the "indigenous self"

Carolyn Baker And Keith Farnish Dialog About The Great Transition

Civilization has robbed us of our intimate connection with our own humanity--something that I sometimes call our "indigenous self", and like indigenous people revolting against colonization, collapse is offering us the opportunity to uncolonize and reclaim the indigenous self within us.

emergence, LA style

Santa Muerte in L.A.: A gentler vision of 'Holy Death' - Page 4 - Los Angeles Times

The sect's emergence here may not be especially surprising.

Los Angeles has been an incubator for all manner of fringe religions since the 19th century, a tradition fanned equally by rich Hollywood seekers and storefront-church disciples.

Mexico, too, has an enthusiastic tradition of tarot card reading and other forms of divination and also of healing herbs and potions.

Rick Nahmais, a photographer who has documented immigrants' Santa Muerte worship, said the practice fills serious needs among the marginalized, citing a group of transgender prostitutes he photographed in San Francisco. They sought Santa Muerte's protection from AIDS and even conducted marriages in her name, he said.

Southern California's version of the practice may contain "a little shtick," as is typical of L.A.'s New Age dabblings, he said. But the creed's striking imagery sets it apart. Nahmais called it genuine spiritual questing by people trapped in highly dangerous lives whose poverty, need or underworld occupations leave them feeling exiled from conventional faith.

"What I love about Santa Muerte worship is that it deals with the shadow very openly -- the Jungian shadow, the archetype of darkness in all of us," he said. "It embraces that."