This is Santa Muerte. She's a saint invented in Mexico and

>>78887451
a very nicely looking scythe

If I see an altar to her blocking the sidewalk
I know I fucked up and wandered into the wrong neighbourhood

>>78887451
Why does Santa Muerte approve of drugs?

>>78887496
>having altar to a saint as if it was a pagan god

><

but then, having a saint who wasn't a human deserving veneration but some abstract idea of death is literally polytheism too

>>78887537
Because cartels want to pray to someone and they know that no real saint approves of their shit.

>>78887537
Her cult doesn't actually work like that, anon who wrote that knows shit

>>78887553
I mean death and murder I can understand, we wuz Maya and shit, but I was curious how drugs tie into all this.

Wasn't there a serial killer who killed like 8 people in Mexico and the U.S. who worshiped her?

>>78887577
How does it work then?

>>78887577
Tell us what you know, anon.

>>78887591
didn't injuns take ritual drugs and shit, like castaneda and his indian teacher who took some drug kind of cactus

I've never heard of Santa Muerte being a cartel saint, I think it's more of a working class thing. Also, she's aesthetic af so everyone who doesn't like her can suck it.

>>78887614
I also do drugs that doesn't mean anything.

>>78887451

This must be some hollywood shit,nobody fucking pray to a stupid skeleton called santa muerte
its just stupid

>>78887615
The cartel Saint is Mal Verde

on thinking a bit about it all it seems a bit related to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom)#Christianity

i.e. in short sophia isn't a human saint too but a feminine aspect of the god who is considered to be his "wisdom", this santa muerte isn't a saint too... she is either a polytheistic deity or another feminine aspect of the god, but since she is a dark aspect they wouldn't have much chance for vatican to accept this stuff, which also sounds pretty gnostic with an imperfect god (demiurge) and shit

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Don't forget the other Mexican drug saint!

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>>78887553
No, Narcos who want to pray to a saint to aid them pray to Malverde, this was a sort of Robin Hood figure in Sinaloa. You don't ask him for yourself, you do it for others, so you pray that things will go smoothly on a job because even if you're going to hell it will put your kid through college and you'll use a part of that money to help the poor.

Santa Muerte is not Saint Death as its often mistranslated, it's Holy Death, Sacred Death. That's an entity on a different plane.

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>>78887601
>>78887602
Santa Muerte is a sort of syncretic figure, it's part Grim Reaper and is strongly based on Faustian deal type legends in books and movies like Pedro Páramo and Macario, think Bergman's seventh seal, and is part Aztec deity, what does actually survive of the old religion in a number of superstitious practices as well as a lot made up and re-invented stuff.

The Santa Muerte devotees pray to multi-colored representations of death in what is a mix of folklore (amongs the Aztecs directions were tied to colors, gods and qualities like in China) and old world esoterism, so say a red figure of Saint Death might bring you love. They also make talismans and some of this require self sacrifice in a similar form to the Aztec religion (eg your own blood) or parts of corpses as offerings. There's human skulls, sometimes false, sometimes real, in shrines to Santa Muerte and there are rumors aboiut sacrifices tied to what were previously narco-satanic rituals, but for the most part sacrifices are birds and similar, they're an exchange for something the worshiper wants to obtain.

Santa Muerte is very much tied to some traditions which are exclusive to convicts, eg in Mexico City they have a board game only those who've done hard time know how to play, they use it to gamble, sometimes even human life. Some are Nahual/marchanta black magic traditions and a lot of it is made up, taken from heavy metal songs and records or even tabletop role playing games. How it works exactly only those on the inside know, but they seem to view source materials as revelation through an unlikely medium, tho there's apparently been work for some time now in making a Santa Muerte bible.

The Santa Muerte may or may not be considered subject to the power of the Christian God, most devotees will remain nominally Catholic but is generally considered to exist outside of good and evil.

>>78888262
Cool, thanks anon.

>>78887451
Months without seeing your Santa Muerte threads, so you're the proxy that also uses Mexican and other LatAm flags? Kek

>>78888653
O B S E S S E D

>>78888262
But do people like pray to her? How do you ask her for help, or do you just put stuff on an altar and not think about her otherwise?

>>78887549
Christianity, but especially Catholicism, always had a penchant for declaring gods of converted peoples Saints, and celebrating that Saint's day the same day the old god was celebrated. An ingenious way of guaranteeing faithful new converts. Check the dates of Christmas (ancient Norse Jul), all hallows eve (Celtic Samhain), etc

>>78888262
metal af

>>78889205
there is a difference between venerating (saints) and worshiping (the god) but anyway the main problem here it is that there was no woman named muerte who was supposedly sanctified

I always heard that she would give you what ever you wanted but you had to make a promise and if you didn't keep she takes your life

When the Spanish colonized Mexico, the Church just went and declared various Indian deities to be Catholic saints so as to sell themselves to the native population better.

>>78888841
Yes they do, it generally is through votive offerings (different types of candles) but there's also prayers.

In Mexican Catholicism there's this thing called a manda which is sort of a bargain with God, so people pray for some exceptional favor, let's say getting a certain job, and offer either a form of penance or an act of charity in return, say donate x amount of money to the church or to orphans.

Santa Muerte is similar types of prayers except you get different types of deals, like someone you hate dying in exchange for a blood sacrifice.

>>78889290
A significant number of saints weren't actually real people though.

>>78889290
Santa also means holy or sacred in Spanish, it doesn't make death the same as a saint, it's an entity.

The only way Santa means saint is in the sense this is how the figures are generally refered to in Mexico, it might as well be "idol"

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>>78888262
this. op just played ghost recon and decided to be edgy, this anon got it right.
the game's depiction of the santa muerte is stupid as hell. if you want an authentic quasi-religious cartel there's the remnants of the knights templar cartel, their leader nazario moreno "el mas loco" literally canonized himself as a saint and people in the area pray and turn on candles to him.

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>>78889373
the key point there it's that saints are people, they mightn't be historical or they might even thought to have a dog's head (literally pic related, it's st. christopher) but they are originally people, not a symbolic figure of something like death who never was a human. it is important because santa muerte clearly isn't a venerated human because she wasn't even thought to be a human ever, she is a deity i.e. it violates the catholic monotheism

>>78889359
>Santa Muerte is similar types of prayers except you get different types of deals, like someone you hate dying in exchange for a blood sacrifice.
Absolutely fascinating, thank you.

>>78887451
This is so badass i can't even describe it with words.

>>78889386
This, in that context a translation would be "Sacred Death"

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>>78887451
Metal as fuck

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>>78889450
>violates the catholic monotheism
Not really, it's the same as the Grim reaper, it's just an anthropomorphization of a concept, in the bible both god and Jesus command death, implying death is an entity with a will to be commanded or defeated.

The angel of death specific also has a long tradition in judaeo-christianism as a literal, not allegoric, persona. As long as death is subject to God in the divine order, same as fallen angels, it doesn't break with monotheistic thought. Obviouskly the cult of Santa Muerte is considered heretic by the Catholic church, but on the grounds it is idolatry and satanism, not because death is considered a deity in its own right.

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It's actually a Hispanized version of the Aztec god Mictlantecuhtli

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>>78887451
bite my shiny metal ass

>>78889788
nobody prays to the grim reaper

>>78889788
also
>but on the grounds it is idolatry and satanism, not because death is considered a deity in its own right
accepting death (or anything) as a separate deity is idolatry

>>78889817
Why do you know about Aztec mythology?

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>>78889817
It would appear so, but neither Mictlantecuhtli nor the Grim reaper are female unlike Santa Muerte. I don't think it is a representation of a specific Aztec god the same way the virgin Mary sincretized with Tonantzin, of the major Aztec female deities, Chalchihuites, Xochiquetzal, Mayahuel, none correspond to death, and while there is a wife to Mictlantecuhtli it mostly works as an aspect similar to that of Greek Demeter, simbolizing fertility and rebirth through death, not at all what Santa Muerte is about.

I think the real isnpiration is catrina (pictured) a popular day of the dead motiff. Some representations of Santa Muerte paint her as a beautiful woman so this is probably a poetic or raomantic aspect to the mythos.

>>78889854
>>78889867
Most legends in which death appears does show humans pleading with it, it is arguably not a prayer but I think the concept of intercession is common to both Orthodoxy and Catholicism, you can pray to God through another and that includes angels.

And on the exact charges by the Catholic church they haven't been pursued on theological grounds, you do not have to accept death as beyond the power of God in order for it's worship to be considered idolatry, the textbook example would be worshipping the devil, he is not beyond the power of God and yet he is separate. Satanism is charged in the case of Santa Muerte because the church believes any entity that is worshipped outside of God is a form of Satan in reality.

>>78889817
Cool, they venerate Gollum.

Give me my prrrecious sacrifice!

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>2017
>worshipping false gods

>>78887451
it's nice, she is a reminder that mexican are subhumans