In Praise of the Lady of Power: An English-Language Booklet of Prayers Dedicated to La Santa Muerte

The folk religious veneration of La Santa Muerte, Mexico's "Skeleton Saint," continues to grow in popularity north of the U.S.-Mexico border, even among non-Hispanic/non-Spanish-speaking devotees. This little prayer book is meant to address the dearth of English-language devotionals for folks of all backgrounds who find themselves called to serve The Bony Lady but who may not know where to begin when it comes to starting a simple, heartfelt devotional practice.

Complete with prayers to a variety of color-themed aspects or "robes" of La Santa Muerte as well as a powerful Novena, this book, written by a legally ordained Polytheistic priestess whose devotional practice as a Muertista spans more than a decade, is itself a devotional offering to La Santísima and a means of inspiring others to forge a closer relationship with Her. Bonus Appendix content includes a mythological survey of Virgin Death Goddesses from around the world as well as an Ifá-based spiritual cleansing ritual using "sour" and "sweet" baths.

Rev. Anna Applegate (née Urosevich) is a Chicago native and first-generation Serbian American who was taught to believe in the Spirit World and the beneficent intervention of her ancestors in daily life from a very early age. A Queer Witch and pious Polytheist who tends to roll out a welcome mat to chthonic Deities in particular, she became active in the Chicago Fellowship of Isis (FOI) community in 2002 and received her legal ordination as a Priestess sworn to serve the Goddesses Nebet-Het (Nephthys), Bast, and Hekate Khthonia by the late Lady Loreon Vigné at The Temple of Isis, Geyserville, California, in 2012. The following year, Anna's shrines grew by One more as she welcomed La Santa Muerte into her private and public ritual workings. Anna is the founder of the FOI-chartered Iseum of the Rekhet Akhu, whose mission is to highlight the interrelatedness of the communities of the living and the dead and to cultivate transfigured spirits (Akhu) in human form through the Egyptian tradition of temple ritual magic. Anna is also an initiate in the West African Traditional Religion of Ifá; her godfather's house is based in Chicago. As if this plethora of spiritual work wasn't enough, Anna is also a Co-Mason and was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in 2010. Anna holds an M.A. degree in English Literature from Loyola University Chicago and she writes for fun and profit. She avidly blogs about her spiritual adventures at amoretmortem.wordpress.com. Aside from writing, she expresses herself through Pagan jewelry and art, which she sells on her Etsy site, JackalMoonDesigns. She shares her home with two gloriously goofy rescue dogs, six slinky rescue cats, and the most beautiful of corn snakes.