Voodoo culture, both in Louisiana and Haiti, is full of stories and folktales. In fact it was through the oral tradition that all traditional African religions were able to survive under brutal conditions in the Caribbean during colonial times. The Voodoo folklore of the Caribbean and southern United States, like that of other cultures, contains mysterious supernatural creatures including vampires and werewolves, known as loup garou in French and Creole.
A story of a domestic servant who had fallen victim to a peculiar curse!
In this story we will see how some people believe that taking on animal qualities can be the result of a curse. I first heard this story in the spring of 2004 from a Haitian woman named Yvette Antoine with whom I attended a class in Latin American literature at the University of Massachusetts. Yvette affirms that the events described in the story occurred in her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the mid 1980’s and centers around a domestic servant who had fallen victim to a peculiar curse.
Yvette had always known that her servants were practitioners of Voodoo, this was to be expected, since it is the majority religion of Haiti often practiced along side Catholicism, but a rumor circulated in her household that one girl in particular, Marisol, was involved with the Makaya sect, a particularly mysterious and aggressive branch of Voodoo common in the central and northern regions of Haiti. They told Margarita that Marisol had been engaged to marry a wealthy land owner named Pierre in her native city of Cap Haïtien. She did not love this man but stayed with him out of a need for financial security and for this she incurred the wrath of her future mother-in-law who hated her violently. The mother-in-law, Nanette, suspected that Marisol had so captivated her son’s affections by means of witchcraft, and she went to a local bokor to discover the truth. With a toss of the cowry shells, the makaya priest confirmed what Nanette had known all along. Marisol had paid a mambo 8,000 gourdes (approximately 200$), a small fortune in Haiti, to make a powerful wanga, or spell, that would render Pierre helpless against her will. Nanette was not able to find a bokor or mambo with enough power to break the curse, and the local Catholic priest dismissed the whole situation as superstitious nonsense and refused to perform an exorcism on her son.
Marisol grew bored with her fiancé and she found a new male companion in Port-au-Prince with an ever bigger bank account. One night she packed her bags and left Cap Haïtien unannounced. Upon discovering her absence, Pierre attempted to locate her in Port-au-Prince only to discover that was living in Santo Domingo with her new companion. He returned to Cap Haïtien and fell into a deep depression. He could not sleep and began to drink bottle after bottle of sweet Barbancourt Rum. Nanette pleaded and begged with him to realize that what he felt was not real but the workings of a powerful and evil spell. Nevertheless, Pierre continued down this path of self destruction until one night he walked into the ocean drunk and was found dead on the beach the next morning.
Nanette planned an elaborate funeral for her son and observed the traditional nine day period of mourning in which she fasted and prayed novenas and rosaries for the repose of his soul. In Haiti, those who take their own lives are considered cursed and their souls are condemned to wonder the earth until the day of final judgment. The local priest tried to console Nanette, telling her that the Catholic Church no longer teaches that suicide victims are damned, but Nanette believed more in the old superstitions of the island than in psychology of the modern church. She knew her son had lived a miserable life and was in danger of eternal damnation and it was all Marisol’s fault. Nanette was out for revenge.
Nanette retrieved an old hairbrush from Pierre’s house that had belonged to Marisol on which some of her hair remained. She took it to a bokor, a priest of Makaya Voodoo, and paid him the exorbitant sum of 10,000 gourdes to place a curse on Marisol. The bokor asked if Nanette wanted him to work a spell that would bring about her death. After thinking for a minute, Nanette decided that death would be too good for the woman who had caused Pierre so much misery and that she would rather see her live to endure an agonizing, cursed existence. The bokor thought for a moment and then instructed Nanette to return the next day. When she did, he handed her a wax coffin which he had carved himself. Inside, he had placed the hair from Marisol’s brush, some pungent herbs and chicken bones. The bokor instructed Nanette to take the coffin to the graveyard and bury it next to the cross of Baron Samedi, a Voodoo spirit who dwells in the cemetery and to whom one must appeal in order to open the gates to the world of the dead, and on the night of the full moon the curse would begin. Nanette did as she had been instructed and waited to see the results.
Marisol, despite being in Santo Domingo, was still not able to escape the wrath of Nanette and quickly felt the influence of the bokor’s powerful curse. The bokor had placed the curse of the “loup garou” on Marisol and she received nightly visits from angry, ravenous animal spirits that haunted her nightmares. Before long she began to exhibit animal like behavior and would often sleep walk and not return until the early hours of the morning never remembering leaving her bed, the only proof being the mud and grass tracked into the house by her bare feet. These somnambular excursions were most common during the full moon. The lack of sleep and nightly terror of her dreams took its toll on Marisol draining her once beautiful body of all youth and vitality rendering her a frail ghost with ashen skin and grey hair.
No longer the alluring young women she had been, her new lover lost interested and tossed her out into the streets of Santo Domingo. With no place to go, having burned all her bridges in Cap Haïtien, she arrived in Port-au-Prince and tumbled into a miserable existence in the slums of Cité-Soleil. She heard through an acquaintance of a wealthy woman in the affluent Pétionville district who was taking on servants and that is how she came to work for my friend Yvette. In her household, there was another servant from Cap Haïtien and she warned Yvette of the supposed curse placed on Marisol, but being an upper class frenchified Catholic Haitian, she did not put so much stock in Voodoo and was more concerned with Marisol’s reputation as a seductress than a loup garou. As the servant girl explained, Nanette had paid the bokor to place the curse of the loup garou on Marisol. This term roughly translates as “werewolf.” According to Haitian tradition, this is a curse that is both European and African, the slaves having borrowed it from medieval French legends they had heard during colonial times and applied their own Voodoo magic to affect a nightmarish curse on their enemies. The loup garou are humans who exhibit lycanthropic symptoms during the full moon and are compelled to wander the countryside and devour farm animals, drink their blood and eat their raw flesh. Over time they are believed to become more and more wolf-like during the full moon even to the point of developing excessive hair growth and elongated canine teeth.
At the beginning, Marisol seemed to fit in well in Yvette’s home. She was shy and rarely spoke, but always did her work efficiently and was polite to the other servants. Then the full moon came. On the night of the full moon, Yvette returned home late after visiting some friends. It was nearly 2:00 am when she returned to discover a servant girl waiting nervously in the living room to tell her the Marisol had fell into a violent fit around midnight and jumped from a second story window and disappeared running into the night. Yvette tried her best to sooth her and told her to go to bed and they would find out what happened in the morning. The entire house awoke to screams at promptly 6:00 am. Yvette ran down the upstairs corridor to the room that the servant girls shared and what she saw nearly stopped her heart. Marisol was lying in what seemed a dumbstruck state; she was covered in blood with feathers stuck to her mouth and a dead chicken resting on her chest. Yvette was convinced that Marisol was mad and needed to be locked away in an institution for treatment and she ran to call the doctor. The other servant ran and detained her in the hall. “Je vous en prie, Madame, laissez-moi essayer quelque chose avant que vous la metiez dans un aisile. Je sais que vous ne croyez pas aux esprits de Guinee, mais j’aimerais que l’on apelle le prêt savan, il pourra bien faire qu’elle se ghuerisse.”
Yvette thought for a moment and then agreed to the girl’s request to bring the prêt savan, an individual who imitates the rituals of the Catholic priest, but has no official standing in the Church. She wanted to give Marisol every last chance she could before shipping her off to a mental institution from which she would no doubt be released in a few days’ time and left to fend for herself on the streets. If nothing else, the Voodoo ceremony that the servant girl had in mind might serve as a psychological jolt to snap Marisol out of her altered state. She told the girl to call the prêt savan. She returned an hour later with an impressively tall black man in clerical robes who carried a black, leather doctor’s bag. Yvette could not believe what was about to happen under her own roof.
By this time, Marisol still lay in bed, but she was becoming more respondent and grumbled moans of protests at what was about to happen. The pseudo-priest removed a mortar and pestle from his bag and proceeded to grind together several roots and leaves with a piece of “jabón de Castilla” to make a thick, fragrant paste. Jabon de Castilla is a clear, amber colored soap made in Spain which Voodoo practitioners prize for its spiritual and physical cleansing properties. The peculiar cleric instructed the servant girl to restrain Marisol while he anointed her head and upper lip with the special ointment. Instantaneously, Marisol burst into a fit of violent jerks and thrusts and a litany of profanity flowed from her lips. Yvette was tempted to stop them, but let the scene continue more out of curiosity than anything else. As Marisol’s body spasmed, the priest produced a vial of holy water and began to asperse the afflicted girl who screamed violently as the drops of blessed water came in contact with her skin. What happened next changed Yvette’s scientific, skeptical view of the world and instilled in her a healthy respect for the supernatural.
Silence filled the room. For a few moments they stood there in a surreal state of bewilderment and looked on as the bed shook and levitated a few inches in the air. Marisol lay frozen like a marble statue with her mouth tightly closed and from inside her body came a sound which started as a low growl and escalated into the unmistakable howl of a wolf. Instinctively, all those present made the sign of the cross. They broke out into prayer and spontaneously and in unison recited the Hail Mary. Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grâce le seigneur est avec vous. The priest removed from his bag a white linen cloth in which he had wrapped the sacred communion host. Bénite est vous entre toutes les femmes et bénit est le fruit de vos entrailles Jésus. He applied the consecrated host to Marisol’s forehead and reflexively her mouth opened and black vapor spewed from within her and clouded the air in the room. Sainte Marie, mere de Dieu, priez pour nous pauvres pècheurs maintenant et à l’heure de notre mort. Ainsi soit-il. The bed settled on the ground once again and a sense of order and peace filled the room. Yvette gave the priest a donation for his services and the three women sat on the bed and broke down into tears and Yvette promised Marisol that she would always have a place in her home. They rarely mentioned the events of that day or what had led up to them. All they were sure of was that they had come in contact with a mysterious force and won, which was proof that existence stretched beyond the physical world and that there is more to life than can be seen with tired human eyes. This knowledge would be of great comfort to Yvette in the coming years when a popular revolution overthrew the government of Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier and she lost everything her family had owned and barely escaped Haiti alive, since as a member of the mulatto bourgeoisie she was marked for certain death.
Marisol made her way over the mountains of central Hispaniola and was last known to be living in Santiago, in the Dominican Republic. After being loosed from the torturous curse, she became very religious, attending daily mass and making novenas in atonement for her past sins. Yvette, upon her arrival in the United States, began a new life and soon prospered as a real estate broker and earned several university degrees. She thought rarely of her life in Haiti and never again mentioned the incident involving the cursed maid, until one day I enquired as to whether she had any interesting stories about Haitian Voodoo.
The curse described in the story is extremely severe, but I heard of similar cases occurring all over Haiti and in New Orleans as well. As a Voodoo priest, people come to me often to have curses, the evil eye and general negativity cleansed away. If you feel yourself the victim of a curse, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I can perform one of several cleansing and curse removal services and I can even send the negativity back to its source.
I would like to take you for taking the time to read my blog. If you have any stories to share regarding Voodoo or the supernatural, I would love to hear them. Until then, I wish you peace, love and abundant blessings!
Marie Laveau Legendary Voodoo Queen – 2 Stories
As stated in the previous post, much negative sensationalism surrounds the prominent historical figure, Marie Laveau. This is mostly due to the book Voodoo in New Orleans, by Robert Tallant, but here we will not concern ourselves with this dark, untruthful depiction of Marie Laveau, and instead we shall explore the legends and popular folklore associated with her role as Voodoo Queen and see firsthand the influence she has had on the city’s Voodoo community. It is my pleasure to share with you two stories involving the notorious Marie Laveau which many New Orleanians learn in early childhood and which helped to establish and solidify Laveau’s position as reigning Voodoo Queen.
Exploring the legends and popular folklore of Marie Laveau Legendary Voodoo Queen and the influence she has had on the city’s Voodoo community.
Sometime in the late 1830’s, the son a respected New York businessman committed the brutal crime of raping and murdering a local Creole girl whom he had met at an Octoroon ball, one of those gala affairs where upper class gentlemen would go to meet young multiracial girls whom to take as mistresses. He had brought her to his hotel suite and repeatedly violated her with pieces of a broken champagne bottle which caused severe bleeding that lead to death by hemorrhaging. This caused a massive scandal and sent waves of rage throughout the city and all of New Orleans wanted nothing more than to see the murderous Yankee swing from a tree. The father of the accused man had heard of Marie’s reputation as the feared and respected Voodoo Queen who performed ecstatic dances of spirit possession on the banks on Lake Ponchatrain, and more importantly as a manipulator of men, and he knew that if anybody in the city could save his son, it was Marie Laveau.
Marie met with the worried businessman in her elegant apartment in the Vieux Carré and over tea she listened to his pleas and agreed to help win his son’s case and assured that he would go free, but on the condition that once his son was declared innocent, he would sign over to her the deed to a Creole cottage that he owned on the Rue Sainte Anne, only one of his many properties throughout the city. The businessman agreed readily and the deal was struck. In the meantime, several onlookers had gathered below the balcony of Laveau’s townhouse and observed first hand this historic meeting and within minutes the city was abuzz with gossip about Marie’s involvement with the already sensationalized case.
Later that same day, Marie left her home and walked through the Vieux Carré with her pet snake, Zombie, resting on her shoulders. Zombie, everybody knew, was her animal familiar and companion in Voodoo, so they assumed that she was about to undertake a spiritual working. Marie made her way through the city and entered Saint Louis Cathedral, knelt at the front altar and began to pray, all the while with Zombie curled tightly around her neck and shoulders. She pleaded to her saints, spirits and Almighty God to help sway the trial in the young man’s favor and to forgive him the ghastly crime he had committed. Then, she placed three guinea peppers under her tongue and asked God to let the searing pain that she endured serve as penance for his crimes and to let her bear his punishment. Marie stayed in her knees in the church for hours, her mouth on fire and tears pouring down her face. At the end of the day, she returned home, but not before making a surprise visit to the courthouse. Unbeknownst to anyone, she entered the courtroom, removed the guinea peppers from her mouth and placed one under the judge’s bench, one in the jury box and the third under the seat of the accused, where the businessman’s son was to sit.
The next day, while court was in session, the doors swung open and Marie entered the courtroom with Zombie in tow, resting happily around her neck. The crowd mumbled and whispered as she made her way to the front row and took a seat. From the comments of the judge and the halfhearted fight put up by the prosecution it was evident that the trial had swung in favor of the accused. By the end of the day, both the defense and the state of Louisiana had rested their cases and the jury returned with a verdict of “not guilty.” True to his word, the Yankee businessman, right there is the courtroom, signed over his property on the Rue Saint Anne and it became Marie’s home until her death in 1881. The house was demolished in 1913, but native New Orleanians know the story of the ivy covered mansion that once stood on that vacant lot and of how its infamous resident came to be the proprietress.
Another legend, popularly told in the Voodoo community occurred about twenty years after the court case incident and beautifully shows the compassionate nature of Marie Laveau towards individuals reviled and spat upon by society. Laveau was a staunch opponent of the death penalty, public executions in particular, and she often used her influence to spare convicted criminals from going to the gallows. One notable case occurred in the summer of 1854 when a convicted thief and murderer was scheduled to be hanged in Congo Square, the city’s central square. It was common knowledge and Marie had spoken out against this particular execution and that she had tried to exercise her influence with the court magistrates to get the accused’s sentence commuted, but to know avail. Marie’s failure to win over the judges caused rumors to circulate about her waning influence and this angered Marie almost as much as the practice of public execution itself.
The day of the execution was warm and bright and hundreds gathered under cloudless skies to witness the event at Congo Square. The black-hooded executioner read the death sentence and securely tightened the noose around the condemned criminal’s neck. As he was getting ready to pull the lever and send the man to his death, Marie arrived at Congo Square with her ever present snake Zombie wrapped tightly around her. The crowd parted to make way for the Vaudou Queen to approach the scaffolding. She looked up at the executioner and the condemned, her face stern with anger. The crowd remained silent. As she stood there, the once clear sky filled with clouds and a violent wind beat down on all those present. The executioner, fulfilling his obligation, pulled the lever and sent the condemned man hurdling toward the ground. Just then, the noose came undone and the rope slipped over his head and the landed on the ground unharmed. According to tradition and law, this miraculous occurrence was considered an act of God and the criminal’s sentence was converted to imprisonment and he was thus saved from death by hanging. After that day, the people of New Orleans never again doubted the power and influence of Marie Laveau and they took the miraculous escape as a sign of Marie’s unparalleled favor in the spirit world.
Marie lived out the rest of her days quietly. She was seen around town attending daily mass and social gatherings, but in her later years she did not do so much dramatic grandstanding as she had in earlier years, possibly because by then her reputation had been firmly established and she had made for herself a comfortable life and no longer needed to impress people. One peculiar mystery surrounding Marie Laveau was her youthful appearance well into old age. Many attributed this to the belief that the Voodoo spirits blessed her with a youthful appearance and an unnaturally long life, but it was most likely due to a good genetic makeup. Also, it is known that Laveau had a daughter with Christophe Glapion, also named Marie, and that she bore a striking resemblance to her mother and that after her death she took over the practice, which would account for sightings of Marie Laveau well into the 20th century. 
It is believed that Marie Laveau died at her home on the Rue Sainte Anne in 1881, and that he daughter died of a heart attack at a Mardi Gras ball in 1897, these details are recorded in Robert Tallant’s book based on eyewitness testimony of contemporaries of both Maries. Both women are believed to be buried in an above ground crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery which has become a shrine where devotees pay tribute to the great legendary Voodoo Queen. There have been several ghostly phenomena associated with Marie’s tomb. Each year, countless vagrants who call the cemetery home claim to see her ghost dancing from tomb to tomb, and on one occasion a patron of the local drugstore claimed that Marie materialized in front of him and asked if he knew who she when, when he responded in the negative, she slapped him in the face and levitated out of the drugstore and over the fence toward her grave. Many claim that Marie watches over the city in the form of a big, black crow. A popular superstition involves marking her grave with three X’s in red chalk and making a wish or asking her to bless a gris gris. In any case, Voodoo practitioners know that Marie lives on in spiritual form and that their beloved queen who held her own as a Francophone, Creole, Catholic and Voodoo woman in a world dominated by white Anglo males, can hear and bless them from the spirit world. Regardless of whether Marie Laveau possessed mystifying supernatural powers or if her influence was due to bribery and espionage, the fact remains that she was a woman who lived on her own terms and refused to conform to the cookie cutter image that society had prescribed for her and thereby made her own destiny. It is no wonder that Marie Laveau lives on as the ever reigning queen on New Orleans Voodoo, since Vaudou itself is a religion of survival and self determination.
Marie Laveau: Voodoo’s Most Famous Queen-Part I
Peace be with you, my friends! I have decided to share with you some information about the most famous Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau who yielded tremendous influences of the culture and politics of 19th century Louisiana.
Without Marie Laveau, I would not be who and what I am today.
The following is an essay I wrote several years, the first installment deals with historical information about Marie of a personal level, especially in her capacity as a social activists, business woman and political figure of her time. The second installment, to follow, deal with Marie’s involvement in Voodoo. I believe firmly that without Marie Laveau, Voodoo as we know it would not have survived into the 20th century and beyond. Without her, I would not be who and what I am today. So I bow low and touch my head to the ground in profound respect for the great Marie Laveau and I share with you this two part post about this magnificent woman and Voodoo Queen.
It would be impossible study New Orleans Voodoo and not make mention of a woman who is inarguably the most central figure of Voodoo Creole culture: the infamous Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. Laveau was a feared and respected woman during her lifetime, rising from obscurity as the illegitimate daughter of a French plantation owner and his slave mistress to becoming a dominant figure on the New Orleans social and political scene yielding immense power over the police and court magistrates of her time. Marie Laveau earned her reputation through tactics such as espionage, intimidation and exploiting her reputation as a powerful Voodoo priestess. However, all this she did in the name of survival, refusing to accept her lot in life and choosing an existence that she deemed acceptable, and in fact used her influence to help those cast aside by society and even to save many criminals from public execution, a practice which she considered inhumane and barbaric. Laveau’s refusal to submit to the will of the white upper class, her acts of kindness and charity to those less fortunate along with her awe-inspiring reputation as Voodoo Queen caused her to become a legend in her own time and to live on in the hearts of Voodoo practitioners today.
We have very little factual evidence regarding the life of Marie Laveau, since all truth has over time been clouded by legends. The myth of Laveau was perpetuated by the writer Robert Tallant in his book Voodoo in New Orleans, published in 1946. In this work, Tallant sensationalized the Voodoo practices of Laveau and made her appear to be little more than a manipulative, satanic nymphomaniac who conducted orgiastic rituals involving group sex and demon conjuring, a description not at all truthful to the kind and charitable nature of the real Marie Laveau. Shortly after the publication for his book, which was an instant bestseller, Tallant was found dead in his apartment. The cause of death was never established, but Voudouissants attribute it to the wrath of the spirits angered by his blatant show of disrespect towards Laveau. In any case, Tallant’s book made known the name and legend of Marie Laveau to the rest of America and because of his writings, countless tourists visit historical sites associated with this legendary figure about whom they ironically know very little. Perhaps the truth about Marie is known only to history itself, but there is no disputing the fact that she is beloved by Voudouissants and by the city of New Orleans.
Laveau was born in 1794, the daughter of Charles Laveau and his young mistress Marguerite on a plantation on the outskirts of New Orleans. She was of French, Spanish, African and Native-American extraction. This exotic mélange gave her a light skin tone and exquisitely beautiful features. Being the illegitimate daughter of a white man and a slave girl, Marie occupied the lowest level of the social scale and had no chance of leading a happy of successful life in rural Louisiana, so in her early twenties she left for New Orleans. At aged twenty-five, she married a carpenter named Jacques Paris who abandoned her after a short time after. After his disappearance, she began calling herself “La Veuve Paris,” or The Widow Paris, most likely because widows held a more respectable social position than abandoned women. In later years, with her own reputation firmly set, she would go back to using her maiden name by which she is known today. Shortly after the disappearance of her husband, Marie began a lifelong affair with a freeman of color named Christophe de Glapion with whom she had fifteen children, but never legally married due to the fact that her marriage to Jacques Paris was never dissolved, and possibly because she enjoyed her freedom and did not wish to be subjugated to her husband’s will.
Upon her arrival in New Orleans, Marie worked odd jobs as a maid, cook and eventually a hairdresser and in that time was exposed to the Voodoo culture of the city only recently imported by slaves from Saint Domingue, today Haiti. She studied Voodoo under a local practitioner named Doctor John and started to prepare charms and perform services for the rich Creole women for whom she worked and she also sold gris gris at the open air market on Congo Square. There were several Queens operating in New Orleans at that time, and little by little Marie usurped them all by means of threats and intimidation, and even by physically attacking them in the streets in front of crowds of onlookers. By 1830, she was considered the one and only reigning Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
Marie, herself a devout Catholic, quickly won over the local clerics by insisting that her devotees attend mass, at a time when much of the population was not as devout as they had been under French and Spanish rule. She developed a close personal friendship with the rector of Saint Louis Cathedral, Père Antoine, who agreed to let her and her followers use the grounds of the Cathedral for their Voodoo ceremonies. Père Antoine had been installed as the rector of the cathedral and representative of the Inquisition in the Louisiana territory during Spanish rule and stayed on after the American annexation. Soon after arriving in New Orleans, he cast aside his duty as inquisitor and preached a catechism of love and tolerance in response to seeing firsthand the evils of slavery in the colonies. It was even rumored that he aided runaway slaves in their attempts to escape. Marie Laveau no doubt saw a friend and an ally in Père Antoine, since they both fought for the humane treatment of people of all races, and a friendship developed between them that would last until his death. Today, Père Antoine occupies an important place in the New Orleans Voodoo pantheon and many New Orleanians believe that his spirit still watches over Saint Louis Cathedral and both he and Marie Laveau have been spotted walking together along aisles of the church as they must have done in life.
Marie amassed a small fortune through the services she performed as a priestess of the Voodoo, but nevertheless she continued to work as a hairdresser for ladies of the upper class. She maintained this menial job because it was a valuable source of information pertaining to the New Orleans elite and ruling classes. Marie spent time with the wives of court magistrates, businessmen and local politicians from whom she learned many secrets that she used to earn favors from those in power. Marie also had a network of spies throughout the city composed of her friends and followers who were mostly slaves and servant girls. Thus, with the approval of the church, her complete control over the local political scene and her reputation as a powerful Voodoo queen, there was nothing that Marie could not accomplish.
Over time, she amassed much property and wealth both from the exorbitant fees she charged rich women for her services and in the form of gifts from wealthy patrons to whose benefit she yielded her influence. However, Marie was not concerned exclusively with material gain, and she was known to help those less fortunate regardless of race or ethnicity. While she charged enormous fees to rich clients, she also made generous donations to local charities, especially those that catered to the needs of abused women and orphans. Marie even set her friends to work making dresses out of special material she ordered from Europe so that girls from poor families could have elegant, white dresses to make their first communion. As an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, especially public execution, Marie often exercised her influence over the court magistrates to spare convicted criminals from death. In fact, she cared deeply for the plight of the incarcerated, observing that they were treated far worse than slaves, and she would often visit local jails to bring the prisoners communion and read the Bible.
Towards the end of her life, Marie Laveau retreated from the public eye, perhaps because in her old age she no longer wished to be the imposing social figure she had been her whole life or because she felt it was time to slow down and enjoy all the fruits of her hard work. Marie died in 1881 in the house that she shared with her daughter, also named Marie, on the Rue Sainte Anne, according to an obituary published in the Times Picayune. She was laid to rest in an above ground crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery, in which her daughter would also be buried. The plaque on the grave reads, “Ci-gît la Veuve Paris, née Laveau. Que tous ceux qui passent par ici prient pour elle.” Here lies the widow Paris, born Laveau. Let all those who pass by pray for her. In short, Marie was a strong willed Creole woman who refused to accept the role dictated to her by a system dominated by white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant men and instead chose to create her own destiny and help those for whom she cared along the way. This is the real Marie Laveau, an influential free woman of color, a devout Catholic and a believer in the Voodoo and a benefactress to the underprivileged. This is Marie the woman. The legend of Marie Laveau is somewhat more mysterious and sensational.
Love Magic
Peace be with you, my friends! I have decided to write this post because day-after-day people contact me filled with sadness and distress regarding their love lives. I want to make it clear that we are not helpless when it comes to matters of the heart! Love magic is one of my specialties. I can make you charms or cast spells that will bring love into your life, draw a certain person closer to you or even punish an unfaithful lover. I can even do work to break up other people.
Love magic is one of my specialties.
One of my favorite ways to do love magic is with a hand made oil lamp. A magic love lamp contains oil, herbs, perfume and any number of other magical ingredients. Then I place a wick in the oil and thread it through the Queen of Hearts from a deck of playing cards. I then burn the lamp for several days in front of an image of Our Lady of Sorrows, the Catholic image that represents Erzulie Freda, and ask her to bring love to your life.
I can also make special herbal baths and send them to you through the mail. You would use the bath for a certain number of nights and maybe I would give you other instructions with certain candles to light depending on your individual situation.
I cannot stress enough the fact the we are not helpless when it comes to our love lives. If you are interested in having a custom love lamp made or any other type of love magic performed, please contact me and we can get started right away. Thank you again for checking out my blog and I look forward to hearing from you!
Developing Your Psychic Abilities
Often when I give readings or receive e-mails from friends, I am asked if there is any way to develop one's own psychic abilities or if it is simply something you're born with. I believe that we are all psychics. Psychic perception is a natural ability innate to the human condition, but some people are born with a highly developed sense of intuition just as others take naturally to singing, acting, creating art etc.
I believe that we are all psychics.
The fact that we live in a society that has traditionally shunned, ridiculed and dismissed psychic phenomena as foolish, backward and ignorant does not help us to cultivate this gift, nevertheless it is there. Have you ever heard a knock on the door or heard the phone ring and instantly you know who it is? Have you ever has a dream manifest in real life? These are examples of psychic perception which most people all too readily dismiss as meaningless coincidences. Also, nine times out of ten children’s imaginary friends are often quite real. They are their spirit guides who remain with then until somebody informs them that what they are seeing is wrong, scary or “just pretend.”
There are ways of developing your psychic abilities, the first of which is to accept that you have them and open yourself up to using and sharpening these innate talents. I want to share with you a simple and highly effective technique I have recommended through the years to people who wish to improve their intuitive sense. A pleasant side effect is a feeling of general peace and well being that fills your life when performing this simple ritual. First, take a large bowl of water and drop into it a clear crystal and then top it off with a splash of Florida Water. Florida Water is a spiritual cologne extremely important to Voodoo, Hoodoo and Spiritism and it is easily obtained online or from any botanica or spiritual shop. Florida Water is so important that I plan to dedicate and entire post to it soon. Place the bowl under your bed while you sleep and change the water every Monday. You will be amazed at how quickly your psychic abilities improve, including the clarity and accuracy of your dreams. I recommend that you keep a notebook and write down your dreams and daytime predictions.
The service to Madame LaSirene that I offer is highly effective in conferring deep psychic abilities as well and other abundant blessings. If you are interested, please contact me and I will be happy to perform it for you. Once again I thank you for taking the time to check out my blog and if you try the above ritual, please share your experiences with me! As always, I wish you peace, happiness and infinite blessings!
