The Veneration
of Death
“You only live twice. Once when you are born
and once when you look death in the face.”
— ian fleming, you only live twice
Up to this point, you have been learning various aspects of La Santa Muerte, her devotion, and her magic only in the context of separate pieces of information. But nothing in the world exists in a vacuum. Everything in life interacts with everything else, whether or not humans are fully conscious of it or understand it.
For most magical traditions around the world, everything comes together within the sacred space of a ritual. But for the Santa Muerte tradition, this is not the case. There are no grand rituals, no grand ceremonies, and no grand anything that puts all the pieces together in one uniting act for the purposes of veneration and spellwork.
Why are there no grand rituals or ceremonies? Well, it’s because Santa Muerte magic is, essentially, practical magic. With a large number of devotees being among the working poor, most do not have the time to set aside and engage in a ritual nor the economic means for all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with ceremony. Moreover, an even larger number of devotees are the outcasts and unwanted who live on the margins of society. To these people, the participation in ritual and ceremony brings to mind too many bad memories and negative associations of both high society and the religious traditions that have shunned and ostracized them.
In general, devotees of the mystery school of La Santa Muerte try not to draw much attention to their faith. For most nondevotees, the devotion to Death is misunderstood and seen in a negative light. Death, by and large, scares people, and it is far easier to just keep that part of our life a secret known only to a trusted few rather than convince the world that the veneration of Death and necromantic spellwork can be a positive and self-empowering experience. To those few devotees who openly practice their faith, I have the utmost respect and admiration. In a world trying to conform you, being yourself is a supreme act of rebellion, and only through example will the world learn the benevolent magic of La Santa Muerte.
Altars
The most common form of ritual in the Santa Muerte tradition is the altar. Most magical practitioners have altars dedicated to their patron deity or deities, and even followers of more traditional faiths have similar altars, such as those dedicated to the Virgin Mary or Our Lady of Guadalupe. However, the altar of a magical practitioner doubles as a workbench for spellwork while such Marian altars are purely devotional.
When it comes to the specifics of altars, there really aren’t any. Each altar varies from person to person in style, purpose, and aesthetic. They can be as large or as small as you like, and they can be made from materials and objects ranging from a specially crafted table to the top of a chest of drawers to just a space on the floor. The rule is “use what you can,” and so long as you make an altar with respect and love, it becomes a sacred space no matter what or where it is.
But while personalization is encouraged, there are three unwritten rules for creating an altar that all devotees follow. First, the altar must be only dedicated to La Santa Muerte and her magic. Never is her altar to be shared with any other deities or magical traditions. If you have multiple patron deities, La Santa Muerte must remain separate and have her own altar.
Second, the altar should have some form of covering over the base material. The material of the covering does not matter (embroidered lace, blanket, sheets of paper towels, etc.) so long as it’s clean. While using a separating surface doesn’t actually have an effect upon the efficacy of spellwork, it is done as a sign of respect to La Santa Muerte. Much like the chivalrous act of a gentleman placing his coat over a puddle so that his lady may stay clean and dry, the same intention is behind the use of a separator on top of the altar.
Lastly, an image of La Santa Muerte must be present on the altar at all times. Most people prefer to use a statue or a statuette of her and place it in the back center of the altar, but this is only preference. I have seen altars where devotees have simply printed out a picture from the Internet and used that, and I’ve also seen altars where concert T-shirts depicting the skeleton-themed album cover of a heavy metal band were used as the main depiction. The black and white aspects are generally the most common ones, but really, any color aspect of her is perfectly acceptable.
All other altar adornments are purely optional. Flowers, candles, and photos of loved ones are common things found on an altar, but usually the decorations of an altar are materials left over from spellwork.
Offerings
Offerings, in broad strokes, are essentially gifts to La Santa Muerte that are apart from both spellwork and decoration. Depending on whom you ask, you’ll hear various rules about what is and is not acceptable as an offering to Death, but the truth is that there really are no rules on what constitutes an appropriate offering or even how to correctly offer it. So long as the offering is given out of respect and love, it is acceptable. Most people tend just to say a silent prayer and place the offering on their altar, but ultimately, like all gifts, it is the intention behind the act of giving that is more important than the presentation or gift itself.
With that said, when offering a gift to La Santa Muerte, the question a devotee must ask him- or herself is, “Would I like to receive this as a gift?” This means that if we are giving her something simply because we don’t know what else to do with it, because we want to get rid of it, or because we are “re-gifting” it, then it is better not to give her the gift at all. Remember, her magic is co-creational magic, and we must establish a relationship with her in order to be able to work together. After all, if you had a friend who only gave you things as an excuse to get rid of stuff or as a pretense for other motives, is that person really your friend?
The most common examples of offerings among modern practicing devotees of La Santa Muerte are cigarettes, alcohol, and flowers. Cigarettes are the most common, and they are given in one of two ways: lit and left to burn in an ashtray or exhaling the smoke into her face on a statue or in a photograph. This gift is seen as communal because this same offering would be given to any other friend of the devotee through the lending of a cigarette. The gift giver and La Santa Muerte are, essentially, sharing a smoke together. To outside observers, the blowing of smoke into her face can come across as extremely rude, but within the magical community, this is a common practice. Since she obviously cannot physically inhale the cigarette, the devotee is assisting her and doing it for her. Needless to say, this offering is exclusive to smokers, since a person who is repulsed by cigarettes would never offer them to a friend, let alone their patron deity.
Alcohol is tied with cigarettes as the other most commonly offered gift. The gifting of alcohol is an age-old devotional, especially to the departed. As mentioned earlier, the French legend of the mineral amethyst tells of how it got its purple coloration when Dionysus poured out his wine as an offering to the deceased lover of Artemis. Even in modern times, this is a common practice, often seen in urban environments where a can or bottle of alcohol is poured onto the street or sidewalk in honor of a deceased loved one.
The selection of which type of alcohol to offer is usually based on the deceased’s drink of choice while alive. On Santa Muerte altars, we most often see tequila, rum, and beer. However, this is more of a culturally preferential selection due to the devotional community’s Latino (and specifically Mexican) majority. When offering alcohol to La Santa Muerte, the standard amount to pour is usually no more than necessary to fill a shot glass. As with cigarettes, though, devotees who are adverse to alcohol consumption should not offer alcohol to their patron deity because, outside of magic, they would never offer a drink to their own friends.
Though not as common as cigarettes and alcohol, flowers are a popular choice that all devotees can agree upon as an appropriate offering. As discussed in the previous chapter, each plant has its own energy and magic, but these properties and correspondences should not factor into whether a certain plant would make an acceptable gift. Aesthetic is the only quality you should consider for flowers given as an offering. If you think a flower is beautiful or if it has some special significance to you, it is a perfect flower for an offering. Some devotees like to fill a vase, others like to leave a single flower, but regardless of preference, the offering has the same value.
Unique to the Santa Muerte tradition, devotees will often offer wilted and dried flowers to symbolize death. This is perfectly acceptable given Santa Muerte’s domain, and even if a fresh flower is given, it can remain on the altar as an offering long after it has faded. Nevertheless, be mindful to eventually remove the flowers once they have been there “long enough” to avoid being negligent and using the altar as a place to discard things.
But still, why do we give offerings to La Santa Muerte? We know that her supreme neutrality prevents us from being able to curry favor from her, and we also know that offerings are separate from spellwork. So why do we do it? It’s not like Death needs these things. The answer is simple: we do it because she is our friend. Gift-giving is a natural part of a friendship. It helps strengthen and maintain the relationship. If we look at our own relationships with our friends, we can see that those with whom we have the closest bonds are the ones with whom we exchange gifts more often. The Santa Muerte tradition is all about making the Spirit of Death a friend and companion in our everyday life. Regarding her as some nebulous, mysterious, and unapproachable force placed on a pedestal simply prevents us from developing a relationship with her.
In the end, the types of offerings and the frequency with which offerings are given are entirely dependent upon the preference of the devotee. Expensive and ornate gifts are not needed to develop a relationship with La Santa Muerte. The price of a gift does not equate how much you appreciate the other person. If all we can afford is a single flower growing out of the sidewalk that we picked ourselves, then so long as it is given with love, it is a wonderful gift. Often, personalized gifts are the most treasured, but even so, do not feel obliged to give a gift if finances are tight. If forced to make the choice between paying the rent and keeping your Santa Muerte altar filled with fresh roses, by all means, skip out on the roses and pay the rent. Remember, self-denial is not a virtue, and though we may work magic on the spiritual level, we still live on the earthly level.
As with anything else, be mindful of your offering. Leaving lit cigarettes and glasses of alcohol in the presence of pets, children, and people trying to free themselves from addiction is never a good idea, and even with plants, make sure they are not toxic if accidentally consumed or touched by a pet or child. Disregarding safety and the needs of others automatically makes any offering to La Santa Muerte superficial, selfish, and vain.
Communal Death
Because these altars to the devotion of Death are almost always located in the home, they are designed for solitary practice of magic in the Santa Muerte community. Due to the stigma modern society places on death, magic, and anything not well understood by mainstream culture, most devotees are solitary practitioners. Nevertheless, there is a growing movement for a more communal approach to the devotion of Death.
In part I, we discussed the two most well-known groups: the ISCAT Mex-U.S.A, and Doña Queta’s informal gatherings in Mexico City. But if we look in any region of the world that has a large Mexican immigrant population, we will find surreptitious ceremonies dedicated to the Spirit of Death. Usually, such a ceremony is called a “Mass,” and, as the name suggests, is similar to the Catholic Mass held in churches on Sundays. For the most part, these Masses are informal, like those of Doña Queta, and because of the lack of dogma and a unified theology, each Mass is performed differently depending who is leading it.
Regardless of the leader, though, the essence of the Santa Muerte Mass revolves around communal prayer. The oldest and/or most experienced devotee leads the group in prayers, and sometimes this leader of the Mass gives a small anecdotal talk about Santa Muerte’s ability to work miracles to bolster the faith of those present. To those familiar with Roman Catholicism, the Santa Muerte Masses are very similar to Catholic Masses, except without a holy text and without the transubstantiation of the Eucharist. The reason for the heavy Catholic influence in these Masses, again, originates from the community’s predominately Mexican (and more specifically Catholic) cultural roots. With the mystery school’s lack of a formulated group devotion ceremony or ritual, these devotees used what they knew and adapted it for their own religious purposes.
In larger cities, there are public temples and churches dedicated to the devotion of La Santa Muerte. These temples are usually Santa Muerte–specific esoteric stores and information centers that double as places of worship through weekly Masses held at night, though daytime Masses are starting to become more popular to accommodate the growing number of devotees’ schedules. Because the community is largely made up of Spanish-speaking people, the Masses are almost always in Spanish.
I highly suggest attending at least one Mass if possible. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, the atmosphere and communal energy will be apparent, electrifying, and different from any communal gathering you have experienced. Newer initiates will usually feel intimidated and even a bit scared, but this is normal, and the regular attendees will understand this. At the back of the book, I list a few of the more well-known Santa Muerte temples and shops in the United States so you can check them out for yourself. But even if you live in an area where there are no temples or the thought of going to a Mass reeks of unwanted Catholicism in your belief system, that is perfectly fine, too. Attendance of the Mass is not necessary, and only a small minority of devotees participate in them. As with many practices in the mystery school of La Santa Muerte, the Mass is just one way of expressing devotion to Death, but never is it the only way.
Be warned, though—like all organized institutions, some temples and churches dedicated to La Santa Muerte may be more dogmatic and closed to outsiders than others. Different ones will have different rules and protocol, and some may even have a hierarchy of clergy ingrained into the establishment. One memorable example of such differences occurred when I went out to the various Santa Muerte temples and churches in Los Angeles to do additional research for this book. My friend (who first dared me to walk into a Santa Muerte church) and I initially went to a very well-known temple in Hollywood, only to be met by a grungy looking man in a stained tank top and very revealing red boxer shorts. This man had an ego like no one’s business and referred to himself in the third person as the “High Father/Priest” of the temple. After he attempted to play mind games and threatened to hex my friend and me, the two of us left, realizing he was probably not the best person from whom to receive objective information.
Nevertheless, a few blocks away in downtown L.A., another Santa Muerte church was very welcoming toward us. Noticing that my friend and I were not regular members of this particular church, a few priestesses showed us around, gave us a tour of the grounds, and offered to answer any questions we might have had. They were particularly excited when we told them that we were doing some additional research for an English-language Santa Muerte book, telling us that they would greatly welcome any new church members who felt called to the veneration of the Most Holy Death. Their kindness and helpfulness was a total 180 degrees from the temple in Hollywood that we had just visited, and if it wasn’t for all the Santa Muerte statues, candles, and artwork in both locations, their contrasting actions could have easily been confused for completely different faiths.
Meeting Death
Now, before I end this chapter and begin part III, where you will manifest specific spells based on all you have learned thus far, one more exercise is necessary. As you’ve already read countless times, it is mandatory to establish a relationship with La Santa Muerte before being able to co-create magic with her. So far, you have learned many things, but you have yet to meet her.
This might sound morbid, but in reality, one does not need to die to meet Death. The exercise below is a meditation on meeting Death. Once you have met her, you may go on to part III and begin to co-create magic, but if you skip this step, the magic you attempt to co-create will ultimately be in vain, or worse, horridly backfire in ways unimaginable.
First, a brief note on meditation. Meditation is not necessarily a practice that entails hours of silent focus on attaining enlightenment. It most certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to be. In its simplest sense, meditation is an act of clearing the mind. Spiritually, one could say that it is “listening” to God, the universe, the Tao. Scientifically, one could say that it is the conscious change of brainwave cycles, measured in cycles per second, or hertz (Hz).
In our wakeful state, our brains are usually in a beta state (13–30 Hz). A bit slower and we enter alpha state (8–13 Hz), the level of brain activity associated with daydreaming or those times when we are “spacing out” between the physical world and our mental world. Even more slow is the theta state (4–8 Hz), where we feel drowsy or are in a very light sleep. The slowest level is known as delta state (0–4 Hz), and this is the state where we experience deep sleep, rapid eye movements (REM), and dreams.63
Through meditation, we attempt to consciously control our brainwave cycles and, thus, enter into different levels of consciousness. To put it more poetically, we are wakefully creating a “dream state” wherein our subconscious and the universe speak to us and we can remember all that was said. As mentioned earlier, the Divine speaks to us through our subconscious, and by meditating, we are consciously tuning our brains to a frequency where we can hear the Divine.
That, in a general sense, is the essence of meditation. The slower you can get your brainwave cycles to be, the more vivid your meditational experience will be. Naturally, this will take time and practice, but not as long as you might think. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day is as much meditation as I would recommend for a new devotee and those unfamiliar with meditation. Within a week, one’s level of profundity will increase.
So take time now to perform this meditational exercise. I know the urge to begin co-creating magic and starting to do spellwork is very strong, but unless you have met La Santa Muerte, you will never get the results you are looking for. Keep doing this meditation daily (preferably around the same time) until you have had a vivid experience in meeting her. Trust me, you will know when you have met her, and if you are ever unsure, then you probably haven’t. An encounter with Death is undeniable. And for those who are frightened to have such an encounter, then the magic of La Santa Muerte is not for them.
In your meditation, talk with Death, listen to her, and most importantly ask for her blessing to be able to co-create magic with her. This blessing will be the most powerful aid you could ever have in all your magical workings. Be prepared for the unexpected, and I will see you again in part III after you have had your encounter with Death herself.
Exercise 2: Meditation to Meet Death
1. Find a comfortable place free of distractions where you can be alone.
2. Sit in a comfortable position with your back straight.
3. Relax your body and close your eyes. Try to look at the center of your brow (third-eye chakra) without putting strain on your eyeballs.
4. Following the rhythm of your heartbeat, count down from 10 to 1, lowering your visual consciousness after each number. Imagine your conscious center (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brain) is descending into your body from your head toward your heart with each heartbeat, like how an elevator slowly descends from floor to floor.
5. When you feel as if your conscious center is at heart level, imagine a door that leads into your heart. On the other side of this door, there is an empty void where everything is possible.
6. Open the door, and step inside.
7. Focus on the void. Various thoughts will come into your mind, but do not focus on them. Simply allow them to come and go like clouds floating on the breeze. Eventually, they will disappear of their own accord, and the void will be all that is left upon which to focus.
8. From this void, ask that Death appear in a form recognizable to you. She may come as La Santa Muerte, she may come as another deity of death, or she may even come in an appearance that only makes sense to you. Be open to anything. You will know her when you meet her.
9. If she does not appear to you, take it as a sign that you may require more meditational practice and end the meditation.
10. If she does appear, speak with her and ask for her blessing to co-create magic in her tradition. But most of all, listen to her. Listen to her wisdom, warnings, and advice. Keep the conversation simple and light. As with any first encounter with a new friend, the deeper and more profound questions are usually left unsaid and saved for when closer bonds have been forged. When she leaves, thank her for the encounter.
11. In the void, turn around and imagine seeing that same door through which you entered. Open it, and see yourself back at heart level in your body.
12. With each heartbeat, count up from 1 to 10, rising back up from your heart to your head with each number.
13. Slowly open your eyes and stand up. Do something that grounds you back to normal waking consciousness (having a bite to eat, taking a sip of something to drink, light shaking, etc.).
14. When you feel you are ready, superficially wipe your body down three times from the top of your head to your groin and then outward as if you are brushing dust off of yourself in three long strokes. On the first stroke, wipe your front, saying, “I am in balance with myself.” On the second stroke, simultaneously wipe each side with each hand, saying, “I am in balance with the universe (the Tao, the Divine, etc.).” Lastly, wipe your backside, saying, “I wipe away all that does not serve my highest good.” This is important since in a deep meditational state, unwanted energy may have entered your “lowered” consciousness.
Note: This meditation is a combined adaptation of meditational techniques as taught by the ancient/alternative Christianity philosopher B. Dave Walters, the Cabot Kent Hermetic Temple and its students, as well as my own personal style. The exercise as written above comes from my own practice of getting into a meditative state of consciousness. As you become more proficient in meditation, feel free to deviate from the specifics of this exercise and make it your own. If you are already an experienced practitioner of meditation, feel free to use whichever technique you are accustomed to using. The technique is not so important as the end result of meeting Death.
63. Nigel F. Huddleston, “Brain Wave States and How To Access Them,” Synthesis Learning. http://synthesislearning.com/article/brwav.htm (accessed May 7, 2015).