10/11/2025
Honor, Respect.
Life is a journey that tests us in ways we often cannot predict. You may walk a path without a scratch—never stumbling, never tested—and yet, when you reach the end, you may find you have not truly lived, only endured a quiet kind of imprisonment.
To truly live, there must be circumstances—sometimes harsh, sometimes uncompromising—that demand you meet them head-on.
In Vodou, the serpent is the sacred emblem of Dambala Wedo—a symbol we use to glimpse his nature in human terms. The serpent sheds its skin, and so must we. This shedding is not merely change; it is birth and rebirth. It is the turning of the wheel, the eternal circle that keeps moving whether we are ready or not.
Life progresses. Our daily circumstances shift. No one makes it through untouched. As the elders say: “Once the water touches you, you cannot evade getting wet.” Whether softly like rain or heavily like a flood, life will touch you, soak you, and leave its marks.
The elders teach that such marks are not a curse, but a sign you have truly lived. The trials you meet—the shedding you endure—are the hands of life itself, stripping away what no longer serves so you can move forward in truth. Do not wish to remain dry when the rains come. Instead, let the water cleanse you, mark you, and carry you into your next becoming.
The most important lesson in all of this is learning to tame life’s uncompromising aspects. Like climbing a mountain, the journey will not bend itself to your will. The stones will not move, the wind will not cease, the steepness will not soften.
To make it to the top, you must allow the course of life to be as it is—not because it is easy, but because it is true. Success comes only when you accept reality for what it is, and from that place of acceptance, begin shaping it into what it can become.
In Vodou, this is the way of working with—not against—the forces that shape us. The mountain may not bow, but it will teach you where to step. The path may not smooth, but it will reveal the strength in your stride.
The elders teach:
Do not wait for life to become gentle before you climb. Climb as it is, and learn from the way it resists you.
