Santa Muerte Devotion 101: Answers and Explanations for Curious Readers and New Devotees
Digital Web Book by Arnold Bustillo
Buy the paperback at https://amzn.to/41gmMKg
Digital Web Book by Arnold Bustillo
Buy the paperback at https://amzn.to/41gmMKg
How to Make Offerings to Santa Muerte
To make an offering to Santa Muerte, you need to first decide why you are making the offering. Are you making the offering to ask for something specific in return? Or are you making the offering as thanks, with no expectations of reciprocation? Having a clear objective in your mind of why you want to make the offering will help guide you as you search for the appropriate offering to make.
When you have an idea of why you want to make the offering, the next step is to select your offering. Public Santa Muerte altars in Mexico are regularly adorned with offerings that include seven-day candles, bottles of tequila, cigarettes, candy bars, incense, and cash. The fact is, however, that practically anything can serve as an offering, so long as it is offered with the intent that it be a gift for Santa Muerte.
What I tell people is that the offerings you choose to give to Santa Muerte should be items that you yourself would like to receive as a gift. How would you feel if somebody gave you a pack of cigarettes or a candy bar? Are you the type that would instead prefer a fresh flower or a ripe piece of fruit? The reason we give offerings that we ourselves would like to receive is because part of the act of making the offering is the act of making a sacrifice. It makes a stronger statement to Santa Muerte when we give her something that we just as easily could have kept for ourselves, but instead decided to sacrifice so that she could receive it.
In keeping with offerings that you yourself would like to receive, there is also no obligation to offer items just because other devotees are offering them. For example, if you don’t smoke or drink, then you should feel no obligation to offer cigarettes or alcohol to Santa Muerte.
Providing offerings that you yourself would like to receive will also ensure that you don’t clutter your altar with things that have no other place. How would you feel, for example, if on your birthday you were given a gift with a card that read, “Here you go, I was just going to throw this out anyway.” Would you appreciate the thought and effort that went into the gift? It is, after all, the thought that counts. Your altar is not a place to stack items that have no other place in your home, the altar should be treated with respect and the offerings should be made with real thought behind them. This is because, when it comes time to petition Santa Muerte for something you need or want, you would probably like for Santa Muerte to put thought and effort into helping you, rather than just tossing you the magickal scraps.
Placing an offering at a physical altar is pretty straightforward - you need only to set it down at your altar with the intent in your heart of giving it to Santa Muerte. When I place an offering at a physical altar, I like to place the offering, then kiss my hand and touch the depiction of Santa Muerte, followed by a simple prayer such as, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you.” The process will be a little different if you’re working with a temporary altar that is stored away when not in use, or an astral altar, which exists entirely in your mind’s eye.
In the case of a temporary altar that is not currently on display, an offering can be made by placing the offering in the area where you store the rest of your Santa Muerte altar. For example, if you store your altar in a shoebox when not in use, then you could place your offering into the shoebox so that, in effect, it becomes part of your altar. The offering would then be displayed with the rest of your altar pieces when the altar was erected, and placed respectfully back into the storage container when the altar was put away. Again, a simple prayer can be recited as you place the offering, such as, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you.”
In the case of an astral altar, an offering can be made by holding the offering in your hands, or placing the offering on a surface in front of you, and visualizing your astral altar in your mind’s eye. You can then recite a simple prayer of offering, like “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you,” and then allow the offering to rest in a place of respect.
If you have no access to a physical altar and are unable to visualize an astral altar in your mind’s eye, you may still make a successful offering by intending that an item be offered to Santa Muerte. This can be done by holding the offering in your hands, or placing it on a surface in front of you, and praying, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you,” and then leaving the item in a place of respect. This is essentially the same as leaving an offering at an altar of declared intent, which was a concept discussed in the previous chapter.
In addition, offerings may be made to Santa Muerte by going to a place associated with death and leaving the offerings there. To do this, first take your offering to a place where the energy of death is strong, like a cemetary, graveyard, a hospital with an emergency room, a crossroads, or a bare tree - a tree whose leaves have all died and fallen off. Next, hold the offering in your hands and recite a simple prayer of offering, again like, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you”, then leave the offering somewhere on the grounds of that place. If you leave the offering outside in nature, considerations should be made so the offering would not be mistaken for common litter, like offering a piece of fruit or a flower, instead of a candy in a wrapper.
Above all, remember that it is not where you make the offering that counts, but your intent of giving it to Santa Muerte. So long as you intend for the Santa Muerte to receive the offering, then the offering will have been made successfully.
When you have an idea of why you want to make the offering, the next step is to select your offering. Public Santa Muerte altars in Mexico are regularly adorned with offerings that include seven-day candles, bottles of tequila, cigarettes, candy bars, incense, and cash. The fact is, however, that practically anything can serve as an offering, so long as it is offered with the intent that it be a gift for Santa Muerte.
What I tell people is that the offerings you choose to give to Santa Muerte should be items that you yourself would like to receive as a gift. How would you feel if somebody gave you a pack of cigarettes or a candy bar? Are you the type that would instead prefer a fresh flower or a ripe piece of fruit? The reason we give offerings that we ourselves would like to receive is because part of the act of making the offering is the act of making a sacrifice. It makes a stronger statement to Santa Muerte when we give her something that we just as easily could have kept for ourselves, but instead decided to sacrifice so that she could receive it.
In keeping with offerings that you yourself would like to receive, there is also no obligation to offer items just because other devotees are offering them. For example, if you don’t smoke or drink, then you should feel no obligation to offer cigarettes or alcohol to Santa Muerte.
Providing offerings that you yourself would like to receive will also ensure that you don’t clutter your altar with things that have no other place. How would you feel, for example, if on your birthday you were given a gift with a card that read, “Here you go, I was just going to throw this out anyway.” Would you appreciate the thought and effort that went into the gift? It is, after all, the thought that counts. Your altar is not a place to stack items that have no other place in your home, the altar should be treated with respect and the offerings should be made with real thought behind them. This is because, when it comes time to petition Santa Muerte for something you need or want, you would probably like for Santa Muerte to put thought and effort into helping you, rather than just tossing you the magickal scraps.
Placing an offering at a physical altar is pretty straightforward - you need only to set it down at your altar with the intent in your heart of giving it to Santa Muerte. When I place an offering at a physical altar, I like to place the offering, then kiss my hand and touch the depiction of Santa Muerte, followed by a simple prayer such as, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you.” The process will be a little different if you’re working with a temporary altar that is stored away when not in use, or an astral altar, which exists entirely in your mind’s eye.
In the case of a temporary altar that is not currently on display, an offering can be made by placing the offering in the area where you store the rest of your Santa Muerte altar. For example, if you store your altar in a shoebox when not in use, then you could place your offering into the shoebox so that, in effect, it becomes part of your altar. The offering would then be displayed with the rest of your altar pieces when the altar was erected, and placed respectfully back into the storage container when the altar was put away. Again, a simple prayer can be recited as you place the offering, such as, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you.”
In the case of an astral altar, an offering can be made by holding the offering in your hands, or placing the offering on a surface in front of you, and visualizing your astral altar in your mind’s eye. You can then recite a simple prayer of offering, like “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you,” and then allow the offering to rest in a place of respect.
If you have no access to a physical altar and are unable to visualize an astral altar in your mind’s eye, you may still make a successful offering by intending that an item be offered to Santa Muerte. This can be done by holding the offering in your hands, or placing it on a surface in front of you, and praying, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you,” and then leaving the item in a place of respect. This is essentially the same as leaving an offering at an altar of declared intent, which was a concept discussed in the previous chapter.
In addition, offerings may be made to Santa Muerte by going to a place associated with death and leaving the offerings there. To do this, first take your offering to a place where the energy of death is strong, like a cemetary, graveyard, a hospital with an emergency room, a crossroads, or a bare tree - a tree whose leaves have all died and fallen off. Next, hold the offering in your hands and recite a simple prayer of offering, again like, “Santa Muerte, I make this offering for you”, then leave the offering somewhere on the grounds of that place. If you leave the offering outside in nature, considerations should be made so the offering would not be mistaken for common litter, like offering a piece of fruit or a flower, instead of a candy in a wrapper.
Above all, remember that it is not where you make the offering that counts, but your intent of giving it to Santa Muerte. So long as you intend for the Santa Muerte to receive the offering, then the offering will have been made successfully.