Two Guidelines for Radical Changes

Below you will find two guidelines that will help you navigate radical change in your spiritual life

What do you do when you look around at other spiritual practitioners and see that their lives are in chaos? Do you blame the spiritual tradition itself and stay far away from it, or do you question whether it's the individual's choices that brought them the chaos?

I would like to clearly state that the chaos one sees in the lives of spiritual practitioners is often self-imposed (I can only speak about the traditions I interact with the most - 21 Divisions, Santeria/Ifa, Haitian Vodou).

Perhaps the practitioner came into the tradition with unresolved issues that need addressing, or perhaps the practitioner is working with elders that are imbalanced or unethical themselves.

Guideline #1: Learning to listen to your guides is the most important process of anyone's spiritual path.

No one knows the ins and outs of your soul like you and your spiritual court do. Having a good mentor means that he or she will bring you face to face with uncomfortable truths about yourself, and they will encourage you to develop a stronger connection to your gifts and guides without their constant input.

A mentor that is adamant that you do brujeria to achieve something, or that insists that you take a course of action you're uncomfortable with (often of an economic or sexual nature), or that charges you money anytime you go to them to consult something is bad news. These are red flags that you cannot overlook. Listen to your gut instinct here because your gut instinct may be your guides giving you an intuition about an imbalanced or unethical mentor.

Learning to listen to your guides will save you heartbreak, money, and uncomfortable situations.

Guideline #2: Radical changes in the spiritual life will not cause instability, confusion, or harm to yourself or others

Higher beings or spirits of light such as lwa or orisha will bring radical change into your life, but they will not do so in ways that will harm you or others.

Clarity is very important because it determines the whole course of your spiritual life. If you have unresolved issues, you cannot see the cracks in your spiritual foundation, and your house will collapse, figuratively speaking. If you are not clear on what you want, you cannot manifest anything. Anything that impedes your ability to see your life clearly must be torn out by the root no matter how bad it hurts. I know that sounds contradictory because I just said that radical changes will not harm you or others, but harm is different from growth.

The lwa may very well put you through the wringer so that you may see clearly how you allowed your life to get so imbalanced. They might give you what you're asking for only for you to see how misled you were. These are great teachable moments, and their aim there is to get you to wake up from your slumber and manifest positive change. I am not discarding that possibility. I am speaking from personal experience - the lwa love their children and they will correct them through painful, but effective processes. Take that as a warning before you go looking for initiations and spiritual connectivity. This is no joke. Growth hurts most of the time.

My point is that the radical changes brought about in the believer's life will always ultimately bring about clarity and peace.

You will not see a spiritual person at war with everyone around them all of the time. You will not see a spiritual person engaging in activities that mislead or take advantage of the less fortunate. You will not see a developed spiritual practitioner avoiding difficult conversations, processes, or responsibilities.

Any radical change in the spiritual practitioner's life will bring stability, clarity, and healing to them and those around them.