SANTA, 'SHROOMS AND FLYING REINDEER: WHY CHRISTMAS IS SO MERRY!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  OCCULT HISTORIAN

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  In previous blogs I have written about the "Bizarre Origins Of Christmas" and "Krampus:  The Punisher Of Naughty Children."  On this glorious Christmas, I will further explore Christmas traditions they don't teach you in school.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  F**k, yeah!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Although there is some dissent on this story from a handful of anthropologists and historians, I am gonna stick to the more interesting facts which I find, are based on meticulous research from reliable sources.  The lowdown is that the Christmas Tree, Santa Claus, reindeer and the gifts which people place underneath the tree have very old origins which would shock most church-going folks.  In Siberia and other Arctic regions during the winter solstice, native shamans would go out to collect the amanita muscaria mushroom which readers of "High Times" will tell you, is highly hallucinogenic. 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I'm trippin' man!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  These mushrooms were highly-prized by Arctic people who used them for spiritual purposes and probably to blow their minds on those long, winter nights.  The shamans who went out to collect these mushrooms would wear red and white outfits to mimic the distinctive colors of the amanita muscaria.  

These mushrooms thrive underneath pine trees and when seen in clusters, resemble colorful gifts on Christmas morning.  

The shamans would sometimes hang the mushrooms to dry on the branches of pine trees and one would be reminded of ornaments on a modern Christmas tree at first glance.  Then the shaman, with his sack full of hallucinogenic mushrooms, would deliver them to people in their yurts which were the huts which Arctic people lived in.  Their doors were often blocked by snow and the shaman would have to deliver the goods through the chimney.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  It all sounds familiar!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Since these mushrooms were highly toxic in their raw form, they had to be dried in sacks which people people would hang near the fire.  The shaman (dressed in his red and white garment) would then travel to his next delivery in a sled pulled by reindeer.  The reindeer have their own story:  They are known to seek out and eat the mushrooms which grow underneath the pine trees and afterward would become very perky and their jumping movements would, to the casual observer, look as though they were "flying."

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I'd be flying too, after a belly full of 'shrooms!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  A curious twist in this interesting saga is that the hallucinogenic properties of the amanita muscaria is excreted in urine and a more filtered and enjoyable form of the mushroom can be experienced by drinking the urine of a person or animal which has consumed it.  Yes, people would drink urine and even eat the snow where a mushroom eater had urinated to get "experienced."

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Pee drinking and getting high on 'shrooms? ... Christmas just got a whole lot more interesting!!! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!
bluejames61@hotmail.com

WHEN HELL IS FULL CLOWNS WILL WALK THE EARTH: A STRANGE AND TERRIBLE SAGA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  OCCULT RESEARCHER 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The phenomenon started in small town newspapers, made its way to paranormal Internet websites, spread to YouTube and finally made the 6 o'clock news.  People all across the country have reported seeing "creepy" persons dressed as clowns lurking in their area, many times displaying malicious intent.

BLIND DOG OZZY: !!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Clowns have been around since ancient times, appearing in the literature and art of ancient Egypt, China and then making a strong showing in the culture of medieval Europe.  Clowns, court jesters, Pierrots, Harlequins and others held a position of privilege, in that they were they only ones allowed to poke fun at royalty with impunity.  They are often portrayed as mischievous, rude, risque' and sometimes outright nasty in their many incarnations.  How they they became a staple at the circus, family events and children's birthday parties in this country is a bizarre story worth telling.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Here it comes! ...

"BLUE" JIMMY:  During the early 1900's, rodeos in the United States began using clowns to entertain crowds between events or if  some cowboy got gored by a bull and had to be dragged out of the dirt and taken away.  Many of these clowns were severe alcoholics who had to drink a bottle or two of hootch just to get up in the morning and get their makeup on.  They were paid meager wages or sometimes just given booze for their services and often exploited by the rodeo promoters.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  See the movie, "Shakes The Clown" with Bobcat Goldthwait (1991) ... f***ing hilarious!!! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  At this time entered Sister Tessa Mc Daniels,  a 16 year-old fireball evangelical preacher whose family was involved in the Anti-Saloon League which sought to ban alcohol consumption on the grounds that it was responsible for sin, prostitution and wife beating.  Her fire an' brimstone services in which she would handle poisonous snakes and bang on the piano with her hands and feet predating Jerry Lee Lewis, made her a huge attraction in the 20's in the Midwest and Southern states where she traveled with various medicine shows. 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  For those who don't know, a medicine show was a traveling show which went from town to town in rural areas and featured:  Blues and Ragtime musicians; Hula dancers; sideshow performers and various freakish, novelty acts who would bring in good-sized, curious crowds.  Then "snake oil" peddlers would go around the crowd and sell medicines which would supposedly cure all sorts of ailments.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Dude!  This made the Mc Daniels family a good profit, considering the fact that the pretty, red-headed, fair-skinned Tessa often stole the show with her musical antics and the fact that during her fiery sermons, her blouse would often come open and reveal a hint of ample bosom which was not considered sinful since it was within the context of bringing sinners to The Lord.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Yeah!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The Mc Daniels family, which consisted of father Jedediah, mother Sarah, son Jacob and Tessa had started an offshoot of the Anti-Saloon League called the Gentlemen Of Mirth, which was very much a precursor to AA in the fact that they would seethe against the evils of alcohol and offer comfort and biblical advice to many, including a disproportionate number of rodeo clowns who wandered in off the country roads just to get a hot meal and a cup of coffee.  They were fueled by the biblical passage in Ecclesiastes 3:4, which says there is, "a time to weep and a time to laugh."  Clowns were encouraged to wear full makeup and costumes in meetings and testify in public as clowns. When daughter Tessa would put on her flamboyant sermons at the medicine shows, the rodeo clowns would then move through the crowd and hawk the Mc Daniels' secret recipe called "The Elixer," which was said to cure everything from baldness to nervous disorders to infertility.  The main ingredient in "The Elixer" was laudanum, an opium extract which was highly addictive ... 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  ...  And could seriously, f**k you up!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Add to this the fact that many of the rodeo clowns were less than attentive about the evils of alcohol, wore lead-based, toxic greasepaint on their faces which is known to cause mental disorders and were said to partake heavily in "The Elixer" in after-sermon gatherings around the bonfire and you have ...

BLIND DOG OZZY: ... A bunch of stoned, clown-faced, Bozo motherf**kers!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Of course, you know the rest of the story ... Tessa was found to have "clowned around" one time too many with the rodeo clowns and was pregnant at 16.  Her parents tried to cash in on her fertile status by saying that her pregnancy was a miraculous virgin conception but not even country hicks were buying it.  She ran off with one of the clowns and ended up in Los Angeles, CA in the mid 20's to become a disciple of Aimee Semple Mc Pherson, a Pentecostal evangelist preacher who was a pioneer in the use of the press, the telephone and the radio to get her message to the masses.  Tessa's work in the Foursquare Church which Mc Pherson founded, was much more subdued and modest than her own ministry back home.  That is until the alleged kidnapping of Mc Pherson occurred, in which she claimed she was abducted from Venice Beach, taken to Sonora Mexico, held for ransom and tortured in a shack until she escaped and walked through the desert for hours and ended up back across the border in Douglas, Arizona. When Mc Pherson was brought back to Los Angeles, many thought her story was a hoax and that she had run off with some swinging dick to have one of her many alleged affairs.  There was a grand jury inquiry and she was eventually let off the hook due to lack of evidence but many still believed she was a religious diva who took advantage of her followers and indulged in pleasures of the flesh on a regular basis.  Young Tessa was implicated in the scandal due to her own dalliances in her former life and she was forced to flee the media circus and return home.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  They always return to the scene of the crime!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  When Tessa returned to her family's home, she found that the ministry her family had started was in shambles and the Gentlemen Of Mirth had returned to their former ways and worse.  Now drunk, disillusioned  and addicted to laudanum, they turned to  thievery, gay prostitution and sick, twisted antics to feed their addiction.  Examples of this included biting the heads off of chickens, jumping into sewage tanks and putting impossible objects up their rectums for the entertainment of bored and whiskey-soaked ranch hands who paid a few bucks to see these clowns degrade themselves.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I've done worse!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The clowns' association with children's birthday entertainment is even more bizarre.  A certain U.S. Senator Satchel P Wharton (R) Arkansas, was found to have been a huge fan of the debauched former rodeo clowns and hired a troupe of them to put on a show at a his adopted daughter's 7th birthday party at his mansion in Fayetteville.  The children were horrified but the horde of drunk politicians at the party went into hysterics and soon every well-to-do socialite wanted a troupe of geek clowns at their kids' birthday party to provide raunchy fare in the guise of children's party fun.  Eventually, it was discovered that Senator Wharton had an extensive library of exotic photos which featured clowns and children in acts which would be considered child pornography today.  However, since child pornography laws were not enacted in the United States until the 1970's, he evaded legal prosecution but his mansion was burned to the ground by enraged parents and he was executed by a lynch mob and no one was ever brought to trial for his death.  Still, clowns are considered a necessity at birthday parties even though their antics are aimed more at adults three-sheets-to-the-wind, rather than children.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Filthy s**tbag!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  How the clowns came to start wandering remote wooded areas is a story in itself.  In his book "Shadow Of The Sentinel:  One Man's Quest To Find The Hidden Treasure Of The Confederacy" (2003) author Bob Brewer tells the incredible story of how after the Civil War, the Confederate States planned to wage a Second Civil War.  To do this, they needed massive amounts of funding which was in no shortage due to wealthy American and European families and organizations who had a vested interest in seeing the formation of a Rebel Nation.  He also brings forth the theory that the legendary outlaw Billy The Kid and his gang committed their robberies to help fund this war and never profited personally, from all the money they took.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  A s**tload of money!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Logistically, this was a huge problem since royal amounts of cash, valuables and gold and silver could not be kept in a bank or someone's house.  It had to be hidden until it could be recovered for use in the Second Civil War.  The Knights Of The Golden Circle (a precursor to the KKK) had some of the best engineering minds in Europe come across the Atlantic and build underground vaults and trapdoor-ridden, hiding places for all this treasure.  Of course, this cache of wealth had to have some sort of recovery system for people who might have to access it at regular intervals.  A coded method of symbols was developed which was cut into trees, rocks and any landscape which could help point the way to any buried  loot.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Gimme my money, b**ch!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Author, Bob Brewer claims that when he was a kid, he remembers certain relatives riding up and down Southern roads on horseback "on watch" for something or other, later learning that they were sentinels sworn to protect this treasure.  As he explains in his book, this duty was passed down from generation to generation and probably still continues to this day.  Then during the worst part of the Great Depression, which was so accurately portrayed in John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Grapes Of Wrath," (1939) a rodeo clown by the name of Buford Allen Platchford went through Dust Bowl ravaged farms and ranches and organized legions of down an' out men in his trade to search and recover buried caches of gold and silver coins and other valuables, using the coded system that only Platchford understood.  As a badge of honor, they persisted in wearing clown makeup and clothes during these endeavors and it was also handy in concealing their identities during these treasure raids.  While they never found the big vaults of treasure that were said to be buried in wooded areas all over the South, they did find handfuls of gold and silver coins and trinkets which was enough to keep them fed and equipped for many years during The Great Depression.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Someone had to pay for those big shoes and big, red noses!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  You may find it hard to believe that an organization of clowns has persisted to the present day but it is not unusual for strange brotherhoods to endure for generations:  The Freemasons; The KKK; Skull And Bones ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  ... Costco Buyers Club!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Why are the clowns appearing on such a frequent basis now?  Because you  are looking for them.  They were always there but due to the advent of the Internet and social media, their sightings are magnified a hundred-fold.  In the early 80's, before the Internet and the popularization of home computers, there was a spate of "evil clown" sightings all over the U.S. which were logged into official police reports and looked into by investigative reporters such as myself.  Journalists discovered that these sightings were being reported all over the country but police departments in those stone-age days, did not have the technical resources to communicate with each other and share information.  In other words, police departments all over the country thought that this was a local phenomenon happening only in their jurisdiction.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  And they had donuts to eat!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The clowns were described as typical circus and birthday clowns but were all said to have a distinctive, candy cane design down the side of their pants.  They rode in white utility vans and tried many times, to lure children into the vans.  Due to the efforts of certain journalists who tied the clown sightings together in ways that law enforcement was unable to do, the story was about to break nationwide.  Then something happened.  President Ronald Reagan, only 69 days in office, was the victim of an assassination attempt by a mentally ill gunman.  His near-death and recovery and the prosecution of his attempted assassin, dominated every news outlet for the next year or so.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  The Evil Clown story was dead! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  An interesting reprise of this type of story is depicted in the 2015 Academy Award-winning film, "Spotlight" which tells the true story of a group of investigative reporters at The Boston Globe newspaper who were about to break a story about a massive conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up unholy amounts of child sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area.  After exhausting amounts of research and interviews, the story was about to explode when something else exploded ... namely the Pentagon and The Twin Towers in the 911 attacks.  Every reporter on the Boston Globe was put on the 911 story and subsequent events and the Catholic Church coverup story was put on hold for months.  Fortunately, the reporters were eventually able to get back on track and the story made headlines worldwide, forcing the Catholic Church to take punitive actions against hundreds of priests.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Bastards!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Unfortunately, there has been no such successful followup on the Evil Clown story and anyone who has commented on it is immediately branded a conspiracy-theorist, nutcase.  The best information my sources can come up with is that many of these clowns have given up on finding that big score of Confederate treasure and have once again turned to 
criminal pursuits.  This includes involvement in a billion dollar drug and child trafficking ring which dates back to the days of The Process Church Of The Final Judgement, The Manson Family and The Son Of Sam/David Berkowitz murders.


BLIND DOG OZZY:  Nice!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Also, remember that the traditional clown makeup that we see in modern times was first worn by travelling entertainers in 14th century Europe to mimic the symptoms of the Black Plague:  pale face; red, runny nose; spotted cheeks ... they would amuse villages full of dying people by poking fun at their diseased appearance.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Let's laugh until we die!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  So there you have it.  Clowns are seriously f**ked up people with a long and lurid history of drugged and drunken perversion and mayhem.  Just what you want at your next birthday party for your little prince or princess.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  OH, S**T!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Oh, and we should tell you, this blog is our  Fun Halloween Puzzle for all our readers ... 99% of it is absolute historical fact ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  ... And 1% we pulled out of our ass!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  You find out how much is true!  Happy Googling and oh, one more thing ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Happy Halloween!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow! Wow!
bluejames61@hotmail.com

YOU WILL READ THIS BLOG: A CRASH COURSE IN MIND CONTROL

"BLUE" JIMMY:  MIND CONTROL RESISTER

BLIND DOG OZZY: NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Look at the front page news and you would think that God's wrath was upon us:  wars; terrorist acts; police shootings; crazed gunmen in public places and bizarre crimes that TV preachers will tell you are biblical signs that THE END IS NEAR!!!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Repent, Motherf***ers!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Yeah, I don't believe that.  If you know anything about World or U.S. history, you'd know that there's been far worse in the past and people couldn't just get on their smart phones and call for help, neither!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Imagine someone taking out their phone and taking a selfie in front of a pile of dead bodies during the Black Plague!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  But you can't deny there's some strange s**t going on.  People go off the deep end and kill a roomful of people and everyone in their neighborhood says, "He seemed like such a nice guy!"  Could it be that certain people are "not in their right mind" when they commit such acts?  Could their minds be controlled?

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Dun!  Dun!  Dun!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The American Psychological Association's Encyclopedia Of Psychology defines mind control or brainwashing as "An impairment of autonomy, an inability to think independently and a disruption of beliefs and affiliations.  In this context, brainwashing refers to the disruption and reeducation of basic beliefs and values."

BLIND DOG OZZY:  WTF?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  There is your standard definition.  But the methods by which brainwashing can be achieved could fill volumes.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Yeah, we don't have that kind of time.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Perhaps we can offer the casual reader a crash course.  The term brainwashing was probably first used in the 1950's to describe the indoctrination and reeducation techniques used by the communist North Korean and Chinese governments.  There are stories of dedicated American soldiers during the Korean War who when captured by the enemy, seemingly had a change of heart, made anti-American statements and even stayed in their captive countries willingly, after the war. 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  What kind of s**t is that?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  It should be noted that the U.S. military, the American Psychological Association and the scientific community at large, deny that there is any scientific proof that mind control or brainwashing is possible ... So we should just forget about it and move on, right?  There's no need to investigate it any further.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Yeah, that's not what journalists do.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Much journalistic investigation and Freedom Of Information Act requests have shown that not only is it worth investigating further, but the U.S. military, the CIA and other government agencies have spent a huge amount of time, effort and money trying to develop and perfect mind control techniques.  They have experimented with torture, sleep deprivation, isolation, hypnosis, "spiritual teachings" and drugs such as LSD, mescaline (peyote), psilocybin (magic mushrooms), Marijuana and even old-fashioned, down home booze.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Gimme a shot an' a beer and I'll tell you anything you wanna know!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Following World War II and all its attendant communist, Cold War paranoia, the U.S. Government first established Project CHATTER ( 1947), Project BLUEBIRD (1950),  Project ARTICHOKE (1951) and finally Project MKUltra (1953).  All these projects seemed to be obsessed with the perfection of torture and interrogation techniques which would allow the U.S. government to make captured soldiers and spies "give up their secrets" if they had any to give.  They also had an interest in creating a Manchurian Candidate, which refers to the 1959 novel by Richard Condon and subsequent film adaptions which featured a mind-controlled slave who could be made to do sinister government bidding. 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  In Washington D.C. they call that The President!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  After the revelations of Watergate and the world of s**t President Nixon got himself into there were in the early 1970's, investigations into the activities of the CIA, the FBI  and other government agencies by the U.S Congress and certain presidential commissions such as the Rockefeller Commission.  These revealed that there were indeed, attempts of mind control on unwilling subjects including "undesirables" such as Negroes, prostitutes and homosexuals.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  All the people who make life interesting!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Dude!!!  Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan condemned the experiments on unwilling human subjects. And the death of CIA employee, Dr. Frank Olson after secretly being given LSD, have provided reams of conspiracy material.   The lowdown is, various American government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, universities and other institutions were proven to have taken part in mind control experiments in an era when the United States and other free nations were cursing Nazi Germany for their "medical tests" on concentration camp victims during World War II.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  What kind of s**t is that?

"BLUE" JIMMY:  So despite all the denials that there is no "scientific proof" that mind control is possible,  there is overwhelming anecdotal and written evidence that the U.S. Government and all related agencies have spent an inordinate amount of time, money and resources looking into the possibility of making you an' me do things against our will.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  There's a surprise! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  But that only covers official government activities.  What about those who use this information in business marketing strategies, education, news reporting and religious persuasion?  Everyone from Hitler to Aleister Crowley to L. Ron Hubbard to Charles Manson to CNN to Fox News to that guy at the bar who won't shut up have used mind control strategies to their advantage ... there's a lot more to this story.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  We did say this was a crash course!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The human mind is a very "flexible" entity which we have shown, can be manipulated and trained in various ways.  One work that I have come across that gets down to brass tacks without any mystical mumbo jumbo is "Sleights Of Mind:  What The Neuroscience Of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Perceptions"  by Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde.  This neuroscience husband and wife team have spent years studying the science of stage magic which has been perfected over the centuries to trick the human mind. According to the description on their website, "magic tricks fool us because humans have hardwired processes of attention and awareness that are hackable -- a good magician uses your mind's own intrinsic properties against you in a form of mental jujitsu."  How magicians centuries ago had knowledge of this information is a good subject for another article.  But they did and still do and that information is being used by a variety of mind controllers today.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  So how do you know if someone is trying to "Put A Spell On You!"

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Another good work to read is "The Six Keys To Unlock And Empower Your Mind:  Spot Liars And Cheats; Negotiate Any Deal To Your Advantage; Win At The Office; Influence Friends & Much More" by Marc Salem.  Salem is a stage performer and frequent invited guest at seminars where he has convinced countless people that he has psychic or supernatural abilities.  He is quick to point out that he has neither.  The truth is that from a young age, he has trained himself to have incredible powers of observation and is a master of kinesics or the ability to read body language.  If you were to read his books or watch his amazing videos, you'd be frightened at how easy it is to not only have your personal information read but have your mind manipulated as well.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  People like this are out there!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  People often ask me why I have spent a lifetime researching the occult, thinking that it only has to do with sacrificing babies in bizarre, bloody, ancient rituals.  In reality occult literally means, "that which is hidden" and could refer to anything which has been kept secret from you.  At one time, Karate was considered an occult practice for it was never taught in the Western World until modern times.  A few decades ago, Yoga was considered an occult practice.  Now, everyone's mom is doing Yoga.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  In hot, Yoga pants!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  If you follow history, you'll see that the ability to control people' minds is a much coveted commodity.  So the question remains, is mind control possible?

BLIND DOG OZZY:  We made you read this blog ... there's ten minutes of your life you'll never get back again!!!  

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!
bluejames61@hotmail.com

SANTA MUERTE: CULT OF THE FORGOTTEN

"BLUE" JIMMY:  OCCULT RESEARCHER

BLIND DOG OZZY:  NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  It's official, the Catholic Church has condemned the cult of Santa Muerte!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Oh, B***h!!! ... It's on!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  I have been researching this cult for years and now Pope Francis and The Vatican have announced that they are "concerned" about the estimated 12 million followers of this cult in the U.S. and Latin America and have denounced it as "blasphemous." 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  OH, S**T!!!  Religious War!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Not yet, but there is going to be conflict.  The cult of Santa Muerte is obviously a syncretic religion combining beliefs of the Catholic Church and the spiritual practices of the indigenous people of Latin America.  Look at images of Mesoamerican gods like Mictlantecuhtli and you will see similarities.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  My abuelita had one of those statues in her house and it scared the s**t out of me!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Mexico in particular, has a long history of witchcraft and sorcery and in places like the city of Catemaco in the state of Veracruz, there are tours which allow you to see people and places related to witchcraft firsthand.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Gracias, no! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Much of the controversy in the Catholic Church stems from the fact that Santa Muerte seems to be the patron saint of the olvidados:  drug and sex traffickers; convicts; gang members; junkies; pimps; prostitutes; thieves; the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transvestite community and all the rest that feel abandoned and condemned by The Church.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  That's one b***h of a long line! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Add to this, the fact that most Mexican police departments are extremely corrupt and made up of drug cartel members.  This gives most Mexicans little reason to trust their authorities to give them protection.  This creates an environment ripe for rebellion.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  So they take a walk on the Wild Side!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Santa Muerte is usually depicted as a female skeletal figure holding various objects which combine elements of the Grim Reaper, the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Egyptian Ma'at, and other mother goddess figures.   Praying to her and giving her offerings of worldly things ( flowers, food, cigs, tequila, drugs) will gain her favor.

BLIND DOG OZZY:  And honey, she don't judge!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  She don't care if you want a romantic relationship, a new job, protection from La Migra or your mother-in-law to drop dead -- she does it all, whether it's good for you or not!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I could use some of that!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  This is not the first time in the Americas that the Catholic Church has condemned a religion that combines elements of it's own beliefs with those of other cultures which use Catholic rites, rituals, and images to disguise its own practices which were outlawed by The Church.  Santeria and Palo Mayombe in Cuba and Puerto Rico, Candomble 

in Brazil and Voodoo in the heavily creole parts of the Southern U.S., have all had to hide their practices and beliefs, going so far as using images of Catholic saints to represent their deities.  Earlier, I referred to Santa Muerte as a cult but what seems to piss off The Church the most, is that it has grown far beyond that.  A cult, by definition, has a charismatic leader, asks for unreasonable devotion and isolates its followers from non-believers.  Santa Muerte is casual/cool/improvised in practice and has moved into the mainstream to the point where devotees can go to Catholic Church on Sunday and perform Santa Muerte rituals in their closet altar on Monday.

BLIND  DOG OZZY:  Un oracion:  Santisma Muerte, yo te suplico encarecidamente que asi como te formo Dios immortal ...

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Dude!!!  We're not gonna try to judge whether the phenomenon of Santa Muerte is good or bad, blasphemous, Satanic, "Not Of God" or a symptom of the downfall of all humanity.  It is a religion which is embraced by millions of people who feel that traditional practices have let them down.  We can recommend a few books which can inform you and feed your head:  "La Santa Muerte:  Historia, Realidad Y Mito De La Nina Blanca" by Claudia Reyes Ruiz, which has spectacular color photos and shows how Santa Muerte is practiced in daily life by it's most devoted practitioners (in Spanish); "La Santa Muerte:  Virgen De Los Olvidados" by Jose Gil Olmos, which is more of a how-to book (in Spanish) which guides the reader through the rites and rituals and prayers needed to practice the religion on a daily basis; Then there is "La Santa Muerte: Unearthing The Magic & Mysticism Of Death" by Tomas Prower, which is  probably the first book in English that gives an excellent overview of the religion as well as the author's personal involvement with Santa Muerte and how to get the "Skinny Lady" into your life.  

BLIND DOG OZZY:  I've had a lot of "skinny ladies" in my life!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The lowdown is, Santa Muerte is no longer a religion practiced only in Tia Consuelo's garage and at the botanica, so like any religion that is unfamiliar, you learn about it and accept that it is part of our world and get it on with your own thang ...

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Dude!!!  SANTA MUERTE ... We could start a Heavy Metal band with that name!!! 

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Already been done ... 

BLIND DOG OZZY:  S**T!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Sake's Alive!

BLIND DOG OZZY:  Wow!  Wow!

bluejames61@hotmail.com