdoings in front of your ancestors and spirits
Recite the Seven Penitential Psalms
Repeat the Kabbalistic Cross