Create Your Own Magic
“Death is not the greatest loss in life.
The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
~norman cousins
Magic is at its strongest when we create our own spells. Because the universe communicates with us (and vice versa) through signs and symbols, our artistic subconscious is the key to all spellwork. A single symbol can elicit a number of emotions in a number of different people, but only we know how that symbol makes us feel.
If we rely on books and manuals to perform magic, the limits of our own power will forever be only as large as the imaginations of other people. And even then, mechanical step-by-step perfection of a spell will never produce a result unless the feeling place is there. For this reason, I encourage you to go beyond this book—and all books—and create your own magic spells. Use the information written here to understand the range of tools you can work with and to get a taste of how to go about performing spellwork. Once you begin to see the patterns of Santa Muerte magic, feel free to mimic these patterns and further expand upon them. Below are two creative spells that don’t fall into any specific category. Take them as examples of how to think outside the box, or better yet, get rid of the box and create something all your own.
Communion with the Dead
Suggested Tools:
Color/Aspect: Black, brown
Herbs/Scents: Camphor, chrysanthemum, licorice, lily
Minerals: Diamond, jet, obsidian
1. Assemble any tools and get into a meditative state.
2. In your heart space, ask that you be able to commune with the spirit of a person who has physically died.
3. The spirit will often take the form of how you know him or her best, whether or not you’ve actually met them or whether that is how they actually physically looked.
4. Once in their presence, thank them, and explain your reason for wanting to talk with them today. Depending on the spirit, the explanation of “just to talk” will not be sufficient.
5. If the spirit agrees, speak with them, and listen. As with any person, the more you speak with them, the more familiar their communication style will be to you and the more open they will be.
6. With spirits, especially if they are relatives or friends, petty questions regarding past drama and hurts are not desirable topics.
7. When the conversation begins to lag, do not try to revive it. Thank the spirit for their time, and end the meditation, knowing that you can always return to your heart space and talk with them again.
For this spell, I suggest beginning with someone close to you who has died. The familiarity with their spirit on earth will allow you to more easily understand how their spirit communicates in the afterlife. When you are more advanced, feel free to seek the wisdom of historical greats such as Joan of Arc, Lao Tzu, Aristotle, etc. The only rule is that you must be specific about whom you wish to speak with. Thus, nebulous identities such as “the person who did ___” will not suffice. Do your research and learn everything you can about the person before you contact them so as best to understand their spirit when they communicate with you.
Academic Success
Necessary Tools:
Textbook
Suggested Tools:
Color/Aspect: Blue
Herbs/Scents: Coca leaves, peach (men), plum (women), sandalwood, yerba mate
Minerals: Citrine, gold, lapis lazuli, quartz
1. Assemble your tools and get into a meditative state.
2. Read a section of your textbook, and then, in your heart space, see the spirit of your memory (however you envision it) and teach it the knowledge. Do not teach it verbatim, but rather, explain the information to your memory as if you were teaching a child. Break it down into simple, relatable ideas, giving symbolic examples if necessary.
3. Once you have instructed your memory to record the teaching session, thank it and ask it to save the information for test day.
4. On test day, return to your heart space and ask your memory to replay the lessons as you complete the exam.
This spell, though simple, has a profound effect in enhancing memory. Our subconscious understands signs and symbols better than direct statements of information. It is surprising how much better we can recall knowledge when described to our subconscious memory through the signs and symbols of analogies and “speaking our own language” rather than the long-winded jargon of academia. Of course, this spell relies quite heavily on the information you give to your subconscious. While you will see a markedly more profound ability to recall information, if that information was not correct to begin with, then being able to recall it won’t suddenly make it correct.