I was intrigued by the lucky charms encased within what seemed to be a dire and forboding figure, and so i asked who "he" was, but i was quickly corrected: La Santisima Muerte is a SHE. I was then given a long story of how she keeps men faithful to their wives and will judge and kill men who violate the sanctity of marriage if called upon to do so, because her husband was unfaithful to her, causing her to commit suicide, and to hate and punish all unfaithful men.
The shop owner, Mrs. Cantu, even took me in a corner, away from my husband and taught me how you perform a seven-knot spell for La Santisima Muerte -- it's virtually identical to the hoodoo nine knot spell for a Nation Sack, but you keep the knotted string that has been smeared with semen tied around her statue, for safe-keeping. The statue is actually designed with a groove around the base to accept the wound-up string. After that, she gave me a Santisima Muerte holy medal as a gift and told me with smiling eyes to not let my husband see it.
Later, down in San Jose, California, at Dos Aguas Botanica, where i bought my first statuette of Santisima Muerte, i was told that "women perform a novena to her to keep men faithful."
And in Sebastopol, California, at the Flea Market, where i first encountered her image on a novena booklet, i asked the old woman selling it, in my broken ugly Spanish: "La Santisima Muerte -- la razon por la que? [gesture of praying hands] Por que ... oracion?" -- and she replied, "Matrimonio" -- marriage.
So who was this Holy Death? Where did she come from? Why does she judge men and protect women's marriages?
One occult shop owner without much knowledge of Mexican folk
culture loftily explained to me that she
is "The Angel of Death," a European or Judeo-Christian concept that accounted
for her skeletal visage, but certainly did not explain why
Mexican gardeners were gravely showing me the Santisima Muerte holy cards
in their wallets and telling me that "She is The Virgin Mary
as a skeleton" -- which itself begged the question
-- "Why on earth would folks want to depict the Virgin Mary
as a skeleton in the first place?"
Eventually i ran into the true story, as least as scholars of Mexican culture present it these days: La Santisima Muerte is a "banned saint," the Roman Catholic "cover" for an ancient Aztec goddess named Mictecacihuatl, a death goddess and co-ruler, with her husband, of the underworld.
Mictecacihuatl, the wife of the Aztec death god Mictlantecuhtli, is the sister to the Aztec heavenly goddess Tonantzin, who has been syncretized with the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe. That's why Mictecacihuatl became "Most Holy Death, The Virgin Mary as a Skeleton."
As to the idea that this goddess was a living woman who committed suicide when her
husband proved unfaithful, i am not so sure. I consider the stories of
her death and subsequent haunting of the living to be similar to, or influenced by,
the folk tales of La Llorona, the weeping woman who mourns for her
dead children, and who is a cautionary popular figure along the Texas, Arizona, and
California border. In other words, the goddess is thus demoted to the status of a ghost.
Here is a nine-day cycle of prayers to Santisima Muerte, taken from a Mexican Novena
booklet. It begins with a separate prayer to the string that has been covered with the
semen of the beloved
and knotted with seven knots. This "Ejaculatory" prayer is recited as the string is wound around
into the groove in the base of the statue. Following this, the oration for the "First Day" is
to be recited. This "First Day" of the spell should be a Sunday,
for reasons that will become apparent later within the text.
The reference to the pale blue Rosemary flower in the prayer of the "Third Day" has a significant dual meaning -- ros marinus ("the dew of the sea") is the ancient Latin name for the Mediterranean Rosemary herb much used in spells for female domination and in Peaceful Home spells -- but the sound of the words also makes a pun with the idea of a Rose of [the Virgin] Mary (whose sacred flower is the Rose), and so the herb, not at all related to Roses, has come to symbolize certain aspects of Mary, especially her sea-borne and home-strengthening apparitions.
NOVENA | NOVENA SANTA MUERTE ORACION | HOLY DEATH PRAYER Para todos los dias. | For all the days. | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | JACULATORIA | EJACULATORY | Muerte querida de mi corazon no | Death, dear to my heart, me desampares de tu proteccion, | don't abandon me, protect me, y no dejes que fulano....... | and don't let ____name____ un solo momento tranquilo, | have one moment of peace; molestalo a cada inquietarlo | keep him restless and bothered para que siempre piense en mi. | with the thought of me always. | (*Se resan 3 Padres Nuestros*) | (*Say Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | PRIMER DIA | FIRST DAY | Muerte Santisima: | Most Holy Death Los favores que me tienes que | The favours that you have conceder: | to grant me: | Haras que venza todas las | Make me overcome all dificultades y que para mi no | difficulties so that for me halla nada imposible, ni | nothing is impossible, obstaculos, infranqueables, ni | no obstacles, barriers, tenga enemigos, ni que nadie | no enemies, that no one quiera hacerme dano, que | does me any harm, todos sean mis amigos y que yo | that everyone is my friend salga vencedor en todas las | and that I am victorious empresas o cosas que haga; | in all my dealings and things I do; Mi casa se llenara de bienes | May my house be filled with all the good con las virtudes de tu proteccion. | virtues of your protection. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | SEGUNDO DIA | SECOND DAY | Muerte Santa, mi gran tesoro, | Death Saint, my great treasure, no te apartes en ninguna ocacion: | never go away from me at any time: Pan comiste y de el me diste, y | You ate bread and gave me bread, and como eres la poderosa duena de | as you are the powerful owner of la oscura mansion de la vida y la | the dark mansion of life and Emperatriz de las tinieblas, quiero | Empress of darkness, I want que me hagas el favor de que | you to grant me the favour that fulano......... se presente a mis | ___name___ is at my feet pies humiliado y arrepentido y | humiliated and repentant que nunca mas vuelva a irse de mi | and that he never leaves my lado, mientras yo lo necesite. Y | side when I need him, and that has que me cumpla lo que me ha | you make me get what was prometido. | promised to me. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | TERCER DIA | THIRD DAY | Jesucristo vencedor que en la cruz | Jesus Christ Conqueror who on the cross fuiste vencido, vence a fulano...... | was conquered, conquer ____name____ que este vencido conmigo. En el | that he is overcome by me. In the nombre del Senor si eres animal | name of God, you are a ferocious animal; feroz, te volveras manso como | you will come back to me as a cordero suave como la flor de | tame sheep, mild as the Rosemary flower. romero. Muerte adorada: Te suplico | Adored Death, I implore you encarecidamente que con esa fuerza | earnestly that with this titanic force titanica que Dios te dio me intro- | that God gave you, instill in duscas en el corazon de fulano....... | ____name's____ heart que no tenga ojos, mas que para | that he has eyes for no one but mi, ye que yo sea todo para el, | me, and that I am his everything, hazme el favor que te pido con | that you grant me this which I ask, mucha fe en esta Novena, ye te pren- | having great faith in this Novena, dere una vela todos las martes de | and I light a candle every Tuesday of cada semana a las doce de la noche. | every week at twelve midnight. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | CUARTO DIA | FOURTH DAY | Muerte querida: Yo te pido con | Dear Death: I ask you with todas las fuerzas de mi corazon, | all my heart, que asi como Dios te formo | that as God made you Inmortal, ye poderosa duena y | Immortal, and the powerful owner and Reina de las tinieblas del mas alla, | Queen of the Darkness Unknown hereafter, que con ese gran poder que | that with your great powers, tienes sobre todos los mortales, | which you have over all mortals, hagas que fulano....... no pueda en | make ____name____ unable to mesa corner, ni en silla sentarse, ni | eat at any table or sit in any chair and tranquilidad tenga, deseo que lo | grant that he has no peace; I wish that he becomes obligues a que humilde y rendido | obliged to be humble and devoted venga a mis pies y que nunca | at my feet and that he never again jamas se aleje de mi. | goes away from me. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | QUINTO DIA | FIFTH DAY | Gloriosa Y Poderosa Muerte: | Glorious and Powerful Death, Abusando de tu bondad, como | taking advantage of your kindness, mi proctetora y duena te pido este | as my protector and owner, I ask this favor: Como senora invencible que | favour: As the invicible madam that eres te ruego que hagas que | you are, I beg that you make fulano....... no pueda en paseos | ____name____ so that he can't enjoy strolling gozar, ni con mujeres andar ni | around, so hat he can't walk or eat with other women, comer, ni dormir si a mi lado no | or sleep unless he's at my esta. Que sus pensamientos sean | side. Grant that his thoughts are about solo para mi, lo mismo que su | me only, by his own choice, voluntad y que me de la felicidad | and that he gives me the happiness de todo su amor. | of having all of his love. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | SEXTO DIA | SIXTH DAY | !Oh Soberana Senora! a la que la | Oh Sovereign Lady! In that the Divina Trinidad en el Padre Eterno | Holy Trinity in our Eternal Father puso para cegar la vida de todos | has blinded the life of all mortals los mortales, a la que a todos llega | to the fact that you will come mas tarde o mas tenprano y que | to everyone sooner or later, no le importan las riquezas o | whether rich or poor or juventudes, pues es pareja con | in youth, who does to us all the same, viegos, jovenes o ninos, a los que | old, young, child; habra de llevar a sus dominios, | we enter your domain of death cuando Dios se lo indique. Te | when God decrees. suplico que fulano....... se ena- | I implore you that ____name____ more mucho de mi, que no se fije | is much in love with me, not just en la hermosura fisica, sino en la | for physical beauty, but also de mi alma, y que venga a mi | for my soul, and that he comes to me sumiso, field, arrodillado a mis pies.| faithful, submissive, kneeling at my feet. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | SEPTIMO DIA | SEVENTH DAY | Librame a mi de todo mal, y | Liberate me from all evil, and con este titanico poder que tienes | with the titanic power with which con el cual Dios te doto, haras | God endowed you, make it so que gocemos eternamente, un | that we enjoy eternal dia glorioso sin noches. Por eso | heavenly nightless days. protectora y Duena: te pido me | Protector and owner: I beg you concedas los favores que yo | to grant me the favors I request deseo en esta Novena. Se hace la | in these prayers. peticion........ | I ask that _______________________. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | OCTAVO DIA | EIGHTH DAY | Milagrosa Y Majestuosa Muerte: | Miraculous and Majestic Death: Te pido que con tu poder | I ask that with your immense power inmenso me devuelvas el carino | you return my beloved, de ........ No lo dejes un | ____name____. Don't let him for one minute momento sociego, ni tranquilo | be sociable or tranquil con nadie se halle, ni con | with anyone he comes across; neither with amigos ni con mujeres contento | friends nor with women may he be at ease. esta. Si esta durmiendo me este | Grant that while sleeping, he thinks of me, pensamiento este en mi, y en las | and that he listens to the palabras que yo te digo las | words I say to you in his sleep, escuche y haga lo que yo te pido. | and that he does what I ask. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | NOVENO DIA | NINTH DAY | Muerte Protectora Y Bendita: | Blessed Protector Death: Por la virtud que Dios te dio: | By the virtues that God gave you quero que me libres de todos los | I ask that you free me from all maleficios y peligros y enferme- | evil, danger, and sickness dades y que en cambio me des: | and that instead you give me SUERTE, SALUD, FELICIDAD Y | LUCK, HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND DINERO, que me des amigos y | MONEY, that you give me friends me libres de mis enemigos | and freedom from my enemies, haciendo tambien que fulano....... | also making ____name____ se presente ante mi humilde a | come before me, humbled pedirme perdon, humilde como | to ask my forgiveness, humble as a un cordero, fiel a sus promesas y | sheep, keeping his promises and siempre amoroso y sumiso. | always loving and submissive. | (*Tres Padres Nuestros*) | (*Three Our Fathers*) | ------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------
This spell-work must be done at night. The prayers for both "The Third Day and "The Eightth Day" make that clear, for the former refers to "midnight" and the latter to the beloved being asleep while the work is underway.
The reason that it is necessary to begin this Novena on a Sunday night is because in the prayer for the "Third Day," mention is made of "Tuesday" -- but only if the first day is a Sunday will the third day will be a Tuesday.
Also, as the prayer of the "Third Day" makes clear, even after the nine-day novena cycle is completed, the supplicant must continue to offer a candle to Santisima Muerte "every Tuesday of every week at twelve midnight" as long as the spell is desired to be in effect. In other words, the Novena cycle gets things going, but to keep them working, a candle must be offered to Holy Death every Tuesday at midnight.
Finally, it is worth noting that this prayer-cycle contains elements rather similar to the better-known Prayer of Intranquility designed to bring back a lost lover. The "Ejaculatory" prayer and prayers of "The Third Day" and "The Eighth Day" all make a point of condemning the wandering lover to have no peace or tanquility in his social life until he complies with the desires of the petitioner.
Order a Santisima Muerte statuette from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Order a Santisima Muerte novena candle from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Order Santisima Muerte dressing oil from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Order Santisima Muerte incense from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Order a Santisima Muerte sachet powders from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Order a Santisima Muerte bath crystals from the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Daniel Serbin for the English translation of the Santisima Muerte Novena booklet, to
nagasiva yronwode for typing it out, and to Louise Lieb for helping me with
the side-by-side ASCII layout.
copyright © 1995-2003 catherine yronwode. All rights reserved.
Send your comments to: cat yronwode.
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