What to do with Santeria-related items found?
January 11, 2016 11:25 AM   Subscribe

I've been finding the occasional Santeria-related object in a public location and would like to dispose of them respectfully. How can I do this?

I cannot leave them there. If I'm totally dispassionate about their meaning, they're just another form of litter. I could theoretically keep them, but am not sure if that is a respectful solution.

The objects in question are small sculptural items.
posted by sciencegeek to Religion & Philosophy (14 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Botanicas often have a large statue or shrine inside them where people leave money, gifts, offerings, etc. Here in Chicago I'm most familiar with Palo Santo botanticas and Catholic botanicas that practice Santa Muerte worship, but I wouldn't be surprised if NY had Santeria botanicas if you're seeing these items regularly.

If someone was leaving small items related to Santa Muerte in an area I was responsible for cleaning, and I wanted to dispose of them respectfully, I'd gather them in a box and once a month or so (depends how frequently they're appearing) I'd arrange them at the feet of a large Santa Muerte statue at a botanica. I don't know enough about Santeria to say whether something similar would work.
posted by Juliet Banana at 12:09 PM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I am responsible for dealing with litter in the location. As mentioned above, I cannot leave them there. It is not an option.

This location is not someone's yard, doorstep or graveyard. Some of the items are buried but not all. None of them are wrapped in anything.

In addition, I'm not the practitioner, I'm just a person who is trying to nicely deal with cleaning up sacred objects.
posted by sciencegeek at 12:11 PM on January 11, 2016


A close friend of mine is an anthropologist and a practicing curandero, which is an unrelated but very similar practice from Mexico. I shot him an email and here's his reply:

"Here is a safe, respectful way to dispose of these artifacts (and most artifacts from magical/spiritual workings). It comes from a curanderismo and Conjure perspective. I'm not a santero, but many of our practices and theirs overlap significantly and operate on similar principles. I have used this method successfully many a time as a professional curandero.

Place the artifacts in a brown paper bag, taking care not to touch the artifacts with your bare skin. If you wish, offer some explanatory prayers and/or place a pinch of tobacco and/or sage in the bag, though this is optional. Tie off the bag securely with red string, yarn, or hemp. Dispose of the bag in a public trash can, preferably a dumpster on garbage day OR a garbage can located as near as possible to a crossroads/intersection. Regardless of the trash receptacle, make sure to walk away from it without looking back after disposing of the bag."

Let me know if you have any more questions and I'd be glad to send them his way.
posted by WidgetAlley at 12:49 PM on January 11, 2016 [36 favorites]


Mod note: A few comments removed; the question is neither "should I just not do the thing I have to do" or "should I just not care about being respectful", so please give the thread a miss if you're not answering the question asked with helpful info.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:51 PM on January 11, 2016 [9 favorites]


These items are being left in the places you are finding them because the practitioner has found those places to be the most resonant with the request/petition/worship they are are pursuing by making and leaving them. In a spiritual sense, particularly when one considers that in a public place a practitioner cannot possibly expect that those objects will remain in that place for very long, once you move them they become like spent gift cards or disposable lighters.

Tl;dr-- Once you remove them those objects have done their job, and they don't require the same level of respect they were treated with when they were originally made and placed.

So, disposal: It is my opinion that since you don't practice Santeria or any of it's spiritual/theological cousins, it's disrespectful to act as if you do for the purposes of interment/commitment. You wouldn't kiss someone's husband because his partner wasn't there to do it, and you shouldn't blithely try to fill the role of a spiritual practitioner when none are present. With that in mind, here are, I think, your only two options.

Best: burn these items if you can, and then bury what's left.
Second best: Solemnly throw them away and then forget about it.

Anything else and (again, in my opinion) you risk disrespect by pantomiming a practice you don't follow.
posted by Poppa Bear at 1:02 PM on January 11, 2016 [6 favorites]


I think that just boxing up the items together and placing in a trash receptacle is respectful enough.
It is respectful because you are not throwing them on a dump heap in view of passersby, but you are removing them from public view. The people adding to the offering must realize that the items need to be removed at some point. Can you do this on a regular basis?--then visitors might realize that the area will be cleared each Wednesday night, and they could make arrangements to clear it themselves if they'd like.

Finally, if a visitor questioned staff about the whereabouts of the items, I would take that as an opportunity to see if the visitor could take them off my hands at a regular interval.
posted by calgirl at 1:03 PM on January 11, 2016


Oh, I should also add, I linked my friend to your original question, so he knows you're not a practitioner. The method outlined above is also 100% appropriate for non-religious, non-practitioner folks.
posted by WidgetAlley at 1:13 PM on January 11, 2016 [6 favorites]


I think Juliet Banana had the right idea insofar as trying to identify a likely local source of these objects and returning them there (with the proprietor's consent) with as little fuss as possible, or asking them if it would be proper to simply dispose of the objects. I would agree that any ad hoc rituals you add to the process of disposal is probably not a net gain for respectfulness.
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:00 PM on January 11, 2016


Mod note: Another comment removed. All else aside, if you are speculating about moderation or have metacommentary to add, you need to be contacting the mods directly, not putting it in-thread.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:02 PM on January 11, 2016


I'm totally with Poppa Bear on this. I practice a different sort of magick, and in my and many others' case it would do more harm than good to have a stranger purposefully put his own, like, vibes onto something I worked on (passersby wondering "wtf is that thing?" isn't the same). Just throw them away. Generally, the items have meaning to the magick worker only, so you can chuck it guilt-free. Also, you or someone else disposing of them might actually be what releases its intent off into the world, and be an intended part of the process.
posted by ElectricGoat at 5:24 PM on January 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'm Lucumi, which is just more Afro-centric than Santeria.

Honestly the best thing is to leave it where it is, but since that's not an option the next best thing to do is if they are put in the woods just move them further/deeper into a wooded area that they won't be bothered. Or putting them into a running river and letting the river take it away.

If somone is leaving objects or burying objects, that person doesn't want it back. I'm actually kind of curious as to exactly what you found tho.

If you do plan on taking the objects to a botanica, ask the person running the botanic if that's okay. They might not want you bringing weird stuff into their sacred space. Yes it's a store, however a store filled within items we use for our religion.

Please don't burn/set it on fire, that's not cool.
posted by Attackpanda at 7:30 PM on January 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Clearly, there is no one right answer to this question, and given the context that makes a lot of sense. Even if a Santeria practitioner were to show up in this thread (please do! I'd love to hear it), it's highly unlikely that there is a singular, universally approved method of object disposal given Santeria is non-centralized, effectively oral, and fairly well dispersed.

I claim only to speak for myself:
I would be...offended is probably too strong a term, but I would certainly be dissatisfied to find out that someone, reasonably forced to dispose of my religious foci, made assumptions about how do to so beyond burning or throwing them away. Doing anything else would in effect be consecrating them to that other method, which is a big no no (I can immediately think of exceptions, but this situation would not be one of them).

In my personal understanding:
Water, fire and burial are the only universals in this context. Clearly though (nod to Attackpanda) not everyone feels that way. Regardless of expertise, authority, or familiarity with a similar practice, I'm hesitant to affirm the advice from WidgetAlley's friend, for reasons I've already stated and alluded to here.

Your heart's in the right place, and that counts for sure. Whatever you decide to do, the effort you put in to get to that decision will (if you're concerned with the "reality" of the metaphysical angle) add strong assistance to sanctifying your choice, so you're already on the right track.
posted by Poppa Bear at 6:30 AM on January 12, 2016


Is there a botanica nearby? Could you ask there? They might be more familiar with local custom.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:37 PM on January 12, 2016


Again, very late to thread, but 'water, fire and burial' are coming from a completely different tradition, don't do that. These objects aren't put into the world to be preserved, they're put into the world to react with it until they're spent. Sometimes they're put in the street to be broken by the careless feet of passers by (which is bad stuff but another story.) My feeling is Widget Alley's done you a great courtesy here, researching a solution that aligns your own sensibilities with the practice in a really nice, dialogue-enhancing way.
posted by glasseyes at 6:10 AM on January 23, 2016


« Older Does Sons of Anarchy rebound after Season 3? (No...   |   Narrative-rich cookbook recommendations Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.