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NEW ORLEANS VOODOO AND HOODOO PAGES

   NEW ORLEANS VOODOO LEGENDS AND LORE PAGES   

Explore the history and practice of Voodoo in New Orleans. New Orleans Voodoo Hoodoo Stories and information.

Marie Laveau † Chicken Man † Sallie Ann Glassman † Voodoo Dolls † Devil Baby † Zombie Voodoo Bottles † VOODOO WEDDING † New Orleans Zombies † The House Of Voodoo † Voodoo Collectable's † TOP TEN MOST POWERFUL VOODOO PRIESTESSES † GEDÉ † Hoodoo Voodoo † NEW ORLEANS VOODOO LOAS † Marie Laveau Tomb Ghost Pictures † New Orleans Voodoo Queen † A MIDSUMMER CELEBRATION IN HONOR OF MADAME MARIE LAVEAU A HAUNTED NEW ORLEANS TOURS EXCLUSIVE!! † MARIE LAVEAU STORIES OF OLD NEW ORLEANS † XXX MARKS THE SPOT: DEDICATION OR DESECRATION? CALLING ON THE QUEEN OF THE CITY OF THE DEAD † MARIE LAVEAUS' HOUSE OF VOODOO † Birth Record of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau † TOP TEN MOST POWERFUL NEW ORLEANS VOODOO RITUALS † Hurricane Protection Ritual † VODOUN HEADWASHING CEREMONY † F & F Botanica † CHEZ VODUN VOODOO MUSEUM AND TEMPLE † La Source Ancienne Sosyete † Island of Salvation Botanica

The term Vodou (Vodun or Vudun in Benin and Togo); also Vodon, Vodoun, Voudou, or other phonetically equivalent spellings. In Haiti; Vudu (an Ewe word, also used in the Dominican Republic) is by some individuals applied to the branches of a West African ancestral religious tradition, or to individual spirits or deities within that tradition. It is important to note that the word Voodoo is the most common and known usage in American and popular culture, and is viewed as a pejorative by the Afro-Diaspora practicing communities. However, the different spellings of this term can be explained as follows:

The word Voodoo is used to describe the Afro-creole tradition of New Orleans, Vodou is used to describe the Haitian Vodou Tradition, while Vudon and Vodun and Vodoun are used to describe the deities honoured in the Brazilian Jeje (Ewe) nation of Candomble as well as West African Vodoun, and in the African diaspora. Voodoo or Hoodoo also refer to African-American folk spirituality of the southeastern USA, with roots in West African traditional or "folk" spirituality. When the word Vodou/Vodoun is capitalized, it denotes the Religion proper. When the word is used in small caps, it denotes folk spirituality, or the actual deities honored in each respective tradition.

Some New Orleans Voodoo Hoodoo Must-Do's:

To learn more about Real New Orleans Voodoo, Hoodoo and Gris-Gris, stop by:

Marie Laveau's Childhood Home in the 1900 Block of Rampart Street

Congo Square in Armstrong Park, at the Corner of Rampart and St. Peter Streets This paved plaza was the only place where slaves could openly gather for fellowship and worship during antebellum days. This is the site of the African (Calinda) dances that were part of the Voodoo tradition. Congo Square is a National Historic Landmark.

MARIE LAVEAU THE VOODOO QUEEN OF NEW ORLEANS

If you visit the tomb of Marie Laveau remember this great Haunted New Orleans Voodoo Wish Spell:

Knock three times to call her spirit. Make your wish and turn around three times in a clockwise direction and knock three times on the tomb again. Always leave some kind of offering – Marie Laveau is especially fond of hair ornaments but anything, from a coin, a flower, to a piece of candy, even Mardi Gras beads, will do. Also look near her tomb for the most valued masterpiece of purported ritual hex items, the Sacred Marie Laveau Voodoo Monkey and Cock. These fetishes are often left at her graveside and are a very lucky find!

 

Voodoo New Orleans, Isand of Salvation Botanica, 836 Piety Street, 504-948-9961 New Orleans, Louisiana. Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman was born in Maine in 1954. She is of Jewish-Ukrainian heritage. Ms. Glassman has been practicing Vodou in New Orleans since 1977. She is the owner of the Island of Salvation Botanica, a store and gallery specializing in Vodoun religious supply, medicinal and magical herbs, and Haitian and local artworks. She traveled to Haiti in November, 1995 to undergo the week-long Couche initiation. During the initiation, Ms. Glassman was ordained as Ounsi, Kanzo and Manbo Asogwe, or Priestess of Vodou, and is one of the few white Americans to have been ordained via the traditional Haitian initiation. Glassman is the founder of La Source Ancienne Ounfo in New Orleans, where she presides over weekly Vodoun ceremonies.

Counted as one of the twenty most active Voodoo practitioners in the United States, Priestess Manbo Sallie Ann Glassman is known for promoting positive thoughts through her Voodoo faith. She is also a historian on Voodoo tradition and its roots in Hatian Vodun. Like many native religions, Vodou (often referred to as "Voodoo") has been scorned and ridiculed in mainstream Judeo-Christian communities. "The word 'Vodou' sends chills down the spines of most people, and conjures up age-old terrors of sorcery, black magic, and bogeymen lurking under the bed," writes author Sallie Ann Glassman (New Orleans Voodoo Tarot/Book and Card Set). This enticing compendium of the origins and practice of Vodou makes for a fascinating read, explaining how music, dance, and artistic expression are the heart and soul of this complicated religion. "What I discovered was a vibrant, beautiful, and ecstatic religion that was free from dogma, guilt or coercion," says Glassman, a thoughtful and articulate Jewish woman who first began studying New Orleans Vodou in 1975.

Marie Laveau's House Of Voodoo, 739 Bourbon Street: 504-581-3751. Open 10 a.m. -- 11:30 p.m., Monday-Thursday and Sunday; 10 a.m. -- 1:30 a. m., Friday-Saturday

A shop filed with voodoo merchandise from around the globe for the serious practitioner or the Novice explorer. Wonderful African and Brazilian masks and fetishes for sale as well as Voodoo Saints and Catholic Saint statues, rosaries, t-shirts, incense and voodoo dolls and kits and books. If you are planning on visiting the tomb of Marie Laveau you may pick up a perfect offering here first-cowrie shells, candles or that special something that calls you to her. You will want to look at the wonderful displays about voodoo—free of charge and view the working altars.

 

What is a Veve'? A Veve or Vévé is a religious symbol for a voodoo "loa" (or lwa) and serves as their representation during rituals.

   

 

Every Loa has his or her own unique veve, although regional differences have led to different veves for the same loa in a few cases. Sacrifices and offerings are usually placed upon them.

The veve is usually drawn on the floor by strewing a powder-like substance, such as cornmeal, wheat flour, bark, red brick powder, or gunpowder. The material depends entirely upon the rite.

Several veve's of different Loa may be drawn for one ceremony. The designs incorporate well-recognized traditional elements, but reflect also the individual intentions and creative skill of the Houngan or Mambo.

In the United States, there is strong prejudice against folk spirituality, which is freely demeaned with pejorative labels such as "magic" or "superstition".

The versions of Voodoo which survivied in the Southeastern USA, were connected with Christian mysticism in the minds of rural African Americans. Segregation minimized the number of bi-lingual African Americans (those who spoke basilect and fluent acrolect), and at the same time minimized the number of Whites who could translate basilect well enough to discover Voodoo in the spoken, sung, or written words of middle class, working class or working-poor African Americans. In isolated African American communities, such as the Georgia Sea Islands or in the Mississippi Delta, Voodoo lore could be freely referenced and practices, at least the more subtle ones, were more public. In fact many popular songs of the Delta Blues tradition (circa 1900 to 1941) referenced voodoo explicitly. Robert Johnson sang of "hot foot powder sprinkled all round my door" and Muddy Water(s) referenced "the gypsy woman", "seventh son", and the "mojo hand". Today there are African Americans in integrated Christian congregtions who can recall their parent or Gran pointing out the feared Jack o' Lantern off in the nighttime woods, and they will insist that's just what they'd seen.

Scholars debate the variations of Voodoo, how they have survived, how much they have changed, and to what extent Christianity in general or Catholicism in particular were used as covers to enable the survival of Voodoo. A common saying is that Haiti is 80% Roman Catholic, 20% Protestant, and 100% Vodou. Thus the Catholic contribution to Haitian Vodou is quite noticeable.

However, in the United States the story may be a little different, depending upon which scholarship you read. Some scholars believe confusion about Voodoo in the USA arises because there's widespread system of African American folk belief and practice known as Hudu or more popularly as hoodoo. The similarity of the words hoodoo and Voodoo notwithstanding, hoodoo may have tenouos connections to organized religion like Vudou, but hoodoo may be an integral part of the Vodoun religion in West Africa and arguably throughout all of Africa. Some aspects of hoodoo may be derived primarily from Congo and Angolan practices of Central Africa, and may retain elements of the traditions and practices that arose among Bantu language speakers. However, there are serious practitioners who have travelled and studied Hudu in West Africa, who conclude that this ancient, magio-botanical practice is indigenous and essential to the majority of native West African religious systems,