Voodoo!

No, I'm not talking about the music festival, although that surely was a lot of fun. I am talking about Louisiana Voodoo, the set of spiritual folkways that developed through the slave trade and has remained a part of New Orleans ever since. In mid-November we visited the Voodoo Museum in Downtown New Orleans, as well as Voodoo Authentica, a small voodoo shop on Dumaine st.

The traditional view of Voodoo, especially by most Americans I have met, is that it is an evil sort of magic used to harm people. The image of poking a voodoo doll and someone randomly getting hurt somewhere may come to mind. However, New Orleans Voodoo is actually influenced by both Catholicism and French culture (as well as Afro-American religions of course) and can hold many positives.

I came into this experience feeling as if my life was falling apart. I was losing things left and right, missing classes, and I just had an all around inability to focus. I was looking at the Voodoo dolls, and I grabbed an orange one curious about what it did. I asked the man working at the Museum what it did, and he said it was for tranquility and organization. These were two things I needed in my life, so I figured I might as well buy it. I followed his instructions, and I'm not sure if it has worked, but it certainly has been fun.

At Voodoo Authentica, I met a young woman who helped me through all of my problems, and even offered me chips and dip. Sarah, who seemed to be in her 30's or late 20's, wore a blue bandana and sported a truly bad ass leather jacket. She spoke to be about the origins of my problems, why I seemed to be unorganized, and told me that sometimes we let things overwhelm us and I need to relax and just live life on one path rather than attempting to do five things at once and messing them all up. Then she sent me to three altars to say prayers and make sacrifices, thanked me for my time, gave me her phone number to call her if I needed anything else and sent me on my way. Whether it was the Voodoo or her advice that helped, or even a placebo effect that occurred, my life became far more organized after this experience. I used the voodoo doll as I was instructed, and it seems to have worked. Oh and if you were wondering, the instructions were to attach a personal item to it, meditate on why I want tranquility and organization in my life, put the green pin through its heart area and put it in a quiet place.

The pictures below are all from the Voodoo Museum.