It’s high time we all get in the Halloween holiday spirit, especially with Voodoo Music Experience 2011 kicking off this weekend! Since New Orleans Voodoo is something most of us have been exposed to through pop culture – The Skeleton Key, Anne Rice’s Mayfair witch family, etc. - I thought it would be fun to shed some light on the history of NOLA Voodoo culture and also highlight some shops where you can get some good gris-gris going for yourself!
These Island of Salvation Botanica candles are great for decoration and spirituality!
First thing’s first: despite the somewhat dark portrayal of Voodoo in pop culture, I don’t think it is anything to be afraid of. In my experience, modern-day practitioners use it overwhelmingly for positive purposes. For example, when you visit a botanica, many of the candles focus on love and romantic pursuits: attracting a lover, finding love, etc. It’s also a very cool experience to get a personal reading done by one of the local healers: for Christmas one year, I bought my best friend a reading with Sallie Ann Glassman, and it was unnerving how spot-on Sallie was in her observations and assessment. My friend had been collecting elephant figurines for years, and Sallie mentioned in her reading that she had spent a lot of time with elephants in her past life and that she should start collecting sculptures if she wasn’t already.
Voodoo was originally brought over to New Orleans by the slaves from West Africa, specifically from the people of Fon. The Fon word for “spirits” was “Vodoun.” Voodoo, at a very elementary level, is a belief that spirits are involved in our day-to-day lives and is based on a three tiered structure consisting of God, spirits and our ancestors.
Gris-Gris Bag from Voodoo Authentica
The Mystic Voodoo describes NOLA Voodoo best as “a conglomeration of cultural and spiritual belief systems strongly influenced by the ancient Voodou religion of Africa, the Vodoo religion of Haiti, the healing arts of Native American people, the folk magic of Europe and Catholicism. Voodoo is culture, heritage, philosophy, art, dance, language, medicine, music, justice, power, storytelling and ritual. Voodoo is a way of looking at and dealing with life. It heals and destroys, is both good and bad, is simple in concept and complex in practice. Voodoo reflects the duality of the nature of the rattlesnake; its poison is toxic but its poison is needed to heal the same toxin. Voodoo is open to all yet holds many secrets and mysteries to those who are uninitiated.”
Chances are, if you’ve been to NOLA any number of times you’ve heard this phrase gris-gris tossed around. Gris-gris can refer to objects that are used to create magic or the actual act of trying to invoke something; gris-gris bags made of different herbs are seen as good luck charms and you may spot locals wearing them on their belts.
Marie Laveau, Voodoo Priestess (www.wikipedia.org)
The most prominent figure of NOLA voodoo is Marie Laveau, the “Queen of Voodoo,” whose alleged burial site in St. Louis Cemetery attracts so many visitors that she is second only to Elvis Presley in that regard. Laveau was born a free woman of color and raised as a devout Catholic. She incorporated many aspects of Catholicism with her study of Voodoo and was also one of New Orleans’ greatest humanitarians.
If you want more of an in-depth look at the Voodoo tradition in NOLA, I would suggest visiting the Voodoo Museum in the French Quarter, located at 724 Dumaine Street near Jackson Square and is open 7 days a week, 10 AM – 6 PM.
New Orleans must-see Voodoo shops
- Voodoo Authentica, located at 612 Dumaine and open 7 days a week, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
- Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo, located at 739 Bourbon and open Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.
- Reverend Zombie’s House of Voodoo, located at 725 St. Peter and open Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. and Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
- Island of Salvation Botanica, located in the recently opened New Orleans Healing Center at 2372 St. Claude – my personal favorite & where Sallie Ann Glassman works
- F&F Botanica, located at 801 N. Broad and open Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
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