In New Orleans a new form of Voodoo has spawned. This offshoot of Voodoo is sometimes called 'Hoodoo', a term which refers to the African-American tradition of folk magic. It focuses on conjuring and herbal magic rather than religion and the initiatory traditions of the original religion have largely disappeared, although there still are, and have always been serious priests who emphasize the religious aspect of Voodoo. In fact, some would not even equate Voodoo with Hoodoo, whereas others say that Hoodoo is a simplified version of Voodoo emphasising magic. In my view, New Orleans Voodoo is a bridge between Haitian Voodoo and folk Hoodoo. Therefore, it is important to realise that on the one hand New Orleans Voodoo still has religious and ritual elements like Haitian Voodoo, but on the other hand, it puts strong emphasis on gris-gris and magic. Another characteristic feature of New Orleans Voodoo is the use of living snakes. Depending on the geographic location, snakes can play an important part in ceremonies. Their use seems to be rather uncommon in Haiti but, in contrast, very common in West Africa. Dr. John and Marie Laveau, the priestess, are two of the main loa in New Orleans Voodoo. Voodooism seems to have been a matriarchy almost from its first days in Louisiana. Most likely, a new king was appointed every year. The current king was also the lover of the voodoo queen. Women also seem to have made up at least eighty percent of cultists, and white women, not men were the first to enter the Voodoo cult. When white men were present it was usually because they sought handsome girls rather than spirits. Nearly all the songs were about queens. The greatest of all Voodoo rulers was Marie Laveau. It cannot be denied that the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic city of New Orleans has had a great influence on the development of New Orleans Voodoo. A dancer from the West Coat of the United States who had practised a more Haitian form of Voodoo said about New Orleans Voodoo: "Now I know what is different about Voodoo here; it's funky."

Current Voodoo practices in New Orleans range from candle, herb and oil Hoodoo, to full-scale Voodoo religious rituals. Many Santeria, which is another African-based religion closely related to Voodoo, and European elements have been incorporated. Furthermore, it is important to realize that Voodoo practitioners come from all races and ethnic groups. Voodoos have always been extremely secretive, especially when white people are involved. Today a third of their members are white, despite all precautions, and white people joined the cult almost from its beginnings in New Orleans. The first revelation of this fact took place in 1806. On St. John's Eve of that year a worried father followed his daughter to a Voodoo meeting outside New Orleans. When he arrived he saw his daughter, dressed only in a thin nightgown, surrounded by a hundred half-naked dancing blacks. The girl confessed she had sought for the power to regain the affection of a man she loved. The newspapers of this period frequently wrote of such incidents, and on each St. John's Eve the reporters seemed to have discovered such mixed groups. St. John's Eve is the most important date on the Voodoo calendar.

On that night the Voodoos always gathered for a great meeting outside the city on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain. At the beginning of the 19th century eye witnesses reported that lots of people gathered around a big altar which was surrounded by their offerings, such as chickens, cakes and rum. The Voodoo Queen had a huge snake with her and she put down a picture of St. John, who was and still is a main loa in New Orleans Voodoo, on the ground. Then everyone started dancing and after a while the queen gave the signal to jump into the lake. Sometimes people were so drunk and exited that they drowned. It is obvious that such stories frightened the white population in New Orleans and as a result the city authorities began to combat Voodooism after the arrival of the slaves from Haiti. In 1817 the Municipal Council issued an ordinance-forbidding slaves to gather for dancing or any other purpose except on Sundays and only in places designated by the Mayor. Congo Square was established as the recognized place for such dances and, under police supervision, it was here that the blacks met each Sunday afternoon for more than twenty years. The more mysterious Voodoo gatherings along the lake continued, but in Congo Square the 'legal' dances took part. Congo Square is situated in the heart of the city, on North Rampart Street. White people often came to Congo Square and watched the dances of their slaves. All they saw and heard looked fairly innocent and, therefore, they only half believed the rumors of the other affairs out by the lake. This was considered as nothing but 'Negro foolishness.' Congo Square was closed to the blacks about twenty years after it had been assigned to them. Once again fear of an uprising had become dominant. However, in the 1840's it was re-established as their place of recreation and continued as such until the outbreak of Civil War.

3.1. Doctor John

There are only a few names so important to the history of American Voodoo as that of Doctor John. He is described as a huge black man, a slave-owning free person of color, who claimed to be a Senegalese prince. He told the exciting, almost fantastic story of his life and how he began to discover his power. As his fame spread in New Orleans and he learned more of the tricks he realized that many people were willing to pay for his services. He saved his money and built a house on Bayou Road. He began purchasing female slaves, and married fourteen of them, performing his own ceremonies. The last woman he married was white. It is said that his home was full of snakes, lizards, scorpions and animal and human skulls, the last stolen from graveyards. Like most of the witch doctors he left the meetings and the dances up to the Voodoo queens and specialized in healing, the selling of gris-gris and the telling of fortunes. Moreover, he placed and lifted curses for a fee. He combined pseudo medical practices, astrology and divination. Fine ladies sought his advice regarding their love affairs and bought a tiny bottle from him for a fabulous price. Sick people sought health, old men and women sought youth.

What few of these people knew was that Doctor John employed many blacks who worked as servants in the homes of these prominent families. They gave certain insider information to Doctor John and so it is safe to say that he knew more about the private affairs of the 'best' families of New Orleans during the 1840's than anyone else. The white prominent people who enriched him, never guessed his sources, but believed that he could read their minds and souls. In 1885, at the age of eighty-two, John died as a poor man because he some years before his death he had been persuaded to sign a blank sheet of paper. With that signature he had lost his house in Bayou Road, all his property, everything he had possessed. All in all, Doctor John left incredible marks on Voodooism. He had broken many Haitian Voodoo traditions and was one of the first who mixed Catholicism and snake worship. Moreover, he was the first to devote most of his power to the reading of the future and to healing. He was the first to establish his agents throughout the city. Many other witch doctors followed Doctor John, but there was not to be another Doctor John. Although the witch doctors played an important part in New Orleans Voodoo, for some reason, the women always ruled. The most powerful and influential Voodoo queen of New Orleans was Marie Laveau. In 1968 the white pianist Mac Rebenneck hit it big as 'Dr. John', naming himself after the famous Voodoo priest.

3.2. Marie Laveau I & II

3.2.1. Marie Laveau I

In the early nineteenth century, the first Marie Laveau was ruling the Voodoos in New Orleans. It was her who formulated the first doctrine for a practise of Voodoo and her reputation has been kept alive in songs, movies and novels. Marie Laveau, a native of New Orleans, was an exotic mixture of black, Indian and white blood. She is described as a tall, beautiful woman, with curly black hair, dark skin with a distinctively reddish cast, and fierce black eyes. She always wore gold hoops in her ears. Both, she and her first husband Jacques Paris, were free people of color and Catholics. It is said that Marie was a daily worshipper at the St. Louis Cathedral. But their marriage did not last long because Jacques died five or six years after the wedding. It was at this time that Marie started working as a hairdresser in many prominent Creole homes.

This occupation could be seen as the foundation of her later career as a Voodoo queen because she began to learn things that would be to her profit later. The fine ladies frequently talked about themselves and their most intimate affairs. Marie must have learned some amazing things. She most likely discovered that many Creole marriages were purely business arrangements and that Creole gentlemen almost always had beautiful mistresses. The ladies talked and Marie listened carefully. In fact no one can really tell how much of this knowledge she actually used. In the beginning of her career she may have shared some with Doctor John who was then at his height. It is known that they were working together, at least for a while and, therefore, Marie may have learned a great deal from him. But Marie's life was not all work. She was a pretty woman and men liked her. In the 1820's, just a few years after the death of her first husband, Marie married a cabinet-maker named Glapion. Not much is known about their marriage, except that they had fifteen children together and that he died in 1835. It was after taking Glapion as a lover that Marie Laveau began to be a leader among the Voodoos. By 1830 she was a Voodoo queen. Marie was an intelligent and excellent show-woman with a strong business sense knew what the fanatic Zombi worshippers expected from her. The mysterious equipment of the spectacle was retained: the snake, the black cat, the roosters and the blood-drinking, but she also added some new tricks, Roman Catholic saints, incense and holy water.

Marie offered Voodoo to God and always insisted that her people were Christians. The combination of gris-gris and prayer at the Cathedral was typical of the Lauveau practices, which were always a strange commingling of Voodooism and Catholicism. From then the rites by the lake grew in size as well as in popularity. At last Marie took also charge of the Sunday dances on Congo Square. However, the most important of her Voodoo work was conducted from her new home, acquired about 1830, on St. Ann Street between North Rampart and Burgundy Streets. There, Marie lived until her death. Her cottage was always filled with clients, blacks and whites. Here, she sold gris-gris, placed and removed curses and told fortunes. Her skill at mind reading was thought of being remarkable.

Marie Laveau knew so many secrets, some of which she learned during her hairdressing days, others still being acquired, with the help of her agents who she had planted in many important households throughout the city. Her control over blacks became almost absolute, and she had different ways of acquiring it. She would, for example, go out late at night and leave a small doll stuck with pins or a wax ball covered with feathers in front of the door of some colored woman in the neighborhood. The next day the terrified woman would come to her, begging for help and to be 'uncrossed.' In many cases, the person she had chosen worked as a servant in a wealthy house and Marie would not take any money, but a pledge that this servant would serve her as a spy. Not only colored people, but also prominent businessmen and city officials were seeking her advice. In addition, Creole ladies came to her usually in regard to love affairs, and carried away her love powders, amulets and other gris-gris. By 1850's Voodoo was at its height in the city, and Marie Laveau was its essence. It is probable that nearly all black servants had some connection with the cult. Although the St. John's Eve gatherings near the lake and Bayou St. John became, under Marie's direction, a little like 'shows' staged for the benefit of the curious whites, they were by no means anemic affairs.

The snake, alcohol beverages, wild music and dances were basic ingredients of a successful performance. The white visitors usually left when the climax of the sexual orgy began. But there were also other affairs arranged and conducted by Marie Laveau. She built a house named 'Maison Blanche', a bit outside the town, which was used for several purposes. It was mainly used for arranged appointments for white men with mulatto girls but it was a kind of Hoodoo headquarters for secret rituals too. Marie I was retired in 1869 and on June 16, 1881, the newspapers of New Orleans announced that Marie Laveau I was dead. The most astonishing fact about her death was that she had departed this life in a totally Catholic atmosphere. In her last years she had completely changed. She had renounced the Zombie and all his works, denied any connection with the Voodoos and returned to the Church. After her death the newspapers in New Orleans were full of stories of her saintliness and some articles were very naïve. Marie Laveau, the great Voodoo queen, who had danced with snakes, who had drunk the warm blood of the sacrifice was suddenly presented as a sainted woman, successful nurse, pious catholic - simply a wonderful woman. She was buried in her family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No 1. Until now true believers in her power mark her tomb with red X's.

3.2.2. Marie Laveau II

There is no absolute evidence when the daughter first took the place of her mother and became 'Marie Laveau.' It seems as if there was no definite date when the transition took place, but it is very likely that there was an occasional substitution first, followed by a complete takeover, later on. Marie Glapion was born in 1827 to Marie I and Christophe Glapion. Like her mother she was beautiful and there seems to have been a remarkable resemblance between them. Why or when her mother chose her for the role as Voodoo queen - or whether she chose it for herself - remains a mystery. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the position of the Laveaus had become so lofty in the Voodoo world that neither mother nor daughter was in that late period a mere queen. They were much rather sort of the 'queens of queens,' with less important women working under their guidance. Marie II had many profitable activities. For one thing, she greatly increased the reputation of the name of 'Marie Laveau' as a procuress. Her mother had built the Maison Blanche and had sometimes arranged meetings between with men and colored girls. Under the rule of Marie II, the affairs at the Maison Blanche dramatically increased, and sometimes even some of the city politicians were among the guests. The Laveau ways of performing homeopathic magic were endless. Sick people were often brought to the St. Ann cottage to receive the benefit of a cure by Marie II.

All in all Marie II charged high prices for her services, though the amounts varied according to the wealth of her client. Everything was very businesslike. Marie II was only fifty-four when her mother died in 1881 and she was at the height of her career then. She still owned the Maison Blanche but she was an outcast from her family who forced her to leave St. Ann cottage. So Marie II lived in the Maison Blanche for some years and earned most of her living arranging meetings between white men and mulatto girls. But, on the whole, the memories of Marie II began to fade in the late 1880's, and she seemed to dissolve slowly into a stage of non-existence. No one, for instance, can exactly say how or when she died and where she was buried, but almost every Catholic and Protestant cemetery in town claims Marie II's remains. After the passing of the Laveaus, Voodoo in New Orleans split into many parts and there were many different leaders. After the death of Marie II, a new Voodoo queen named Malvina Latour reigned as official ruler of the St. John's Eve celebrations for a couple of years. But she did not really succeed in keeping the cult intact, and by the 1890's she was not ruling all the Voodoos in the city, but only a sect of her own. Marie II had allowed many people to work with her and had taught them her secrets, and some of the surviving associates formed their own groups and set themselves up in their own businesses.

3.3. Gris-gris

But the most important Laveau work was still done in the cottage on St. Ann Street. The gris-gris sold by Marie II included small bags to be worn for protection or for good luck. These were pieces of cloth filled with powerful ingredients like bits of bones, colored pebbles, dirt from a graveyard, some salt and ground red pepper. Descriptions of these charms sometimes sound really ridiculous. One such was a bag made from a shroud of a person who had been buried nine days. It was filled, according to reports, with a dried, one-eyed toad, a dries lizard, the little finger of a Negro who had committed suicide, the wings of a bat, the eyes of a cat, the liver of an owl and the heart of a rooster. This was considered as an extremely powerful weapon against evil. If it were placed inside the pillow of an enemy, he would die. That is certainly not difficult to believe. Conjure-balls were sold at the Laveau cottage, too. These were sometimes made of black wax and were supposed to contain a piece of human flesh. Often they were stuck with pins or marked with blood. One of the Laveau instructions was that a conjure-ball should be rolled across the lawn or yard of an enemy during the night. This would lead to the death or some other misfortune within the household of the enemy. There was an evil gris-gris sold to servants who wanted to get even with their masters.

It consisted of saffron, salt, gunpowder and pulverized dog manure. White people were constantly finding little sacks of black paper containing this mixture in their homes. Occasionally Marie II used a little wax doll stuck with pins, but, despite their frequency in fiction about Voodoo, dolls were rarely used in practice. Nowadays, they primarily seem to serve as souvenirs sold to tourists in Voodoo shops in New Orleans. Love probably brought more people to the Laveau cottage than anything else. New Orleans has always been a very romantic city and the Creoles were amorous people. Men were always asking Marie to help them to win certain girls, and the girls came to her seeking husbands. The most commonly used gris-gris in love always included something belonging to the object of desire. One of the best known gris-gris for a woman who fears that her lover might leave her, is called 'Marie Laveau trick': The woman must take the blood from her menstrual flow and mix it in her man's food. Once the man eats this he is hers forever and she has him completely under her domination. Blacks in New Orleans today swear that this is still practiced, and black men live in the fear of this being done to them. Additionally, Marie invented Follow-Me Water. If a lady puts some of it on her handkerchief and waves it in front of the face of the man she likes, he surely follows her. She used to sell Go-Away Powder to men who wanted to get rid of a woman. Another thing she told men to do in order to stop a lady from bothering them, was to draw crosses with brown chalk on their front steps. If a bothersome woman stepped on one of these crosses she would fall down and break one of her legs.