Recent News Coverage

Over the last week there’s been some national news coverage concerning the rapidly growing popularity of Santisima Muerte on the U.S. side of the border. One of the articles, written by Russell Contreras with the Associated Press, included a few quotes of myself from a phone interview between the two of us. Here’s the Yahoo! link for it:

http://news.yahoo.com/underworld-saint-becoming-more-popular-us-090332695.html

With almost 3,000 (mostly negative, bigoted, and ignorant) comments and 1500 Facebook shares within just a day or so, it’s gotten quite a bit of attention. A Washington Times article followed shortly after:

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/mar/6/santa-muerte-unusual-saint-gaining-popularity-mexi/

And then there’s been a follow-up to the follow-up:

http://hot-dogma.com/2013/03/07/santa-muerte-is-ready-for-the-spotlight/

Add this to all the stories that have hit local U.S. papers and online venues around the U.S.-Mexico border, and it seems that La Santisima Muerte has crossed the border without bothering to get her passport stamped or applying for a visa! It also seems she has no intention of registering with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services any time soon, but she’s decided to settle in this country in the time-honored fashion of Coming In and Claiming the Land. I believe this is may be part of what’s rubbing some people the wrong way, aside from the unfortunate but unavoidable relation to the narco-gangs. Even if it’s not in the front of their minds (if they bothered to read their U.S. History lessons in school) there may be a trace of it somewhere in the back of their minds. Here is this pseudo-Catholic spiritual figure coming from Mexico, brought by Mexican immigrants (people who still have a good amount of Native American blood in their veins) with the seeming potential to re-claim a land that was once stolen from the Native peoples. This frightening potential of spiritual retribution for descendants of European aggressors may understandably be adding to the general negative response of the recent news coverage...among many other aspects of Santisima’s service, of course.

For this and other reasons, I feel compelled to write a few things that can be put out there from the point of view of white (non-Latino), educated, middle-class U.S. citizen who has found peace and happiness in the devotion and service of a generally grim-looking, Mexican figure. So much so that I’ve built and dedicated a public shrine to her and hold regular services in her honor. There are several aspects I want to address to attempt to provide some clarity for those curious readers who haven’t already slammed the door shut in a fundamentalist religious temper tantrum. This will obviously be from my personal point of view, branching from the foundational trunk of the teachings I received, and do not claim to be universal among all devotees of the Most Holy Death. This may be the beginning of a series...we’ll see.

One of the main questions being asked is, who is Santa Muerte, and where does she come from other than just saying she’s from Mexico? Beginning with the latter part of this question, to say the historical origins of La Santisima are murky would be an understatement. Until around 2001 her devotion was largely an underground phenomenon, and because of this her history has been widely debated. Possibly for decades, many Mexican devotees, out of what I believe to be Mexican nationalism mixed with a lack of academic evidence to the contrary, claim she’s the reincarnation of Mitchecacihuatl, the pre-Columbian goddess of the underworld, reborn as a Catholic saint. The late E. Bryant Holman, however, in his 2007 work, La Santisima Muerte: A Mexican Folk Saint, disagreed with this general assumption and pointed to a possible Italian origin with pre-Christian links to the Fates of ancient Greece, the Aztec association being a convenient, yet superficial, connection for national pride. Recently, in his 2012 publication of Devoted to Death—Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint, Professor Andrew Chesnut, the leading academic in the English-speaking world, has uncovered evidence placing La Flaka firmly on a timeline dating back to the 1700s, as well as a possible European ancestress from Spain, known as La Parca. That’s generally about it as far as an historical summary, although you can bet there’s more to come in that area.

Now for the former part of the question, who is Santa Muerte? In my experience of her, she is Death: an anthropomorphic (kinda) manifestation of the event of when a living creature ceases to be alive. But not so plain, nor so simple. From an objective (as much as possible) point of view, that event is just that...the moment when a living organism expires. However, like so many other natural events observed by the human mind, this event became a force, and like so many forces, it eventually became a being. The world’s religions contains many, many deities and spiritual beings of death and the underworld. Pretty much all early pantheons have one or more of these beings. From a spiritual perspective, though, Death came into being as soon as life did and will manifest in any given culture throughout the world and throughout time. The details, including the appearance, the name(s), and the service (or avoidance), will vary and be shaped by the specific culture in question. Many times this manifestation will occur organicly within a polytheistic (or academic label of your choice) spiritual system, with the death-being evolving alongside other spiritual beings.

With Santisima Muerte, however, Death has manifested within a  monotheistic system which just happens to allow for the lesser, semi-divine beings of angels and saints, and not only that but also in a nation where the vast majority of the people are raised within this system, ensuring the future of the influence of this system among the majority for at least several more generations. Then add to this a neighboring country that happens to be a major world power, which allows for religious diversity, and has a growing number of its citizens who are leaving the religion(s) of the their upbringing and seeking other more fulfilling spiritual practices (or none at all). The recipe gets better when you have a large number of people from the culture of origin, many who are poor and downtrodden (traditionally the majority of Santisima’s followers),  immigrating to the world power country, which happens to be undergoing a multitude of changes as well as economic woes, and carrying with them this manifestation of Death, which has now had a least of couple of centuries of clandestine devotion to cement itself within its new image and service. Death is no fool. In a nutshell, we are witnesses to the (re)birth and evolution of a major spiritual being, one with power so great no one can escape it...not alive anyway.

What does the future hold for Santisima Muerte? Who knows?

Response to a blog about Santa Muerte

I haven't done much with this blog lately, so I thought I'd start back up with a response to a blog post someone posted on a Facebook account. The blog entry is an interesting one, and I thought I'd share my views and opinions. Here's the link:

http://mysecrethoodoo.blogspot.com/2012/05/truth-about-santa-muerte.html

I'd like to go point by point on this. Since it's been conveniently numbered, instead of quoting I'll just refer to the number in the original blog post. However, first I'd like to make it clear that this is not a critique of the blog author in any way. He states in the entry that he is not an expert on Santisima Muerte, but he is trying to make clear that Santisima is not a traditional part of Hoodoo. I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I encourage more clarification on this matter, and on the matter of who she is in general, as I'm starting to see a trend where she's becoming more popular among U.S. and other English-speaking countries where people are "picking up" her service without any regards to her cultural origin and with no respect to her traditional practices, which have been in place for quite a while now. Sadly, this is yet another case of appropriation for the next "spiritual fad." We've seen this with many traditional spiritual practices within the last few decades, and with those who never quite get it, those who skim the surface of a spiritual tradition, get all excited about a few chills, but get bored because they've hit a roadblock, and then move on to the next thing that catches their eyes. Rest assured, however, those of us who respect the traditions that are in place, respect the ancestors of those traditions, and respect the spiritual beings around whom these traditions have been built are here and will be once the fad wanes, as it always does. We don't always say anything, as time has shown that the popular spotlight is always moving on, but we're here, we watch, we safeguard, and we wait. 

With all that said, here are my opinions about the article in question:

1) and 2). Correct. 

3). Correct in a way. There are two levels of dealing with Santisima Muerte, from what I've been taught and what I've seen. The terms "inner circle" and "outer circle" are probably being used for lack of better terms. First, Sta M will accept devotion from anyone. Anyone can approach her, like they would any Catholic folk saint, and she will listen and determine if she wants to help that person. Second are her spiritual workers, those who do indeed hold her tradition of working with her for a multitude of reasons for both him/herself and for the people who come to this person. Generally speaking, there are three main types of spiritual workers in Mexico: Curanderos(as), Hechiceros(as), and Brujos(as). Curanderismo is the spiritual practice of healing, traditionally done before modern medicine became more widely available, but still practiced in conjunction with modern medicine with an emphasis on spiritual healing. Hechiceria would be more like sorcery, with a Native bend to it, and can be done for either good or harm. Brujeria is generally negative work, although it can be done for good. The people within these spiritual practices are generally the ones who have inherited the knowledge and gifts they have from their family or from other teachers, and these are the ones who Santisima Muerte has traditionally worked through. So, yes, there is an "inner circle" so to speak, but it's not a cohesive group in any way, and the lines dividing these groups are very fluid. AND there are regional differences, depending on how the underground practices developed. Despite this, though, there are striking similarities among the workings for Santisima Muerte throughout all these workers' practices.

The second 3). Correct. I've heard the term "The Bride" used for La Blanca (the white) but not "The Wife/Mother" or "The Widow." Sounds like someone's interpretation of the three colors. It's neither here nor there.

4). This statement needs some major clarification. First of all, there's no traditional "initiation" with Sta M. She chooses her workers, those who have already gone through some type of training/apprenticeship with their family or teacher, usually in one of the three systems mentioned above. There's no need for an initiation, because the person she's chosen has already been through what is necessary to have her close to the person. The training is from student to teacher. At least, this is the way it was until recently, that is within the last decade. I see where today some people are offering initiations of one type or another. Whether Sta M is behind this and/or accepting it remains to be seen, only time will tell. It is true that when great changes occur, the traditional ways of doing things may (or may not) have to be altered to accommodate those changes. However, this shouldn't be seen as an excuse to just do whatever one wishes to do. Any change in a traditional system must be done in a manner of back and forth communication between the spiritual being(s) and the elders/workers. Secondly, in response to #4 of the blog, there's no need for any type of family member sacrifice. As many responded to the original FB posting, Sta M gets everyone in the end anyway. That's not a real sacrifice. 

5). Absolutely correct! Not all, but a good number of eclectic Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and New Agers are among those most guilty of cultural appropriation, superficially swiping elements, techniques, spirits, and deities and plunking them down into their own systems using pre-conceived notions about how there is a universal spiritual system that they go by. They usually have only read books, gotten almost no real instruction from experienced people, and built themselves a comfortable system, with a revisionist history, that only brushes the surface of what most traditional systems delve into. Without really going into this area too much, as that would require a blog, or series of blogs, I'm just going to say that the most important aspect, as pertains to this subject, is respect. Respect the tradition; respect the elders/teachers; respect the ancestors; respect the spiritual beings. In my experience doing this will get your further along in one year than a decade of do-it-yourself eclecticism. 

6). Correct, mostly. According to the documented evidence that's been uncovered so far, ever since she manifested in Mexico, Santisima Muerte has been treated like a Catholic folk saint. Catholic culture and society, Catholic prayers, Catholic rites. Granted that some of what has been found borders on pagan-like rituals, but then a lot of Catholic folk practices do, as well. These are remnants of two merging cultures, however, the dominant religion is Catholicism. I'm well aware that an overwhelming majority of Mexicans who serve Sta M will say, if asked, that Sta M is either the reincarnation or in some way linked to the pre-Christian Aztec goddess. However, as noted in the blog, the evidence is lacking. Sure the superficial elements are there. Female divine being ruling over death and the underworld. Ok, great. But what else? The offerings and rites associated with Santisima Muerte are commonly found among other Mexican Catholic folk saints. There's a few elements in her service, which I won't list here, that may be remnants of pre-Christian practices, but not that many. In addition, there are two European figures who share striking resemblance to Sta M's current form. La Parca, from Spain, is a female grim reaper who is a skeleton, with cloak and scythe, and there is an Italian "Santa Muerte" who is (possibly!?) a version of the Virgin Mary. Who were the two European powers that conquered (what is now) Mexico? Was it Spain, with the backing of Rome, which is in Italy? So, yeah, linking Santisima Muerte with an Aztec goddess of similar nature may be good for Mexican nationalism, but does that mean Santisima Muerte is automatically the reincarnation of that goddess? I won't say no, and I won't say yes. It think it's much more complex than that, however the bottom line for me is that Santisima Muerte is NOT a goddess. She's made that perfectly clear to me herself, and I have no reason to try to make her into one.

7). This one I don't agree with. The oldest documented workings we have of Sta M work is love work, specifically work to bring back wandering lovers, usually men. The tri-colored system in her traditional practice is designed to incorporate any type of working that is necessary, worldly or other-worldly. Yes, Santisima Muerte is petitioned for a good death, but she can also do so much more.

8). Eh. True in a way. Santisima Muerte goes by her own ethical system. She helps those she helps for whatever reason and doesn't discriminate. Without getting into a long discussion about ethics, I'll just leave it at that...for now.

9). Correct.

10). I personally don't know much about San La Muerte, but I was told by my teacher not to mix him with Santisima Muerte.

11). As mentioned above, there is an Italian Santa Muerte, who may by a version of Mary, but yes, Santisima Muerte is considered not only the Angel of Death, but also the highest of God's Archangels.

So, as you can see this is not a bad article, written by someone who admits to not being an expert. Of course, the word "expert" is a loaded term, but I think what is meant here is someone who has received traditional teachings for Sta M. Like I said earlier, I support these types of writings in order to let other people who, through no fault of their own...most of the time, know that there is already a traditional system for Sta M in place. There are devotees, and there are workers. AND there are regional differences amongst all of these. Devotees are going to serve from their hearts and may pick up information from family and friends. Some of it will be traditional, some will not. If Sta M wants a devotee to learn more traditional practices she will lead that person to a teacher, as she did in my case. Of course, I am open minded enough to realize that with the recent explosion of popularity, there may be changes on the horizon, but for me personally these will have to come directly from Santisima Muerte in a way that I have no doubt she wants me to do them. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to serve and work with her in the way that she has brought to me.

Steven

The New Orleans Chapel of the Santisima Muerte

The New Orleans Chapel of the Santisima Muerte is a non-profit organization registered in the State of Louisiana and Orleans Parish. It consists of an outdoor, public shrine and an indoor, private chapel for la Santisima Muerte.  The public shrine is located on Palmyra Street, in between S. Olympia and S. Murat Streets, in the Mid City area of New Orleans, LA. Visitors are welcome to pray, leave offerings, give donations, and take pictures of the outdoor shrines. The outer-most doors of the three shrines (black, white, and red for the three robes of Santisima) open with a latch on the right side of each door.

The Chapel hosts Wednesday night Chaplets, beginning around 8pm, in the indoor chapel. Devotees and visitors are welcome to bring offerings, donations, and make prayer requests at the end of the Chaplet. Private consultations are scheduled according to need and availability.

We have a small, but intimate and growing, community of devotees and regular visitors. We do not need to seek out new members as Santisima Muerte herself brings to us those who need her and those who she wants. If you are interested in learning more, email espiritusysantos@gmail.com for more information.

La Santisima Muerte: A Practitioner’s Overview

To get the ball rolling, here's an article I recently wrote. 

La Santisima Muerte: A Practitioner’s Overview

By Steven Bragg

La Flaka (the Skinny Lady), La Huesuda (the Boney Lady), La Niña (the Girl), La Madrina (the Godmother), Santa Muerte (“Saint” Death)...these are all names given to a very powerful and popular folk saint from Mexico, La Santisima Muerte (the Most Holy Death). Santisima Muerte is a very complex figure, having taken on Her most recent manifestation through the same Catholic land that provided the world with what is believed to be the most widely-venerated face of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Although She is denounced by the Mexican Catholic priests and bishops as a figure of Satanic worship, Santisima Muerte’s popularity over the last decade has exploded. From an estimated 500,000 devotees a roughly ten years ago to possibly over 5 million today, it seems that Lady Death is wasting no time in making known Her presence and power among the living. Her devotion has now bled across Mexico’s borders into many other Latin American countries, as well as into the U.S. Many chapels and churches have been established in many places where Mexican immigrants have settled, but these visible establishments are in no way indicative of the number of private altars and shrines most keep in their homes, secretly in many cases.

So, what lies behind this exponential growth of an enigmatic, borderline occult figure, bearing the stark image of the European Grim Reaper, complete with skeleton, cloak, and scythe? What is the appeal of a constant reminder of our own mortality and inevitable death? Despite being labeled a “Narco Saint,” whose tattoos give law enforcement officers reason to detain and discriminate, Santisima Muerte refuses to allow any establishment, including the Catholic Church, to slow the growth of Her devotion or sway the minds of those for whom She has performed miracles. In this article, I’d like to share my own personal beliefs about Santisima Muerte, stemming from the teaching I received from a person who lived in Mexico and studied under an Hechicero (sorcerer), as well as my own experiences with La Milagrosa (the Miraculous One). My hope is to provide those interested with a bit of information about Santisima Muerte and to help dispel much of the misinformation, causing La Santisima to be feared and demonized by Her many detractors.

For those seeking more information in the form of books and media, I recommend the following: La Santisima Muerte – A Mexican Folk Saint, by E. Bryant Holman; Devoted to Death – Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint, by Prof. R. Andrew Chestnut; and the 2008 DVD documentary, La Santa Muerte – Saint Death, directed by Eva Aridjis (with English subtitles).

In the Beginning, God Created...

Exactly from where the current figure of La Santisima Muerte originated is very hard to say. There are theories that She is the revival of the pre-Hispanic Mexican goddess of death, Mitchecacihuatl, that She may be a re-invention of the female Grim Reaper from Spain, La Parca, that She was once a Mexican Catholic nun, and that She came from Italy with roots going all the way back to the Fates of ancient Greece. Regardless of all this, Santisima Muerte now presents Herself as the embodiment of Death itself, with power over life unrivaled by any other saint, spirit, or deity. However, there is one catch. She chose to manifest through a Catholic culture, and Catholic is how She sees Herself. The Catholic/Christian creation story has been tweaked to include Her, for as Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, Death entered the world as an active force. Santisima also takes credit for being the Angel of Death who reaped the first-born sons of Egypt in the Book of Exodus. However, Her most proud moment was when God ordered Santisima to reap His only Son, Jesus, and therefore Good Friday is Her most holy feast day, a close second/third being All Saints Day/All Souls Day.

La Muerte has usurped the position of a few traditional Catholic figures, such as St. Michael the Archangel in standing and power. She is considered to be “second in command” after God, for whatever God creates, Santisima takes away. However, She hasn’t given the pink slip to the well-known warrior saint like She has to a few others, such as St. Jude. Although Santisima requires Her own space, She does allow two figures of Catholic Mexico to remain close to Her. St. Michael guards and protects Her altars, statues, and devotees from dark forces, while Guadalupe is said to be Her sister or Her “light half.”

Although Death is present the world over, and many religions and spiritual traditions have their own images and names for it, when calling upon Death as La Santisima Muerte, it is through the Catholic prayers, always asking God’s permission to invoke Her, that She works the best and responds to prayers. Removing her from this paradigm is something I strongly advise against. For those who are uncomfortable with the Catholic aspects, think of it as being respectful to a very powerful force. You don’t have to be Catholic yourself to pray to or work with Her, although the vast majority of Her devotees in Mexico consider themselves Catholics. I also advise against placing Santisima into the hierarchy of other spiritual systems, such as Neo-Pagan traditions and the Afro-Caribbean traditions, i.e. Santeria, Vodou, and Palo. She is a very proud spiritual being who enjoys Her own services and altar spaces, and no matter how much a person believes he or she knows about different spiritual systems and how they work, Santisima will always know more.

...A Holy Trinity...

Although I recognize that there are other ways of working with Santisima Muerte and see where many others in Mexico have her wearing many different colored robes, the way She came to me, and the way in which I was taught, was through a tri-colored system. For me, Santisima wears only three robes: white, red, and black. When She wears the white robe, She is La Blanca (the White). She is called La Roja (the Red) while wearing her crimson cloak, and She is La Negra (the Black) when She wraps around Her the shadows of the night. Each cloak alters Her personality, and therefore, She is approached differently according to the color of Her robe. However, like Her masculine counterpart, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Santisima is three persons in one, a feminine Holy Trinity.

La Blanca is the eldest and purest of the three. She sits at the right hand of God, and She is the one most devotees begin with. Peace, healing, cleansing and purifying are all within Her domain. Her highest blessing is the death of old age and a content heart. Her purity is such that it must be protected by covering Her statue when one has any major dealings with La Negra.

La Roja is the robe associated with worldly matters. Money, love, sex, the courts, business, and justice all fall within Her domain. She is a most accomplished love sorceress, and is famous for bringing back wandering lovers and husbands, especially when there are children involved. However, She is equally skilled at manipulating court systems in favor of Her devotees. The type of death La Roja is associated with tends to involve a bodily fluid the same color as Her robe.

La Negra, though, is the hottest and most dangerous robe of La Santisima. She can protect against the darkest forces, spirits, and witchcraft; even the demons of Hell fear Her. But just as She can protect against them, She can also send them. This is where we are reminded that Death stands outside of our human systems of ethics and morality. Although it’s believed that Santisima only reaps at the order of God, I sometimes wonder if La Negra may sometimes use Her feminine powers of persuasion to gain the consent of the Divine Almighty in certain cases involving the wishes of Her most devout devotees. Diseases are considered to be among La Negra’s children, and these are the majority of the deaths given over to Her.

It is within this complete system of La Blanca, La Roja, and La Negra that a spiritual worker dedicated to Santisima Muerte can petition La Muerte for any problem a person may have. The media-driven reputation She has for only being honored by drug dealers and criminals is but a fraction of the services She has to offer. The majority of Her devotees  who know the three-colored path focus mainly on La Blanca and La Roja, leaving La Negra to the more experienced spiritual workers.

...To Help the People.

There are essentially two levels of dealing with La Huesuda. The first and most general is that of the devotee. Santisima will receive offerings and prayers from anyone. Using Her own system of justice, She will weigh each prayer in Her scales and decide for Herself if She will grant the request. For most people She will perform miracles for them from time to time, however She does expect life-long devotion after that. But Death gets everyone in the end, either way it goes, and it’s because of this that She does not discriminate and accepts everyone. Whereas the Catholic Church will turn its back on homosexuals, criminals, those on the fringes of society, La Madrina welcomes them all with open arms.

The other level is that of spiritual worker. In Mexico, there are three general areas of spiritual workers, but the lines between these blur quite a bit, so it’s difficult to categorize every individual and his or her practices. Curanderos (male) and curanderas (female) tend to focus on healing and doing what would be considered “right hand” spiritual work. Hechiceros(as) tend to draw more from Native practices and can, as they say, work with both hands. Brujos(as) are generally thought to be more adept with darker workings, those of the so-called left hand path. Any of these can and do incorporate Santisima Muerte into their workings, as She is thought to have knowledge of all magical and spiritual systems, though She tends to think more highly of some than of others.

Presently, there are many from outside of Mexico and its traditional systems who Santisima is calling upon to work with her. And rest assured, Santisima chooses the worker, not the other way around. A person can receive all the training associated with Her, but if She rejects the person there is nothing to be done about it. Among those She does choose I’ve noticed several similarities, such as an intimate knowledge of how to work with the dead and the dangers associated with venturing into her home, the cemetery. She very much loves and protects those within her home, and She appreciates it when Her workers honor their own ancestors. There also tends to be a working knowledge of a system similar to Afro-Caribbean spiritual practices, the hoodoo of the Southern U.S., and traditional folk magic in general. Also, She tends to work better and faster for those who treat Her like a Catholic saint and observe certain guidelines.

In the End, La Muerte

Far from being the Satanic symbol of cartels and criminal activity, Santisima Muerte came into my life with a force so powerful and beautiful that it completely redefined my previous spiritual beliefs. Being touched by this Heavenly Power brings with it a new understanding of Death, its place within the cycle of Life, and renews the appreciation I have for each day I’m given. She is a mother, a sister, a protector, a healer, and so much more. Her devotion continues to grow every day, as She turns no one away.

She’s done so much for me in my life that, like many others, I’ve built a public shrine to Her outside my home where anyone can come to pray to Her and leave offerings. Those people She’s brought to me to learn about Her gather once a week to recite the Chaplet, pray to Her, and give Her offerings in my private indoor chapel.

Death, as La Santisima Muerte, is rising to a much higher place than it’s been in recent history. Why this is happening remains to be seen. Perhaps this is due to the current state of our Western societies. Perhaps it’s due to some larger phase in human existence for which we are on the threshold. Most likely, those of us alive today may not know until we are finally embraced by Her boney arms and given Her eternal kiss.

The beginning!

Greetings to all who find themselves here! My name is Steven Bragg (aka Santa Muertero), and I've just started this blog (September 2012) in order to provide information about the Mexican folk saint, La Santisima Muerte (the Most Holy Death). She's becoming very popular here in the U.S., but there is a great amount of conflicting information out there. My teachings come from an area south of Tijuana, Mexico, and my teacher lived there in 2001. He learned from an hecichero/curandero by the name of Don Gilberto. I tend to be stay very close to the traditional way in which I was taught, except for the very rare occasions when Santisima herself tells me to do otherwise. The information I intend to post here is solely for devotional purposes. I do not share information on how to do spiritual workings with Santisima unless you are my student (and I don't take on students long distance who I've never met in person--make a trip to New Orleans if you want to meet me.)

In addition, I wish to share how Santisima is becoming more well known here in the city where I live and operate, New Orleans, LA. As many people know, there is a great variety of spiritual practices here (some being legit, others not so much and geared toward tourists and their money), and Santisima Muerte is now among them (the legit ones, that is.) Being a Catholic city famous for its cemeteries and above-ground tombs (and for several other reasons) New Orleans is fertile ground for la Flaka and her devotion. I'll be posting about this in the near future.

I hope you all enjoy what you find here, laissez les bons temps rouler!