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The Truth of Voodoo Revealed | Ancient Mysteries (S3) | Full Episode | History

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The Real Life of the New Orleans Voodoo Queen | Marie Laveau

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psychic spiritualist acting performance culture voodoo hoodoo obeah conjure

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House of the Divine Prince and Hoodoo Central, LLC. Pan African Spiritualist Practitioner Author and Advisor. Elegun Oloye Hoodoo New Orleans Voodoo Obeah Bokor. Two-Spirit Conjuror http://www.IMDb.me/DivinePrinceTyEmmecca I can also be found 'in archive' on Blog Talk Radio!

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Voodoo's mystical presence is one of the most common New Orleans motifs-though it is mostly reduced to a tourist gimmick. With kitschy dolls for sale and exaggerated mythology surrounding Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, a very real, culturally important religion with a serious past gets lost amid all that camp.

Voodoo's roots can be traced in part back to the religion of West Africa's Yoruba people, which incorporates the worship of several different spiritual forces that include a supreme being, a pantheon of deities, and the spirits of ancestors. When Africans were kidnapped, enslaved, and brought to Brazil, Haiti, and, ultimately, Louisiana, they brought their religion with them.

Later, other African religions met and melded, and when slaves were forced to convert to Catholicism, they found it easy to merge and practice both religions and rituals. Rites involved dancing and singing to intricate drum rhythms. Some participants might even fall into a trancelike state, during which a loa (a spirit and/or lower-level deity intermediary between humans and gods) would take possession of them.

Voodoo was banned in Louisiana until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The next year, the Haitian slaves overthrew their government, and new immigrants came to New Orleans, bringing along a fresh infusion of Voodoo.

Napoleonic law (which still holds sway in Louisiana) forced slave owners to give their slaves Sundays off and to provide them with a gathering place: Congo Square on Rampart Street, part of what is now Louis Armstrong Park. Voodoo practice there, including dancing and drumming rituals, gave slaves a way to have their own community and a certain amount of freedom. These gatherings naturally attracted white onlookers, as did the rituals held (often by free people of color) along St. John's Bayou. The local papers of the 1800s are full of lurid accounts of Voodoo "orgies" and of spirits possessing both whites and blacks. The Congo Square gatherings became more like performance pieces rather than religious rituals, and legend has it that nearby madams would come down to the Sunday gatherings and hire some of the performers to entertain at their houses.

During the 1800s, the famous Voodoo priestesses came to some prominence. Mostly free women of color, they were devout religious practitioners, very good businesswomen with a steady clientele of whites who secretly came to them for help in love or money matters. During the 1900s, Voodoo largely went back underground.

It is estimated that today as much as 15 percent of the population of New Orleans practices Voodoo, though the public perception-casting spells or sticking pins in Voodoo dolls-is largely Hollywood nonsense.

Most of the stores and places in New Orleans that advertise Voodoo are set up strictly for tourism. This is not to say that some facts can't be found there or that you shouldn't buy a mass-produced souvenir. For an introduction to Voodoo, check out the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum or Voodoo Authentica. For true Voodoo, however, seek out real Voodoo temples or practitioners. You can find them at the temples listed below or by calling Ava Kay Jones (www.yorubapriestess.tripod.com; [tel] 504/484-6499),who creates custom gris-gris bags (packets of meaning-infused herbs, stones, and other such bits), potions, candles and dolls by appointment only. If you happen into one of these temples and find no one about, come back or wait quietly; they may be conducting a reading in a side room. And be sure to check out Robert Tallant's book Voodoo in New Orleans (Pelican Pocket, 1983).
Voodoo Temples
The city has several authentic Voodoo temples and botanicas selling everything you might need for potions, spells, and ritual implements for altars. The public is welcome, and employees are happy to educate the honestly inquisitive.

The Island of Salvation Botanica in the New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude Ave. in the Marigny (www.islandofsalvationbotanica.com; [tel] 504/948-9961), is run by Voodoo priestess Sallie Ann Glassman. The botanica is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sunday 11am to 6pm, but call first to make sure they are not closed for readings (or to schedule a reading).

Priestess Miriam, who practices at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple, 1428 N. Rampart St. (www.voodoospiritualtemple.org; [tel] 504/943-9795), is the real McCoy, a serene spirit and practitioner in the traditions of the West African ancestors. No pins and dolls here, folks, but healings, prayers, blessings, spiritual consultations, and training are available. The temple is just off Esplanade Ave., easily accessed from the French Quarter or via the Rampart streetcar. Interested, respectful tourists are welcome. Call for appointment. Primarily a store, Voodoo Authentica, 612 Dumaine St. (www.voodooshop.com; [tel] 504/522-2111), also has working altars and often a practitioner in attendance, reading cards and performing cleansings. It's open Monday to Sunday 11am to 7pm.
Visiting Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau is the most famous New Orleans Voodoo queen. Though she was a real woman, her life has been so mythologized that it is nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction. But who really wants to?

Certainly it's known that she was born a free woman of color in 1794. A hairdresser by trade, Marie became known for her psychic abilities and powerful gris-gris. Her day job allowed her into the best houses, where she heard all the good gossip and could apply it to her other clientele. In one famous story, a young woman about to be forced into a marriage with a much older, wealthy man approached Marie. She wanted to marry her young lover instead. Marie counseled patience. The marriage went forward, and the happy groom died from a heart attack while dancing with his bride at the reception. After a respectable time, the now-wealthy widow was free to marry her lover.

Marie wholeheartedly believed in Voodoo-and business. Her home at what is now 1020 St. Ann St. was purportedly a gift from a grateful client. A devout Catholic, Marie attended daily Mass and was well known for her charity work.

Her death in 1881 was noted by the Times-Picayune. Her look-alike daughter, Marie II, took over her work, leading some to believe (mistakenly) that Marie I lived a very long time, looking quite well indeed-which only added to her legend. But Marie II allegedly worked more for the darker side than her mother. Her eventual reward, the story goes, was death by poison (delivered by whom is unknown). Today, visitors bring Marie tokens (candles, beads, change) and ask her for favors-she's buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. (The misguided or outright disrespectful mar the tomb with X's. Despite what you may hear, this does nothing except dishonor her and damage her resting place. It's a horrifying, illegal fail. Don't do it.)

Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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Voodoo's mystical presence is one of the most common New Orleans motifs-though it is mostly reduced to a tourist gimmick. With kitschy dolls for sale and exaggerated mythology surrounding Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, a very real, culturally important religion with a serious past gets lost amid all that camp.

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On the 16th of June 1881, Marie Laveau, Louisiana Creole 'princess' of Voodoo, died in New Orleans, Louisiana, aged 79. "A nineteenth-century free woman of color, she is a founding figure of the African-American voodoo tradition. Little is known about Marie Laveau and her introduction to voodoo. Originally a devout Catholic, she "miraculously" transformed herself into a theatrical and flamboyant spiritual leader of the black community while still a young adult in 1830. Her presumed abilities as seer, spell weaver, and voodoo priestess made Laveau one of the most influential and politically powerful members of a racist and sexist New Orleans society. Today, New Orleans honors her each year during Mardi Gras and maintains her grave as a historical site. In popular legend, Laveau is still alive and conjuring in the city." (Feminist Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2, Speaking for Others/Speaking for Self: Women of Color ,Summer, 1990).

Because of her prominence within the history of Voodoo in New Orleans, Laveau has inspired a number of artists, musicians and writers, such as the African American assemblage artist Renee Stout who often uses Laveau as a visual symbol; her personality inspired a number of fictional characters as well, the best known of which comes to life in Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau (1993). The writer transforms Laveau into something of a self-styled feminist icon: "Interesting in that novel is the idea of the woman as a kind of trickster figure, with the awareness that the trickster figure has most often been represented as male. (...) women's magical powers as means of survival are often denounced and called witchcraft, while men's powers are affirmed, revered, and considered reasons for sainthood." (Kevin E. Quashie, Mining Magic, Mining Dreams: A Conversation with Jewell Parker Rhodes, Callaloo, Vol. 20, No. 2, Spring, 1997).

In Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), anthropologist Martha Ward suggested that Laveau's affliation with Voodoo was perhaps as much a result of growing up in a racist environment as it was an affirmation of African identity or a means of African religious endurance. Prewar white people were continuously plagued by the fear of retaliation and revenge by those they oppressed. Voodoo, with its large popular following, represented a way of rebellion for these exploited layers of the population, which was beyond any limits of their knowledge or control. Ward also implies that the origins of the demonization of Marie Laveau originate almost exclusively in white popular memory. She believes that they hail from postwar racism, particularly within the English-language press of the time, which could not relate on any level to Laveaus' community of established, free black, francophone Creoles.

This was a society steeped in folklore, ritual, religion and myth. "For those who had the good fortune to grow up in an Afro-American community-whether north or south-our earliest memories include beliefs about man and nature that fascinated, and sometimes terrified, us. If you eat fish and milk at the same time, you'll die. If you walk under a ladder, you're sure to have bad luck. Step on a crack, break your mother's back. (...) Perhaps there is something terr ibly right about this strong propensity for the supernatural in Afro-American life. After all, the "Grand Narrative" of the Western Enlightenment assumed that the mere fact of melanin confined all people of color to bestial irrationality. In that grand narrative, whiteness was written as the only hue that was both natural and rational. The marginal spaces left for color were the non- rational and the peversely supernatural. It is understandable, therefore, that, in the New World, African captives who had been stolen by enlightened Europeans would transform these spaces of color into the vivid, spiritual common sense called Voodoo. Voodoo-which is most elaborately practiced in the New World in Haiti-is indisputably a woman's domain. Its West Coast African origins situate the religion's agency in the Priestess too." (Houston A. Baker, Jr. In African American Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, Spring, 1995). And no woman will ever be better remembered for her spiritual powers than Marie Laveau.

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Marie Laveau: Voodoo, Race and Female Power

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On the 16th of June 1881, Marie Laveau, Louisiana Creole 'princess' of Voodoo, died in New Orleans, Louisiana, aged 79. "A nineteenth-century free woman of color, she is a founding figure of the African-American voodoo tradition. Little is known about Marie Laveau and her introduction to voodoo.

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history / united states / state & local / south (al

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photography / subjects & themes / lifestyles

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photography/subjects & themes - lifestyles

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photography/subjects & themes - regional (see also travel - pictorials)

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New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural History [Rosary O'Neill, Rory O'Neill Schmitt] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural History

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A guide to the practices, tools, and rituals of New Orleans Voodoo as well as the many cultural influences at its origins

* Includes recipes for magical oils, instructions for candle workings, and directions to create gris-gris bags and Voodoo dolls to attract love, money, justice, and healing and for retribution

* Explores the major figures of New Orleans Voodoo, including Marie Laveau and Dr. John

* Exposes the diverse ethnic influences at the core of Voodoo, from the African Congo to Catholic immigrants from Italy, France, and Ireland

One of America's great native-born spiritual traditions, New Orleans Voodoo is a religion as complex, free-form, and beautiful as the jazz that permeates this steamy city of sin and salvation. From the French Quarter to the Algiers neighborhood, its famed vaulted cemeteries to its infamous Mardi Gras celebrations, New Orleans cannot escape its rich Voodoo tradition, which draws from a multitude of ethnic sources, including Africa, Latin America, Sicily, Ireland, France, and Native America.

In The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook, initiated Vodou priest Kenaz Filan covers the practices, tools, and rituals of this system of worship as well as the many facets of its origins. Exploring the major figures of New Orleans Voodoo, such as Marie Laveau and Dr. John, as well as Creole cuisine and the wealth of musical inspiration surrounding the Mississippi Delta, Filan examines firsthand documents and historical records to uncover the truth behind many of the city's legends and to explore the oft-discussed but little-understood practices of the root doctors, Voodoo queens, and spiritual figures of the Crescent City. Including recipes for magical oils, instructions for candle workings, methods of divination, and even directions to create gris-gris bags, mojo hands, and Voodoo dolls, Filan reveals how to call on the saints and spirits of Voodoo for love, money, retribution, justice, and healing.

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new orleans (la.);religious life and customs.

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mind & spirit / spirituality / shamanism

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indigenous; religion; recipes for magical oils; instructions; candle workings; gris-gris bags; voodoo dolls; attract love; money; justice; healing; retribution; caribean; marie laveau; dr. john; congo; catholic; immigrants; italy; france; ireland; jazz; french quarter; algiers; cemeteries; mardi gras celebration; ethnic; africa; latin america; sicily; native america; vodou priest; practices; tools; rituals; system of worship; creole cuisine; musical; mississippi delta; root doctors; voodoo queens; spiritual figures

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new orleans (la.) - religious life and customs

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new orleans (la.);religious life and customs.

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mind & spirit / spirituality / shamanism

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The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook [Filan, Kenaz] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook

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"Voodoo Hoodoo" is the unique variety of Creole Voodoo found in New Orleans. The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook is a rich compendium of more than 300 authentic Voodoo and Hoodoo recipes, rituals, and spells for love, justice, gambling luck, prosperity, health, and success.

Cultural psychologist and root worker Denise Alvarado, who grew up in New Orleans, draws from a lifetime of recipes and spells learned from family, friends, and local practitioners. She traces the history of the African-based folk magic brought by slaves to New Orleans, and shows how it evolved over time to include influences from Native American spirituality, Catholicism, and Pentecostalism. She shares her research into folklore collections and 19th and 20th century formularies along with her own magical arts.

The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook includes more than 100 spells for Banishing, Binding, Fertility, Luck, Protection, Money, and more. Alvarado introduces readers to the Pantheon of Voodoo Spirits, the Seven African Powers, and other important Loas, Prayers, Novenas, and Psalms, and much, much more, including:
* Oils and Potions: Attraction Love Oil, Dream Potion, Gambler's Luck Oil, Blessing Oil
* Hoodoo Powders and Gris Gris: Algier's Fast Luck Powder, Controlling Powder, Money Drawing Powder
* Talismans and Candle Magic
* Curses and Hexes

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mind & spirit / witchcraft (see also religion / wicca)

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mind & spirit/witchcraft (see also religion - wicca)

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voodooism - louisiana - new orleans - rituals

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voodoo; spells; spellbook; african based folk magic; rituals; history

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mind & spirit / witchcraft (see also religion / wicca)

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mind & spirit/witchcraft (see also religion - wicca)

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Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook [Alvarado, Denise, Snake, Doktor] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook

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hoodoo and conjure in african american literature: critical essays

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american literature - african american authors

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american literature - african american authors - history and criticism

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literary criticism / american / african american

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literary criticism / subjects & themes / religion

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literary criticism/american - african american & black

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literary criticism/subjects & themes - religion

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literary criticism / american / african american

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literary criticism / subjects & themes / religion

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literary criticism/american - african american & black

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literary criticism/subjects & themes - religion

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Voodoo, Hoodoo and Conjure in African American Literature: Critical Essays

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Amazon.com: Voodoo, Hoodoo and Conjure in African American Literature: Critical Essays (9781476669625): Mellis, James S.: Books

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History of Voodoo In New Orleans - New Orleans & Company

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For centuries, voodoo has been alive in the traditions, people, and streets of New Orleans. Learn more about the history of voodoo in New Orleans with New Orleans & Company.