Twilight Path Studies

Research

Mexican Lady of Death

Santisima Muerte: On the Origin and Development of a Mexican Occult Image.
By: JOHN THOMPSON

Journal article by John Thompson; Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 40, 1998

The stripper at the Reyes y Reynas Dancing Bar, on Republica de Cuba in the center of Mexico City, approached and asked if I spoke Spanish. Yes, I do. Would I buy her a drink? Of course. As she ordered a glass of amaretto and leaned wearily on the table, my eye was drawn to the silver pendant wedged between her breasts. I recognized the shape of Santisima Muerte. I pointed: Who's that? It's Santisima Muerte. Tell me more, I said. Well, God and Santisima Muerte look after me, she said, fingering the pendant. I love La Muerte, because of her great fairness, and her great unpredictability. You know, Death can come at any time, and eventually does come to all, rich or poor. I nodded. We sat quietly for a few moments. A bottle broke nearby. She smiled, and held up the image on the silver chain. I would like to give this to you, she said. Would you accept it? Of course.  She removed the pendant and chain, and clasped it carefully around my neck. There, she said. Promise me you'll take this with you to the United States and never throw it away. I promised. But, I asked, doesn't this leave you without protection ? Oh no, she said. Look. She opened an amulet bag tied to her wrist and pulled out a small skull carved of bone. This is all I need, she said, and smiled.(1)

This is the story of a Mexican occult image: Santisima Muerte, Holy Death, the robed, skeletal figure of Death herself. In recent years I have watched the devotion to Santisima Muerte grow in Mexico, and now I find her image more frequently in the United States. If she's moving into the neighborhood, it behooves us to make her acquaintance.

A note to the fearful: although a thoroughly evil figure to some, in current popular belief Santisima Muerte is a complex, multi-faceted spirit, possessing great power which can be used to achieve both good and evil ends. No longer the sole property of the sorcerer, she now occupies a place of honor in the Mexican popular pantheon. She avails herself to "good" Catholics and "bad" witches alike. Indeed, after pursuing Santisima Muerte through central Mexico and the borderlands for several years, I have reached my own level of appreciation and respect for this flexible folk deity, and for the ingenuity of the Mexican imagination that has invented and re-invented her.

Santisima Muerte apparently began life as a specialist in love magic. The printed prayer to her, the Oracion de la Santisima Muerte, is a modern-day throwback to a specific form of medieval Spanish love magic: the spell to bring back a wandering lover. Now, however, Santisima Muerte has gone beyond love spells to become a shadowy patroness of all kinds of Mexican magic, the pale and implacable counterpart of that other great protector of the Mexican soul, the Virgin of Guadalupe.

In this paper, I begin by describing my encounters with Santisima Muerte in Tucson and along the U.S.-Mexico border. I then discuss the phenomenon of Mexican oraciones and printed spell cards in general, looking especially at the Mediterranean origin of...