Wednesday, November 20, 2013

“Punishing” La Muerte?

Steven Bragg

I’ve had more than a few people ask me about this lately, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on a particular matter. Some people say, and this was even included in my original teachings from my teacher, Nick, that if you ask Santisima to do something for you and either she doesn’t do it or she’s being really slow in acting, you can take away her things (scythe, hands, offerings, etc.) and hide them until she comes through with what you ask. Then you give her things back to her and keep on going as normal. I’ve heard of several variations on this, including making her face the wall, turning her upside-down, putting her in a dark closet, and so on.

Now, I understand that this is an old practice, and similar actions can be found all throughout the world, including folk Catholicism and the African Diasporic Religions. I’ve seen people do it, and I’ve even done it myself. Twice. Once with a Lwa of Haitian Vodou, and once with Santisima Muerte. Both times ended disastrously for me. It took two times of being punished by the spiritual beings I thought I was punishing to realize what a stupid practice it is, especially when you try to do it with very old and very powerful beings.


Practice however you wish, but my experience has been that although you might get what you ask for (or not!), you might also get something you didn’t ask for and don’t want. Choose with care.