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.

Sallie Ann Glassman, VOTED AS ONE OF THE TOP TEN MOST POWERFUL NEW ORLEANS VOODOO PRIESTESSES The following phenomenal women were chosen by our readers as the Top Ten Most Powerful Voodoo Priestesses in New Orleans 2006. photo by Jeffery Eirenreich

Ms. Glassman is the author of Vodou Visions, published by Random House in May, 2000, which has received acclaim from Vodou practitioners around the world. She is co-creator and artist for The New Orleans Voodoo Tarot, published by Destiny/Inner Traditions, and is the illustrator of The Enochian Tarot, published by Llewellyn.

As a Manbo, Ms. Glassman has led her neighborhood in community Vodoun rituals to fight crime and to ask for protection from hurricanes. She has received international television, radio and magazine coverage, including a front page article in The New York Times and a feature on The World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.

 

Ms. Glassman has lectured extensively on Vodou and visionary art, and has performed rituals at Tulane University, UNO, Loyola University, at the Goddess Conference in New Orleans, at the International House Hotel, for numerous private groups, including the Bayou St. John Neighborhood Association and at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where she participated in rituals in the Haitian Pavilion that captivated hundreds of people daily. In March 1997 she was invited on a two-week lecture tour of Australia, where she gave workshops on Vodoun ceremony and ritual. She also conducted a Vodou workshop and retreat at the Omega Institute in June, 2001, and has sat on panel discussions at the Contemporary Art Center, The Tennessee Williams Festival, Barrister’s Gallery, and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

 

Ms. Glassman's interest in the esoteric arts began at age thirteen, with the study of tarot and crystal ball. She has studied and taught Hatha and Kundalini Yoga at the Un-School of New Haven, CT, the Satchidananda Vedanta Center, New Haven, CT, and with Guru D’Aishan in New Orleans. She was a high initiate of the Ordo Templi Orientis, an international fraternal order of Ceremonial Magicians. She has studied Santeria under her Santero, Antonio Gil, and is the daughter of Olokun and Oggun in that tradition.

An alumna of the New Orleans Art Institute, Ms. Glassman is an award-winning artist whose work has been exhibited in one-woman and group shows that have received significant critical reviews in local newspapers and international art magazines. She is represented in New Orleans with on-going exhibitions of her paintings and assemblage art altars at Les Carillons, Poet’s, and Barrister’s galleries.