The Ancestors

 

The ancestral altar should be the first altar to create by anyone who wishes to develop a New Orleans Voodoo spiritual practice. This can be to honor your biological ancestors, the universal archetypal ancestors, or both. Any and all connection to the spirit world is dependent upon the strength of your ancestral connection.

The following are some guidelines for creating your own ancestral altar. Follow your intuition when creating your altar, and feel free to add to or subtract from the suggestions below.

To create an altar you will need:

• A table, flat stone, or shelf
• White cloth
• Photos and momentos of your ancestors
• White candle
• Glass or crystal bowl of water
• A portion of each meal of the day
• A dish with 9 different types of earth, including graveyard dirt
• Fresh cut flowers
• Incense

Drape the white cloth over the table or shelf. If using a stone, leave it bare. Place the glass bowl of water in the center of the table and the white candle behind the bowl. Arrange the photos and momentos, flowers, and bowl of earth on the altar in a manner that pleases you. The bowl of food should go in front of the bowl of water.

How to Address the Ancestors

First, light the incense to purify your surroundings. Sprinkle a little fresh water on your altar, on the items on your altar, as well as on the earth to give respect to the Ancestors. Light your candle and begin speaking to your Ancestors. Begin by introducing yourself. Say something like,

"Greetings Ancestors, my name is __________, son/daughter of ________ and ________ and I come with a pure heart to honor you with these offerings."

"I honor (say all of your ancestors names out loud). I honor all of those remembered and forgotten, who were associated with my ancestors as friends, companions, and loved ones. I love, honor, and respect all who have gone before me. I thank you for your guidance and protection, seen and unseen. I offer this special prayer so that you may rest in peace through the intercession of the four archangels and the Seven African Powers” (say the prayer to the Seven African Powers here followed by a heartfelt prayer of your own).

You can now talk to your ancestors about your problems and ask them for guidance. When you are finished, offer them the food and drink and thank them for listening. Take a moment and meditate on your life, focusing on your blessings, and abundance. Visualize passing on all that is good to your ancestors who have gone before you and to those yet to come. To conclude, pour water on the ground and say “Aché!” Let the candles burn out if possible.






Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.denise-alvarado www.planetvoodoo.com 

Marie Laveau

Marie Laveau, Copyright Denise Alvarado All rights reserved.

Marie Laveaux, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. For such an important figure in American folklore, very little can be known certainly about her life. She is supposed to have been born in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1794, the daughter of a white planter and a black/Choctaw woman. She married Jacques Paris, a free Black, on August 4, 1819; her marriage certificate is preserved in Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. M. Paris died in 1820 under unexplained circumstances; after his death, Marie Laveau became a hairdresser who catered to wealthy white families. She took a lover, Luis Christopher Duminy de Glapion, with whom she lived until his death in 1835. She is said to have had a snake called Zombi, named for the African God Nzambi.

More than anyone else, Marie Laveaux put New Orleans Voodoo on the map with her powerful magic and infamous ceremonies held in what are now Congo Square, Bayou St. John, and Lake Ponchartrain. Oral traditions suggest that the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic beliefs and saints with African spirits and religious concepts. She is believed to be born in 1794 in a French and Spanish City, where the Catholic Church dominated the lives of its citizens. She is celebrated every year on St. John’s Eve, the foremost Voodoo holiday in New Orleans. St. John’s day corresponds with the summer solstice. This same celebration has taken place for almost 300 years; many of those years in Congo Square.

 

Learn more about the Spiritual Traditions of Marie Laveau from Crossroads University.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Spiritual Artist for Freedom of Expression (SAFE)

Three Day Ritual with Elegba

You Know Who in a You Know What. Copyright 2009 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Elegba, Ellegua, Legba, crossroads deity, road opener, giver of opportunities.
 

In Santeria, Ellegua is the official door opener orisha who opens and closes all paths to humankind. He resides between heaven and earth, and traverses all places in between. In this way, he keeps an eye on the events of humans and keeps Olofi and Olodumare informed. There is said to be 121 paths of Ellegua. His aspects range from a playful child who sits on mountain tops, seashores, cemetery gates, street corners and doorways of all kinds to an old wise man who uses a crooked stick to get around. In the Santeria tradition, Ellegua is among the first of three warriors (Ellegua, Ochosi, and Ogun) received as an initiate. The various African traditional religions all recognize similar spirits that go by different names such as Elegba, Elegbara, Legba, Eshu or Exu. Though they have similar functions, there are a great many differences between them as well. In this way, the door opener is known all around the world. 

This ritual is done every day for 3 days. Get 3 eggs, rub them with palm oil, and spray with rum and cigar smoke. Place these items in a paper bag then rub all over your body from head to toe. Ask Elegba to cleanse you of your negativity and visualize the negative energy leaving you. Take the 3 eggs and crush on 3 separate corners away from your home. While you are crushing the eggs ask Elegba to cleanse you of all negativity and to remove all obstacles out of your way the same way the eggs are being crushed. This is started on Elegba's day which is a Monday and ends on Wednesday.








Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado All rights reserved.
Spiritual Artist for Freedom of Expression (SAFE)

Erzulie Dantor

Erzulie Dantor. Copyright Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Denise Alvarado, denise-alvarado, spiritual artist, Spiritual Artist Against Spiritual Slavery (SASS), spiritual artist for freedom of expression

Little Grandfather Brings Good Luck to Those Who Need it

Chei Yazh (Little Grandfather) Photo by Denise Alvarado Copyright 2013 All rights reserved worldwide.

Horned Toad Beliefs

It is said that arrowheads are made by horned toads that blow on a rock and chip it into a form with its breath. There is a taboo against killing horned toads because they are grandfathers or guardians of arrowheads. If you kill one you will get a stomachache, or swell up, or have a heart attack. 

Many different indigenous cultures revere the horned toad. It is attributed with great healing abilities to the Piman who use it during curing ceremonies by placing one on the part of the person's body in need of healing. Among traditional Mexicans, the horned toad is called the Virgin's Little Bull or "Torito de la Virgen." It is likened to a bull because of its horns and is considered sacred because  sometimes it squirts blood from its eyes. This is referred to as weeping tears of blood.

 

Horned toads. Photo by Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

True Story

I was standing outside behind House of Hope, the children's shelter where I worked in New Mexico talking to the Navajo grandmother who was on staff there as part of the traditional program. All of a sudden, a little horned toad ran right by us. Grandma reached down and picked up the little creature and held it up to her heart and said a prayer. She then whispered something to the horned toad and handed it to me. I remember thinking "How cool is this!" because I always loved horned toads. She told me to hold it to my heart and say a blessing for it, then to whisper a request for blessings or something else I needed. I did what she said, and then she placed a tiny bit of corn pollen on its back and told me to set it back on the ground. We watched it run off.

Grandma explained to me that the horned toad is called Chei Yazh, meaning "Little Grandfather". She said that whenever I see one, I should pick it up if it will let me and do as I was shown. She said he bestows great blessings on those who do as she instructed.

That lesson was given to me about 17 years ago and it is one I will never forget. I have passed the tradition on to my son who is half Navajo, and anytime we see a horned toad, we do as grandma instructed.

Coyote and the Horned Toad (Navajo)

Horned Toad was very busy in his cornfield, where the corn was just ripening. Coyote came to him and said, "Please give me some of your delicious corn."

"No," said Horned Toad.

Coyote asked her four times; then he picked some corn for him.

"Corn is very hard to raise," Horned Toad told him. "We have to hoe the weeds away from it and pick off the bugs and worms that want to eat it. We even have to water it during dry weather. I can't afford to give all my corn away."

Coyote kept begging. Horned Toad said he couldn't have any more.

Then Coyote ran out into the field and-pulled off a big ear of corn, stripped the husks away and began eating the kernels.

Horned Toad grabbed one end of the ear, and, when he gulped it down. Coyote also gulped Horned Toad down inside him.

Since he wasn't there to scold him, he ate all the corn he could hold. Then he lay down in the shade. He felt very lazy, but when he heard birds flying down to eat the corn, he raised his head and shouted at them.

"Go away! Don't bother my corn," he shouted "Don't you know it takes work to raise corn? I have to hoe it and water it, and all that."

Down inside him. Horned Toad made some sort of noise.

Horned Toad was very angry with Coyote and wanted to do something to get even with him. As he lay inside Coyote's stomach, he called, "Hey, Cousin!"

Coyote jumped up and looked around to see who was calling. He saw nobody, and he lay down again. The second time he heard someone calling, he jumped up again and ran around the edge of the cornfield, looking for the person whose voice he had heard.

This happened four times. The fourth time that Horned Toad called, Coyote realized where the sound was coming from and he looked down at his stomach and asked, "Is that you making noises inside me?"

"Yes," replied Horned Toad. "I'm going to take a little walk down here and see what I can find."

Soon Coyote began to feel strange, and he told Horned Toad to lie down and be still. Instead, Horned Toad continued to walk around, and he tugged at different parts of Coyote's insides.

"What is this?" he asked. "And what is that?"

Each time he gave a little pull at an organ, he hurt Coyote. Once he touched Coyote's heart and asked, "What is this?"

He pulled at the heart, and Coyote shrieked in pain and yelled, "That's my heart."

Horned Toad climbed upward, and when she reached his throat he called, "Now I'm going to cut your throat, Coyote."

"What are you going to cut it with?" Coyote inquired. "I'm not very smart, but I know that you don't have a knife." "

Just then Coyote felt something sharp hacking at the inside of his throat, and he began begging Horned Toad not to kill him. The toad was using his sharp horns for cutting.

"Just come out of me," he promised, "and I'll help you raise your corn. I'll hoe the weeds in your garden and water the corn. I'll even bring you some firewood."

Horned Toad replied, "No," and he kept on hacking his throat. Coyote got worried and tried to think of something else that might change the horned toad's mind.

"I'm going to run very fast and make you fall out of my throat," he said. But just as he started to run Horned Toad finished cutting his throat.

When he fell dead. Horned Toad crawled out of Coyote's mouth.

He stood there looking at poor Coyote, lying dead.

"I warned you not to bother my corn," he said. And he went about caring for his cornfield.


Adapted from Coyote Stories of the Navajo People, Navajo Curriculum Center Press, 1974 School Board, Inc. Rough Rock Arizona.



_____________________________

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Full Moon Conjure

Photo of the 1012 Super Moon by Denise Alvarado, copyright 2012 All rights reserved.

 Conjure for the full moon:

• If you plant flowers during the full moon, expect magnificent blossoms and double the usual quantity.

• Get some High John de Conker on a full moon and put in a red flannel bag. Hang it on the head of your bed for peace in the home.

• To cross a person, take a pair of their shoes and bury them across each other at a crossroads, deep enough so they cannot be dug up by an animal or washed up in the rain. This must be done during a full moon.

• To keep a partner interested in you, take some sandalwood ships, lemon verbena, and a lock of their hair and put it in a little medicine bottle with a screw on top. Pour a little Jockey Club perfume on everything and close it up. Be sure to do this during a full moon. Carry it with you and it is said the person will be unable to leave your side.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Bird Omens

Everyone likes birds. What wild creature is more accessible to our eyes and ears, as close to us and everyone in the world, as universal as a bird? ~ David Attenborough

 

Bird Omens from Folklore form Adams County Illinois by Harry Middleton Hyatt

549. Birds eating a great amount of food in the morning mean rain.
550. Birds always oil their feathers just before a rain.
551. When you see a multitude of small birds dusting themselves, they are preparing for a storm within three days.
552. If birds sing during a rain, the weather will soon brighten.
553. Caged birds singing in the morning before they are uncovered are a presage of a bright day.
554. A bird that flies back and forth in its cage is forecasting a storm.
555. Clear weather is foretold when birds venture far out over the water; stormy weather, when birds remain near the shore.
556. The flight of birds in a southerly direction, no matter how short the distance, is a signal for falling weather.
557. Mating among birds in August tells of a late winter.
558. If birds depart for the South during early September, the winter will be long and cold.
559. The call of a spring bird late in winter is a token of colder weather.
560. Spring is ushered in by the first blackbird.
561. Blackbirds flocking together always announce a change of weather: in summer, a rain; in winter, a snow.
562. Before a snow you will always see a large flock of blackbirds on the ground.
563. As soon as blackbirds gather in a cornfield, you may make ready for winter.
564. One harbinger of spring is the first appearance of a bluebird.
565. On hearing the first bluebird of the season, expect a rain soon.
566. If you see a bluebird, it denotes good weather next day.
567. A bluebird near your house in the morning brings a rain before night.
568. Blue jays just before a storm become excited and cry repeatedly.
569. The male blue jay is supposed to have a peculiar but indescribable note which it uses only preceding a storm.
570. As a herald of spring, wait for the first buzzard.
571. If a turkey buzzard is sailing through the air, the weather will turn warmer.
572. A buzzard in flight is always a sign of rain.



Photograph Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Kitchen Hoodoo

There are many, many items that can be found in your local grocery store that you can use for your magickal workings. This is especially useful during the winter months when wildcrafting is not possible or practical, as well as throughout the year when you need something in a pinch.

      

If you are just starting out, an good way to build up your inventory of herbs and supplies is to take a list with you each time you go to the grocery store and purchase a couple of items off of the list. This way, it won’t break the bank and your supply will steadily grow.

Following is a list of some things you can get at your local grocery store that can be used in rootwork.

The uses listed next to the various items are by no means exhaustive. Refer to the tables in Chapter 5

of the Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook  for more ideas.

1. ALUM – Enhances talismans and amulets, power booster

2. ALLSPICE - An ingredient for all good luck charms, gambling mojos and money gris gris; is said to increase business and prosperity.

3. AMMONIA - Used in cleansing baths and floor washes. Only a tablespoon or so is needed as too much ammonia can have the opposite effect.

4. BASIL – Love, protection, happiness, peace, money.

5. BAY LEAVES – Protection, health, success, wisdom, repels evil.

6. BLACK PEPPER – Revenge, cause pain in enemies, prevents unwanted people from visiting your home when sprinkled outside the front door.

7. CANDLES – You can find plain household candles to fragrance candles and 7 day glass encased saints candles to use in any number of works.

8. CAYENNE PEPPER – Hot foot, drive away ingredient; also used to heat things up and speed up works.

9. CINNAMON – A staple in all love and money drawing spells, sweeps and baths; heats things up.

10. CLOVES – Used in money drawing and friend drawing oils and spells

COW TONGUE – Stop gossip spells; the main ingredient in the infamous cow tongue spell where the tongue is slit longwise down to the bottom but not all the way through, special herbs and a name paper is placed inside and the tongue is either sewn shut or pinned closed with numerous straight pins and needles.

     12. FLOWERS – Common offering to the spirits and saints; usually placed on altars. Different flowers have different qualities.

13. HONEY – Used in sweetener spells and works when you want to someone to speak nicely of you, or used in love spells. A popular honey jar spell consists of placing a name paper inside a jar of honey and burning a red candle on top of the jar.

14 KOSHER SALT – Said to be a good substitute for blessed salt and used in floor sprinkles and cleansing baths.

15 MASON JARS – Great for storing roots herbs, and mixtures, perfect for jar spells of all kinds.

16 MINT - Believed to be good for protection, repelling enemies, uncrossing, increasing money and finances. Add to mojo bags or fix green candles with the powdered herb.

17 NUTMEG – Believed to bring good luck and fortune to those who play games of chance. The famous fixed nutmeg consisted of boring a hole in the nutmeg and filling with liquid mercury. A more current version fills the hole with some sort of money drawing herb and is then sealed with wax. The nutmeg is anointed with Fast Luck oil and then wrapped in a dollar bill. The whole thing is then tied with red string and kept as a fast luck amulet.

18 OREGANO - Reported to keep away the law and any meddling, troublesome people.

19 PAPER BAGS – Excellent for drying herbs and disposing of spell remains. Simply place fresh herbs into a paper bag and close. Leave for a few days and the herb will be dried and ready for use or storage.

20 PARRAFIN – making jack balls. Herbs are mixed in with melted paraffin and rolled into a ball. The ball is then wrapped tightly with red string and tied off. A long piece of string is left so that it can be used as a pendulum. Rootworkers have been known to name their jack balls as they believe they come to life.

21 POPPY SEED - Used for court case spells to cause confusion and make others “act a fool” in important decisions.

22 PUMPKINS – Hollowed out and used for container spells.

23 ROSEMARY – Said to empower women, provide protection; bring luck in family matters.

24 SALT - Used in cleansings and protection floor sweeps and baths.

25 SWEETENERS – White, brown, confectioner’s sugar, honey, Karo syrup, maple syrup, molasses and all other sweeteners like are used to sweeten people to your cause, be it love, a promotion, or quelling conflicts and unpleasant disagreements. Some old timers would use light and white sweeteners when working with White folks and brown sweeteners when working with people of color.

26 THYME – For peace of mind; used to increase and protect money.

27 VINEGAR – Used to sour things, used in bottle and container spells.


Excerpt from the course Foundations in Southern Rootwork 1 offered by Crossroads University.


Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado All rights reserved worldwide.

The History of the Fleur de Lys

 

If you ever wondered where Catholicism and candles came from in New Orleans Voodoo, the following should enlighten you.

 

Edict of the King: 

On the subject of the Policy regarding the Islands of French America

March 1685

Recorded at the sovereign Council of Saint Domingue, 6 May 1687.

Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre: to all those here present and to those to come, GREETINGS. In that we must also care for all people that Divine Providence has put under our tutelage, we have agreed to have the reports of the officers we have sent to our American islands studied in our presence. These reports inform us of their need for our authority and our justice in order to maintain the discipline of the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith in the islands. Our authority is also required to settle issues dealing with the condition and quality of the slaves in said islands. We desire to settle these issues and inform them that, even though they reside infinitely far from our normal abode, we are always present for them, not only through the reach of our power but also by the promptness of our help toward their needs. For these reasons, and on the advice of our council and of our certain knowledge, absolute power and royal authority, we have declared, ruled, and ordered, and declare, rule, and order, that the following pleases us: 

Article I. We desire and we expect that the Edict of 23 April 1615 of the late King, our most honored lord and father who remains glorious in our memory, be executed in our islands. This accomplished, we enjoin all of our officers to chase from our islands all the Jews who have established residence there. As with all declared enemies of Christianity, we command them to be gone within three months of the day of issuance of the present [order], at the risk of confiscation of their persons and their goods. 

Article II. All slaves that shall be in our islands shall be baptized and instructed in the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith. We enjoin the inhabitants who shall purchase newly-arrived Negroes to inform the Governor and Intendant of said islands of this fact within no more that eight days, or risk being fined an arbitrary amount. They shall give the necessary orders to have them instructed and baptized within a suitable amount of time. 

Article III. We forbid any religion other than the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Faith from being practiced in public. We desire that offenders be punished as rebels disobedient of our orders. We forbid any gathering to that end, which we declare to be conventicle, illegal, and seditious, and subject to the same punishment as would be applicable to the masters who permit it or accept it from their slaves.

Read the whole Code Noir (Louisiana Black Code) at Crossroads University.

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Spiritual Artist Against Spiritual Slavery (SASS)

A Modern Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft

 

A Modern Inquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, public domain

 

There Once was a Witch Queen in Old New Orleans: The Story of Mary Oneida Toups

 

M     

ary Oneida Toups is recognized to this day as the most powerful witch to have practiced in New Orleans in the 20^th century.  She was the founder of a powerful coven - The Religious Order of Witchcraft - the first to be recognized by the State of Louisiana as an official “church,” and formed the central axis of a powerful network of practitioners dedicated to the pure, unfettered study and practice of Old Style European witchcraft that still exists in New Orleans today.

   Many things about Mary Oneida (she preferred just Oneida) are shrouded in mystery, such as her origins.  She is said to have been born in Mississippi, in the heart of Delta country, in April 1928 and, like many youths of her generation, when she reached her teens she began to feel restless and took to the road. Hitchhiking, exploring the back roads and byways of the rural South, her path eventually brought her to New Orleans, where she soon became part of a burgeoning there.      

     The New Orleans of the early 60s was filled with a current similar to that moving through cities such as San Francisco and New York, a youthful current of exploration and discovery, sometimes aided by drug use that culminated in the Summer of Love and Woodstock moments.  In New Orleans, where everything has always been more “laissez faire” or laid back, the moment crystallized in an “Age of Aquarius” kind of esoteric awakening.  Oneida arrived here just as this new awareness was about to bloom.

   Always attracted to the supernatural and unexplained, and possessing tremendous innate psychic gifts, Oneida plunged deeply into esoteric and occult studies.  Soon she met a man whose interests in the occult complemented her own; they hit it off immediately; this man was “Boots” Toups.  The couple quickly set up house together and after a whirlwind courtship, they were married.  They shared several mutual friends, and this tight-knit group of like-minded individuals became Oneida’s most loyal followers were about to form.

Excerpt from Hoodoo and Conjure magazine, There Once was a Beautiful Witch Queen in Old New Orleans: The Story of Mary Oneida Toups by Alyne Pustanio. 

Image Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide. 

Article Copyright 2013 Alyne Pustanio, All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Virgin and the Voodoo

 

"In dangers, in doubts, in difficulties, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let not her name depart from your lips, never suffer it to leave your heart. And that you may obtain the assistance of her prayer, neglect not to walk in her footsteps. With her for guide, you shall never go astray; while invoking her, you shall never lose heart; so long as she is in your mind, you are safe from deception; while she holds your hand, you cannot fall; under her protection you have nothing to fear; if she walks before you, you shall not grow weary; if she shows you favor, you shall reach the goal."

~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

The Virgin Mary, Blessed Mother, New Orleans Voodoo

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.
Spiritual Artist for Freedom of Expression, Sacred, Archetypal, Feminine, Evocative

The Tongue is Like a Sharp Knife; it Kills Without Drawing Blood

 

My Favorite Buddha Quotes

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

The tongue like a sharp knife; it kills without drawing blood.

 In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

 It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell or haters.

Photo 2011 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Spiritual Artist for Freedom of Expression (SAFE)

To Thine Own Self Be True

There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.
~Anthony De Mello 




This above all - to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as night follows day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
~ William Shakespeare 

The art of religion is the organization of ego.
~ Denise Alvarado

Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved.
Spiritual Artist for Freedom of Expression (SAFE)

 

Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

The Mother of New Orleans Voodoo, Marie Laveaux. This is my artistic interpretation of her ritual symbol. Known in her day as the "Boss Woman", Marie Laveaux was both respected and feared for her awesome womanly power. People from all walks of life used to seek out Mam'zelle's assistance for help with breaking hexes and uncrossing crossed conditions because they had every confidence in her ability to help them.

Image Copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado, All rights reserved worldwide.

Denise Alvarado is a well-respected rootworker in the Marie Laveaux tradition.

The Queen and the Serpent

The Voodoo Queen and the Sacred Serpent, always hand in hand. Image is copyright 2013 Denise Alvarado All rights reserved worldwide.