Black Witches in Pop Culture & History

by: Witch Evermean Bish

                Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau

#‎blackwitchesmatter‬

Marie Catherine Laveau (September 10, 1794 – June 15, 1881) was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo renowned in New Orleans.

Angela Bassett portrayed her in AHS Coven.

Marie was a devout Catholic and attended Mass daily. Marie began as a hairdresser and later became a nurse during the Yellow Fever epidemics. She was skilled in the practice of medicine and knew the healing qualities of indigenous herbs. Concerned about the soul too, she would sit with the condemned in their last moments sometimes serving them their last meal. She was the first commercial Voodoo Queen and she specialized in romance and finance.
She was an astute business woman. Marie was all-knowing and all-powerful.

West African slaves were christened Catholic and were orally taught the faith. In Catholicism, the slaves found parallels in their own belief systems and in conjunction with their own religious practices involving naturalism, spiritualism and herbalism, voodoo practitioners would create amulets that had the power to heal or cause harm and perform rituals involving drums, prayer and dances designed to bring about a desired effect.
Marie Laveau was one such voodoo practitioner. - Strange History

It is believed that you can come to Marie's tomb and ask for something. She accepts money, cigars, white rum and candy as offerings. Appeals must be made 3 times with full concentration. In voodoo it is believed that when a Voodoo Queen dies her spirit re-enters the river of life and moves to the next realm, adjacent to this one. Her spirit will always be here, close at hand, in New Orleans. To this day, people still visit her tomb with the hope that she will grant their wishes."