I wonder how Machiavelli would be seen back in the day? As you know, Machiavelli had considerable influence as a strategist, but not much virtue. His power came from “not revealing the rules of the game”, and for supposedly not having much virtue but he would not have been villainized in African culture. His guidelines in ‘The Prince’ spoke more of peaceful influence tactics than war. He advised his liege even when in exile that if he would grow his kingdom he needed to do it by making the conquered love him. By conquering not with soldiers, but with influence.
In Voodoo, ashe isn’t by necessity brute force. If an African warrior was strong but stupid and got killed, he wasn’t considered to be powerful. It was the opposite. They didn’t see bad luck as the influence of evil spirits. They didn’t view the spirits that way, they were just spirits. Bad luck was from alienating the spirits.
Even today, we have heard Christians respond to this principle. They say the church lacked the spirit. The holy spirit, as they refer to it, symbolized as tongues of flame. Perhaps the same as the invisible flame of voodoo? This would be a church with no ashe, and in my observation they would usually fall apart or become spiritual corpses in their community with little influence. Anyone’s experience contradict this?
So in the world of voodoo, any domain of life you personally live in and anything you are working with has a spirit. This is why it exists. It is the basic concept of animism, and all spirits come from the great spirit often seen in voodoo as an all-father, perhaps not unlike the Norse belief. Thus to prosper in whatever you do in life, you work with the spirit of that place or those things. A spirit of place is called ‘wa’ to the Chinese. It is vital. They make their shrines and offerings to commune with the spirit of whatever makes up the bulk of their lives.
I would venture that all religion does it in some way or another. It’s the idea of how man relates to spirit that differs really, not the spiritual aspiration.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~