"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: 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
