Similarities Between Santa Muerte and The Necronomicon: It Begins In Sumer

Over the past twenty years a rising interest in both the Cult of Santa Muerte and the Necronomicon by Simon has grown among peoples of varied walks of life. At the same time, we find an enormous amount of controversy surrounding both paths. Santa Muerte is often regarded as the patron saint of drug traffickers and those who live on the outer edges of society. Yet, it is estimated that the Cult of Santa Muerte may be as large as thirteen million devotees.

The Necronomicon by Simon is equally controversial but for reasons that are different than the Cult of Santa Muerte. Although Santa Muerte devotion is criticized, it is still respected as a spiritual practice. On the other hand, the Necronomicon by Simon is perceived as a hoax by critics who never interview Necronomicon devotees but assume they can ascertain the motives behind their spiritual path. Amazingly, there are many similarities between the two spiritual practices and the life perspective of their followers. Looking at some of the shared principles behind both systems may lead to even a greater understanding of the system itself.

1-NAME

Santa Muerte is translated as Holy Death and is often noted as the personificastion of Death itself. Most devotees understsnd the esoteric overtones of death and its symbolism.

In regards to the Necronomicon, its title comes from the Greek words nekros, nomos, and eikon, which roughly translates to “an image of the law of the dead”.

2-COLORS

Ssnta Muerte’s three main colors are white, red, and black. Interestingly, these are three out of the four colors that make up the magnum opus or alchemical transformation. These are the same three colors that comprise the cover of the paperback version of the Necronomicon by Simon for the same reason.

3-DESCRIPTION

Santa Muerte relics often embrace a grim reaper image equipped with a hooded robe and scythe. It is a skeleton figure that is often sought after for wisdom, healing, and insight into the realms of the astral. This description is strikingly similar to the three hooded figures that the Mad Arab encountered while traveling through the Mountains of Masshu.

“Another voice joined the first, and soon several men in the black robes of thieves came together over the place where I was, surrounding the floating rock, of which they did not exhibit the least fright.” – (The Testimony of the Mad Arab)

The Mad Arab also wrote that he was unable to see or recognize the face of the figures that he saw in the black robes.

“The figures, whose faces I could not see or recognise, began to make wild passes in the air with knives that glinted cold and sharp in the mountain night.” (Tedstimony of the Mad Arab)

4-Both Santa Muerte and The Necronomicon Find Their Roots In Ancient Mesopotamia

The possibility that the cults of Santa Muerte and the Necronomicon may share a common origin is very much in line the gnosis of both paradigms. For example, Santa Muerte devotees describe her as “death itself, “which means that Boney Lady’s cult is a survival of a more ancient death cult . We can determine this based on information that we find in the book entitled By the River Chebar: Historical, Literary, and Theological Studies in the Book of Ezekiel by Daniel Block, where it states on page 173:

“Modern cartoonist often portrsy desth as a skeletal grim reaper dressed in black with a sythe in hand. This image besrs little resemblance to the way ancient Near Easterners perceived death. Outside of Israel, death itself was personalized as a divine figure, the ruler of the netherworld, whom Mesopotamians identified as Nergal,”

Although the author disagrees with the above-cited perspective of the grim reaper as cartoonish, Daniel Block does provide a very valuable jewel in his statement that the worship of “death itself,” like the Cult of Santa Muerte, was indeed worshipped as the divine personage of Din.Gir (the god) Nergal. Devotees of the Necronomicon by Simon are well aware that the rites contained in the tome a centered on the worship of Nergal.

Nergal was the ruler of the city of Cutha, which was the center of Nergsl’s worship, but alchemically was synonymous with the underworld. In The Dark Lord by Peter Levenda, we read on page 104:

“As noted in the Schelangekraft recension of the Necronomicon, Cthulhu can be rendered in the Sumerian language as kutu lu or “the man from Kutu” or man from the Underworld.” Kutu-the Biblicsl Gudua, sometimes rendered Kutu or Kuta-was the ancient city of Cutha, saced to Nergal and the entrance to the Underworld in Sumerian religion.”

Within the pages of the Necronomicon by Simon, the Mad Arab dwscribes the Necronomicon as the book of Black Earth. In other parts of the text the Black Earth is synonymous with Cutha.

“For this is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth, that I have writ down at the peril of my life, exactly as I received it, on the planes of the IGIGI, the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the Wastes.” – (Testimony of the Mad Arab)

“To the Black Earth, the Land of CUTHA” – (Magan Text)

In conclusion, we have discovered the common ancestral tie between the Cult of Santa Muerte and the Necronomicon by Simon. However, I caution all of our readers not to mix these primal rites, but to respect their orbit and communal development with their own aesthetic. Stay blessed!