Santisima Muerte

If you go into any well stocked grocery store in the Western US you've probably seen the 7-day saint candles that are always in the Mexican foods aisle.  If you've gone into a store that carries Hoodoo supplies or a Latin grocery store you've probably seen a lot more of them.  One of the saint's whose candles you may find is Santisima Muerte - Holy Death.  This saint is a controversial figure that is rather frowned upon by the Catholic Church but is ever increasing in popularity amongst the people. As a Latina who worships death, I figured it was high time I investigated the Mexican folk saint Santisima Muerte. 

Santa Muerte altar

Santisima Muerte seems to have originated as the personification of the darker side of the divine feminine.  As such she's often seen as the photo negative of the Virgin Mary.  She may also have her origins in the Aztec goddess of the Underworld, Mictecacihuatl.  Traditionally Santisima Muerte is the patron saint of a "good death" and has the ability to provide protection and justice.  These days her area of expertise seems to have grown to include bringing back wayward lovers, healing, protection from violence, revenge/cursing, and even bringing good fortune.  It seems like whenever any spirit/saint/deity/etc. gets popular enough that figure slowly becomes the one you petition when you want anything at all.  This seems a little odd to me.  I, personally, wouldn't call on a death figure for luck or healing, and would stick to calling on her for protection and justice.

The practices around petitioning her are pretty much the same as working with any other saint.  It's the typical build the right altar, give the correct offerings, say the right prayers type of thing.  The main difference with working with Santisima Muerte and working with other saints is the general caution of working with any death figure: they mean business so don't petition them casually and be sure to keep your promises - they are rarely flexible or forgiving.

I always have reservations with working with any figure that's steeped in a culture and religion that isn't mine.  Santisima Muerte is definitely a Catholic flavored figure and that's particularly clear in her established orisons and novenas.  Yes, I could re-write these traditional prayers to have a more Pagan flavor and thus be more natural to me but it seems disrespectful.  She's also very Mexican, originating in Southern Mexico and being popular primarily amongst Mexicans and Mexican Americans.  This makes me pretty hesitant  to bring her into my very eclectic and multicultural practice.  However, she is a figure of growing popularity that is spreading throughout Latin America and is already bending and flexing to fit different local cultures.  I think that perhaps if I were to petition her in Spanish using religiously neutral language, using traditional tributa (an offering of an unglazed clay pot filled with water containing 7 coins and 7 white flowers left at the gates of a cemetary), she might be amenable to working with me.  I'll have to do some divination to see whether that's a good idea or not before I give it a try.

If you're interested in Santisima Muerete I'd highly recommend Santisima Muerte: How to Call and Work with Holy Death by ConjureMan Ali.  It's a concise little chapbook that nicely summarizes the current legends and practices surrounding Santisima Muerte.  It's also super cheap if you get the ebook version.

Pop Culture Magick for Geeks - Bag of Holding

One of my absolute favorite ways to use pop culture in my magick is in my choice of altar swag, tools, and props for spells.

Traditional tools and altar pieces, while lovely to look at and nice to own, can be both pricey and impractical.  As much as I would love to have the $600 hunk of labradorite as a part of my altar, it's just not in my budget (and really, the piece would needs its own custom liturgy just to keep it charged).  So instead I have action figures and toys on my altar.  They have the benefits of being inexpensive (unless you're talking serious collectibles, jeebuz!), easy to get a hold of, and are relatively innocuous when people come over.

Here's a little altar I set up for doing a prosperity spell during the Superbowl (with all that energy running rampant, why not take advantage of it?  It helps that my city was overflowing with successful and joyous energy).  I specifically used the figure of Loki to represent the silver-tongued skills I need to improve in order to wrestle a raise out of my firm's rather reluctant partners.  I used the figure of Boba Fett to represent the ability to find a better position if my firm won't pony up appropriately.  Nothing quite like using strong and tenacious characters with a big ol' free energy source to fuel a potent working.

I also enjoy using pop culture characters in protective workings.  At work I keep a small stuffed Chtulu as an anchor for a ward to keep my more annoying co-workers from hanging out near my cube. Lovecraft's Cthulu is one of the most terrifying characters in 20th century literature, that has somehow morphed into the poster child for weird creepy people everywhere - I love him.  A stuffed Cthulu embodies everything I want to evoke in my work area - cute an innocuous if you don't look too closely, but foreboding and uncomfortable if you dig where you're not welcome.

Pop culture geekery is also treasury of potential tools.  Need an athame, why not get a replica of a dagger wielded by a DnD barbarian?  Need a coven sword for your den of nerds, why not a Klingon bat'leth?  Personally, I use three different wands (pictured above) - depending on what I'm doing at any given time. The top wand is one of a pair of arnis sticks that I use in defensive/offensive work; the middle wand is an ebony wand in the Harry Potter style that I use for more finessed workings; and the bottom wand is the 10th Doctor's sonic screwdriver that is marvelous for workings involving heavy intellect or air energies and any kind of creative problem solving.

Harness the power of your nerdness and make thinkgeek.com and Toys R Us your primary shopping places for spell components (and don't forget second-hand toy stores, they can be amazing!).  Who says a line of little green army men in your garden can't work as an amazing ward?  Use the images of characters you already love and obsess over to make your magickal workings more natural for you.  An object is no less sacred for being mass produced and loved by children everywhere, as long as it holds special meaning for you.  Magick is all about harnessing natural energies and nudging them where we want to go, if it makes more sense for you to do that with action figures than herbs and crystals (or all three!), then go forth my nerdy brethren :)


Other Posts on Pop Culture Magick for Geeks
The Things With The Stuff - A basic introduction to using pop culture characters in magick
Who's Your Doctor? - Thoughts on determining version of a character you want to work with

Pop Culture Magick for Geeks - The Things With The Stuff

This year at Pantheacon I'll be presenting a workshop on Pop Culture Magick for Geeks. Over the next few weeks I'll be doing a series of posts on that topic both for folks who won't be able to make it to the live presentation and to provide a little more info than I can reasonably give in a 90 minute presentation. 

There's something wonderful about being a magickal geek.  You see geeks, by their very nature, don't do things by halves.  Geeks don't "like" the things they do, they "obsess."  If a geek doesn't obsess over what they're doing with an all consuming passion (e.g. working on the same bit of code for five straight hours with nothing but a gallon of Code Red for fuel), they usually won't bother.  We see this in our fandoms (Doctor Who obsession anyone?), our gaming (World of Warcraft nearly destroyed my life and don't even get me started on DnD), and, of course, our magick (we can take daily practice to a whole new level).  The beauty of being a magickal geek is that we can actually harness the hundreds of hours of obsession with stories, the years of intense energy fixation into characters, into our magick.  

The Things With the Stuff!

One of my favorite ways to incorporate my geekery with my magick is to work with characters.  Like many inveterate nerds, I often find myself involved in deeper relationships with the characters of my favorite stories (books, tvs, movies, comics, etc.) and games than with other people; and certainly deeper than my relationships with many spirits or unapproachable deities.  I cannot count the number of hours or the amount of energy I've put into my favorite characters.  I can honestly say that I know more about The Doctor and Buffy as "people" than my own sister.  So, I've learned how to harness my obsessions and make them useful to my magick. There are two main ways of using a beloved character in magick: as a familiar or guide, or as a representation of a natural force or deity.


My favorite way to work with a character I obsess over is as a familiar or guide.  Popular characters, think Batman or Aragorn, have a life of their own.  They have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people pouring energy into them over many years; shaping them and bringing them into our collective unconscious.  Many of these characters are more universally beloved than a lot of deities these days (just look at the crowds at the premier of any Marvel movie).  All of the love and devotion poured into these characters creates a thoughtform of them in the astral plane.  As we individually strengthen our relationships with these characters (by engaging with their stories, talking about them, getting their merchandise, and generally making them a part of our lives) we connect to the energy of that character in the astral.  It's just like strengthening the potential power of a ritual through repetition - the more energy we engage in with a character the more energy we can get back out of them when we need it.  

Once you've got a relationship with a character you can work with that character in the same ways you would with just about any other sentient entity.  I once had a rather difficult encounter with some vampiric spirits and called on the character of Van Helsing to assist my divination in finding a way to deal with the problem.  The character of Van Helsing has more than a century's worth of energy of people believing him to be the absolute authority on vampires - his expertise did not disappoint me.  I've also called on the occasional superhero to escort me home when taking the bus late at night or walking through sketchy parts of town.

And, of course, The Doctor is my spirit guide.  He's a character that embodies pretty much every quality I want in my spirit guide - intelligent, cunning, empathetic, wise, and kind.  He gives fantastic advice and is an excellent intermediary between myself and otherwise less understandable forces.  

I basically work with familiar characters from my favorite geeky obsessions the way other folks work with fae, spirits, daemons, or minor deities.  

Some people also use pop culture characters as representations of deity.  It can be difficult for the modern mind to feel strong connections with antique deities.  Ancient mythology is filled with references to what was once everyday life, but really how much empathetic connection can an office worker have with tales of hunting wild boar afoot or the growing of barley?  It can be easier to look at modern characters as intermediaries or embodiments of the deities of our ancestors.  It can be easier to use a Wonder Woman action figure on your altar to represent Diana than a museum replica (not to mention astronomically less expensive).  I'm rather partial to using Captain Jack Harkness as a representation of Eros (just think about it, it totally fits).  If your brain as an easier time connecting to a modern character that can symbolize a deity you want to work with, go for it.

I have also heard of folks actually worshiping pop culture characters as deities in their own right.  Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  It's not something I would do, but I can understand the inclination.  I'm very comfortable with ancient mythology and have no problem forming relationships with antique deities, but I can understand how that might be difficult for some.  Why wouldn't an avid comic book reader make an offering to Superman?  I vastly prefer to think of modern characters as spirits or advanced thoughtforms because I'm not sure they've been around long enough to have the power I feel like a deity should have, but that's just me.  If it works for you, more power to ya. 

Next up in Pop Culture Magick for Geeks - Who's Your Doctor? 
 Pop Culture Magick for Geeks - Bag of Holding