Louisiana's Sacred Places by Deborah Burst

Author:Deborah Burst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Louisiana, Travel, Cemeteries, Voodoo, Churches
Publisher: Deborah Burst
Published: 2015-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

MARIE LAVEAU

Perhaps one of the most intriguing Voodoo lore is the story of Marie Laveau. Born in 1794 as the illegitimate child of a wealthy planter, she is equal parts black, Indian, French and Spanish, a mixed heritage known as Louisiana Creole. A Catholic, she married Jacques Paris at the age of 25 in a glorious ceremony inside St. Louis Cathedral. Her husband disappeared just six months after the marriage, and she took the title of Widow Paris, which is inscribed on her tomb. After waiting a year for Paris to return, she began a life-long relationship with Captain Christophe Glapion and bore 15 children. They were never married.

Some feared her and her unearthly powers, while others worshipped her compassion for the sick, and her love of the south.

The website Voodoo on the Bayou presents interviews and newspaper clippings of the New Orleans matriarch. Laveau was skilled in the practice of medicine and the healing qualities of indigenous herbs. A highly spiritual person, she sat by many deathbeds during the yellow fever and cholera epidemics, offering sobering company to the sufferers in their last hours. For some she brought salvation in surviving the jaws of death. She nurtured the dying, laboring to bring them peace in the eyes of Jesus.

Laveau became the first commercial Voodoo Queen and specialized in romance and finance. She was often hired by families to lead Voodoo rituals to better reach the lwa spirits in exchange for a fee or goods/services. According to the Voodoo on the Bayou website, Laveau could easily conjure a lover for the lonely or rid a sad soul of the same. Even today many appeal to Laveau for special requests, leaving offerings. Evidence is found at the foot of her grave in the New Orleans St. Louis No. 1 Cemetery.

Although there are no photographs of Laveau, many journals attest to her beauty and signature tignon. It is a vibrant headdress, and a fitting crown for a woman who craved knowledge and attention. Paintings and drawings often feature a Creole goddess with caramel-colored complexion and her signature turban-style headdress. A shawl draped across her shoulders, a garment from Africa rumored to be owned once by the emperor of China.

Adorned with gold earrings and bracelets, she walks with style amid the blurred backdrops of New Orleans’ gardens and churches, the promised land of Marie Laveau.

According to a collegiate paper prepared by Beatriz Varela, Laveau received no formal schooling. It seems Laveau’s education was gained through her cunning ways. Working as a hairdresser, she became personal friends with affluent women. Perhaps these household secrets helped cultivate her marketing talents in becoming not only a wealthy Voodoo Queen, but also a revered icon of New Orleans folklore.

In an 1873 newspaper report, Laveau was part of a Voodoo celebration preparing chicken stew by tossing a live chicken into a pot. It was known as a magic elixir to ward off evil and she used it often during the yellow fever epidemics. Tragically, the Voodoo potion did not save her seven children who died from the disease.

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