Reconnecting with God and all their forms

   

     It’s been awhile since the last time I posted something. But after much reflection and life experiences, I want to get back to giving blogging another shot. In my last post I mentioned my devotion to La Santa Muerte and even though I have struggled with how to carry on that devotion, it is still going strong and I now feel inspired to continue to evolve and try new things. I also mentioned how I started my practice without involving none of the Catholic elements that this devotion stems from. Well, that’s changed.

    Like the nerd that I am, I’m always on the hunt for research on this topic and ever curious as to how Santa Muerte devotion came to be. Across multiple sources there is always talk about her indigenous roots and how she’s condemned by the Catholic church, so you would assume that her modern day devotees would renounce their Catholic upbringing and sure there are people who do this and venerate her through a different lens. But what I have also found in my research is that devotion to Santa Muerte is still undeniably Folk Catholic. At first I often wondered why would people continue to follow this faith brought on by the colonizers that were fierce in their determination to whitewash and annihilate those different from them. But when you look deeper at the faith and the people of Mexico, you’ll start to see that things are not as black and white as we make them out to be. 

    There are a couple of sources out there with people who explain it way better than I can that I will include at the bottom of my post. But I can say that because a lot of the culture and teachings of the indigenous people of Mexico (well, really of all Latin America) has been severely tempered with and lost to time, what was left had to syncretize with the religion force upon them in order to survive and eventually become something else, like it’s people. This is where Folk Catholicism comes in. It is a topic that lead me into another rabbit hole and one that I am still learning from. Folk Catholicism is how the people practice the faith, with or without the approval of the church’s institution.

    Faith is a really interesting and powerful thing because it speaks to a profound human experience across the world. Folk Catholicism is something you find among the common people, the most popular ones being from places like Mexico, Ireland, Italy, the Caribbean, etc. For the people in Mexico who devote themselves to La Santa Muerte, they have no issue in venerating her along side Jesus, Mother Mary, the angels, other saints, and God. The very nature of God has been reclaimed by the people who have to live in this world, far from all the made up formalities and rigid dogma of the very institution that once killed the son of the Divine. It wasn’t after his death and resurrection that this empire decided to convert and make history misusing his name and teachings. It those who are at the margins that have been able to unravel the beauty and the mysticism of the faith.

    Some might call this heretical, blasphemous, or even demonic, but those who are complaining are the ones on the top who are losing their power over the people and fearful of them learning their own power and connection to the Divine. I enjoy learning about this liminality of faith and magic, for there is in deed a lot of magic and culture to preserve through this spirituality. I look forward to share what I come across my journey! Til next time my ghouls!

Some good sources to follow

• https://www.sararaztresen.com/
• The Red Text Podcast
• St. Anthony’s Tongue podcast
• https://www.queercatholicmystic.com/
• https://www.orderofdivinemysticism.org/