Santa Muerte

Santa Muerte is a Mexican folk saint whose popularity is exploding worldwide. She is hope and love at the moment of death, the moment many people fear the most. She is also the patroness of the disadvantaged, outcast, and disappeared peoples. "When Devanna and I started our collaboration on the icons for the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple Mandala, it was really important to me that we situate each divine being in one of the diverse ecosystems of Siskiyou County, to really bring it home that these goddesses are alive among us here. In the Dunsmuir Cemetery there is a grave with a single stone, upon which is written in marker, “Mexican Woman.” This unnamed woman arrived in town at some point and died here, but not much else is known about her. The Temple tends her grave and cleans it, brings offerings, and remembers her at Dia de Los Muertos. We chose to place Santa Muerte at this grave, and to make this grave a representation of the mujeres desaparecidas, the Missing & Murdered Indigen