The Mexican Witch Lifestyle: Brujeria Spells, Tarot, and Crystal Magic

by Valeria Ruelas

Overview

Discover the vibrant culture of brujeria and embrace your own inner witch with this essential guide to spellcasting, spirit worship, tarot, crystals, and all the other elements of this increasingly popular lifestyle.

A modern Mexican bruja is a powerful person, one who reads the tarot and performs spellwork and rituals of devotion to their spirit guides and deities. Brujeria, which translates as witchcraft in Spanish, is a unique form of spirituality that blends core elements of Afro-Indigenous beliefs. Having originated in Mexico, brujeria is now practiced in Latinx communities across the world.

Valeria Ruelas was raised living every aspect of the brujeria lifestyle. From shopping at botanicas and yerberias, to casting spells, to interpreting tarot readings, Valeria has today become one of the foremost practitioners of brujeria in the US. And as part of her daily practice, she seeks to bring the intense wisdom, harmony, and spirituality that comes with living this bruja lifestyle to her followers and returning power and ancestral magic to those whose agency has been lost.

Within these pages, Valeria provides you with an expert’s introductory handbook for all the aspects of brujeria, including,
-Respectfully shopping at a yerberia or botanica
-A complete guide to common crystals
-Essentials for your altar
-A introduction to tarot
-Spells to bring luck, love, and good fortune
-The secrets of Santa Muerte

​​​Comprehensive and inspiring, The Mexican Witch Lifestyle is the perfect guide for anyone curious to learn more about this vibrant culture of witchcraft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982178147
Publisher:	S&S/Simon Element
Publication date:	11/29/2022
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	151,212
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 5.60(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Valeria Ruelas is a gay Chicana/Indigenous, Bruja/brujx, renowned witchcraft author, tarot reader, artist, and spiritual teacher. She was born in Delicias, Chihuahua, and is an Aquarius sun, Cancer moon, and Sagittarius rising. She/they is a trailblazer in the witchcraft community and has shared brujeria in an outspoken and uplifting way with the world, first through an appearance on “Viva Latino” on Spotify as their first ever celebrity tarot reader and then through her/their first book Cosmopolitan Love Potions. Cosmopolitan has also named her one of the most influential witches in the world and she is a regular writer for their witchcraft content. She/they is also the owner of an online witchcraft store TheMexicanWitch.com and creates most of the witchcraft products for the site herself and is currently working on designing a tarot deck which will highlight Mexican heritage. Valeria lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

Part 1 The Essentials of Brujeria

Botanicas, Yerberias, and Mercadds 2

Build Tour Altar 6

Preparing Your Altar and Space 7

How to do a Spell 8

How to Use Magic Words 9

Sound Magic 10

Pre-Ritual Herbal Nasal Steams 13

Version 1 14

Version 2 15

Yerba Readings with Tea 15

Obsidian Dagger Preparation 17

Documenting Your Spells 18

Limpias 19

Consent and Limpias 20

How to Perform a Limpia 20

Long-Term Limpias 21

Additional Limpias 25

After-Limpia Protection Candles 27

How to Charge an Object to Give it Purpose 28

Working with Nature 29

Ocean Water Spell 30

Rainwater Money-Drawing Spell 31

River Water Protection Ritual 32

How to Recite Magic Words 33

Obsidian Mirror Training 33

Fixing Your Energy with Crystals and Candle Spells 35

Using Crystals 36

Scrying with Crystals 37

Tarot and Crystal Scrying Rituals 38

The Practice of Brujeria

The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck 42

Astrology Basics for Tarot 43

Using the Tarot 44

Tarot Meditation 44

The Cards 45

Cups 45

Wands 50

Swords 54

Pentacles 59

The Major Arcana 63

How to Work with Yerbas 72

Making Spell Oils 73

Brujeria Sprays 73

Making the Tinctures 77

Candle Magic 79

Candle Color 79

Candle Shapes 81

Candle and Crystal Spells for Common Problems 82

To Help with Addictions 82

To Help the Client Manifest Money and Jobs and to Open Channels of Luck 83

To Improve Memory and Study Habits 83

For Healing Friendships and Family Relationships 84

Lunar Spells 84

For General Exhaustion Prevention 85

For Exhausted Parents or Caretakers, Those Who Take Care of Others, and Empathy Fatigue 85

To Heal After Theft, Auto Accidents, Fires, or Other Tragedies 86

For When You Need to Release the Past 86

For Peaceful Sleep 87

To Save Up Money for a Big Occasion 87

To Help Manifest Money and Jobs and to Open Channels of Luck 88

Lifestyle Spells 88

Send Love to Your Enemies Spell 88

Breakup Spell 89

Fighting Injustice Spells 91

Free Someone from Prison Spell/Abolition 91

Help Someone Gain Victory in an Election 91

Surgery and Medical Procedure Support Spell 92

Enemy Maintenance 93

Basic Ancestral Magic 95

Spray and Oil Recipes 95

Energy Increase/Energy Change OH and Spray 96

Medico! Support, Health, and Healing Oil and Spray 96

Job Drawing 96

Limpia 97

Luck Spray and Oil 97

New Moon 97

Protection Oil 97

Saturn 97

Solar Oil 98

Sex Worker/Sexual Healing 98

Spell Break 98

Stop Gossip 98

Trauma and Grief Relief 98

Universe Spray and Oil 98

Full Moon/Tlazolteotl 99

Waning Quarter Moon/Tochtli 99

Waxing Quarter/Sad Release/Mayahuel 99

Money 99

Last Long 99

Pay Me Back 100

Receive Messages Oil 100

Haunted Home Help 100

Academic Success Oil and Student Life Spray 100

Venus 101

Jupiter 101

Stay Away Racist 101

Mercury 101

Uranus 101

Neptune Spray 101

Mars Spray 101

Election Help/Political Activism 102

Break Them Up 102

Love Attraction 102

Come Back to Me Oil 102

Santa Muerte 102

Connecting to Santa Muerte 105

The Universal Magic Words of Santa Muerte 106

The Universal Magic Words of Santa Muerte II 107

Her/Their Magical Attire and Symbols 112

The Cloaks and Their Colors 115

Santa Muerte Altar 119

Medalla Blessing Ritual 120

Welcome Her/Them in Ritual 121

Afterword 125

Appendix 1 Crystal Index 127

Appendix 2 Terbas of Brujeria 145

Index 157

Editorial Reviews

09/26/2022

Tarot reader Ruelas (Cosmopolitan Love Potions) delivers a generous guide to brujeria, the “practice of natural, psychic, astral, and spiritual magic.” She covers the basics and outlines how to divine life advice from tarot cards, to cast spells, and to use crystals to influence one’s “energies.” The extensive compendium of spells promises ways to find reprieve from grief, boost favored electoral outcomes, and mend broken relationships; for example, a spell for supporting those undergoing medical procedures involves rolling candles in herbs and then lighting them while reciting an incantation. Explaining how to build an altar, she posits that it should be four feet wide, cleaned frequently, and adorned with colorful cloths, crystals, and a tarot deck. She details several methods for working with crystals, suggesting that readers dangle a “crystal pendulum” over someone to “move energy on the person,” or ask questions of crystals arranged in a semicircle for insight into the future. To connect with the spirit Santa Muerte (whom the author describes as nongendered and possessing a “woman’s energy”), one should “honor her/them with deep contemplation two to three times a week as well as perform mini rituals and offerings.” Ruelas’s simple instructions and the thorough glossary explicating key terms and concepts make for a rich primer. Witches will find a lot to love. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly