Santa Muerte: Our Lady of the Holy Death?

I'm reading Tracey Rollin's book, 'Santa Muerte: The History, Rituals, and Magic of Our Lady of the Holy Death' at the moment after listening to a few podcasts Tracey was on recently, that I thought were quite interesting -

Thelema Now! Guest: Tracey Rollin

"The book takes a look at Santa Muerte, the famous folk saint widely associated with the Day of the Dead.
Credited with wielding vast influence in the lives of her devotees, she is the central figure of the fastest-growing new religious movement in the world today.

This book surveys Santa Muerte as an aspect of the dark feminine, the bringer of death that is crucial to all life.

This perspective is surveyed through the lens of Santa Muerte’s European and Aztec roots, including the Catholic beliefs and practices that helped shape them."

I don't see myself becoming a follower of Santa Muerte, as I already have a saint I like and feel personally comfortable with, so I won't be changing teams anytime soon, but I can see the appeal a saint like Santa Muerte would have to people who feel marginalized in society.

I do have various works of art around my home with images of Santa Muerte like figures, but I don't pray to, or petition any saint of the dead.

It's just art for me to relate to in a Jungian sense, because all art is just aspects of the "collective unconscious" as far as I'm concerned.

Just like I have an angry little red character near my bed as a reminder to keep my anger under control and not let it consume me at times.

Same with the cross and the dream catcher near my bed, they aren't superstitious tools to keep demons and bad dreams at bay, to me they are works of art that represent the Christ consciousness and dreams that dwell in me, and for me to contemplate those things along with the shadow aspects that can well up from the depths of my consciousness, hence the Star Wars character hiding in the corner.

True health comes from integrating all aspects of your being into the whole that we are, I think.

I'm not a real fan of world religions to be honest, because I think there is too much muddying of the waters by humans who try and sway people with fear and dogma.

Having said that though, I would see myself as a Liberal Catholic/Buddhist/Taoist when it comes to what I feel personally comfortable with in my spiritual beliefs.

I can feel at home in a Church, or Buddhists temple quite comfortably, as long as some human "representative" of that "religion" isn't trying to force "their" dogma onto me.

God gave me a brain to think with and a heart to feel with, so I don't need some other human being telling me how to interpret what God's all about.

That's what life is for, I think.

If you went for a walk through my home looking through my bookcases you would probably wonder what the hell I was into when you saw the books and artwork in them, but I can assure you that I don't believe in a place like hell or an entity like the devil, or Lucifer any more than I believe in a real man named Santa Claus, who is said to deliver toys all around the world in one night every year.

I do like celebrating all sorts of holidays on the calendar and like seeing all of the mythical art and stories associated with these holidays, and I particularly like holidays like 'The Day of the Dead', which Mexico celebrates every year at the beginning of November.

We don't celebrate 'The Day of the Dead' in Oz, but Halloween is gaining ground every year over here, and I bought this Day of the Dead doll at my local supermarket that shakes its maracas and sings some Mexican song and dances when you press a button on his foot.

"Santa Muerte is a folk saint, which means she is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church. This hasn’t prevented millions of people from learning to love Mother Death.

 In fact, Santa Muerte worship is the fastest-growing new religious movement in the world.
Santa Muerte appears as a female form of the Grim Reaper.

 Like the Grim Reaper, she is usually pictured as a skeleton wearing a long robe and bearing a scythe.

 Santa Muerte also has lots of pretty feminine details such as flowers and jewelry as well.

 Some people even dress their Santa Muerte statues in elaborately embroidered dresses!

 Her skeletal but lovely appearance has given rise to many of her titles – La Huesada (the Bony Lady), La Niña Bonita (the Pretty Girl), and others."

Like I said I have my own saint (above) that I feel comfortable with, so I won't petitioning Santa Muerte any time soon, but I like reading about her, as I'm reading Graham Hancock's book about the Spanish conquest of Mexico at the moment and Santa Muerte seems to be a rather uneasy compromise between the Roman Catholic Church's  and the native population's old beliefs.

500 Year Cycles?

I looked around some more on the net and came across this video below of a lady explaining about her devotion to Santa Muerte and the importance of the number 13 to her as far as Santa Muerte goes, and couldn't help thinking about the 100th anniversary of
Our Lady of Fatima falling on Friday the 13th this year.

I thought it was amusing that around the 6:20 minute mark of that above You Tube that Janel picks up a bottle of Lipton's Green Tea as the only thing around the house that she could think of offering the patron saint of drug smugglers and criminals.

Then I see this story below about drugs being smuggled into Australia in Green Tea bottles.

Top 50 Saints

I always find it interesting what draws people to feel comfortable with having a certain saint, apart from having a certain profession associated with that saint.

It's all fascinating stuff, but I'm sticking with Gabe until the final siren sounds.

Cheers and happy Halloween and whatever the greeting is for the Day of the Dead.

And I truly believe that in this world you reap what you sow.

Something to think about maybe when playing around with scythes?

UPDATE: April 29th, 2020
Just an update to this post, seeing that it seems to be getting a bit of traffic lately, and having read it again today to refresh my memory from when I wrote it a few years back.
I still stand by what I wrote above, but I no longer have those stuffed toys at my besides, or the dancing skeleton doll, or the Lego Joker (in fact I don't think that I have any Lego in the home right now).
The only reason I don't have those things now is that I tend to de-clutter a bit and give stuff away to nephews and nieces, or friends, who have kids of their own and like those kinds of toys.
It's not like I've solved my anger issues from the past (not that I have a lot compared to most people that I know or read about) or whatever other issues I've written about above, or that I don't find a dancing skeleton doll amusing anymore.
It's just that if someone's kids find the doll more amusing than I do, and that I feel the doll or toy will only sit around my home gathering dust, then I'd rather give that item a new home.
I still have the Santa Muerte book on my bookshelf, but to be honest, it could be in the next pile of books to head to the secondhand bookshop that my books tend to end up at when I feel they won't be read by me anytime soon in the future, and that someone else might.

UPDATE: December 5th, 2020

While I found the Santa Muerte book an interesting read, I no longer have the Santa Muerte book either, as I gave it away to a book exchange at Bribie Island last September.

Just not my cup of tea I'm afraid ... and I don't much like tea being a coffee drinker -

Dates with Destiny?