By Randy Fitch
In my research, I believe it's fair to say the devotees of the Santa Muerte understand when they pray and use spells to evoke her, they are calling out to a power other than God. As a Christian, that narrows things down considerably. In my post Understanding How Catholic Christians Could Turn to the Santa Muerte we debunked the Holy Death as a Catholic Saint. We discussed how scholars associate her with a folk saint or locally manifested supernatural entity.
Which births the question what sort of supernatural entity. Well, to define that, let's take a look at her believed actions.
The following is taken from Who is Santa Muerte, by Dr. Kate Kingsbury and Dr. Andrew Chesnut, from skeletonsaint.com
Although condemned as demonic by both Catholic and Protestant churches, she appeals to millions in the Americas and beyond on the basis of her reputedly awesome supernatural powers. Devotees believe the Bony Lady (la Huesuda as she is called in Spanish) to be the fastest and most efficacious miracle worker, and, as such, sales of her statuettes and votive candles now rival those of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the patron of lost causes, Saint Jude, the two other giants of the Mexican religious landscape. Santa Muerte brings miracles, it is said by devotees, of love, health, wealth, justice, and much more. Devotees work not only with prayer but with magic in their veneration of the Santa Muerte.
To her followers, thousands of which one can find online, she has significant power, bringing healing, wealth, avoidance of punishments, sex, and basically whatever one prays to her for in a heartfelt way. In Tracey Rollin's book, Santa Muerte, The History, Rituals, and Magic of Our Lady of the Holy Death, the author explains one of the reasons the Santa Muerte is so appealing:
Santa Muerte is notable because she is not concerned with the underlying motivations driving the request for her devotees. She assigns no particular moral weight to any kind of request, because, to death, everything is a zero-sum game. Whether you dedicate your lottery winnings to feeding the homeless or to retiring to a beach in Fiji, you will still die in the end. Therefore, Santa Muerte is far more likely to respond to a greedy but heartfelt request than one that is diluted by fake feelings of altruism.
So, this entity will respond to a heartfelt request, whether moral or immoral. Many of the followers of the Holy Death believe she is amoral, not good, not bad, but indifferent. This narrows the who further, excluding God, saints, and angels. If this entity answers requests to avoid punishment for wrongful acts and even harm to others, well, hmm, these acts in and of themselves place her in the realm of the demonic.
And this is where the spiritual rubber hits the road. You can be a Catholic Christian or a Protestant Christian and stay true to what Christ taught. But you cannot include the Santa Muerte in your wheelhouse and be either.
Interestingly, the former Mexican Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia Luna, is a follower of Santa Muerte, and Lucifer, which is not uncommon. He is now on trial, accused of taking millions in bribes from drug cartels in exchange for providing protection and information on law enforcement activities. (patheos.com, Former Mexican Top C
op on Trial in NYC Worshiped the Devil and Santa Muerte, Jan 31, 2023 by Andrew Chesnut)
That's it for now on the topic of Santa Muerte. Next, I'll take a peek behind the veil of another belief drawing in tens of thousands of followers each year, the belief in the many forms of Wicca, the belief typically associated with witches...
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