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The Mercado de Sonora (The Sonora Market), inaugurated on September 23, 1957, is located within the commercial center of Mexico City. The market, a labyrinth of stalls that cover a few city blocks, has arguably the highest concentration of shamans, santeros, voodoo and stalls offering the implements of witchcraft and black and white magic in the world.
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Stalls are flooded with a seemingly infinite variety of powders, sprays, soaps and incense that claim, through bright colors and illustrations, to help one find a job, money or love, to ward off evil spells, cast hexes, or help children do well in school. The dozens of brujas and brujos (female and male witches), chamanes (shamans) and santeros (priests of the African-based santería) attend clients within the market.
![]()
Working out of stalls, many of them the size of a large closet, these healers perform limpias (spiritual cleansings), healing rituals, initiations and predictions. All the materials needed for these and other ritual practices are sold in the hundreds of small botánicas within the Sonora Market, while the birds used in the ritual sacrifices can be bought live and squawking a few yards away.
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To kill a man, explains Alejandro Rozos, a warlock who practices his craft in one dark corner of the market, all you need is a black cloth doll, some thread, a human bone and a toad. Oh, and you must ask the devil permission, in person, at a cave in the hills outside Mexico City where he is said to appear. Assuming you have these things, plus the green light from the prince of darkness, you simply lash the doll to the bone, shove it down the unfortunate toad’s throat, sew up its lips and take the whole mess to a graveyard, reciting the proper words.
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“The person will die within 30 days,” Mr. Gallegos said matter of factly, as if he were talking of fixing a broken carburetor. (The toad dies too, by the by.) “There exists good and bad in the world, there exists the devil and God,” he went on, turning a serpent’s fang in his rough fingers. “I work in white magic and in black magic. But there are people who dedicate themselves only to evil.”
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"There are many charlatans here, people who walk through the market and say 'I'm the chief wizard,' but they don't deliver," said veteran shaman Jose Luis Martinez. Martinez and a handful of other shamans who say they can barter souls to the Devil for wealth or power as well as intervene with God for good health or love say most practitioners are just putting the tourists on.
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Martinez has two stalls. In one, a bleeding Jesus swoons on a cross over a white altar lighted by white candles. In the other, where Martinez keeps ancient tomes of dark magic like "The Supreme Book" (El Libro Supremo) and "The Anti-Christ" (El Anti-Cristo), a furious red devil rages above a black altar. "I could not take you to the dark stall for a cleansing because you would be terrified by such a gloomy place," Martinez said.
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The dark side of wizardry, known in the trade as the esoteric arts, is full of danger. Politicians seeking political revenge, the avaricious who desire unlimited wealth and the hate-filled who want an enemy to die in a car crash have to sell their souls to Lucifer.
![]()
As a shaman, Martinez said, he acted as an interlocutor, taking clients to a cave in the mountains filled with vipers where they could strike a personal deal with the demon. But it requires a lot of strength. "The evil spirit is so ugly, with long hairs on his face and fingernails as long as this (about three inches), that you cannot look him in the eye because you would be paralyzed with fright ... and then he would take you away," Martinez said.
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In a conversation full of legend and lore, he sighed at the sacrifices a shaman has to make to serve the dreams, both evil and good, of his clients. Sitting in the waiting room of his stall, the walls decorated with tinsel Valentine's hearts, a photograph of the sacred mountain and a small notebook with a bosomy girl on its cover, he said he had had to offer the souls of seven of his family to gain the powers he possessed.
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"It's a hard life, so full of sacrifice," he said. But he insisted there was more good than evil in his trade, saying God created the Devil and therefore God was dominant.
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Mercado Magico: Mercado de Sonora (4:39)
A walk through Mercado de Sonora (1:25)
Supermana at El Mercado de Sonora (2:59)
Stalking Light and Life: Interview with a Mercado de Sonora Healer
'At the beginnings of time, there were two parts that controlled the stability of the planet: the good and the bad. Since these are two extremes, a fusion becomes a saint... the balance.
'Saints desired more power so they discovered red magic and green magic.
'Red magic is a very powerful energy, and uses blood from sacrifices or donations.
'Green magic is based on nature; herbs. It does good or bad to the humans. There are very powerful herbs that may kill humans, so everything depends on what is used.
'Most of the people doing this, are not aware of the foundations of how to handle magic. A lot of them have read literature from undocumented sources that worked for a particular case, and most likely won't work for other cases.
'Black magic by itself does no harm... you need to have a combination: a duality.
'There are four main types of magic: Black magic, green magic, red magic, white magic: four elements: Water Earth Wind and Fire.
'Many recipes or preparations just use a couple of types of magic, without considering the others... for the product to work, you need the presence of four... it's like a two-feet table.
'I'm 53, and I've been doing this since I was 12. There's nothing I haven't read... but many don't know a thing. I was taught by ascended teachers whose names I can't mention.'
(the entirety)
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*
p.s. Hey. Interesting, strange place, no? Ever been there? I haven't. I'm in Tokyo doing whatever last things that I need and want to there before departing Japan. One more pre-programmed post tomorrow, and then, whoa, I'll be back behind the controls of this place again live and in person.
* text collaged from various sources
The Mercado de Sonora (The Sonora Market), inaugurated on September 23, 1957, is located within the commercial center of Mexico City. The market, a labyrinth of stalls that cover a few city blocks, has arguably the highest concentration of shamans, santeros, voodoo and stalls offering the implements of witchcraft and black and white magic in the world.
Stalls are flooded with a seemingly infinite variety of powders, sprays, soaps and incense that claim, through bright colors and illustrations, to help one find a job, money or love, to ward off evil spells, cast hexes, or help children do well in school. The dozens of brujas and brujos (female and male witches), chamanes (shamans) and santeros (priests of the African-based santería) attend clients within the market.
Working out of stalls, many of them the size of a large closet, these healers perform limpias (spiritual cleansings), healing rituals, initiations and predictions. All the materials needed for these and other ritual practices are sold in the hundreds of small botánicas within the Sonora Market, while the birds used in the ritual sacrifices can be bought live and squawking a few yards away.
To kill a man, explains Alejandro Rozos, a warlock who practices his craft in one dark corner of the market, all you need is a black cloth doll, some thread, a human bone and a toad. Oh, and you must ask the devil permission, in person, at a cave in the hills outside Mexico City where he is said to appear. Assuming you have these things, plus the green light from the prince of darkness, you simply lash the doll to the bone, shove it down the unfortunate toad’s throat, sew up its lips and take the whole mess to a graveyard, reciting the proper words.
“The person will die within 30 days,” Mr. Gallegos said matter of factly, as if he were talking of fixing a broken carburetor. (The toad dies too, by the by.) “There exists good and bad in the world, there exists the devil and God,” he went on, turning a serpent’s fang in his rough fingers. “I work in white magic and in black magic. But there are people who dedicate themselves only to evil.”
"There are many charlatans here, people who walk through the market and say 'I'm the chief wizard,' but they don't deliver," said veteran shaman Jose Luis Martinez. Martinez and a handful of other shamans who say they can barter souls to the Devil for wealth or power as well as intervene with God for good health or love say most practitioners are just putting the tourists on.
Martinez has two stalls. In one, a bleeding Jesus swoons on a cross over a white altar lighted by white candles. In the other, where Martinez keeps ancient tomes of dark magic like "The Supreme Book" (El Libro Supremo) and "The Anti-Christ" (El Anti-Cristo), a furious red devil rages above a black altar. "I could not take you to the dark stall for a cleansing because you would be terrified by such a gloomy place," Martinez said.
The dark side of wizardry, known in the trade as the esoteric arts, is full of danger. Politicians seeking political revenge, the avaricious who desire unlimited wealth and the hate-filled who want an enemy to die in a car crash have to sell their souls to Lucifer.
As a shaman, Martinez said, he acted as an interlocutor, taking clients to a cave in the mountains filled with vipers where they could strike a personal deal with the demon. But it requires a lot of strength. "The evil spirit is so ugly, with long hairs on his face and fingernails as long as this (about three inches), that you cannot look him in the eye because you would be paralyzed with fright ... and then he would take you away," Martinez said.
In a conversation full of legend and lore, he sighed at the sacrifices a shaman has to make to serve the dreams, both evil and good, of his clients. Sitting in the waiting room of his stall, the walls decorated with tinsel Valentine's hearts, a photograph of the sacred mountain and a small notebook with a bosomy girl on its cover, he said he had had to offer the souls of seven of his family to gain the powers he possessed.
"It's a hard life, so full of sacrifice," he said. But he insisted there was more good than evil in his trade, saying God created the Devil and therefore God was dominant.
Mercado Magico: Mercado de Sonora (4:39)
A walk through Mercado de Sonora (1:25)
Supermana at El Mercado de Sonora (2:59)
Stalking Light and Life: Interview with a Mercado de Sonora Healer
'At the beginnings of time, there were two parts that controlled the stability of the planet: the good and the bad. Since these are two extremes, a fusion becomes a saint... the balance.
'Saints desired more power so they discovered red magic and green magic.
'Red magic is a very powerful energy, and uses blood from sacrifices or donations.
'Green magic is based on nature; herbs. It does good or bad to the humans. There are very powerful herbs that may kill humans, so everything depends on what is used.
'Most of the people doing this, are not aware of the foundations of how to handle magic. A lot of them have read literature from undocumented sources that worked for a particular case, and most likely won't work for other cases.
'Black magic by itself does no harm... you need to have a combination: a duality.
'There are four main types of magic: Black magic, green magic, red magic, white magic: four elements: Water Earth Wind and Fire.
'Many recipes or preparations just use a couple of types of magic, without considering the others... for the product to work, you need the presence of four... it's like a two-feet table.
'I'm 53, and I've been doing this since I was 12. There's nothing I haven't read... but many don't know a thing. I was taught by ascended teachers whose names I can't mention.'
(the entirety)
----
*
p.s. Hey. Interesting, strange place, no? Ever been there? I haven't. I'm in Tokyo doing whatever last things that I need and want to there before departing Japan. One more pre-programmed post tomorrow, and then, whoa, I'll be back behind the controls of this place again live and in person.