On Evil⁴

1. On Evil¹
2. On Evil²
3. On Evil³

Evil are spirits that we do not like at the time: animistic analogies for garden weeds and house mice. The invasion of the spirit is unwelcome insofar as it compromises the sanctity of the site. Our person, of a certain level of sophistication and culture, takes certain active measures and best management practices to deter, minimize, and banish the occurrence of species considered invasive to their current plot. In the moments when those preventative measures prove insufficient to deterrence, management might resort to mechanisms of elimination, which may include removal by force. Nothing against the spirit per se, it might be beautiful in its own right: it is only that the species in question is inimical to the plan and could, for example, vampirize or pollute the design.

Better not to burn bridges and best to keep friendly relations with all spirits. Those that are evil relative to the current project could be good or useful in the next life. Great-grandmother’s desire to make nice could support the objectives of a future project. Knowing that it is only about a current preference, our person would not want to throw great-grandmother out on the street outright, but rather first kindly ask her spirit to kindly avoid interference in the present circumstances. Of course, it is possible that the spirit is obsessive, attached, stubborn, or unyielding against the will of the subject. Should that be the case, our operator might escalate to the unfortunate use of incremental force by strong words, trickery, stinks, fisticuffs, wands, knives, swords, or other tradecraft.

Of course there are consequences to inciting spiritual violence. Evil might fight back in its own way, including sabotaging relations with other spirits who are sympathetic to their cause. Some of those relationships evil sabotaged as a result of irreconcilable differences might have otherwise been good for our personal projects. Naturally, there are situations when the only good option is to make a new enemy and deal with the commensurate fallout, but most tactful handling of evil avoids that type of situation as much as possible: it’s exorcism with a smile. This avoidance of violence is not due to fear of reprisal from evil, but rather just good business sense. If our person starts threatening swords at everything like some kind of tyrannical blue-blood, word will get around.