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Learn about Marie Laveau's Life and Legend
With a name and reputation as celebrated as she is, you may think you know all there is to know about this iconic woman of antebellum New Orleans. But what you don't know may surprise you!
Now, for the first time her story is told from an insider's perspective. Join me as I explore the subtle hints that have been missed throughout the years by academics and others who sought to understand her, interpreting events from outside of her culture and attempting to make sense of them by looking to equally clueless outsiders with no first hand knowledge of her culture and religion to explain who she is and what she stands for. |
THE DEVOUT CATHOLIC
Marie Laveau is as well-known in New Orleans for her works of charity as she is for her gris gris magick. She was a devout Catholic and attended mass regularly at St. Louis Cathedral. She is on record for nursing yellow fever and cholera patients during the city's epidemics and she provided housing and food for the poor. She sponsored education for children and even adopted one little boy and posted bond for free women of color accused of petty crimes. She visited condemned prisoners, set up altars on the inside, and prayed with them during their final hours. We now know she also offered the use of her tomb to strangers who had no burial place of their own. In fact, the infamous tomb in St. Louis cemetery #1 where she is buried is the resting place for a grand total of 84 people! Only 25 of those buried there are verified or assumed to be family members (Long 2016).
Despite her high visibility in the congregation of the Catholic Church, and despite her charitable works, Marie Laveau was never acknowledged for these deeds in the local papers. She was often depicted as the Voudou Queen who lurked suspiciously in the courts: “Her eyes had all the seeming of a demon that was dreaming.” Additional sentiments included she dealt “in the black arts” and was “a person to be dreaded and avoided” (Staunton Spectator and General Advertiser 1881).
In recent years, defenders of the Laveau Legacy often refer to Marie as a devout Catholic, almost in an effort to downplay her role as Voudou Queen and belief in Voudouism. In some ways, this effort seems to project a discomfort in fully acknowledging Voudou as a meritable religion by using Catholicism as the legitimizing factor for comparison. It’s as if to say it is okay she was a Voudou because she was also a devoted Catholic. Then, the emphasis in syncretism follows where we all acknowledge her devotion to St. Peter and Mother Mary and attribute her altruism to her Catholic faith and Works of Mercy instead of considering the nature of Voudou and its inherent precepts of healing and curing. As a practitioner who is also an anthropologist, I would like to propose an alternate view as food for thought. I discuss this alternate perspective in the book.
Despite her high visibility in the congregation of the Catholic Church, and despite her charitable works, Marie Laveau was never acknowledged for these deeds in the local papers. She was often depicted as the Voudou Queen who lurked suspiciously in the courts: “Her eyes had all the seeming of a demon that was dreaming.” Additional sentiments included she dealt “in the black arts” and was “a person to be dreaded and avoided” (Staunton Spectator and General Advertiser 1881).
In recent years, defenders of the Laveau Legacy often refer to Marie as a devout Catholic, almost in an effort to downplay her role as Voudou Queen and belief in Voudouism. In some ways, this effort seems to project a discomfort in fully acknowledging Voudou as a meritable religion by using Catholicism as the legitimizing factor for comparison. It’s as if to say it is okay she was a Voudou because she was also a devoted Catholic. Then, the emphasis in syncretism follows where we all acknowledge her devotion to St. Peter and Mother Mary and attribute her altruism to her Catholic faith and Works of Mercy instead of considering the nature of Voudou and its inherent precepts of healing and curing. As a practitioner who is also an anthropologist, I would like to propose an alternate view as food for thought. I discuss this alternate perspective in the book.
Nursing the Saffron Scourge
She was very successful as a nurse; wonderful stories being told of her exploits at the sick bed. In yellow fever and cholera epidemics she was always called upon to nurse the sick, and always responded promptly. Her skill and knowledge earned her the friendship and approbation, of those sufficiently cultivated, but the ignorant attributed her success to unnatural means and held her in constant dread. (Daily Picayune 1881)
Sixty-seven yellow summers thrived in New Orleans between the years 1796 and 1905. This was the period in time that yellow fever, also known as the Saffron Scourge, Yellow Jack, Black Vomit, and this strangely descriptive nomer, Bronze John on his Saffron Steed, plagued the city and haunted its citizens. At the time, no one knew how the disease spread, and many fled the city for the Mississippi Gulf Coast or Grande Isle while others who succumbed to the illness were either burned or buried. Fifty-thousand people reportedly died, and their bodies were stacked one upon another in the cemeteries. |
The stench of death permeated the streets. At one point, people were dying faster than graves could be dug, giving rise to the popular saying that “pretty soon people would be digging their own graves.” Even without the deaths caused by disease, however, the streets of New Orleans were frequently reported by local newspapers to be unsanitary and littered with trash, dead animals, rats and cockroaches. Raw sewerage was mostly dumped into the Mississippi River which was the source of drinking water for the city’s citizens. It’s not hard to imagine how a plethora of illnesses and diseases were spread given the utter lack of sanitary conditions in the environment. These were the times in which Marie Laveau lived. This is the scourge she fought until her dying days.
Becoming a Devotee
The Worship of Voodoo is paid to a snake kept in a box.
The worshipers are not merely a sect, but in some rude,savage way, also an order.
A man and woman chosen from their own number to be the oracles of the serpent deity
are called the King and Queen. The Queen is the more important of the two, and even in the
dilapidated state of the worship in Louisiana, where the King’s office has almost or quite disappeared,
the Queen is still a person of great note. She reigns as long as she continues to live.
~ George Washington Cable, 1886
The worshipers are not merely a sect, but in some rude,savage way, also an order.
A man and woman chosen from their own number to be the oracles of the serpent deity
are called the King and Queen. The Queen is the more important of the two, and even in the
dilapidated state of the worship in Louisiana, where the King’s office has almost or quite disappeared,
the Queen is still a person of great note. She reigns as long as she continues to live.
~ George Washington Cable, 1886
The Laveau Devotee
Most modern-day Marie Laveau devotees believe in Jesus and the saints, just as Madame Marie did. They go to Church, pray the rosary, and they work the gris gris. Increasingly, there are people who are devotees who are not Catholic or church-goers but embrace a charitable lifestyle in ways that are meaningful to them. It’s a powerful thing to witness someone doing Madame Marie’s work. When it’s real, there’s no denying it. It is something that can be felt within the core of your being. Devotees have presence. When you become a devotee – when you are aware of your spiritual lineage, learn about it and live it – then, you can fully embrace your new identity and Marie Laveau, the loa, spirit guide, and elevated Ancestor - can descend and work through you.
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Building an AltarTraditional altars to Marie Laveau tend to consist of three different varieties: the parterre, the three-tiered altar, and the table-top altar. The type of altar a devotee creates is entirely dependent upon space, finances and personal preference. Larger altars are costlier to maintain than are the simpler table-top variety. Three-tiered altars are often reserved for saints, such as the elaborate St. Joseph altars found all around New Orleans on St. Joseph’s Day and Mardi Gras. Table-top altars are consistent with conjure workers and hoodoos. Parterres are used in both Voodoo and hoodoo. Aside from the parterres and the three-tiered altars, there are some New Orleans Voudou spirits who prefer their offerings be in cast iron (such as Iron Joe and Annie Christmas), sea shells (La Sirene and La Baleine), or in a bucket of sand or dirt (Ancestor pots and Black Hawk). In fact, the diversity of altar types in New Orleans Voudou and their accompanying offerings is quite remarkable
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Laveau Categories of Conjure
Years ago, I began to study the available literature for magickal activities related to Marie Laveau to see if they matched up with present-day practices. In doing so, I observed a pattern of specific types of conjure workings emerge, so I placed them into categories. Though not exhaustive, I concluded there are twelve categories of conjure that can be found in the Laveau Voudou magicospiritual lineage over time. All forms of Laveau magick address activities of daily living, such as job security, love interests, court cases, healing, money, protection and revenge.
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