La Santisima Muerte

Her Most Holy Death at the
Voodoo Spiritual Temple in New Orleans. 

November 15^th is recognized by some followers of La Santisima Muerte as one of her feast days. In the Catholic tradition this day is the “Assumption of Mary”. I have been on a magical hiatus of sorts, so had not been doing altar work. Her most Holy Death made sure to remind me that she had a feast day coming up, and gave me the opportunity to re-establish our connection. The more that you work with spirits, you will find that they can be very patient, sometimes in spite of their notorious reputations, and don’t always require cult like devotion. You do have to be open to “hearing” their request when they reach out to you, and honor their wishes. Of course if you are petitioning spirits to aid your work, you get what you put in. Just like any relationship. So slack on your end, and expect them to do the same.

 If you have ever felt drawn to this saint, I would say that she is worth exploring. I highly recommend "Santisima Muerte: How to Call and Work with Holy Death" by Conjure Man Ali from Hadean Press. It’s a short pamphlet packed with basic information on hers history, how to establish an relationship with, perform a novena to, and work spells with her. It makes a great companion to "Saint Cyprian: Saint of Necromancers" from the same author. If you are a follower of hers,  I would love to hear from about your experiences with this powerful spirit. 

Statue in a local Richmond, Va botanica. 

You have a Black Cat Bone?

I don't get to rant on this blog often enough, but this one has been on my mind for a while. I see a lot of people online in conjure groups  talking about using black cat bones. They either recommend painting chicken bones, or obtaining ethically harvested bones from a black cat for the work. I think that at least the bones of a black cat are acceptable to work with the spirit of the animal  for luck workings and the like. Brujo Negro has some good information about just that on his website . Of course a chicken bone as a proxy is just plain ridiculous. What most conjure folks are trying to do is create a replacement for the infamous Black Cat Bone charm and avoid the admittedly gruesome ritual involved in obtaining the charm. By all accounts this charm entered Hoodoo practice via the popular grimoire of Saint Cyprian. The ritual is as follows:

"Cook the body of a black cat in boiling water with white seeds and wood from the willow until the meat is loosened from the bones. Strain the bones in a linen cloth and, in front of the mirror, place the bones, one by one in your mouth, until you find that you have the magic to make you become invisible.  Keep the bone with the magic property and, if you want to go somewhere without being seen, place the bone in your mouth."  

I can understand completely not wanting to perform this ritual, and do not personally recommend that anyone do so. That being said, I feel that the rite is an essential part of unlocking the power associated with the charm, and that without carrying out the task one does not have a true black cat bone in the grimoire sense. I draw similarities between this ritual and the equally well known Toad bone rite of Witchcraft tradition. In fact  some hoodooist believed that one method of finding the bone within the ca that contained power was by throwing the bones in a stream and taking the one that floated upstream. This is the method used in the Toad Bone rite. With the Toad Bone, the process of finding the animal, the method of killing it, the harvesting of the bones, the forces called up during the rite, and the obtaining of the bone are essential. In some ways it is a rite of passage and initiatory in some aspects, I would say that the same holds true for the black cat bone spell in a way as well.

This is not just a simple spell, or mindless killing, It is a rite. One can gleam clues of how some workers viewed this process in  the book "Of Mules and Men" where Zora Neale Hurston recounts her own black cat bone ritual, that included a period of fasting before the spiritual undertaking. Periods of fasting usually precede rituals that aim to transform the spirit(s) of those involved in some way. That in my view is part of the aim of the ritual. Lets be honest, this ritual is ghastly and inhumane, which is intended. Mind you it is not as extreme as one of it's predecessors the Taigheirm but I feel it is meant to test the performer on a psychological and thus a spiritual level. Most decent folks would never pointlessly torture an innocent animal, and that is why it tests you. There is a clear line of decency that must be crossed here. Not just one of social convention, or personal moral judgement, but one that you can just recognize on an intuitive level as being "wrong". So then the question that gets asked is, how far are you willing to go for the power that you seek? The process should be hard for you to stomach and get through. If you are a psychopath I just don't think that the rite will have the same deep emotional effect on you.

I am not saying in any way that people should go out and kill a cat if they want an authentic black cat bone charm. I am just saying that we in the conjure community should acknowledge that the ritual served a purpose in empowering the charm, that can't be replaced by any acceptable proxy. One can work black cat magic any way that they see fit, but be honest and know that what you are wielding in no way resembles the legendary charm in my opinion.