by Joe Nickell
Marie was introduced to voodoo by various “voodoo doctors,” practitioners of a popularized voodoo that emphasized curative and occult magic and seemed to have a decidedly commercial aspect. Her own practice began when she teamed up with a “heavily tattooed Voodoo doctor”—known variously as Doctor John, Bayou John, John Bayou, etc.—who was “the first commercial Voodooist in New Orleans to whip up potions and gris-gris for a price” (Gandolfo 1992, 11). Gris-gris or juju refers to magic charms or spells, which often took the form of conjuring bags containing such items as bones, herbs, charms, snake skin, and so on tied up in a piece of cloth (Antippas 1988, 16). Doctor John reportedly confessed to friends that his magic was mere humbuggery. “He had been known to laugh,” wrote Robert Tallant, in Voodoo in New Orleans (1946, 39), “when he told of selling a gullible white woman a small jar of starch and water for five dollars.”
In time Marie decided to seek her own fortune. Working as a hairdresser, which put her in contact with New Orleans’ social elite, she soon developed a clientele to whom she dispensed potions, gris-gris bags, voodoo dolls, and other magical items. She then sought supremacy over her rivals, some 15 “voodoo queens” in various neighborhoods. According to a biographer (Gandolfo 1992, 17):
Marie began her take-over process by disposing of her rival queens. ... If her rituals or gris-gris didn’t work, Marie (who was a statuesque woman, to say the least) met them in the street and physically beat them. This war for supremacy lasted several years until, one by one, all of the former queens, under a pledge, agreed to be sub-queens. If they refused, she ran them out of town.
By the age of 35, Marie Laveau had become New Orleans’s most powerful voodoo queen—then or since. She won the approval of the local priest by encouraging her followers to attend Mass. Although she charged the rich abundantly, she reportedly gave to the needy and administered to the suffering. Her most visible activities, however, were her public rituals. By municipal decree (from 1817), slaves were permitted to dance publicly only at a site called Congo Square. “These public displays of Voodoo ceremonies, however, revealed nothing of the real religion and became merely entertainment for the curious whites” (Antippas 1988, 14-15). More “secret” rituals—including fertility rituals—took place elsewhere, notably on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
FIGURE 17-1. Tableau, “Marie Laveau’s Voodoo Dancers,” in the Musée Conti wax museum.
It is difficult at this remove to assess just how much of Marie’s rituals was authentic voodoo practice and how much was due to her “incredible imagination and an obsession for the extreme.” She staged rituals that were “simulated orgies.” Men and women danced with abandon after drinking rum and seeming to become possessed by various loas (FIGURE 17-1). Seated on her throne, Marie directed the action when she was not actually participating. She kept a large snake, called Le Grand Zombi, with which she would dance in veneration of Damballah, shaking a gourd rattle to summon that snake deity and repeating over and over, “Damballah, ye-ye-ye!”
Once a year Marie presided over the ritual of St. John’s Eve. It began at dusk on June 23 and ended at dawn on the next day, St. John’s Day. Hundreds attended, including reporters and curious onlookers, each of whom was charged a fee. Drum beating, bonfires, animal sacrifice, and other elements—including nude women dancing seductively—characterized the extended ritual. Offerings were made to the appropriate loas for protection, including safeguarding children and others from the Cajun bogeyman, the loup-garou, a werewolf that supposedly fed on the blood of victims (Gandolfo 1992,18-23).
Magic or Myth?
Claims regarding Marie Laveau’s alleged powers persist. She represented herself as a seer and used such fortune-telling techniques as palmistry (Gandolfo 1992, 26). There is, however, no evidence that Marie’s clairvoyant abilities were any more real or successful than those of any other fortuneteller. We know that people attest to the accuracy of such readings because they do not understand the clever techniques involved, like “cold reading.” So called because it is accomplished without any foreknowledge, this is an artful method of fishing for information from the sitter while convincing him or her that it comes from a mystical source (Hyman 1977).
Actually, many of Marie’s readings may not have been so “cold” after all. Far from lacking prior information about her clients, she reputedly used her position as a hairdresser for gossip collecting, discovering “that her women clients would talk to her about anything and everything and would divulge some of their most personal secrets to her” (Gandolfo 1992, 12). She also reputedly “developed a chain of household informants in most of the prominent homes” (Antippas 1988, 16).
Doubtless such intelligence gathering would be helpful to a fortune-telling enterprise (just as “mediumistic espionage” was utilized by later spiritualists [Keene 1976, 27]). It could also be beneficial to a business, like Marie’s, that dispensed charms:
Most of her work for the ladies involved love predicaments. Marie knew the personal secrets of judges, priests, lawyers, doctors, ship captains, architects, military officers, politicians, and most of New Orleans’ other leading citizens. She used her knowledge of their indiscretions and blackmailed them into doing whatever she wanted. She was then financially reimbursed by her elite female clients. Most of the time, this was how her love potions and gris-gris worked, which is apparently 100% of the time [Gandolfo 1992, 12].
Such tactics may help explain the claim, mentioned earlier, that Marie “had a strange power over police and judges and succeeded in saving several criminals from hanging” (Hauck 1996, 192, 193). Still, we should beware of taking such claims too seriously. When we seek to learn the facts, we soon realize that we have entered the realm of folklore. There are, for example, rather conflicting versions of one case, circa 1830, in which Marie performed certain rituals, at the request of his father, on behalf of an unidentified young man who was charged with “a crime” (rape, according to one source). Supposedly, either the case was dismissed or the young man was acquitted, and Marie was rewarded with a cottage on Rue St. Ann. However, as one writer conceded, “No one is sure how Marie actually won the case.” Therefore, of course, there is no evidence that she did (Gandolfo 1992, 14-15; cf. Tallant 1946, 58; Martinez 1956, 17-19).
Legends of Marie’s beneficent aspect are rivaled by those of her sinister one. A story in this regard involves her alleged hex on a New Orleans businessman, J. B. Langrast, in the 1850s. Langrast supposedly provoked Marie’s ire by publicly denouncing her and accusing her of everything from robbery to murder. Soon, gris-gris in the form of roosters’ heads began to appear on his doorstep. As a consequence, Langrast reportedly grew increasingly upset and eventually fled New Orleans (Nardo and Belgum 1991, 89-92).
I have traced the Langrast story to a 1956 book of Mississippi folktales, which describes the “businessman” as a junk dealer and bigamist (Martinez 1956, 78-83). Such a man might have various reasons for leaving town. Claims that Marie Laveau invoked a loa to curse Langrast with insanity are invalidated by a complete lack of proof that he ever became insane. In fact, his alleged flight could easily be attributed to simple fear, the belief that “Marie Laveau’s followers might kill him if he stayed” (Nardo and Belgum 1991, 90-91).
Marie II
Among the most fabulous legends about Marie Laveau is the often-repeated one alleging “her perpetual youth” (Hauck 1996). According to a segment of “America’s Haunted Houses” (1998), which aired on the Discovery Channel, Marie was “said to be over 100 years old when she died and as beautiful as ever.” Moreover, “[t]here were some unexplained and mysterious sightings of the great Voodoo Queen even after her death,” writes Gandolfo (1992, 29). “People would swear on a stack of bibles that they saw Marie Laveau herself.” Indeed, he adds, “A number of people say they were at a ritual in the summer of 1919 given by the Great Queen.”
The solution to this enigma is the fact that, according to Tallant (1946, 52), there were “at least two Marie Laveaus.” The f
irst Marie, the subject of our previous discussions, died June 15, 1881. Her obituaries say she was then 98 (“Marie Lavaux” 1881; “Death” 1881). However, the doctor who attended Marie at the end publicly stated his doubts that she was as old as her family claimed; he judged her age to be in the late eighties (Tallant 1946, 117). In fact, she was not quite 80.
Whatever her actual age, far from being a figure of eternal youth, Marie Laveau spent her last years “old and shrunken,” reportedly stripped of her memory, and lying in a back room of her cottage (Tallant 1946, 88, 115). In her stead was her daughter, Marie Laveau II. The younger Marie gradually took over her mother’s business activities, which included running a house on Lake Pontchartrain where rich Creole men could have “appointments” with young mulatto girls (Tallant 1946, 65-66). She died in 1897. The claim that Marie Laveau was active in 1919 is thought to have been based on a third Marie, possibly a granddaughter (Gandolfo 1992, 29), or another voodoo queen with whom she was confused.
In carrying on her mother’s work, Marie II had business cards printed, billing her not as a voodooienne but as a “Healer.” According to Tallant (1946, 93):
The Laveau ways of performing homeopathic magic were endless. Sick people were often brought to the house to receive the benefit of a cure by Marie II. A person bitten by a snake was told to get another live snake of any sort, cut its head off “while it was angry” and to tie this head to the wound. This was to be left attached until sunrise of the following day. Sometimes her practices contained an element of medical truth, embracing the use of roots and herbs that contained genuine curative elements. For sprains and swellings she used hot water containing Epsom salts and rubbed the injured parts with whiskey, chanting prayers and burning candles at the same time, of course. For other ailments she administered castor oil, to the accompaniment of incantations and prayer.
Like other occult healers, Marie obviously took advantage not only of the occasional “element of medical truth,” but also of other factors, including the body’s own natural healing mechanisms and the powerful effects of suggestion.
Voodoo Today
Current voodoo practice in New Orleans is a mere shadow of what it was in its heyday. Although an estimated 15 percent of the city’s population supposedly still practices voodoo, it has largely been subsumed into Catholicism, which remains the dominant religion. It has also been influenced by spiritualist, Wiccan, and other occult and New-Age beliefs (Gandolfo n.d.). The most visible aspects of voodoo today are tours and attractions in the area of the Vieux Carre (or “Old Square”), popularly called the French Quarter. Laid out in 1721, it is the oldest area of the city.
There, souvenir shops sell that most stereotypical of items associated with voodoo, the voodoo doll. Although in the days of Marie Laveau one might occasionally encounter “a little wax doll stuck with pins,” the fact, according to Tallant (1946, 93), is that “despite their frequency in fiction about Voodoo, dolls were rarely used in the practices.” Nevertheless, today they are everywhere. One can at least shun the made-in-China souvenirs for the local variety sold at Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo, Rev. Zombie’s Voodoo Shop, and the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. The latter attraction is well worth seeing for its display of historic artifacts relating to voodoo and its practitioners, including Marie Laveau.
The museum promotes voodoo—including its commercial, tourist aspect—through various offerings, including annual rituals on St. John’s Eve and Halloween, and for-hire performances offered as party entertainment. Walking tours of voodoo-related sites in the Vieux Carre are also available daily.
Tour groups may routinely visit the Voodoo Spiritual Temple on Rampart Street at the edge of the Vieux Carre. I enlisted a professional guide and was able to gain an audience with Priestess Miriam, perhaps today’s premier voodoo queen. At the end of an interesting visit, she waived the prohibition against photographs and permitted me to document some of the authentic voodoo altars of this religious and cultural center (Figure 17-2). These are “working” altars, meaning that they are used in rituals and are modified to invoke and propitiate various spirits.
FIGURE 17-2. Authentic “working” altar in New Orleans’ Voodoo Spiritual Temple. Candles, religious effigies, bottles of rum (as offerings), and other elements are typical.
Tours also take visitors to the reputed tomb of Marie Laveau, where they may hope to have a wish granted or glimpse her ghost, which allegedly haunts the site. (See also chapter 18, “Secrets of the Voodoo Tomb.”) Although voodoo has declined from the early days, when Marie held New Orleans under her spell, her influence nevertheless continues.
NOTE
1. Marie apparently had one child by her first husband and five more by her second (who was reportedly white but “passed” as a free person of color).The 15 children usually attributed to her is an error; the additional nine were those of Marie’s half-sister of the same name (Jensen 2002).
REFERENCES
“America’s Haunted Houses.” 1998. Discovery Channel. First aired 24 May.
Antippas, A. P. 1988. A Brief History of Voodoo: Slavery & the Survival of the African Gods. New Orleans, La.: Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo.
Bourguignon, Erika E. 1993. “Voodoo.” In Collier’s Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier.
“Death of Marie Laveau.” 1881. Obituary in Daily Picayune, n.d. (after June 15); clipping reproduced in Gandolfo 1992, 38; text quoted in full in Tallant 1946, 113-16.
Gandolfo, Charles. 1992. Marie Laveau of New Orleans. New Orleans, La.: New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum.
———— . N.d. Museum guide sheet. New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum.
Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. Haunted Places: The National Directory. New York: Penguin Books Hurbon, Laënnec. 1995. Voodoo: Search for the Spirit. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Hyman, Ray. 1977. Cold-reading: How to convince strangers that you know all about them. Skeptical Inquirer 1, no. 2 (Spring/Summer), 18-37.
Jensen, Lynne. 2002. LSU professor finds Laveau’s birth records. The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), Februar 25, 5B.
Keene, M. Lamar. [1976] 1997. The Psychic Mafia. Reprinted Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1997.
Klein, Victor C. 1999. New Orleans Ghosts II. Metairie, La.: Lycanthrope Press.
“Marie Lavaux [sic].” 1881. Obituary in New Orleans Democrat, 17 June, reproduced in Gandolfo 1992, 37.
Martinez, Raymond J. [1956] N.d. Mysterious Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen, and Folk Tales Along the Mississippi. Reprinted New Orleans: Hope Publications.
Métraux, Alfred. 1972. Voodoo in Haiti. New York: Schocken Books.
Nardo, Don, and Erik Belgum. 1991. Great Mysteries: Voodoo: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, Cal.: Greenhaven Press.
Tallant, Robert. [1946] 1990. Voodoo in New Orleans. Reprinted Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing.
18
Secrets of the Voodoo Tomb
Among the sites associated with New Orleans voodoo is the tomb of its greatest figure, Marie Laveau (the subject of chapter 17). After the apparent death of her first husband, Jacques Paris, she began calling herself the “Widow Paris.” (The relevance of this will soon be apparent.)
The Wishing Tomb
Controversy persists over where Marie Laveau and her namesake daughter are buried. Some say the latter reposes in the cemetery called St. Louis No. 2 (Hauck 1996) in a “Marie Laveau Tomb” there. However, that crypt most likely contains the remains of another voodoo queen named Marie, Marie Comtesse. Numerous sites in as many cemeteries are said to be the final resting place of one or the other Marie Laveau (Tallant 1946, 129), but the prima facie evidence favors the Laveau-Glapion tomb in St. Louis No. 1 (FIGURE 18-1). It comprises three stacked crypts with a “receiving vault” below (that is, a repository of the remains of those displaced by a new burial).
FIGURE 18-1. Laveau-Glapion tomb in New Orleans’ St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. (Photograph by Joe Nickell.)
A contemporary of Marie II told Tallant (1946, 126) tha
t he had been present when Marie II died of a heart attack at a ball in 1897, and insisted: “All them other stories ain’t true. She was buried in the Basin Street graveyard they call St. Louis No. I, and she was put in the same tomb with her mother and the rest of her family.” (Except as otherwise noted, information about Marie Laveau and her daughter is taken from Tallant.)
A carved inscription on the St. Louis No. 1 tomb records the name, date of death, and age (62) of Marie II: “Marie Philome Glapion, decede le 11 Juin 1897, agee de Soixante-deux ans.” A bronze tablet affixed to the tomb announces, under the heading “Marie Laveau,” that “This Greek Revival Tomb Is Reputed Burial Place of This Notorious ‘Voodoo Queen’”—presumably a reference to the original Marie. (See FIGURE 18-2.) Corroborative evidence that she was interred here is found in her obituary (“Death” 1881), which notes that “Marie Laveau was buried in her family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.” Guiley (2000, 213-16) asserts that although Marie Laveau I is reportedly buried here, “[t]he vault does not bear her name.” However, I was struck by the fact that the initial two lines of the inscription on the Laveau-Glapion tomb read, “Famille Vve. Paris / née Laveau.” Obviously, “Vve.” is an abbreviation for Veuve, “Widow”; therefore, the phrase translates, “Family of the Widow Paris, born Laveau”—namely Marie Laveau I. I take this as evidence that here is indeed the “family tomb.” Robert Tallant (1946, 127) suggests: “Probably there was once an inscription marking the vault in which the first Marie was buried, but it has been changed for one marking a later burial. The bones of the Widow Paris must lie in the receiving vault below.”
