La Madrina serves a special function, helping us to realign our relationship with the money aspect of prosperity.
Our journey has brought us to the sixth line of the devotion. This post was originally published on February 2, 2018.
Ave La Madrina, She who prospers me.
La Madrina means The Godmother. As a title, "Godmother" is typically honorary in Anglo societies, but in Latino and other cultures it isn’t. Being a Godparent carries numerous responsibilities. Godparents mentor the child, they handle the religious education, and they offer a caring ear to both the child and the parents when things are not going so smoothly. They may buy a birthday gift each year, and in some cases set up a college fund for the child.
In the previous post, I distinguished between the traditional three-robe system for Santísima Muerte and the newer candle color system. Although prosperity, in the Three Robe system, is a subset of the Red Robe, I had the candle color system in mind when I wrote this line, specifically, Santa Muerte of the Gold Candle. It made perfect sense to me to pair up the image of an older, established Godmother, someone who gives out gifts and money, with the Gold Candle. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that images of the Godfather movies also popped into my head at the same time. It’s a dreadful connection to make, but we’ve already established that Santa Muerte doesn’t play favorites, as she receives everyone, ultimately.
My own prosperity journey with Santa Muerte has been an interesting one. It earnestly started in early 2017. I had been wanting to figure out a way to better organize my finances, as they always seemed to be in a disarray. It seemed I was always struggling toward the end of the month, like a car running on fumes. Lighting a yellow candle to La Madrina, I asked her to show me what I needed to do.
Later that week, I had finished reading a book on my Kindle, and began looking at recommended books that always pop up, when I noticed some that weren’t typically in my general purview. They were mostly religious titles, although they were all associated with the New Thought movement. I enjoy reading law of attraction books but had not seen these before. Many of them were about prosperity. I selected a few and read them, which led to more recommendations. One of those titles was The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity by Edwene Gaines. Mind you, if I had seen this book at the beginning of the year, I would have simply passed it by; but now, ready for inspiration, I was eager to read it.
Sure, I was ready, although I must admit, the first law in Rev. Gaines’s book left me cold. That law regards tithing. Not being a Christian, I didn’t think tithing had anything to do with me. But as Gaines explained it, tithing was not a meaningless act you did at a church each week. To tithe is to give to whatever or whoever feeds your spirit. Gaines points out in the bible where God blesses those who tithe, and in fact, says to test him and see, (read Malachi 3:10, NIV). As a Unity minister, Rev. Gaines follows the bible’s 10% rule, but since I was not a Christian, I set my percentage at 7%. I will give you a spoiler from the book here. Gaines was poor when she her started her prosperity journey. And so, she set a test of God of six months. I followed her example, also setting a six-month test. If at the end of six months nothing had changed, I was done tithing.
I started in July 2017. Using a calculation of 7%, I established my personal tithe amount. At first, I divided the money and selected different spiritual organizations that had contributed to my growth over the years, even sending some money to Gaines’ own organization. Finally, I settled on giving the entire sum to one local organization that I frequent, Mystic Moon of Norfolk, an organization that feeds my spirit, and one that strives to support the diverse local spiritual community.
For the first couple of months, nothing really changed. But in the third month, everything seemed to get easier. I got all my bills paid up front without worrying about them. I didn’t focus on the lack of money anymore. It’s not that there was more money coming in. I still had the same amount, plus I was tithing, and so in reality, I had less. But, by end of the month, I still had money in the bank. I realize looking back that the changes which occurred were internal, but it doesn’t matter. Since then, other financial changes have occurred, and yes, I am still tithing, but have since increased the percentage to 10%.
If we ask for help, that help will come from somewhere, as the Universe abhors a vacuum. I asked La Madrina for help, and that help came from a book. I still give credit where it’s due. Incidentally, I have two gold Santa Muerte statues on my altar; and so, over time, I added an extra line, “Ave La Madrina, She who gives me financial stability.” It seems she certainly has.
Ave La Madrina, She who prospers me.
Next: Santa Muerte as La Negra