17
Basic Beliefs of
Brujer’a/Curanderismo
Brujería and Curanderismo differ from Granny Magic and Hoodoo in that the teaching and apprenticeship processes are less centered on hierarchy. Although there is a designated teacher, the mindset is that the teacher will learn from the student as well as the student learning from the teacher, which levels the playing field in the relationship in everything but experience level.
Brujería and Curanderismo are not limited by boundaries of cultural, racial, or ancestral entitlement. One is born a bruja or curandera or they are not, regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or lineage. If a person identifies as a curandera or bruja and demonstrates an aptitude for magic and healing, they are welcomed into and warmly accepted by the Hispanic magical community. The concept of a “calling” or being born with the compulsion to heal and work magic for others is a time-honored practice within the culture. This is exclusive of any other identifying markers such as race, culture, or social class.
For many who are called to study Brujería or Curanderismo, there is a sense of “coming home,” as though they always knew this was what they were meant to do and they relate to the lifestyle and techniques in a way that is almost supernatural. There is a feeling of fitting in and rightness that permeates the learning and adapting process when a person feels they are meant to be in the practice. This is the energy that the brotherhood and sisterhood of Brujería and Curanderismo honor.
This stark difference from the territorialism of the Hoodoo world was a blessing for which I was personally ill-prepared. When I first received my calling as a bruja, I was concerned that the Hispanic and Latino community would reject me outright for being basically the whitest person on earth. My fears were ill-founded, and once I set up shop and began my practice, they embraced me as a sister, a mother, and a friend. In the years I have practiced as a bruja, never once have I felt maligned, marginalized, belittled, disrespected, or unwelcome in the Hispanic/Latino community. They even tolerate my limited pidgin Spanish and work hard to communicate effectively with me.
When I began my public practice, members of the Hispanic community around my shop stepped up to help, advising me in the subtle, unwritten traditions of practice that are impossible to find anywhere unless you just know. For instance, it was my inclination as a business owner to quietly advertise my presence in other local businesses that catered to the Hispanic community. One of my advisors, with a panicked expression, warned me I should never do so, because, culturally, it is the act of the novice or charlatan to advertise. He assured me that knowledge of my presence and the quality of my work would spread by word of mouth and, in fact, already had.
“Just be patient, mi amiga,” he insisted. “Be patient and it will happen.” He was correct and saved me from a major cultural faux pas.
A few months into my active practice, an elderly woman came into the shop to update me on the positive results of a limpia (ritual cleansing) I performed on her grandson. As she excitedly told me of his progress, she said, “We are so glad you are here.” I was surprised by this high praise coming from an elder in the community and shared with her my concerns of the community feeling I was appropriating their culture. Her eyes got big and she said, “Oh no! We LOVE our Gringa Bruja.” That made me laugh and is how I acquired my working name, “Gringa Bruja.”
Within five hundred feet of my shop, there was a second botánica run by a woman who is fully Latina. Our relationship was warm and cooperative, and we frequently sent customers to and from one another. I am forever grateful that this loving culture welcomed their Gringa Bruja with open arms. I have found this attitude to be prevalent within the Hispanic magical community and not just in my own geographical area. Since my calling and subsequent immersion into the practice several years ago, I have seen no discrimination or rejection of non-Hispanic or non-Christian people who are called to practice the art. If you are called and enter the process with good intent, you are welcomed.
Brujería and Curanderismo are apprenticed paths, and most of the time when a person receives the call to work as a bruja or curandero, the teacher appears. Both teacher and student are well tuned to know when the student is ready to work independently, and a synchronized and simpatico understanding flows between them, provided the student-teacher dynamic is solid. One of the first things one learns in the study of Brujería is that there is no room for ego. One must place oneself aside in deference to the needs of the client and the demands of the spirit world. This mindset also influences the teacher-student relationship, in which ego of being the educated and experienced teacher is less important than the shared learning experience between the two.
Brujería is defined as the living, continual magical and spiritual path of Mesoamerica (Mexico) that dates to the beginning of Aztec civilization. It is an oral tradition passed on from teacher to apprentice, and to this day, very little instruction is available in written form. Mary Devine wrote a book called The Magic of Mexico that is one of the few books available in English on the subject. Most of my own study came from books translated out of Spanish by my husband and relayed to me verbally. Even in the Spanish language, few books exist outlining the details of the practice.
Channeling supernatural entities, those that once lived as humans and those that were never incarnate, is a key component to both Brujería and Curanderismo. A common practice is to channel gifted healers who have passed on into death. El Niño Fidencio and Aurorita are two of these healers who often appear to curanderas to summon them into practice or who are deliberately sought out in spirit form to direct their talents to the working curandera.
Both Fidencio and Aurorita have cult-like groups of worshippers who work exclusively with those ancestral energies. Followers of Fidencio are called “Fidencistas.” They are exclusively vegetarians with tremendous reverence for flowers and other plant life. Their ambition is to cultivate happiness and spiritualism throughout the world.
Niño Fidencio was a nineteenth-century healer who performed surgery without tools or anesthesia, reportedly with no pain to the patient. He performed many miracles, such as healing lame patients so they could walk and blind patients so they could see.
Aurorita was a child healer who died in a house fire at the age of six. In the nineteenth century, she performed many miracles of record in Monterrey, Mexico, and is a potent healing spirit.
Teresa Urrea, also referenced as “Teresita” or “Santa Teresa of Cabora” is a famous nineteenth-century curandera who received divine healing abilities and visions from the Virgin Mary following a serious illness. Ultimately, thousands of people sought her out for healing and blessings. Although the Catholic church does not reference any of these healers as officially canonized saints, they are venerated as folk saints in the Mexican culture.
Martyrdom is a strong component of Curanderismo, and many curanderas see literally hundreds of patients in a single day. Some healers die from the symptoms of exhaustion. Within the Latin and Hispanic communities, a strong religious significance lies in the concept of suffering to gain. Specifically, the imitation of the suffering of Christ or of the saints is a common theme.
Pilgrimages are a frequent component, often with the penitents crawling on their knees or rolling on their sides (like a logroll) to the shrine or other target of the pilgrimage. Holy statues are decorated and processed through crowds, held aloft and venerated as part of these sacred journeys. Pilgrims ritualistically ingest dirt from the area of the shrine, either on its own or in tonics, to carry the blessings of the holy place within their bodies for healing or spiritual sanctity.
While some of the practices of the curanderos, devotees, and brujos may, like those of rootworkers and granny doctors, seem foreign or primitive to the viewpoint of modern society, the experience is something one truly must live to understand. To judge the presented spiritual expression without feeling firsthand the energy of the veneration profoundly minimizes the impact and emotion of the experience. One can say the same about nearly any spiritual or religious rites and observations. There is a spirit that flows through such venerations that defies explanation or description.
Mexican American healers give the same consideration to the physical and mundane causes for illness as they do to the supernatural causes. If the client’s problem is of a supernatural cause and is merely manifesting as physical symptoms, treating only the physical symptoms will not cure the root problem. Many curanderas and brujas believe that the root cause of most mental illnesses is the failure to address a spiritual problem manifesting as a physical problem. Such a condition might be caused either by an attack, such as mal de ojo (the evil eye) or the development of some spiritual upheaval deriving from guilt, jealousy, depression, or frustration.
Dis-ease, in this set of cultural beliefs, is caused by dis-harmony, within the spirit, the mind, the body, or some imbalance in the essential communication between the three. That disharmony might be something as simple as germ theory: the patient became ill from exposure to a virus or some type of bacteria. There may also be a shadow aspect of the disease that comes from a spiritual or mental disturbance and manifests in physical form. This spiritual aspect of illness, its shadow side, is their explanation for why illnesses often strike one person in a family and not everyone. An illness of physical cause is random, but an illness of spiritual cause is deeply personal.
The healer must also evaluate the patient from a socioeconomic and environmental perspective. Illness has a different effect on a person who provides for a large family than it does for a child who is dependent on his or her parents. For this reason, all aspects—physical, spiritual, psychological, environmental, and social—hold essential clues to the cause of symptoms, which in turn inform the most effective treatment and cure for the condition.
Curanderas and brujas believe that no illness caused by magical means is incurable. It must, however, first be discovered and named to be cured. The standard thought is, “What can be done to a person can be undone.”
Brujería and Curanderismo work far more cooperatively with modern medicine than modern medicine works with them. The brujo and curandero’s biggest complaint and concern about the mainstream medical approach is its limited view that a patient’s physical symptoms should only be evaluated and treated on a physical level. Mainstream caregivers typically do not investigate other levels of care unless and until all physical causes are ruled out. If the cause is found to be “psychosomatic,” the caregiver treats the patient as though they are at fault for their illness or tells them dismissively that the condition is “all in their head.” This is the exact opposite of the Curanderismo approach.
Curanderas and brujas view magic not as subjective or imaginary, but as empirical. It is observable, with results that are tested, trackable, evolving, duplicable, and just as reliable as any used in scientific healing. Science says, “If you apply healing practices A, B, and C, in that order, to condition X, you will usually, but not always, see result Y.” Magical healing espouses the exact same premise, but on a supernatural level. The bruja and curandera feels there is no more reason to doubt the efficacy of certain herbs, rituals, and incantations as there is to doubt that aspirin, rest, and fluids will reliably cure a headache. Just as medicinal cures are variable, often needing several different pharmaceutical and therapeutic approaches before finding the right treatment, so is magical healing variable.
In modern medicine, if a cure does not work, the treatment—or worse, the patient or condition—is blamed, rather than the caregiver. In Brujería and Curanderismo, the fault lies not with the cure or the magic, but with the healer. If they are unable to cure a person of a condition that affects their quality of life, it is because the healer did not explore all avenues of causation and determine the correct treatment.
Of the healing modalities employed by the curandero or brujo, the most common are the plática, the limpia, and the barrida.
A plática is an in-depth, nonjudgmental therapy session a bruja or a curandera has with a client, not only as part of the evaluation process, but also as an essential component of the healing process. During the plática, the client unburdens themselves to the healer, sharing their experiences that led them to their current dilemma, expressing accountability or denial of culpability for their actions, and identifying their goals and hopes for the future. If a client is not forthcoming, the healer might use alternative therapies, such as art or light hypnosis, to assist. The client is sometimes asked to present their dreams for analysis during this time. The plática creates an arena for trust between the healer and the clients so that further work may be done without inhibitions or boundaries. Part interview and part unburdening session, the plática is an important part of the healing process for both the healer and the client.
A limpia is an intense, ritualized, comprehensive cleansing of the mind, body, and spirit. The classic limpia involves cleansing with the smoke of burning herbs, the rolling of eggs, limes, or lemons on the body, and magical sprays and oils.
A barrida is like the limpia, but also incorporates a ritualized sweeping of the body using an actual broom or a bundle of specialized herbs. During the barrida or limpia, the healer tunes into the client completely, opening to any messages the body or divine forces send. Eggs, lemons, or limes are sometimes rolled over the client’s body with an emphasis on the lymphatic areas and any part of the body that the healer registers as contaminated.
The eggs, lemons, or limes absorb the negative energy from the body. As the healer rolls them over the body, he or she recites an incantation such as the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostle’s Creed. Traditionally, both the client and the healer remove all rings and any metal from their bodies during this process, as the metal can interrupt the flow of healing energy or redirect the energy from its intended target area. The healer also uses copious amounts of white sage smoke or palo santo smoke to assist with the cleansing, as well as various natural sprays and oils.
Following a detailed consultation, the limpia or barrida is traditionally the first step in healing. In most cases, with careful, concerted attention from the healer, this treatment is all that is needed to create balance and start the repair process in the body and spirit.
Invested as they are in the natural expressions of the Divine for healing, curanderos and brujos alike incorporate the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water into their practices. Fire provides direct communication with the supernatural forces and acts as an intermediary between humans and energies beyond the physical realm. Fire is used not only for scrying in coals, but as part of the purification process during a limpia or barrida.
Using a candle, the healer can trace crucitas, or “little crosses,” over the body of the person being cleansed, with attention paid to dark areas or parts of the body that feel energetically congested or off balance. The candle and heat never touch the patient, but are used to conduct healing energy to the afflicted areas.
Holy water provides a physical link to the spirit world and is used to anoint and bless people and tools. Oils and incenses (earth and air) please the spirit world and attract benevolent spirits to help with the healing process.
Although animal sacrifice is still occasionally used, many brujas and curanderas use an egg instead. The egg, representative of an animal cell, acts as an acceptable substitute for a live animal sacrifice. Eggs are especially effective in cases of mal de ojo (the evil eye). After cleansing, the egg is cracked into a jar, read as an oracle, and safely discarded. In my own practice, after using an egg to purify a client, I have seen the egg break to reveal contents that are black, red like blood, or putrefied, even though it was a known good egg at the start of the procedure.
A brujo or curandero may also be tasked with the job of cleaning a home, called “incensing” or just cleansing. This process is like Native American smudging and involves a systematic purging of all areas of the home using smoke (from burning sage or palo santo), holy water, specially created washes, and sometimes stones or crystals. Clients often seek this type of home healing after a death in the family, a divorce, during times of strife, or if they feel they have been crossed (cursed) by someone else.
In addition to these techniques, a curandero may utilize therapeutic massage and, in fact, employ what is now called “reflexology,” healing through acupressure applied to certain reactive areas on the soles of the feet and hands. In Mexico, this method of healing was used before any written history currently available and remains a vital component of Curanderismo. The specific liniments and ointments for the procedure are also sympathetic to the condition and lend herbal medicinal assistance.
Brewed teas using flowers, herbs, and roots are a primary component of the healing process, as are tinctures, concoctions, decoctions, salves, and oils. Valerian (valeriana), rue (ruta), chamomile (called manzanilla), borage (borraja), garlic (ajo), rosemary (romero), cannabis, orange blossoms, salvias, and other healing herbs are essential to the curandera and the bruja, often using recipes that date back into pre-history.
The curanderas believe that every person, animal, and object emits its own “vibraciones” (vibrations), which are in constant flux as the person, animal, or object absorbs vibraciones from the influences in the environment. This creates a steady flow of energy between all things and, most importantly, creates a mutable field in which the healer can work. The energy influences may be positive or negative, depending on the variables and the baseline energy inherent to the person, animal, or object. The energies of animals and objects, such as stones and crystals, can shift the energy of people and assist with the healing process. The material objects, such as stones of certain vibratory levels, can alter the body forces that cause illness or misfortune and commute them to heal instead of harm.
Many curanderos and brujos depend on trancework to take them between the worlds for communion with the spirits and the ancestors, as well as to channel the wisdom of healers who have passed on to death. In a shamanistic fashion, the curandera and bruja use a combination of trance and channeling to diagnose, prognosticate, and cure, as well as to manipulate various spiritual currents both in the body and outside of the patient.
Through these trances, the healer can often tell if someone has cursed or crossed the patient. Usually, if this is identified as the problem, the impression is that a brujo or bruja did so on the behalf of an enemy of the victim. In some practices, this means healing the victim by punishing the perpetrator. When the healer transmutes the energy of the curse to return it to the one who sent it, the patient’s symptoms often resolve. This type of work causes a curandero to walk a fine line that is very close to Brujería in purposefully inflicting damage onto a person through supernatural means.
If a client is cursed, one of the first things they want to know is the identity of the person who cursed them. Some brujos and curanderos, including myself, refuse to disclose the information, believing that the victim will not continue the healing process if they engage in retaliatory actions. The preferred response is to allow the energy to return to the sender and free the patient to heal properly.
A deliberate magical attack sent by another person may result in symptoms that are physical (manifesting as hives, boils, a wasting illness, or other condition), social (such as bad luck, car problems, marital conflict, difficult children, employment problems, or other forms of prolonged, serial misfortunes), or psychological (including nightmares, panic attacks, depression, paranoia, or other forms of mental breakdown or detriment).
In any of these signs of magical attack, cursing, or crossing, the curandero manages and treats the physical ailment, helps to resolve the social dysfunctions, offers treatment to reduce or resolve the psychological problems, provides magical work to relieve ongoing misfortune, and changes both the patient’s outlook and their prospects for the better. This is in addition to reversing the energy flow that caused the problems in the first place.
Common conditions of the mind, body, and spirit that a curandero might be asked to cure are:
Susto: A condition of spiritual or magical fright, very much like post-traumatic stress syndrome, resulting in symptoms resembling a panic attack, depression, and an inability to successfully resume normal life after a trauma. Treatment is a specific ritual involving a white sheet, a broom, and a limpia or barrida, accompanied by the recitation of the Apostle’s Creed. Ideally, treatment begins immediately after the trauma, preferably before the patient sleeps again.
Bilis: A condition of suppressed, inwardly directed anger and fear resulting in the creation of bile within the body. This causes gastrointestinal disorders, generalized anxiety, headaches, and appetite dysfunction. A bilis is treated with laxatives and purgatives in conjunction with a full limpia.
Muina: A condition of outwardly directed anger resulting in episodes of rage and violence that may cumulatively result in symptoms of physical ailment such as paralysis, loss of appetite, flushing, swelling of body parts, or physical deformities such as hunchback or a drawn arm. Anger is thought to poison the body over time and in the case of muina, the only way to discharge the rage is through a full limpia, repeated three or nine times, depending on the severity of the condition.
Empacho: A blockage in the intestines or stomach, usually caused by an undigested bolus of food. Symptoms include indigestion, vomiting, lack of appetite, diarrhea, or constipation. The condition is treated with emetics, laxatives, and a full limpia. A client might suffer an empacho from things left unsaid that should be said or from unrequited or imbalanced love in relationships.
Mal aire: A condition caused by chilly or nighttime air entering the body by breathing or through the skin. It manifests with flu-like symptoms, earache, or muscle soreness. Translating literally to “bad air,” mal aire is a supernatural cause of illness rather than a physical one and is thought to be caused by bad spirits in the air. Treatment is a full limpia and herbal cleansing tonics.
Mal de ojo: A condition resulting from a person, particularly an attractive or talented child, being admired or envied by someone else, without touching the object of their admiration or envy, to discharge the feeling. Touching the person/child in effect humanizes them and releases the envy felt by the other person. Without the touch, the object of the admiration may fall ill, requiring a specific type of cleansing to remove the evil eye. Treatment is an aggressive limpia and egg cleansing. Mal de ojo is common in young babies, resulting from the “What a cute baby!” forms of admiration. Fortunately, babies love egg cleansings and usually coo all the way through it and then take a long nap afterward.
These are examples of healing on a material level. To heal the above conditions, as well as actual physical ailments, injuries, or the results of a magical attack, the bruja or curandera uses common everyday items combined with traditional rituals, as described. They may ask for the intervention of and use images of various Catholic saints known to provide sympathetic healing to the condition causing the patient to seek out help. The healer must set up careful protection for the patient as the healing process takes place. While the client is undergoing treatment, their spirit is in flux and is thereby vulnerable to possession by evil entities.
Cooking and the use of foods to heal, particularly through cold and hot foods meant to address the temperatures of the humors in the body, may also be used to heal and administer certain herbal remedies. Religious symbols, candles, ribbons and cords, holy water and washes, incenses, teas, baths, and amulets are all part of the healing arsenal of the curandero and brujo.
Divination
Divination is a primary component to both Brujería and Curanderismo. Either of these practitioners may use forms of divination such as tarot cards, a standard poker deck, or the forty-card Mexican deck to obtain additional information about their patient, the condition, or the symptoms that caused the patient to seek help.
The level of smoke from the burning sage used during a limpia or a barrida is another form of divination often used, as is bibliomancy. Bibliomancy is the use of books in divination, usually a holy book such as the Bible. The healer anoints themselves, usually on the temples and palms, with an oil conducive to prophecy or psychic awareness. They connect with spirit or ancestral guides to assist them and close their eyes while holding the book and focusing on their question. Without opening their eyes, they run their hands over the closed book, over the cover, the spine, and the closed pages. They then gently move their fingers over the pages until they feel a tug or a draw to a certain location in the book. Still without looking, they open the book to that area and place their hands on the pages. They then run their hands over the pages until the find the passage that pulls their fingers to it. They put their finger on that passage, then open their eyes to read the selected words, which contain a message for them relating to the question they asked.
Another type of divination involves reading the ashes of a cigar or cigarette smoked by the healer, noting how the ash curls and what shape it takes when it drops away. This is similar to tea leaf reading.
A Tale of Two Sisters
The two primary holy figures of Mexican spirituality, both in Mexico and in the United States, are female. Although they are not at all related through either theology or mythology, their very polarity draws them into a light and dark contrast that is reflective of the dichotomy of Curanderismo and Brujería. The most venerated saint in this culture is Our Lady of Guadalupe, a cultural interpretation of the Virgin Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church aggressively demonizes the second most popular saint, refusing to acknowledge her as any kind of spiritual entity. Still, she remains not only a popular folk saint, but the focus of many cults and temples. Her name is Santa Muerte (Holy Death) or La Santisima Muerte (The Holiest Death).
While Our Lady of Guadalupe is the epitome of light, Santa Muerte is the Queen of Darkness. Guadalupe is pious and pure, while Santa Muerte is a party girl. Each saint commands her own devoted, extensive following.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a beautiful mixture of mythology and mystery. The most objective studies show her roots in the Mexican moon Goddess Tonantzin (Our Revered Mother), then later syncretized to the Virgin Mary after the Spanish conquest. She is the official patron saint of Mexico and is also known as the Queen of Mexico. Where crucifixes dominate the Catholic churches of the United States, in Mexico you will instead find representations of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
On December 9, 1531, a man named Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was walking in the Tepayac hills near Mexico City on his way to a Franciscan mission to receive religious instruction. Some legends identify him as a peasant, while others say he was a wealthy and influential man. A woman appeared to him and identified herself as the Holy Mother of Jesus. She requested a shrine erected in her honor at that location so that she could help the poor and afflicted who would make pilgrimages to it.
As requested, Juan Diego delivered the message to the acting bishop, Fray Juan Zumárraga, who told him that he needed to pray about the request and that he should return the next day. Disappointed by the lack of follow-through or interest on the part of the bishop, Juan Diego returned to the same location and the woman appeared to him again. He told her about his failure and suggested she find someone of greater worth and influence to act on her behalf.
She insisted that he was the one to undertake the task and asked him to return to the bishop and repeat her request. The next day, after a period of prayer and contemplation, the bishop was more amenable to the request, but insisted on a sign to prove the vision was authentic.
Juan Diego returned to the site later that day and the Virgin again appeared, telling him to come back the following day for his proof. Unfortunately, Juan Diego’s uncle fell gravely ill and he was tasked to go find a priest to hear his uncle’s deathbed confession and administer last rites. Juan Diego knew this task would prevent him from returning as the woman ordered, so he took a different route into town hoping to avoid her. She intercepted him anyway, asking him what he was doing and why he was avoiding her. When he explained his dilemma, she replied saying, “No estoy yo aqui que soy tu madre?” (“Am I not here, I who am your mother?”)
She assured him that his uncle was already recovered and instructed him to climb a nearby hill and collect the flowers growing there. He did as she said and was surprised to find a field of flowers growing where there had previously been only cacti and scrub. With his cloak, called a tilma, still tied around his neck, he gathered the flowers into its folds and returned to her. She rearranged the flowers and told him to take them to the bishop.
He did so the same day, and when he opened his cloak in front of the bishop and other holy men assembled in the room, the flowers fell out onto the floor, revealing an image of the Virgin Mary stained onto the tilma, presumably by the flowers.
Juan Diego returned home to find his uncle not only recovered, but telling his own story of seeing a vision of the Mother of Christ who instructed him to tell the bishop of his miracle healing and that she now wished to be called “Guadalupe.”
Now fully convinced, the bishop got to work and on December 26, 1531, Our Lady of Guadalupe had her first shrine constructed on the site where she appeared. It was a hastily-built monument that would change over the years. From that day forward, the tilma worn by Juan Diego has been displayed at the shrine, which is now a great basilica visited by more than twenty million pilgrims each year. Inscribed over the main entrance of the basilica are the words Guadalupe said to Juan Diego: “No estoy yo aqui que soy tu madre?” Juan Diego himself was canonized as Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 2002.
All that sounds like so much fanciful fairy tale and parable; however, the tilma Juan Deigo wore is itself a supernatural phenomenon that continues to defy scientific explanation.
It is made of the poor quality, rough surface, cactus-based material that was common to cloaks of the 1500s. The image of Guadalupe, on the other hand, is said to be “like silk.” The image is not just a blotchy, ink blot-type rendering that may or may not be a female form if you squint and look at it sideways. This is no “Christ’s image in a piece of burnt toast” grade of a miracle. The image is a very elaborate, intricate figure with meticulous detail, reminiscent of the Italian frescos. The colors are iridescent and shift hue depending on where you stand as you view it.
Infrared examination shows no brush strokes or undersketching to indicate it is a painting. The creation of such a detailed artistic work without the use of any undersketching in a pre-digital art era is basically impossible and scientists quite literally cannot explain how it was made. A biophysicist from Florida, Phillip Callahan, conducted an extensive study of the tilma and his analysis is, “Such a technique would be an impossible accomplishment in human hands” (Sennott, 53).
The image has no animal or mineral elements known to humans and synthetic colors did not exist in 1531. From the time it came into Fray Juan Zumárraga’s hands on December 12, 1531 when Juan Diego untied it from around his own neck until the present time, there is no known compromise to the line of custody of the tilma.
Artists attempted to authentically replicate the tilma many times, but the original consistently outlives the duplicates. The best copy remained under glass, displayed next to the original, and disintegrated in only eight years’ time. In contrast, the original was displayed fully exposed to air for over one hundred and sixteen years and is now over four hundred and seventy-five years old. The natural life of a cloak of this material from that time is approximately thirty years.The tilma also maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
A Peruvian ophthalmologist magnified the image by 2,500 times and determined that within the eyes, there are as many as thirteen different human figures depicted. According to legend, there were thirteen people in the room when Juan Diego opened his tilma for the Bishop.
In 1709, a worker was cleaning the glass over the tilma and accidentally spilled a strong nitric acid cleaning solvent onto a large portion of the tilma. The acid should have immediately eaten away the image, but the image restored itself over the next thirty days and today is unscathed. Stains from the accident are evident in the areas of the tilma that do not have the image.
In 1921, an activist hid a bomb containing twenty-nine sticks of dynamite in a pot of roses and placed it before the tilma. The bomb exploded, shattering 150 feet of windows behind the tilma and twisting a nearby marble altar rail and a brass crucifix out of shape. The tilma and its protective glass were unharmed.
Astrologers studied the configuration of stars on the robe of the figure in the image and determined that they are arranged in exact replication of the constellations in the sky on December 12, 1531.
It is unknown why the figure in the tilma’s image is clearly Indian or Hispanic in appearance when the Virgin Mary, according to the Bible, was Jewish.
Each year on December 12, the date of her first appearance to Don Juan, approximately six million people participate in the annual pilgrimage to view the tilma and pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Her basilica in Mexico is the most visited Catholic shrine in the world.
La Santisima Muerte
She is known as La Niña Blanca (the white girl), La Flaquita (the skinny girl), La Dama Poderosa (the powerful woman), La Huesuda (the bony lady), and Santísima Muerte (most holy saint of death), but originally, she was Mictecacihuatl (Lady of the land of the dead). Her followers speak of her with reverence and a smile, while others cross themselves and revile her.
She, above all others, is my patrona … my own patron saint.
The first day of every month, between two and four thousand devotees of La Santisima Muerte visit a shrine to her, located at a modest home in Tepito, Mexico. They bring her offerings, pray to her, touch the glass that separates them from her image, and hold hands to link contact between her shrine and those who cannot get close enough to experience her.
The home belongs to Doña Queta, also known as Enriqueta Romero, who in 2001, on a whim, erected a shrine to the folk saint in her front window, including a human-sized statue of Santa Muerte. What happened next was unprecedented. Devotees took notice and came out of the woodwork, flocking to the home to pay homage the honored saint of death.
Actual tracking of this saint’s veneration is unclear, because until the shrine went up in Tepito, there was no public admission of her worship. Doña Queta is a typical devotee and says she has prayed to Santa Muerte since she was twelve years old. She is now in her seventies. This sort of underground following is common to Santa Muerte and makes it impossible to determine how long she has been the focus of such reverence.
She is one of the few saints with no human counterpart. She never lived and is based on no living person. She is the Grim Reaper. Tomás Prower, author of La Santa Muerte: Unearthing the Magic & Mysticism of Death, points out that when we see the Grim Reaper, all we ever see are bones and a hooded cloak. There is no gender distinction in the skeletal form, and yet the automatic assumption is that the Grim Reaper is male.
This is thought to come from the association of males as destroyers and takers of lives on the battlefield and when hunting. A competing thought, however, is that if females are the givers of life, then they might also be the ones who usher us out of the life they gave to us. In short, the Grim Reaper could just as easily be female as male.
Santa Muerte is not to be confused with Catrina, the famous sugar skull drawing made famous by artist Jose Guadalupe Posada during the Mexican Revolution to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Catrina is also a skeletal form, but she was drawn as a political commentary to mock the second wife of Porfirio Diaz who served as the President of Mexico for thirty-one years and was criticized for living lavishly while his constituents starved. Catrina is invariably dressed as a socialite in fabulous style.
Images such as Catrina, used to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and honor the beloved dead, are unaffiliated with Santa Muerte. She is also sometimes erroneously equated with the Santerían Orisha Oya, who serves as the guardian of the cemetery gates. Oya is the cemetery; Santa Muerte is death itself.
Since 2005, it has been illegal in Mexico, although not in the United States, to start a church with any version of “Santa Muerte” in the name. In March of 2009, a Mexican army destroyed more than forty shrines to Santa Muerte along the Mexico-United States border. The Catholic Church refuses to acknowledge Santa Muerte as an official saint and, in fact, is the force behind much of the propaganda to denigrate and malign her.
Ironically, the reason for all this national hostility toward Santa Muerte is her own benevolence. She is devoid of judgment toward any form of human behavior and is consequently associated with criminals, drug cartels, prostitutes, and the undesirable fringe elements of society. To her, anything we do as humans is simply an expression of humans being human. Nothing we do can ever compare to what she will do to us when she closes our eyes for the final time, and therefore, anything we do pales in comparison and is irrelevant. She has no concept of good or evil. She serves humankind as a powerful and intense force, as does death itself.
Her boredom and indifference with what we think of as degenerate or criminal behavior draws in the marginalized, the unrepentant, and those seeking power over others. In a pivotal scene in the AMC television show Breaking Bad, the Cousins, representatives of and hitmen from a Mexican drug cartel, join a pilgrimage to Santa Muerte, crawling on the ground in expensive suits and fancy boots, to one of her shrines. They then pin a photograph of “Heisenberg,” the show’s anti-hero, onto her robes as a request that she eliminate their enemy. For many Americans watching this popular show, this was their first and possibly only exposure to Santa Muerte.
She has a strong LGBTQ following, due to her accepting nature and total lack of discrimination. She demands no sacrifice, but works better if one is given. Common offerings are the items she enjoys: candy, marijuana joints, hard liquor (especially tequila) in tiny, airline bottles or shot glasses, money, games, chocolate, tobacco, or flowers. Rituals to honor her range from the simple lighting of a candle with jaculatoria (short prayers) to novenas (nine-day ritual prayers).
Her followers often clothe a skeleton to represent her, dressing her as a nun, a bride, a virgin, or a queen. She is also often portrayed wearing a multi-colored gown representing the seven chakra colors. But no matter her clothing, she is herself always in skeletal form.
The color of the robes Santa Muerte wears reflect the specialized work she embodies in that form. When her robes are green, her attention turns to money and matters of law. In black robes, she works for people who are denied justice or need protection from enemies. In red, she offers love and protection. Her white or ivory colored robes mean she provides harmony in the home and peace with one’s neighbors. Blue robes denote the influence on mental powers, for academia and increased acuity. If she wears amber robes, she helps to fight addiction and dependency. If she is in purple robes, her focus is on healing of all kinds. In some cases, she is clothed in a rainbow-colored robe to cover all of these needs.
The power over all life—not just human life—is in her hands, so devotees also petition her to heal their pets or control the pests around them. People go to her to seek protection of all kinds, because who can better protect you from death than death herself? She both gives protection from death and brings death.
Her popularity eclipses all saints except for Guadalupe, and she has approximately five million admitted devotees in Mexico (which amounts to 5 percent of the country’s population) and approximately ten million followers worldwide. Temples to her are scattered throughout the Southwest; however, in most cases, you must know someone who knows someone to gain admittance. The theologies and practices surrounding her worship shift from temple to temple, and what one group believes about her often differs wildly from what the next group believes. She presents in many forms, and each interaction with her is highly personal and unique.
The owl is sacred to her, as are the crystal ball, the scythe, skulls, and the scales; any configuration of these items may appear by her side.
Previously, in my own shop, the shrine to Santa Muerte was a frequent focus for visitors. Some would come into the shop, give her an offering and pray to her, then leave with only a nod but not a word to us. We knew that this was the reason the shrine was there and we never took offense. The visitors were not there for us, but for her. Others would cross themselves and leave as soon as they saw her in her shelf below the fixed candles. The shrine, still intact, now has a place of honor in my home.
Those, like myself, who follow her, believe that she is more approachable than Guadalupe. Santa Muerte is as basic as the earth around the graves she populates. She is organic and real. As one street merchant put it, “She gets us. She is a bitch like us.” Another jokingly says that if you are in Mexico and you see a line of people outside a house, they are either selling tortillas or it is a Santa Muerte shrine.
Guadalupe is appropriately viewed as a miracle worker, while Santa Muerte is a problem-solver. Guadalupe is a distant holy mother and Santa Muerte is a saint of the people. She is the granter of favors and you can go to her crying the ugly cry and know that you will not be judged harshly (or at all), even if your own actions contributed to or were the sole cause of your downfall. She will systematically set about fixing what is broken, but once you put her in charge, it is best to get out of the way and not ask questions or second-guess the outcome.
Her magic is quick and very efficient, but does not always take the forms one expects. She brings endings to situations, and should only be petitioned when nothing less than the death of a debilitating circumstance required. Seek her out when you must definitively end something in your life. When you petition her, you must do so with the tremendous respect and reverence reserved for one who holds your death in her hands. You should also be ready, because she moves fast and there is no opportunity to take back what you set in motion with her. When you put a situation into her hands, she expects you to let go of it and trust her to handle it.
Bring her an offering. She revels in all forms of merriment and expressions of life, especially those that are sweet, salty, fun, or mind-altering. Because she is death, nothing can harm her, so she engages life to the fullest and encourages us, even in our fragile human state, to do the same, and to take not one moment for granted. This too is why the Church rejects and maligns her. She endorses the hedonistic, all-hands-on-deck life that Catholicism sought to squelch out.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Blessed Mother, is an intermediary between human beings and her son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the way to God, who the Bible represents as an overlord with human beings as servants to him. Jesus asks us to become “fishers of men” and to serve God. Santa Muerte, however, is the exact opposite. She works for people as a divine servant herself. She gets results very quickly and efficiently, but you must acquiesce to allow her to manage any situation you bring to her in her own way, on her terms.
To reiterate, be of complete and total conviction when you ask her for anything; however, you cannot stop her once she is in motion. If you promise her something, make certain you follow through. A strong aspect of Santa Muerte veneration is that of accountability, and she does not suffer fools lightly.