My friend Misanthropic Anthropoid ( whose blog Inexorable you can visit via the link to the right) and I took a trip to the local botanica today. This botanica carries paraphernalia for practitioners of Catholicism, Voodoo, Santeria, Paganism, and probably other religions, too. It was one of those places I've known about for years, but never made a visit to, until today. Wednesday is the day we both only work until noon, so we figured , why the Hell not?
The place is filled with incense, herbs, oils, potions, candles, bath salts, etc, for just about everything imaginable. There were also pictures of various saints and martyrs, statues, voodoo dolls, mini-cauldrons, Buddahs, angels, brooms, mini-coffins, and talismans of all sorts. There were so many cool things there, but I ended up getting two candles. One is a black skull and crossbones, the other a candle for Santa Muerte, or Holy Death(see Misanthropic Anthropoid's excellent blog entry on her) . The prayer on the back reads( and this is exactly what is written):
Holy Death lady of mine, owner of darkness and of coldness. To you I approach and I implore your protection. Lady of mine, protect me, and take care of me from my enemies and the traps, and of the revenge. Put your cloak and avoid me the negative coincidences. Madam to you that you see in the darkness, takes care of my person, my house and my family. In the Name Of The Father Of The Son and Of The Holy Spirit. Love
Now that's my kind of prayer. She is not a saint that is recognized by the Church...if she were, I might have went ahead and joined up. We also visited another botanica down the street, which wasn't as cool as the first one, but they had many large statues of Santa Muerte on display. People put money at the feet of the statues, and at the statues of more traditional saints there as well. I put some change at Santa Muerte's statue, because I need all the luck I can get, and she seems like a saint that's my style...and if ever there were a saint that would watch over me, it would be her.
6 comments:
amen.
I'll bet that place had a rather unique smell.
Holy death. Black and white with a crimson bleeding heart. Ride to me on silent wings, on winter mistrals. Hover above my head. Kiss my cheek but do not claim me. Yet.
M.A., amen, indeed.
Heff, it didn't smell as bad as you might think.
Charles, I really like that. Nice work!
We should have taken you to the UCM museum here in Abita while you were in town. They have the BEST gift shop, including Marie Antoinette and Albert Einstein "action figures" & Mother Theresa soap (to wash away those stubborn sins!)
Lana, LOL! Sounds like a fun shop. I got a t-shirt with Munch's 'Scream' on it at the local art museum a few years ago.
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