“Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything that we say and do. But in the end, you will understand.”
– Character Alejandro, Film Sicario
“Death is the only wise advisor that we have. Whenever you feel, as you always do, that everything is going wrong and you’re about to be annihilated, turn to your death and ask if that is so. Your death will tell you that you’re wrong; that nothing really matters outside its touch. Your death will tell you, ‘I haven’t touched you yet.”
– Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan
It is necessary for the aspiring practitioner of the craft, as well as for those walking the path of a soldier in the mundane sphere of this life, to actively invoke and experience their own intimate confrontation and embracing of death.The Shadow of Death is a powerful teacher and emissary of personal destiny, which, once integrated or assimilated into the awareness and process of the rising sorcerer, will facilitate dramatic change both in one’s spirituality and one’s life path as a whole. Death itself has been revered and honored within the form of various deific masks by cultural demographics across the planet, as it is an intimate aspect of life and both perfectly personal and transcendently impersonal. Death represents change, forward movement, confrontation of the unknown, and the discovery of deeper self beyond the visible forms and outward symbols by which the ego may identify. The mysteries of death are profound and constituted of incredible depth, and the initiations, empowerments, and hidden knowledge of the Shadow of Death are among the sorcerer’s or soldier’s most formidable catalysts and empowering (or incapacitating for the profane which approach these mysteries uninvited) experiences and gnosis.
The Shadow of Death is a powerful teacher and emissary of personal destiny, which, once integrated or assimilated into the awareness and process of the rising sorcerer, will facilitate dramatic change both in one’s spirituality and one’s life path as a whole. Death itself has been revered and honored within the form of various deific masks by cultural demographics across the planet, as it is an intimate aspect of life and both perfectly personal and transcendently impersonal. Death represents change, forward movement, confrontation of the unknown, and the discovery of deeper self beyond the visible forms and outward symbols by which the ego may identify. The mysteries of death are profound and constituted of incredible depth, and the initiations, empowerments, and hidden knowledge of the Shadow of Death are among the sorcerer’s or soldier’s most formidable catalysts and empowering (or incapacitating for the profane which approach these mysteries uninvited) experiences and gnosis.
Within various cultures the archetypal personification of death has assumed many different masks, each specific and keyed to the racial and cultural demographics which project them from the depths of their own unique and specific collective consciousness and collective psychological dynamics.
Every practitioner of the craft must come to face the inexorable confrontation and embracing of death within the context of their own cultural and physiological disposition; that is, the atavistic archetypal manifestation of death within the stream of divinity keyed to one’s own bloodline and ancestral heritage. I have met devout Muslims who were startled when they encountered death within the mask of the God Anubis because of their ancestral heritage tracing back to Egypt. Others I have known encountered death within the mask of the Norse Goddess Hel of the spiritual traditions of their predecessors long forgotten. And one of my own spiritual mentors who was raised Catholic in Canada experienced the figure and current of death within the mask of Baron Samdi, the ruler of the dead and keeper of the doorway between the worlds of life and death in the mysteries of Haitian Vodou, as she was born in Haiti and descended of an unbroken Haitian bloodline. So even if the practitioner pursues a foreign culture’s spiritual current, they will ultimately encounter their own specific ancestral/hereditary deific mask of death – and it is this mask specifically which one is called to walk with. Why the profane feel the need to seek out someone else’s spiritual heritage and deities is anyone’s guess, but regardless the act of trying to be something which one simply is not will never be a means to power and higher illumination, or yield any fruit of gnosis or spiritual ascent, and as a well known Master once stated, “You will know them by their fruits.” Every self- declared and wanna- be Santa Muerte devotee I have ever met who had no ancestral license in this path have always maintained their so- called “altars” for naught. As I was being led deeper into the sorcery of lucid dreaming and achieving feats which defied everything which I had been conditioned to believe about the nature of reality and performing Chris Angel- type feats in the concrete, they were still lighting candles before a lifeless statue and had nothing to show for their lives. No physical fitness, no financial affluence, and certainly not the slightest capacity to perform any actual sorcery of the type I was doing. But one cannot enlighten the profane, and so I continued to walk the path I was called to whilst they played doll house with their empty statues.
During the course of my spiritual journey I came to encounter and integrate death and it’s power in the form of Santa Muerte, a traditional folk saint from my heritage in Mexico. I was exposed to the mysteries of Santa Muerte early in my life, literally decades before profane outsiders of our culture began claiming to venerate her in western society. While I could pen an entire volume concerning the mysteries of Santa Muerte alone, because of the abstract and asymmetrical trajectory of my life path I was also introduced to the Shadow of Death within the masculine personification of South America. As I was training in the Brazilian cult of Quimbanda I inevitably encountered the spirit Exu Morte, who was also venerated in Argentina as Señor La Muerte. The mysteries of Santa Muerte of Mexico are vastly different from the cult of Señor La Muerte in South America, however both are profoundly deep, demanding, and transforming streams of divinity, each with their own unique dynamics and mysteries which emanate from the dark yet beautiful essence of death- the great liberator.
Due to the romanticization of “Narco Culture” by Hollywood and social media in recent times, charlatans and profane outsiders of every shape and color have arisen claiming false association or practice of the veneration of Santa Muerte. Caucasian and African American demographics which do not speak a word of Spanish, much less access the cartel- controlled conflict zones wherein the cult of Santa Muerte centers, declare themselves “devotees” and “children” of the Holy Mother – to the blatant insult and disrespect of the actual practitioners. Santa Muerte is not a textbook grimoire spirit which anyone can simply adopt into their catalogue of personal deities or call upon. She is a powerful and ancient Goddess, and her mysteries are closed to all but those select few which she herself calls to her current of power. One does not choose to walk with Santa Muerte, but rather it is her interest in you which ultimately decides whether or not one may receive the hidden knowledge and the divine empowerments of the sovereign and holy shadow of Death.
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