The Grim Reaper is a European personification of death, usually a skeleton wielding a scythe.
The image of a skeleton harvesting the souls of the dead became popular during the Black Death, but predates it.
The Grim Reaper is sometimes depicted with other objects such as an executioner's sword or an hourglass.
These objects are usually further reminders of death, such as the hourglass symbolizing one's lifetime running out.
Early depictions of the Grim Reaper sometimes adopted the burial shroud and wings of Thanatos, an ancient Greek personification of Death.
Over multiple iterations across the centuries, the white burial shroud eventually turned into a black robe.
The imagery of the Grim Reaper would go on to influence the iconography of San la Muerte.
It has also influenced, to a lesser extent, the iconography of the female Santa Muerte.
Both San la Muerte and Santa Muerte are known by the names of Saint Death or Holy Death.
San la Muerte is male and is more commonly venerated in South America and is sometimes also called Saint Skeleton.
Santa Muerte is not the female counterpart of San la Muerte most commonly venerated in Central America, but a separate figure.
Both are folk (i.e., non-canon) Saints venerated primarily by Catholics in the "outer cult."
However, both have a substantial pagan following as well.
San la Muerte is sometimes treated as a syncretic figure that blends various indigenous deities into one.
He has particular origins in Luison and Supay, both gods of death.
The Grim Reaper imagery likely constitutes the acknowledgement of a singular deity of death and an attempt to blend in during Western colonization.
An Argentinian "inner cult" of San la Muerte identifies him with Cain, with syncretic elements of Japeusa from Guarani myth.
This inner cult identifies three aspects of San la Meurte, distinguished by different colored robes.
This includes a white robe for "good death," which oversees gentle and painless death.
White death can be used for purification, protection, and good luck.
The second is red death, which is associated with bloody and violent death.
Red death is known for being involved in everything from wars to gang wars.
The third is black death or "bad death," which oversees horrible deaths and is associated with destruction and secrets.
Black death can be used for protection, especially from police.
While black death is associated with criminality, there are a number of other ways his secretive and destructive aspects can be used.
As such, even the black death is not a rare or surprising sight in many shops and homes.
Despite having a reputation for granting curses and aiding in violence, San la Muerte is generally more tolerated by the Church than Santa Muerte.
I intend to go into much deeper detail into San la Muerte at a future date.
Santa Muerte, much like San la Muerte, is a folk saint with indigenous origins that takes iconographic elements from the Grim Reaper.
She is usually seen with a globe or crystal ball along with her scythe, although this is sometimes a scale.
These instruments are not typical of more general Grim Reaper imagery.
Santa Muerte has elements of the skeletal goddess of death from Aztec mythology named Mictecacihuatl.
She has been additionally influenced by the Mexican La Catrina and the sugar skull imagery of the Day of the Dead.
As such, Santa Muerte has links to wholly original Mexican personifications of death as a skeletal woman.
This makes her quite separate from both the Grim Reaper and San la Muerte, despite superficial similarities.
A number of different colors have been proposed for Santa Meurte's robes to symbolize different aspects, similar to San la Meurte.
Almost every color imaginable has been said to be some new aspect of Santa Muerte, and often the same color has multiple contradictory meanings.
Like San la Muerte, Santa Muerte is a popular figure among criminals, but she is venerated by people from all walks of life
Azrael is the angel of death in Islam and Wendell's preferred name for Death.
Rather than causing death, Azrael is normally seen in the role of a necropomp.
I intend to go into further detail about Wendell's relationship with Azrael at a future date.
Samael is a complex figure in Judeo-Christian lore.
In Christianity, sometimes he is angel, sometimes he is a demon, and sometimes he is Satan himself.
Samael is sometimes give the title ha-Mawet, meaning "of Death," making him an angel of Death.
Samael is also often the angel that is identified with Old Testament mentions of an accusor or adversary sent by God.
The "Satan" in the Book of Job is often identified with Samael, for example, although he is seen as working for God rather than against him.
Nonetheless, Samael is also sometimes associated with the Yetzer Hara or the "godless impulse" in Judaism, which tempts men to sin.
Due to his role as an accuser, his relationship with death, and his association with the Yetzer Hara, Samael is likely the major inspiration for the Christian Satan.
Despite this, in grimoiric tradition, Samael is often listed separately from Satan.
Samael is still often associated with Saturn and the underworld in occultism, even when he is depicted as a holy angel rather than a devil.
He is the only figure with prominence in both the Qliphoth and the Sephiroth, ruling over a husk and a sphere in each respectively.
Mastema is an angel that only appears in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.
He replaces an ambiguous reference to Death in Exodus as the figure responsible for killing the firstborn of Egypt.
The name is likely a corruption of the Hebrew word "maweth" meaning "death."
However, the Hebrew "maweth" likely originates from Mot, an ancient Sumerian death deity.
Mot was feared rather than worshiped.
He personified both the underworld and death itself, as he was said to swallow up the dead and store them in his stomach.
Mot may have been an inspiration for the concept of the hellmouth.
Mastema is sometimes identified with Samael, although there is no consensus on this identification.
Thantos is one of several Greek personifications of death.
He is depicted with wings, a burial shroud, and sometimes an upside-down torch.
His twin brother is Hypnos, the personification of sleep.
Rather than a skeleton, Thanatos was depicted as a sleepy young boy with curly hair or a bearded old man.