(Above is a description for Oshun)
I don’t know much about the history of Voo Doo. Like most people, when k think of Voo Doo I imagine a voo doo doll with a needle in its chest – a prop that’s meant to curse an enemy. I don’t even know where I learned this; I only know it’s what most people envision from the work Voo Doo.
We are wrong.
Our impressions come from movies and gossip that have gotten it all wrong.
What I can tell you is that none of us know anything about the practices of Voo Doo. Also, that the Voo Doo tradition dates back to pre-Christian ceremonies that celebrated, revered and honored the earth, the water, the wind, and fire. That this Spirit of worship has elements that we often use today for new age-style healing: healing arts that work with energy (like reiki), stones, plants and herbs (herbalism, acupuncture), honoring the ancestors. Voo Doo also uplifts women as the queens and priestesses of this tradition, forming a matriarchal spiritual lineage. The women are in charge.
There is so, so much more I don’t know.
Sammy and I learned a lot on our Voo Doo walking tour in New Orleans*. We began in Louis Armstrong Park, formerly known as Congo Square, which is memorialized in the park. This is where the Black community called in ceremony every Sunday during the 17- & 1800’s. This is where rituals and community healing circles were led weekly. This was one major place where Black folks communed with Spirit and community.
We learned about Marie Laveaux, the legendary Voo Doo queen of New Orleans who brought the hidden away Voo Doo practices (expertly veiled in the forced religion – Catholicism) into the public attention. It was she who got Voo Doo oils and potions placed on mainstream pharmacy shelves. Hers was the famed Love Potion #9. It was she who learned the secrets of high society and used them to the advantage of her community. Gossip was like currency and because of her strategic network of community spies, Marie Laveux became a powerful woman – uninterested in wealth for wealth’s sake, but interested in the empowerment of her wider community.
Voo Doo absorbs its surroundings. It isn’t singular or monolithic, but evolving. It’s pourous, flexible, adaptable, resilient. It’s adopted and melded new and of traditions together. It’s a mix, a blend.
So even though Oshun and Yemaya have roots in Haiti and the Carribean, they continue to be honored as part of the complex traditions of Voo Doo in NOLA.
*The walking tour was led by Free Tours by Foot, a donation-based tour. Melissa was our guide and she was truly wonderful and knowledgeable!