Secrets of Santa Muerte

VERDICT Readers of occult practices, Mexican culture, and goddess studies will find this title to be a comprehensive and respectful guide to all aspects of the folk saint. --Library Journal -- Reviews A thorough and illuminating introduction to Santa Muerte, the 'Mexican female folk saint of death.' Stone covers the practices and concepts central to the Santa Muerte folk faith and asserts that the figure has the 'key to all life and creation with the power to 'infuse life and luck into all your creations.' The author describes how to connect with Santa Muerte by setting up an altar that features a statue of her, a glass of water, incense, liquor, flowers, and such foods as bread, fruit, or candy to represent the delights of the world. Drawing from Mexican prayer books and the wisdom of curanderos (Mexican folk healers), Stone shares prayers for protection and thanks, as well as spells for healing, love, and warding off one's enemies. An invaluable primer [that] is nearly one to die for. --Publishers Weekly -- Reviews Secrets of Santa Muerte is the most complete workbook I have found in English on the subject. After reading it, you will be well equipped to navigate the botanica for supplies, and have a solid understanding of how to use those supplies in your spells and witchcraft. Stone goes beyond the well-known color systems and reveals the secrets of lesser-known powders, oils, and candles and how they are used. Anyone interested in the fastest growing religious movement in the world should have this book on their shelf. --Jason Miller, author of Consorting with Spirits -- Reviews Cressida Stone is an incredible writer who is very intelligent and knows a lot about Santa Muerte; she goes into the fine details very well. I admire her as a woman and as a writer who is dedicated to explaining with great clarity and without hiding anything, the themes pertaining to Santa Muerte. Her words transmit light, darkness, healing, power, happiness and gratitude. --Soraya Arredondo Hernandez, bruja, curandera. founder, and leaderof Templo Altar Angel de Alas Negras (Angel of Black Wings Temple Altar), Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico-- Reviews Cressida Stone's Secrets of Santa Muerte is the Santa Muerte book we've all been waiting for: a brave, blood and guts master class in how best to bond with the Queen of Death. Part personal journey and part history, it focuses mainly on how to work with the Bony Lady. If you are curious about Santa Muerte or want to deepen your devotion to her, then you need this book. --Aliza Einhorn, author of The Little Book of Saturn and A Mystical Practical Guide to Magic: Instructions for Seekers, Witches, & Other Spiritual Misfits -- Reviews I am pleased to endorse the publication of The Secrets of Santa Muerte: A Guide to the Prayers, Spells, Rituals, and Hexes by Cressida Stone. This publication is a well-written book about a belief system that is found in Mexico, as well as many parts of the U.S. The history, prayers, rituals, etc. of la Santa Muerte are well-written and offers information that many will enjoy. --Dr. Eliseo Torres, Professor of Traditional Medicine courses at the University of New Mexico -- Reviews I confirm and attest that Cressida Stone has deep knowledge of the spirituality of Santa Muerte. She has traveled across Mexico where the roots of devotion to the Saint of Death truly originate. She honors our faith and shares the teachings of Santa Muerte clearly, aiding people to respectfully venerate and learn correctly about Santisima Muerte. This is because Cressida has been to those special places where devotion to Holy Death is deep and true. --Yuri Mendez, Bruja of the Three Virtues and Spiritual Guide of Santa Muerte, leader of the Templo y Recinto de Sanacion Dulce Madre, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico-- Reviews I really appreciate Cressida's point of view on Santa Muerte and I like the way she writes about our spirituality. I hope everyone will like this book whose content derives from the writer's lived experiences sharing so much with our people and learning of our rich traditions. I wish Cressida Stone every success. --Arely Vazquez, leader of Santa Muerte, Queens, New York-- Reviews I very rarely endorse non-academic books but this grimoire by Cressida Stone is hands down the very best and most complete of the spiritual guides on devotion to Santa Muerte, the fastest growing new religious movement in the West. Secrets of Santa Muerte is grounded in the prayers, rituals, and spells developed in Mexico where Holy Death originated. Unlike so many other grimoires and even some academic texts, this devotional road map features the Lady of the Shadows in every single one of her cloaks of many colors - red for love and lust, gold for prosperity and abundance, and even relates how Mexican devotees combine colors for added potency. Penned in captivating prose that engages the reader on every page, Stone's grimoire belongs on the top shelf of both neophytes and seasoned devotees seeking to develop their relationship with the Bone Mother. --Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint -- Reviews Secrets of Santa Muerte offers a positive look at a culture -- one that many outsiders do not understand or know about, yet feel a great attraction toward. In this culture, magic is powerful, raw and real, just like Santa Muerte. This book reveals a series of mysteries, secrets, traditions, beliefs, magic, and spells deeply linked to this ideological current. We know that, just as light is born in darkness, death gives way to life. Living is arriving; dying is returning; and returning is continuing. This is the eternal lesson of the Santa Muerte. --Martha Ileana Moran Gonzalez, founder and director of WITCHMART, high priestess and proud bruja -- Reviews