But this is not to say she is merely the patron saint of sinners and desperate people at the end of their ropes. “Santa Muerte loves humanity, period,” says Muertero Yamil. “She helps everyone who comes to her with love and respect. Politicians, doctors and people of high positions in society come to her for help. She is here to guide us in this existence, teach us to become better versions of ourselves, and protect us, and for us to have a Santa Muerte (Holy Death).”
The sect has also had to deal with other rumors, like sacrifices. “Not as I was taught,” says Muertero Yamil. “It is not necessary. My teachers said that when you hear people saying they do this it is not the Santa Muerte.” Blackthorn agrees, saying “they are not always necessary, but I will not say sacrifice does not take place. Other sacrifices are those of time, periods of sorrow, or taboos she puts in the lives of her devotees. Like other spirits, she does sometimes desire blood in the form of chickens or tattoos on her devotees.” But it is not the worship in its purest form. “The vast majority of people giving these sacrifices are members of African Diasporic traditions and religions who already give animal offerings to their spirits and see it as no different from offering a chicken to Eleggua or a goat to Lucero.”
Santa Muerte is best known for the miracles attributed to her devotion, but not all adherents test the power of prayer. “I am going to be honest, I really don’t ask her anything,” says Muertero Yamil. “She knows what I need and she gives it to me without me asking.” But others have reported positive action. “When I was 18 my younger brother had to have emergency heart surgery,” Blackthorne says. “In a state of panic, I prayed to La Negra to save my brother, and promised a sacrifice of blood in the form of a flesh offering, or a tattoo of her. I later got a call from my mother saying that the surgery was a total success.”
But a normal day of worship is respectfully mundane. “I pray to her three times a day,” says Muertero Yamil. “In the morning I light her candles, incense, place offerings of food, drinks, and sweets. I sit and do many prayers. I usually pray to the 3 colors: White, Red, and Black. Each of those colors represents the day. Morning is white because of the first light, red because it’s when the sun is at its highest peak and it is the strongest, and black because of the night.”
“I give her Myrrh and Copal, light her candles, pray to her, and play music for her,” Blackthorn says. “Most days if I can’t get to her full altar every day I talk to her through the tattoo I have on my arm which acts as a kind of portal for her presence to come to me.”