I didn’t have paper versions of my list of further resources available at Many Gods West, so I said I’d share them online. You can find a list on the MGW facebook group (August 6th I think) and I’ve copied it all here in case you’re not on FB.

This list is a bit YouTube heavy because while reading is awesome, I think the one of the best ways to participate in the  legacies of Sri Andal, Akka Mahadevi, and Mirabai is to enjoy contemporary expressions of their work. On YT you’ll find classical dance performances, dance dramas, movies, TV serials, loads of bhajan and vacana albums, temple recitation recordings, tour videos, and more. I collected some of my very favorites and included them on the list. Plus, some of the books I’ve listed are expensive and/or hard to obtain whereas YT is currently free and relatively easy to access. If you’re interested in devotional poetry more generally, you can find many anthologies in English.

Oh yes – I mentioned a few other saints in the course of discussion. I talked very briefly about Sri Caittanya Mahaprabu, divine avatar and teacher of the Six Goswamis. His life, legacy, and teachings are much too complex for me to delve into here but he has been written about extensively so finding additional material will not be challenging. I also mentioned a female saint transformed by Lord Shiva into an old woman; her name was Avvai or Avvaiyar. Finally, the female saint who asked the Lord to transform her into a demon so she could watch the tandava dance is called Karaikalammaiyar. (There is scant material on both these women. If you have a burning interest in them let me know and I’ll dig up some sources for you. Otherwise, I’d suggest looking into books on South Indian saints and their poetry.)

OK, now to the list.

Sri Andal

Goddess Goda Devi Songs – Thiruppavai – Jukebox – Bhakti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TygcSAr_xw

Andal Dance by Sanjana Easwar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNZi8FV0hYg

Andal Kouthuvam Bharatanatyam Tamilnadu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7FNxc5KMHY

Varanamayiram
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7qOLtXyGp0

Andal and Her Path of Love
by Vidya Dehejia (SUNY Press)

Andal and Akka Mahadevi: Feminity to Divinity
by DR Alka Tyagi (D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.)

The Giver of the Worn Garland: Krishnadevaraya’s Amuktamalyada
by Sri Krishnadevaraya, Penguin 2010

The Secret Garland: Antal’s Tiruppavai and Nacciyar Tirumoli
by Archana Venkatesan, Oxford University Press, 2010

Akka Mahadevi

Akka Mahadevi Vachana

 

Akkamahadevi part 1 (Akkamahadevi: in search of paradise lost)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxyvBM4Geng

Akkamahadevi Odyssey of Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd8sxe-SoiU

Akka Mahadevi Caves Yathra

 

Kannada Devotional Songs Akka Mahadevi Amara Vachanagalu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBqxnoyvyo0

Akka Mahadevi Part 01 of 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYTxhyHOPfc

Kannada Vachana by Smita Bellur part1 – Basavanna, Akkamahadevi, Allama Prabhu – Veerashaiva
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr9Hi-L8ZL0

Kannada Devotional Songs | Vachana kirana | Bhakti Songs Kannada

(Vacana album by Smita Bellur)

Andal and Akka Mahadevi: Feminity to Divinity
by DR Alka Tyagi (D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd.)

Akka Mahadevi, the divine cuckoo: English rendering of Akka’s 50 vacanas

Mirabai

 

A Few Things I Know About Her https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg5rbQl9SKM
(a documentary film by Anjali Punjabi)

Meera Bai’s Palace Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuiGPBsqCyU

Krishna Bhajans – Payo Ji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo – Meera Bhajans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW_GY1o_w_s

Meera (1979) Part 2 English Sub

(Movie starring Hema Malini; look for the soundtrack featuring SS Ravi Shankar and Vani Jairam)

Meera Ke Gidhar (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTH7o772XDw

Meera Tamil Full Movie : M. S. Subbulakshmi and Chittor V. Nagaiah

 

Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Times and Ours
by John Stratton Hawley, Oxford 2012

General Interest

Speaking of Siva
by AK Ramanujan, Penguin 1978

When God is a Customer: Telegu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others
By AK Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman, University of California 1994

Hymns for the Drowning
By AK Ramanujan (translator), Penguin 2005

Slaves of the Lord: Path of the Tamil Saints
By Vidya Dehejia, Munshirm Manoharlal Pub Pvt Ltd, 2002

The Voice of Women: Gargi to Gangasati
By Avadhesh Kumar Singh, D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd. 2008

Manushi: Women Bhakta Poets

 

One of the interesting indications that your spiritual and/or magical path is actually working is that the choices you make have consequences. While all choices have consequences of some kind of other, choices with spiritual weight have the potential to have several degrees of consequence.

Engaging in devotional practice – taking up practices like prayer, praise, worship, ritual, study, etc. etc. have consequences, too. Some of these consequences are direct and more or less expected; for instance, we rather expect that by expressing sacred affection we receive sacred affection in turn. Devotional practice initiates waves of regard that bridge the worlds and establish connections that are sweet and surprising in their intensity.

However, devotional practice (and spiritual engagement more generally) has other consequences that might seem harder to notice. That is, they may not seem to directly follow from a decision to pursue sacred relationship. However, fruit naturally follows the flower; your choice to mingle your world with Theirs will have results and sometimes those results are surprising.

When I talk about the fruit of endeavor I’m talking about natural outcomes, whether or not these outcomes are known from the outset or even specifically desired. Increased sentiment might be a known and desired fruit but increased capacity for feeling is a necessary part of increased sentiment; therefore a devotionalist will find themselves plunged into situations that set  new high (and low!) watermarks of emotional sensation. This is fruit, a natural consequence of the path, even if it was not expected when the path was taken up.

I’ve talked some before about the outcomes of devotion, about how one can potentially end up with some cool mystic shit and magical toys along the way – but that this isn’t the point of devotional engagement. I’d like to state this again: devotional practice is more than its outcomes. It is more than its fruit. While devotional practice has the potential to deliver all kinds of amazing experiences to your door, none of this is actually the point.

(“And what is the point?” one part of myself asks another. A whisper growls, “To burn”, and there is a recollection of ecstasy, the taste of transcendence on the tongue.)

If the outcomes of devotion aren’t the point of devotion, how then can one’s devotional activity be judged or measured? Well, it can’t. Not really. I mean, I think that having analytical tools regarding devotional practice and desired outcomes are actually super duper useful, especially when we’re seeking to build a tradition. This is why I prepared an entire session on analyzing devotional practice last year for MGW. Finding concrete ways to think about a highly subjective practice is really important if you desire to improve (keeping in mind that not everyone does and this is totally and perfectly 110% OK because hey, *people pursue religious engagement and yes, even devotion, for all kinds of different reasons*).

A better question might be ‘how should the outcomes of devotion be regarded’ or ‘how is a person’s devotional character exhibited?’

An even better question might be, ‘why do I care?’ or ‘why am I trying to measure a devotional character that isn’t my own?’

We care about our gods. We care about our spiritual beloveds in highly personal ways. We see insults against them as terrible wounds, as things to be argued about, as wrongs to be put right.

We tend to see our gods on our sides. After all, there They are, comforting us in the midst of strife, pointing out solutions, cheering us on to action. They’re clearly on our side.

We must remember that every devotionalist is having exactly the same experience we are. That is, their gods are on their side, too. Even in the midst of circumstances where it seems like They couldn’t possibly want to be allied with people who are hurting them, insulting them, disregarding them.

If I chose to take every insult about Loki as meaningful, I would have no rest.

If I chose to personally defend my beloved against a world full of people who have already decided to hate Him, I would not cease.

Are these fights He really wants me to fight? When I choose to stand up in defense of His character, what am I really trying to accomplish? No matter how genuine my desire to give Him full honor, am I being driven by other motivations?

How badly do I want to be deemed right? How badly do I want to feel like I’ve won?

What, in the end, is there to win? Who will notice that I’m right?

Elsewhere I said today that devotion makes a very poor weapon, especially against other people. Stepping into a devotional universe means that relationship is prioritized and accepting that the mystery of sacred nature is always going to frustrate human attempts to really truly deeply realize it. There is an immense uncertain character to devotional existence that is not talked about. This hidden feature is enough to drive one to distraction, enough to ruin one’s life, and destroy one’s sacred relationship.

The uncertain feature of devotional life is the devotional life of other people.

There they are, living in a universe hot with sacred passions, feeling something you can’t even guess at, whispering words you wish you’d thought of into the ear of your very own private Beloved.

The awareness of the devotional life of other people is a fruit of personal devotional engagement. You eventually learn that you are not alone. This is a natural outcome and even if you started this path thinking you know this truth already, it will come back in repeated harvests.

Who is loved more? Who is loved best? Who is loved correctly? Who is loved rightly?

Who is right?

No one. No one is. That’s not how devotion works.

Who can defend their Beloved best? Who can champion Their cause? Who can rally force to prioritize Their supposed goals?

Who is best?

No one. No one is. That’s not how devotion works.

You can eat the fruits of devotion. You can savor them, thinking that they have been rightly earned, that at some point in the past the right decision was made and here you are, enjoying the fact of your rightness. But remember, this isn’t the point of devotion.

You can reject the fruits of devotion. You can spit them out, try to shove all your practice away and dive back into some other way of being because the choices you made didn’t have the outcomes you thought you wanted, because the outcomes you said you wanted didn’t come without strings attached. But remember, this isn’t the point of devotion, either.

I’ve done both. I’ve held up fruits – the natural outcome, neither earned nor striven for – and thought that I’ve created something, earned something, and that these fruits are indicative of my rightness, my treasured nature. I’ve also tossed fruits aside, feeling betrayed and angry that I’d been tricked into feeling something so deeply that I broke inside and never got to be the same again. I felt picked on, felt like I’d done something wrong, known for sure that I’d failed and stepped off whatever path that was intended for my steps.

I have been repeatedly humbled.

And that is how devotion works.

It took me an extra couple weeks to get around to filming Loki’s temple video for July but it’s finished and available. If you’ve enjoyed using these videos for contemplation, prayer, spellwork, ritual, or simply relaxation please share them with others. You can also create your own virtual temple videos and share them online as part of the Virtual Temple Project.

 

 

Video financial record for July:

• Costs
  Incense: $10
  Flowers: $5
  Tea $3
• Income
  Donations: none

If you would like to sponsor offerings of candles, incense, or flowers these are just $10 and you receive a portion of that month’s offerings for your own devotional work. The money covers the price of the item and the cost of shipping goods to you (US shipping is currently only available). You can also make one-time or recurring donations to make this project possible; just use the Paypal donation button on the right side of the page or use virtualtempleproject at gmail dot com as the PayPay address. Even $1 helps offset the cost of temple operation.

Please continue to share these videos with your friends and promote increased accessibility to polytheist worship spaces.

In spirit work there’s a line of wisdom that states that one must get right with the body before the practice can really go anywhere. Like many others before me, I wrestled with this wisdom wanting to reject it out of hand as not applying to me, wanting to see my situation as not applicable to its guidance, and wanting to hold up the pressure of the Work as evidence that I had things to do *now*, not once the body’s concerns were satisfied. Maybe most of all I didn’t want to look too hard at the body or to acknowledge the myriad pockets of deep dark sticky self-hatred that lurked not very far under the surface.

For years I’d cry openly at even small slights and setbacks. Being singled out, being ignored, being picked on, being praised – everything that called attention to myself (or that caused me to think about myself) resulted in instant distress. My self was not a safe place to be and I never knew why. Though much insight has been gained a considerable degree more comfort has been won I still struggle with very deep wells of self-loathing, distrust of my physical state, and disgust at the fact of embodiment. Perhaps I have thus far failed at getting right with the body. Things are better but there’s still a very long way to go.

Despite the obstacles and difficulties I’ve managed to come to some very important realizations about the body and it’s place in devotion and spirit work. That the body is the only vehicle of practice might seem so simplistic that it doesn’t even need stated – but it does.

The body really *is* the only vehicle of practice. What else is there? What else carries our matrix of awareness, planning, anticipation, experience, and sensation forward into new dimensions of practice?

That a non-physical complex is related to the physical complex doesn’t diminish the thrust of this particular truth. Indeed, the sensations our non-physical complex sends us are interpreted and sorted via physical capacities; we would not even be able to make sense of what was happening to our spiritual and non-physical selves were it not for our capacity of perception – and this perception is rooted (or at least most easily discerned) in physical tissues and organs.

Getting right with the body allows greater capacity for spiritual sensation, exploration, and growth. Although there were plenty of spirit work tasks and lessons I could handle while still battling the fact of embodiment things got better once I stopped fighting. After all, there’s no way to win in this fight (as in so many, many others). A different strategy was called for.

Gradually seeing my body as integral to practice – as fundamentally supporting the very fact of practice itself – has allowed me to give it some space, patience, and understanding. It can’t help being the way it is; chronically ill, disabled, injured, chemically scarred, easily fatigued, incapable of living up to standards of appearance or beauty, bearing the evidence of both sides of the colonization process the body simply is what it is. Radical acceptance is required. Trying to get deeper into the body and situate my awareness firmly here (ha!) will, I hope, let me dive deeper into practice and to integrate the actions of all this work into my physical self through knowledge and sensation.

The body is the vehicle of practice, the thing that carries our inquiries and capacity for sensation into spiritual engagement. The body is also the very site of practice, the place where this holy work occurs. Devotion happens in the body. Magic happens in the body. Spirit work happens in the body. We are our own setting, our own foundation, our own holy land – after all, this is where the gods become seen, heard, felt, and loved. How can the body be anything less than absolutely sacred?

Place and space have become important to my practice. Engaging deeply with space was a necessary part of developing the Virtual Temple Project and Loki’s temple videos. Even though these videos are intended to transcend the boundaries of physical space and make place accessible without consideration for conventional geography, these strange in/tangible principles continue to put parameters upon the expression of these videos. For instance, I can’t just slap together some candles on a table and have it become a temple space. Something else is required.

Repetition is part of what’s required. Repetition is one way that time becomes easily noticed in space, and it’s also something that adds layers upon layers of meaning and power to a space. A temple space without the requisite time spent building that power isn’t actually a temple space at all.

All this repetition and planning requires a great deal of engaged investment; there can be an element of deep play to this work, just like there is to the work of getting right with the body. Finally it occurred to me that body and place are much the same thing, at least in principle. Just as space and place become transformed through focused engagement, so does the body. Because the body is the place of practice, engagement with it is a way to bring about the desired transformation.

Again, all of these principles are actually very very simple. But you see, I already know how to transform space into place and place into a crossroads of the numinous. This means that I can do it all over again within the body and as the embodied self. My practice continually leads me back to the body and demands that I dig deeper.

 

When I was a little teen witch the books I could get from places like Barnes and Noble told me about tools like wands, athames, cauldrons, pentacles, herbs, candles, and all the rest. Though these texts did emphasize that tools did not make a witch and that tools did not necessarily make your magic more effective, like many other modern witches before me I went in search of my tools. Candles and herbs I found easy to use and very useful. Athames and other ritual implements were less useful. Sure, I waved my little knife around in the air with plenty of conviction and I sort of trusted that even though I couldn’t feel anything that *something* was happening. After all, I’d gotten results with candles; I was probably getting results with my athame even if I didn’t recognize it.

All the same, the lack of feeling that accompanied my use of an athame, wand, and several other tools made me very disinclined to experiment with them. I stuck with candle magic, essential oils, herbs, and occasionally crystals. I took comfort in the books that told me that tools weren’t necessary to do magic; they were at best a physical illustration of subtle principles at work. Tools provided an interface to help me manipulate energies but they did not bring much energy on their own.

Of course, given enough practice I did start to notice that the tools weren’t quite so meaningless. Herbs like cinnamon and mint brought very particular energies that, say, lemon peel and apple chunks did not. Tools did in fact have some energy of their own – so why couldn’t I connect with a wand? Why was the perfect athame so elusive?

Emphasizing that tools do not make a witch is important; recognizing the tools help train a magician but do not by their presence grant authenticity is valuable. However, I know how easy it is to take these thoughts to a more intense level, seeing absolutely every object as nothing more than Dumbo’s feather, an infantile crutch lacking intrinsic value, meaning, or spiritual substance. After all, what use are tools when meaning is assigned and reassigned by human perception alone? Why bother with tools when energy is everywhere at every time and available to every person?

It might surprise my younger self to learn that tools can indeed be incredibly important. They have lessons to teach us. They can carry distinctive energies and therefore make it easier for us to recognize those signatures. Yes: energy is everywhere and always available BUT if we don’t know what a particular energy signature feels like, tastes like, sounds like then how will we know that we have accessed the right current? These principles are incredibly valuable and deserve to recognized.

I began putting together a much more tool-intensive ritual worship practice about 5 years ago; that came after around 7 years of increasingly tool-intensive spirit work practice. When I started my ritual worship practice I wasn’t a stranger to the use of tools or to understanding that they could bring something potent, distinctive, and valuable to an undertaking. However, worship for me had always been a very simple affair. Prayer and incense were the extent of it; if I was getting real fancy I’d have a nice candle or even some music. I didn’t feel that worship required lots of tools. After all, expressing affection for the gods in my life didn’t require the use of lots of implements, just heartfelt sincerity and a humble attitude.

This remains entirely and absolutely true. Worship is founded upon sincerity, humility, affection, and a willingness to take an emotional risk by opening to the gods. My early devotional practices with Loki and Hela gave me a rather skewed view of what worship could actually entail. The Norse Powers tend to be low on fuss. They like direct interaction with the help of uncomplicated offerings. I might be forgiven for thinking that all gods were more or less like that.

The Powers that have come into my life since then (and that have reemerged as major players in my spiritual life since being set aside temporarily for Team Norse) really really like elaborate expressions of ritualized devotion. Yes, They also love spontaneous, uncomplicated, heartfelt devotion – who doesn’t? – but going deeper with Them involved learning a much different way of approaching Them.

So when my darling deities started making noise about various implements I took Them at Their word that these were things They wanted. I didn’t understand what, say, a cup of water brought to the worship practice. How was it any different than the oil lamp and incense I had been using? What did offering a piece of fruit change? What difference could vermillion powder honestly make?

I was very ignorant and I was corrected. Each and every item brings a different energy to worship. Each and every item is valuable because it does something that nothing else can – at least, certainly not at my current level of energetic sensitivity. I might be able to sense the differences between each implement but I cannot see how they all melt together into undifferentiated energetic bliss. Perhaps in another lifetime or ten.

I started with light and incense, then added water and fruit. To this was added vermillion powder and later beautiful perfume. A handheld fan was requested as the weather got hotter. I purchased a hibiscus plant this weekend and the brilliant red flower did something entirely unlike any other flower I’ve ever offered.

I don’t know why these implements are different from one another. I don’t know why the Gods seem so personally keen on having a drink of water. I don’t know why the jasmine essential oil perfume (from Wytch of the North!) is so very pleasing to some but simply acceptable to others. I don’t know why using a handheld fan in ritual brings an airy cooling energy or why a red hibiscus flower has a sharp metallic sweetness drawn in a line on the back of my tongue while it causes my head to feel like it’s breaking open. I only know that it does.

These things are a sacred mystery and I wouldn’t have experienced any of it without tools.

This isn’t to scare you away (or gods forbid, to brag about my own accomplishments because there aren’t any to speak of). Rather, I want readers to recognize that tools sometimes accompany very important processes. Sometimes the Powers *want* particular objects and even if we don’t understand why those objects are valuable.

Part of real devotion is accepting the Gods as They are, complete with Their preferences in interaction. This can sometimes mean that yes, we are supposed to turn our backs and walk away until They come to find us. We have to be open to the possibility that They will say no to us sometimes. Interaction doesn’t always proceed on our own terms; it can require a big investment in one’s own education in order to learn the proper ways to interact with these Powers. I spent several years searching for the right tools, studying books, speaking with practitioners, and taking guidance from more experienced members of my traditions. I spent a couple years conducting elaborate daily practice. Though I continue to practice daily my routine has become simpler over time with elaborate interactions reserved for special occasions (or simply for days when I have 45 minutes to spend in front of the altars). I’m still not good. I still have a whole hell of a lot to learn. Being shown what these tools can do in no way indicates mastery of them or transcending their importance.

Perhaps the real lesson in all this has been humility, to remember to be humble to the process and to trust the Powers to lead me to a place where we work best together.

Anyone who would like their name or petition added to the Loki temple prayer roll for July should email virtualtempleproject at gmail dot com in the next couple days. I’ll be preparing the temple for filming this week; the video should be released by the middle of next week.

This service is freely offered and I treat all information received with discretion. All papers presented at the altar are respectfully disposed of. If you would like to support the operation of the prayer roll or Loki’s temple, please consider donating via Paypal using virtualtempleproject at gmail dot com.

Thanks everyone for sticking with my blog in the past several weeks. I’ve been busier in May-June than I expected. First I was knocked down with a late spring flu/cold thing that took a couple weeks to really shake. Not long after that I wrenched my back severely trying to move a bunch of things at a flea market I was vending at. Just as soon as I started to feel better I re-injured myself. As a result I’ve fallen a bit behind in my day jobs and have had to make up for days where I had to go home early. All this means that I’ve had less time to be in front of the computer for personal projects like blogging.

I’m slowly feeling a little better. I was accepted into a couple clinical studies as a result of my injuries so I’m not entirely without care or support; it’s just going to take time to get me back to what passes as normal.

I’ve also been busy working with a couple local folks on various projects, none of which will really be discussed here. I haven’t worked much on my own projects. The audio book still languishes on my hard drive and I’ve more or less decided to discontinue the hand bound devotional books; I’ve sold one in the last six months and that’s just not enough to purchase the supplies required for another batch. If you had your heart set on getting an Odin or Loki devotional I’m still happy to make one for you, it’ll just require waiting a few weeks while I get the materials together. (There are $9 in the Loki devotional give-away fund so I might arrange a random drawing for a copy of Worshiping Loki sometime soon.)

Finally, I’m trying to get my funds together to present at Many Gods West in August. The plane ticket is a steep $300+ which can’t be realistically purchased until some medical debt is paid down. I’m getting close but I can’t afford to wait much longer to purchase a ticket.

Despite the health set backs and the perennial problem of not making enough money, things are really pretty alright. I’ve got a lot on my mind and heart right now as you might imagine. I’m looking forward to observing a major holy day later this month even if it will be celebrated in less style than it deserves.

Oh and – a number of people have been encouraging me to set up a Patreon account. I hadn’t realistically thought about such a thing until people kept asking if I had one and asking when I’d get it set up, etc. etc. I’ve been sitting on these thoughts for several months. I’m in no way ready to set one up at the moment but it’ll happen soon.

When I do, the funds are going to be directly put towards freeing up my time to work on a follow-up to Walking the Heartroad (it’s been in production for, um, a few years now but very little progress has been made), an audio book edition of Heartroad, and another book that I’ve been working on for several months. Supporters will get sneak peeks of this material and other projects. Can’t wait for more Heartroad in your life? Neither can I. Maybe we can make this happen together.

The June video of Loki’s temple space has been uploaded to YouTube and can now be viewed, shared, and embedded. Please enjoy this as a tool for worship, meditation, spell work, and contemplation. Feel inspired to participate in the Virtual Temple Project by creating your own polytheist worship spaces and sharing them online.

As this is a project offered to the community, transparency should be exercised. Here’s the financial record for this month’s video.

• Costs
  Incense: $5
  Candles: $3
  Flowers: $5
  Pomegranate juice $4
• Income
  Donations: none

Thank you everyone for the kind support you’ve shown this project. If you would like to sponsor offerings of candles, incense, or flowers these are just $10 and you receive a portion of that month’s offerings for your own devotional work. The money covers the price of the item and the cost of shipping goods to you (US shipping is currently only available). You can also make one-time or recurring donations to make this project possible; just use the Paypal donation button on the right side of the page. Even $1 helps offset the cost of temple operation.

Please continue to share these videos with your friends and promote increased accessibility to polytheist worship spaces.

Filming for Loki’s temple video for June 2016 has completed. Editing will take place over the next few days; you can expect a release around the end of the week. I’ll be sure to share a link here when it is ready.

In the meantime, here’s a picture from this evening’s session.

I first became aware of Santa Muerte in ’06 or ’07 and it wasn’t long before She became a fixture in my spiritual life, gradually growing to encompass a very special and distinct part of my religious experience. There’s much to enjoy about this post though one paragraph stood out in particular:

Despite her ubiquitous presence, the question of ‘what can a gringo know about la Nina?’ remains a legitimate challenge to those who would divorce her from the complex environment of Latin America. Culture and language are intimate partners and no amount of translation can capture the power of Santa Muerte as she lives and breathes on her native soil. This is not to limit her to Mexico, she is the patron of the New World, anyone who approaches her with honesty can quickly enter into a powerful relationship with la Ser de Luz. However, those who approach with the assumption that they can adapt her to their own understanding will quickly find themselves in the midst of a reality that is unpalatable to the mediated illusion of peace that hides the fact that our world is undergoing a massive and unprecedented upheaval. Santa Muerte emerges from the streets, prisons and violent borderlands, she is not safe and she is not comfortable, she is death and death is change.

People sometimes ask me questions about the Saint, trying to make sense of Her complexities and the very visceral qualities of Her presence in this world via Her believers. I always come back to the analogy of gravity: We are all affected by it equally but it is those on the brink of a cliff who are most aware of it.

Gracias, gracias Santa Muerte.

 

April 29th, 2016 marked the 3 year anniversary of SkeletonSaint.com. It’s been a wild and wonderful journey encountering and engaging the enigmatic Nina Bonita from jail cells in Madison County, Georgia to private shrines in the Philippines – the Americas’ fastest growing new spirituality continues to spread around the world and we’ve been at the […]

via 3 Years with the Empress of the Americas — Most Holy Death