A Working for Santa Muerte

Santa Muerte is a sacred figure in Mexico, believed to be a mix of mesoamerican and catholic beliefs. Her name literally translates to "Holy Death" or "Saint Death." Mexican culture since the pre-Columbian era has maintained a certain reverence towards death, which can be seen in the widespread Mexican celebration of the Dia de los Muertos-Day of the Dead. 

Her devotees are faithful and unlike any other sect I have met. Santa Muerte can grant miracles, solve impossible problems, keep husband's faithful ,and bring you luck and good fortune.She is also an AMAZING healer. I attribute her to the healing of some cancerous cells I had. If I needed one more biopsy I was going to need surgery so the cells did not progress. White Santa Muerte is the aspect you would evoke for healing. Red aspect for love and Her Black aspect for protection or hex-breaking.

She reminds us of our mortality and morals, to make wise decisions so we will not suffer in this life. She reminds me that life is fleeting, make the most of it, and help make others lives better while you can. If you are not giving, then you are taking. Santa Muerte may remind you of this if you are "using" her for favors rather than truly following her, by taking things away from you in your life. She may also ignore your requests if she sees that they lead to misfortune in the future. She is to respected and worshiped before she is asked for any help.

Prayer to Holy Death;
Lord, before Your Divine Presence God Almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
I ask for your permission to invoke the Holy Death.
My White daughter.
I want to humbly ask, that you break and destroy
all spells and darkness that may present itself before my persona,
in my home, and on my path.

Holy Death, please relieve me of all envy,
poverty, hate, and unemployment
and I ask that you please grant me________________.

Enlighten, with your holy presence, my home,
my work and those of my loved ones,
award us love, prosperity, health and wellbeing,
blessed and praised by your charity Holy Death.

Lord, I give you infinite thanks,
because I see your charity through your tests, which are perfecting my spirit.
Lord I give you thanks, because in the midst of these tests,
I will have you Holy Blessing.
It is so.

Open Your Own Awareness

Once in a while I get asked "how" I hear the deities or "how" I know what ingredients to put in a gris gris, or "how" I know I am doing things "right"...

The answer is both simple and complex; I try to be aware.

To truly live a spiritual life we agree and live with the idea that the deities and spirits are all around us, that we are connected to everything. We all agree on that part. The next step in living a spiritual life is where I find people get lost. It's just in their own perceptions really and it is pretty easy to remedy, but they forget to be aware.

If our deities are everywhere then it should be easy to be aware of them, right? Apparently, this is not so for many. I believe our culture and society has caused this. We are so far out of touch with nature and so distracted by all of the technology ruling our lives. It's difficult to see god when you are staring at your phone or computer screen all the time. It seems as if it is almost scrambling us so we can no longer even receive spiritual information.

Spending too much time with these distractions, inhibits your awareness and messages you could receive. I don't know anyone who heard or saw god on their Ipad.

It also comes from trusting your instincts, something we must get back to. There was a time when we used the moon, the wind, and animals to decipher what we should do next or what was coming. Sadly, we have lost this. Organized religion has taught us to depend on doctrine, not on what we feel in our hearts, know in our brains, and root in our guts. Trusting yourself and building your self esteem is the first step to being aware. You will never trust the messages you are receiving if you can not trust your own heart and brain to interpret them.

It is not only gurus and clairvoyants who receive messages, they are not much different than you or I. The difference is those who set aside time to be aware-to receive and trust the messages that reveal themselves. This is where the practice of ritual, meditation, and workings comes into play in a spiritual life. It is a skill you must hone just as any other skill. The more you practice the more adept you will become in this area. It only makes sense. If you do not set the time aside or make room in your life, then spirituality will never fit.

Don't let anyone fool you-living a spiritual life is work. But the gods and your own liberation and salvation are in this work.

The most vibrant stories I have of messages I received happened to me while outside. Not to say you can not receive messages inside, certainly I listen to the gods every day in my home. But, the most memorable experiences will take place standing directly on our mother underneath our father, I can guarantee you this. My point; get yo ass outside!

This happened several years ago. I came to know Maman Brigitte about 10 years ago, she found me through a spirit doll in New Orleans. It was several years later I came to know her Orisa counterpart, Oya. I am now a daughter of Oya. A couple of years after getting to know her well enough I felt ready to wear an ide (bracelet) for her signifying I one of her daughters. So I made one and started to wear it but then I felt it necessary to wear a symbol of her on my ankle as feet are very important portals for energy in our tradition. So that day, after we went downtown to the Water Festival (a festival to celebrate our Great Lakes) I was going to go look for beads to create the anklet-I wanted to get a rainbow bead as it is one of her symbols. My children were dancing in the fountains and running around while musicians performed in the amphitheater and I was thinking about Oya and enjoying my children. My son ran around behind the amphitheater so I went after him (he was 2) and as I whipped around the corner I looked down; there was an anklet with a hand-made glass rainbow bead on it. Nothing else adorned it, just a simple, imperfect tube of the 7 colors. I was aware and I received a sign.

I have many stories like this, from the time I was about 7. Most of them involving whatever I was searching for being at my feet or within my reach after I had spent time and effort thinking of it, relating it to god, waiting and watching in awareness for it to come. That is the trick. You must simply allow yourself to receive and be aware-you can't plan it or you will miss it when it floats past, looking nothing like what you were expecting. If you are only looking for one way, you will miss the millions of possibilities floating by you in the realm of awareness. This is how I found each deity and spirit I work with-they found me I was simply open and aware. I wanted nothing more than to be a vessel from the time I was a child. The point of being a vessel is to be filled but I believe many of us are empty and when our time comes to be filled we miss it because we weren't aware it was our turn. We were too busy with work, our TV programs, or a computer game.

The other trick-believing the signs and messages will come. You can call this instinct, faith, confidence, whatever-they are all related. These are all layers of the same cake. If you have one of these you can achieve the others. If all things are all made of the same chemicals and minerals then, from the ground up, you have as good a chance as anyone else to receive signs and messages. You are as much divine as anything else in this universe-you have as many connections to it as everything else. But you must be aware of these connections and make sure they are plugged in and in good working order. If you don't plug yourself in by being aware and take care of yourself it will be near impossible to hear the deities and spirits speak to you. Consider awareness being your "on switch" and your "on switch" being your awareness.

Start with setting aside 20 minutes a week to do that working you've been reading about, meditating, sitting outside, taking a walk, visiting a cemetery, reading a spiritual book, making an altar, sew a mojo bag, harvest or plant, dress a candle or better yet, learn to make a candle! Get involved to be involved! If you want  a spiritual life, you can only achieve that by filling it with activities that lend to your spirituality and if you have an activity that takes away from it, start cutting back or end it all together. Don't grow old wondering what you missed in your spirituality because of your society and culture dulling you. You are bright, shine like the universal divine that is within you.

Setting of Lights for Ogun

Ashe' Ogun, may you clear our path with your machete,
May you manifest our dreams in your bottomless cauldron,
May you provide us business, opportunity, and wealth
By providing us the means, drive, and health to get there.
The obstacles that were once, are no more, 
For you have cleared the path; now we can see!
We will use the tools you have forged for us to make our journey to steady work, good pay, justice, and freedom.
It is so-so it will be!
Ashe'-O!

1 Corinthians 5:3-5

Last night, around 9 pm I received this text;

"I in the spirit of the Lord have already judged you. I now deliver you into the hands of satan for the destruction of your flesh, so that your spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord." 1 Corinthians 5:3-5

This text was from an student who did not complete initiation about 4 years ago. Three quarters of the way through her neophyte stage, she stopped turning in work. She stopped, she admitted, because in an intoxicated state, God had physically spoken to her through her bible. 

About a year after this, and many odd situations, she called me about needing a job and I helped get her one where I worked. It was clear that she had converted back to Christianity and, of course, I could not have cared less about this fact. She got fired about a year or so after that and moved away. I had not heard from her in about 2 years until last night, when I received the above text. 

I have not experienced much religious harassment in the last 12 years. I now live in a wonderful community that is not only tolerant of my beliefs but accepts them and they often ask me fore help in their lives and in the lives of their loved ones. This text was shocking and, sad to say, scared me. It took me back to the days of when I was traveling, teaching workshops, and fundamentalist Christians would stand outside our buildings and watch our parades (which we had a legal permit for) with signs stating that we ate babies and hurled food at us in order to degrade and humiliate us. At that time I was 18 and it was a huge turning point for me. To decide how I felt about these people and what my faith a spiritual path would show me with how to deal with them, how to treat others, and how to be accepting and tolerant.

Without suffering those abuses, it may have taken me a lot longer to learn how to love those who do not love me. I may have never learned-I can not say. This is when my relationship with Sophia, Mother of God and wisdom, and her 3 daughters, Hope, Faith, and Charity, developed. I needed to be all of these; wise, hopeful, faithful, and charitable to all-not just those whom I liked or who liked me.

With this text this person has attempted to make me fearful of something she believes I do not understand or that I don't  believe in myself. She has created a false dilemma; that since I am not of her path then I must surely be against her god and therefore, belong to satan. 

It is funny how people believe things are so black and white and can not see any shade of grey. How they limit what is "right" down to such a narrow line, that it can barely be followed by the average person. And can not be followed at all by a logical person using reason.

Everything is up for interpretation. You can choose to to let the bible put fear in you or you can choose to learn love, tolerance, and faith from it. 

This is what I remember from the bible;

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

 1 John 4:7

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles. Proverbs 24:17 

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

For the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. Proverbs 24:20

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear ; do not be frightened."

Take Courage.1 Peter 3:14

Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it. Ezra 10:4

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.1 John 4:20-21 

I could go on, but this bring me to the point of this post...

Today I received this letter from a client;

Dear Sarah,

Just a note to thank you for your work, oh and the extra goodies you always include in my orders. I was "taking stock" today of my apothecary. I am glad to to have my spirit-sacred oils from you. I am working to get things right on a somewhat solitary path. No grannies, mom, or others to assist me now!

I pray every day now. I try to give worthy offerings to Papa Legba and I talk to him, asking for his help and permission to pray to the Orisha that they will assist me. I am so grateful for you. Your very existence has helped me back to a spirit path after YEARS of neglect. Blessings and prosperity to you, dear one."

Obviously, this letter came at just the right time:) The universe is good at that!

You will have times in your life when you are persecuted. For your ethnicity, for your culture, for your sexuality, and/or for your religion. Though we can work to surround ourselves with people who do not abuse us, we we can't shut out the world, and these people exist in our world. HOWEVER, your faith is what will steer you through. YOUR faith. NOT the faith of someone else, or the faith someone wishes you would be, or frightens you into falsely having. The faith that is in your heart because the divine is within you. Your intuition, your mind, your senses, your emotions, your guts, your core, your root. Listen to these to help you steer clear of these people and when you can not steer clear, trust in these divine parts of your own body and psyche. Reach into them for the strength that is there and do not fear because, indeed, it IS there. It always was and it always will be, for the divine does nor forsake us. The divine does not ignore, hack away at, or neglect parts of it's self, no matter how you may feel or what someone tells you in a text.

Do not fear, because then they begin to strip you of your divine worth and power. They begin to strip you of your faith, your common sense, your reason, your intuition. Everything that allows us to trust ourselves and gives us the freedom to make powerful, positive choices for ourselves. Everything that allows us to NOT have to rely on others interpretations of what is right or rely on words printed on flimsy paper.

Lamp for Ogun

Ogun is the god of war and iron of the Yoruba people of West Africa. In Yoruban lore, Ogun and the other gods climbed down to earth on a spiderweb. When creation was completed, the gods realized that people needed to clear more land in the forest where they lived. Unfortunately, the only tools available were made of soft metal, a material not suitable for cutting down trees. However, Ogun had been given the secret of iron by Orunmila, son of the supreme god Olorun, and he used an iron ax to clear the forest. Ogun later shared the secret of iron with the other gods and with humans. He also showed them how to shape the iron into weapons. Cauldrons, iron objects (such as nails) and tools, machetes, and dogs are sacred to him. His colours are green and black. His altar, which consists a small iron cauldron filled with roots, seeds, and iron objects like old nails, railroad spikes, horseshoes, etc. It should be placed behind your front door and anointed daily. He enjoys silver coins too, I have found.

Ogun can be called upon for political action, this is common in Haiti, and for employment. He has never let me down concerning employment issues. His corresponding saint is usually St. George but is St. Peter in Santeria and Palo tradition. It is said that a woman on her menstrual cycle should abstain from invoking Ogun.

He is a powerful god and will help those who pray to him. Yoruba blacksmiths have traditionally sacrificed dogs to Ogun, and each year they hold a three-day festival in his honor.

 He is the father of metamorphosis, because with his great strength, will and with the aid of his intense power, he transforms carbon into diamonds and sandstone into marble. His cauldron is the symbolic of a womb, a mine, the primordial abyss, and the tools which kept inside it are used by Ogun to fashion or shape what is inside into the precious piece of the divine it is meant to be.

Ogun clears our paths with his strength and tools. Any obstacle you encounter, He can clear it for you. Welcome him into your home, give him honor when you build or create something new, and he will continue to bless you with transformation and prosperity. 

If you are struggling with change, creativity, success, discovering your skills, or to find direction, petition Ogun and let him lend you his aid.

Ashe'

Photos of 2011

Photos of my home and work that make me smile:)

Blessings for New Year

New Year's Day offerings to the spirits, saints, and deities who have blessed my life thus far and for those spirits who will enter it in 2012. My home is for and because of them and they will always be welcomed and served here. May they bless you and your family with love, protection, health, wealth, and good fortune! Ashe'-O!