New Orleans & Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau

For me 2021 has been a year of valuable experiences and painful lessons. I've had some of the best times I have ever had and yet some of the most turbulent times all in the same breath. On the advice of my good friend, I took a trip to New Orleans to explore the possibility of settling there because that is where her family is from and though we both lived in Georgia for the last few years, neither of us could fully embrace it as our home. However, her home is in NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA!! She decided to take me there and share with me family, food and culture as she knew it, hoping it would feel as good to me as it does to her and me be the Sagittarian I am, I will never turn down the opportunity to explore somewhere new. Though, my friend was saddened by my decision, I chose not to make NOLA my permanent residence but for two weeks, I got to experience the deep emotions of the city. As a spiritual medium, I could here the voices of the past, the slaves who bought their freedom, making the best of being forced to live on foreign land, deprived of their native food, separated from their families and spiritual practices that gave them power and independence. None of those voices spoke louder to me than Queen Marie Laveau!

When I first arrived in Louisiana, I stayed outside of the city in Slidell and the home was beautiful! Next stop, Kenner, Louisiana.. in truth, yes, I am from Detroit and I am not a stranger to poverty and crime, I am not familiar with New Orleans territory and based on what I'd heard, I figured it was in my best interest to stay in the suburbs. Then, I got a call from my favorite Babalawo (Yoruba priest), he is a New Orleans Native and who I go to for spiritual guidance when working with my Orisa. He let me know there was a sister in the Voodoo community who was offering a room and connected us thru text. She and I talked shortly after. The sister let me know that it was Queen Marie's home and encouraged me to come see it and feel the vibration because the house doesn't accept everyone. The next day, I met with the sister at the house and we hit it off immediately. She has an altar that she lovingly cares for to venerate the Queen, I made an offering and asked the Queen if I was welcomed and if so, please make it clear. I left and headed back to Kenner with the intention of showing up to stay for a few nights in two days. Upon arriving to the place I was staying, there were major issues and I was very uncomfortable. I called the sister back at Queen Marie's and she welcomed me into the home two days early. Queen Marie had spoken and the experience began!!!!!

When I arrived, I was informed by my Baba that there was some spiritual work that I needed to do with my Orisa. I made prayer to Queen Marie to assist in working with my Egun and my Orisa to bring forth success in my practice. Shortly after, I was given a tour of the French Quarters (the house is on St. Ann in the French Quarters) and told many tales of Queen Marie by the sister who lived in the home, tour guides and others. I felt into what was resonate and what was not for me and of everything I heard, the one thing that stuck with me was the reason she wore her head wrapped, why? because it was the same reason I wear mine. Queen Marie wrapped her hair to distinguish herself as a FREE WOMAN OF COLOR... because in those days (1800's), only free women were allowed to wrap their hair. I WAS SOLD!! I wanted to channel her personally, hear her speak for myself. I asked her what I should do while I was in her home, she didn't want me to do Tarot readings for others in the home because I had to tap into their energy, instead I was told by three different people that I should set up a table in Jackson Square. I took the advice, went to Walmart and got a table and chairs, set up and watched the show. Jackson Square and Congo Square are where the slaves would go on Sunday, when they had a day off (yes, slaves in NOLA had a day off) to dance, sing, cook and trade their talents and services for money as a means to eventually purchase their freedom. That tradition still lives, there were singers, trumpet players, magicians, artist and of course Tarot readers all set up in Jackson square. As you can guess, because of the heavy gentrification, there are few people of the diaspora offering their talent at this time, I was probably one of two Tarot readers who were Women of color out of probably 20 readers. After being set up for an hr, people came to my table to get a reading and it was beautiful. When I returned back to the home on St. Ann, I told the sister that I had people come to my table and her response was that she has known people to be there all night without one person coming to their table. (Thank you Queen Marie)

I also learned that Queen Marie was an herbalist and a healer like myself. She was known to cure the un-curable, after people had gone to Doctor's and were not able to get help, they would come to her for a solution. Of Course it was considered witchcraft because, she must be doing something spooky if the regular "Doctors" couldn't figure out how to fix a condition but this Woman of color with no medical training could. A lot of her healing remedies were deemed "special spells" because others would try those same remedies and it would make people worse and in some cases, it would end in their demise. It was clear Queen Marie was doing something that no one else could figure out how to do. Was she putting hexes on people? Did she make sacrifices to "the gods" for assistance with helping others and protecting herself? Whatever she did, people knew she wasn't to be approached incorrectly or they would be dealt with accordingly. Spiritual practices of African Spirituality aren't written in a book, it's an oral tradition that kept our people protected, healthy and wealthy for generations. That's why our spirituality was the first thing stripped from us along with our language, this way we had no way to communicate how to use what tied us to our power. Queen Marie was bold enough to hold on to her practices and do them openly without fear of persecution because she was a free woman of color. It was also said that she owned slaves but... they all just seemed to disappear into thin air.... This made her even more legendary. Did she kill the slaves as a form of sacrifice to maintain her status and wealth or did she just let them get lost? No one knows for sure but that sure made her a little more mysterious and even scary!

Even though Queen Marie was a devout Catholic, I have always felt that Christianity and Voodoo are one and the same. Christianity is infused with ghostly possessions (have you ever watched anyone catch the holy ghost?) Spells (Psalms and many more books of the bible) Curses (leprosy and plagues) Orisa's (Angels and Devils) and Fortune Tellers (prophets). Whatever we call our spiritual practices, Queen Marie stood strong in her beliefs, they allowed her to live as long as she needed to and help others gain health, wealth, prosperity and freedom! One hundred plus years later, people still talk about her, make shrines to her and honor her. Her spirit was big and vibrant and I got to know it as Moma Marie.. she loved being a Mother and only had two surviving children out of several births. She invited me into her home with open arms, she shared with me things that are very sacred and so I decided to honor her on this day as a heroin of mine.... ASE'