Louisiana Voodoo & Marie Laveau ; Stress Relief in Witchcraft
Perspective
Art Portfolio
For my art piece, I felt inspired by Marie Laveau's aesthetic and modern-day images I found of her New Orleans shop to create a personal altar of symbolism. Typically, altars were set up in homes to keep it safe from evil spirits, which Marie had plenty of. Marie Laveau is known as the Queen of Voodoo and lived around the 1860's. The height of her popularity was due to the fact that she would free slaves and help others no matter what their financial status or race. Marie took on the positive outcomes in witchcraft using herbs and oils, animal sacrifices, and divine rituals to combine her African-American Vodun roots to her Catholic religion.
Symbolism Key
white pristine feather = Marie's signature object
snake(s) = Marie was known to walk around with her pet boa constrictor named "Zombi" after the serpent deity, Li Grand Zombi.
stylized Lily & Mardi Gras beads = Vieux Carre, New Orleans symbolism (modern day French Quarter)
Catholic crosses & Holy Water = Marie's religion
Frankincense = divination, offering to Gods, burned to expel evil spirits
Mugwort = protection, dream protection, divination, intuition
Goldenseal = religious rituals, potion spells
crystal ball & eyeballs = "sees all, knows all"
Papa Legba veve = some believed Marie had sold her soul to Papa Legba for immortality
pentagram = represents Marie's devotion to Witchcraft
playing cards = are like the Tarot cards of Voodoo
dead mice = Marie's animal sacrifices
heart-shaped candle = represents the good in Marie
Symbolism Key
white pristine feather = Marie's signature object
snake(s) = Marie was known to walk around with her pet boa constrictor named "Zombi" after the serpent deity, Li Grand Zombi.
stylized Lily & Mardi Gras beads = Vieux Carre, New Orleans symbolism (modern day French Quarter)
Catholic crosses & Holy Water = Marie's religion
Frankincense = divination, offering to Gods, burned to expel evil spirits
Mugwort = protection, dream protection, divination, intuition
Goldenseal = religious rituals, potion spells
crystal ball & eyeballs = "sees all, knows all"
Papa Legba veve = some believed Marie had sold her soul to Papa Legba for immortality
pentagram = represents Marie's devotion to Witchcraft
playing cards = are like the Tarot cards of Voodoo
dead mice = Marie's animal sacrifices
heart-shaped candle = represents the good in Marie
English
To show perspective in the most blunt way possible, I decided to write a one-act play for my English portion of this project. The title, A Woman of my Time, is a reference to what would be a second act. After act one, basically the slaves bury Delphine at an unmarked grave so she spends eternity in the darkness alone. That is, until someone 200 years in the future digs her up. When confronted about the things she did to people, she claims she was a "woman of her time." Delphine LaLaurie and Marie Laveau lived no more than 2 blocks apart from one another during the same time period. Madame Delphine LaLaurie was a New Orleans Creole and serial killer, known for torturing, beating, and murdering over 54 slaves in her home before it caught on fire. Writing this in all honesty made me very uncomfortable because of how racist and harsh it is, but it really brings that perspective to a light and hits you, and that was my intention.
Self in the Modern World
For this subject area, I tried my best to stay within the topic of Voodoo, but since the practice of Witchcraft is more relevant to modern day, I went down that road. I created a 'blog post' poster of an introduction to Witchcraft. I pulled spells from the book, Genuine Black & White Magic of Marie Laveau, to show literal examples of some of her spells that she practiced either for herself or others. It's basically all context, but I put photos of my physical poster in a slideshow.
Annotated Bibliography:
Gallagher, Ann-Marie. Inner Magic: A Guide to Witchcraft. United States, Barron's Educational Series, 2001.
I actually bought this book just because I personally wanted to read it, but it ended up corresponding to my project way more than I thought it would so it really helped me a lot with perspective.
Mardi Gras - Myth & History, www.carnaval.com/cityguides/neworleans/history.htm.
My initial idea was Mardi Gras, so I researched the history of New Orleans itself, which then led into Voodoo and Marie Laveau. This link had a lot of that historical context that I was looking for. It put me onto rewatching the Coven season of AHS to write my one act play for English.
Radford, Benjamin. “Voodoo: Facts About Misunderstood Religion.” LiveScience, Purch, 30 Oct. 2013, www.livescience.com/40803-voodoo-facts.html.
This link was one that helped me a lot with the context of Voodoo, the religion, and why it’s misunderstood. It also references Marie Laveau’s pet snake, Zombi, that she was known for carrying around with her.
Serena, Katie. “This Woman Made Her Slaves' Lives A Horror Show Of Torture And Murder.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 22 June 2020, allthatsinteresting.com/madame-lalaurie.
Almost all of my context on Delphine LaLaurie that I used/referenced was from what I found in this article. This was the only one I found about her that actually described what horrible things she did to her slaves, and I think knowing this would add to my one-act play because of how brutal she was and how blunt my writing was.
“The Ghosts of Marie Laveau's Sacred Houses.” Ghost City Tours, ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/marie-laveau-house/.
This website helped me grasp onto the actual history of Congo Square and more specifically, Marie Laveau’s old house. New Orleans is somewhere I’m meaning to visit sometime soon, so it was cool to learn how much has changed but how much history the town really holds. Marie Laveau’s house is now a place you can rent out and stay at, and there’s also tours and a shop dedicated to her and her practices. My art piece was actually mainly inspired by the pictures I found of the shop.
“The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.” Gambinos Bakery, 6 Nov. 2019, gambinos.com/new-orleans-history/marie-laveau-voodoo/.
This website was more focused on Marie Laveau and her practices instead of just the Voodoo religion itself. A majority of the information I took from this website was for my art piece, because it talks about her signature elements and artifacts she used in her spells.
“West African Vodun.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_Vodun.
This link was very helpful because I found a lot of information on the Voodoo as a religion/practice. I know Wikipedia isn’t the most reliable of sources, but the information I found overlapped with stuff from other websites. This then introduced me to dig deeper into Marie Laveau because of her significance to the people of her time.
Gallagher, Ann-Marie. Inner Magic: A Guide to Witchcraft. United States, Barron's Educational Series, 2001.
I actually bought this book just because I personally wanted to read it, but it ended up corresponding to my project way more than I thought it would so it really helped me a lot with perspective.
Mardi Gras - Myth & History, www.carnaval.com/cityguides/neworleans/history.htm.
My initial idea was Mardi Gras, so I researched the history of New Orleans itself, which then led into Voodoo and Marie Laveau. This link had a lot of that historical context that I was looking for. It put me onto rewatching the Coven season of AHS to write my one act play for English.
Radford, Benjamin. “Voodoo: Facts About Misunderstood Religion.” LiveScience, Purch, 30 Oct. 2013, www.livescience.com/40803-voodoo-facts.html.
This link was one that helped me a lot with the context of Voodoo, the religion, and why it’s misunderstood. It also references Marie Laveau’s pet snake, Zombi, that she was known for carrying around with her.
Serena, Katie. “This Woman Made Her Slaves' Lives A Horror Show Of Torture And Murder.” All That's Interesting, All That's Interesting, 22 June 2020, allthatsinteresting.com/madame-lalaurie.
Almost all of my context on Delphine LaLaurie that I used/referenced was from what I found in this article. This was the only one I found about her that actually described what horrible things she did to her slaves, and I think knowing this would add to my one-act play because of how brutal she was and how blunt my writing was.
“The Ghosts of Marie Laveau's Sacred Houses.” Ghost City Tours, ghostcitytours.com/new-orleans/haunted-places/marie-laveau-house/.
This website helped me grasp onto the actual history of Congo Square and more specifically, Marie Laveau’s old house. New Orleans is somewhere I’m meaning to visit sometime soon, so it was cool to learn how much has changed but how much history the town really holds. Marie Laveau’s house is now a place you can rent out and stay at, and there’s also tours and a shop dedicated to her and her practices. My art piece was actually mainly inspired by the pictures I found of the shop.
“The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.” Gambinos Bakery, 6 Nov. 2019, gambinos.com/new-orleans-history/marie-laveau-voodoo/.
This website was more focused on Marie Laveau and her practices instead of just the Voodoo religion itself. A majority of the information I took from this website was for my art piece, because it talks about her signature elements and artifacts she used in her spells.
“West African Vodun.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_Vodun.
This link was very helpful because I found a lot of information on the Voodoo as a religion/practice. I know Wikipedia isn’t the most reliable of sources, but the information I found overlapped with stuff from other websites. This then introduced me to dig deeper into Marie Laveau because of her significance to the people of her time.