0:04

All right.

I’m today we get to talk about New Orleans, one of the most haunted places in America, according to most people including us as well.

We love New Orleans, spookiest town that you ever did see in the United States.

One of our favorites.

We love it there and New Orleans is also where you find the legend of Marie Laveau aka the voodoo queen of the city and some say, she’s still there, literally in spirit.

0:30

Hmm.

Okay.

I love New Orleans.

I love a good spooky place.

I actually recognize a name that you’re reporting on today.

And I love when you imply that there’s a ghost at the end.

So sign me up.

0:57

Hi, everyone, and welcome to rituals a Spotify original from Park ass.

I’m Christine Schaefer.

And I’m M Schultz and every week, we’ll explore the evolution of spiritualism.

And the Occult through stories practices and the impact on Modern culture.

Today.

We are discussing Marie.

Laveau somebody that I think a lot of us have heard of especially if you’re into kind of the occult side of things.

1:17

But I’m going to do a more of a deep dive and let you know how she’s still lingering around in our current day, very much appreciate that.

I assume we will be talking about Voodoo a little bit gem because I feel like the only time I’ve ever really learned anything about Marie Laveau was when we went to New Orleans together for our show.

1:35

I haven’t been back since, but I’m super excited to hear about where she comes from.

Well, let’s crack into it.

Alright.

1:50

So today we are talking about Marie, Laveau the voodoo queen of New Orleans, ma know, you have discussed on and that’s why you drink that one day.

You’d like to cover Voodoo as well in a more in-depth way focusing on VUDU itself.

What are your thoughts?

As we get started here?

2:06

Okay.

I got a lot of thoughts per usual.

What else is new?

Well, so, here’s the thing.

I would love to cover voodoo.

And that’s why we drink and almost 300 episodes in.

I still haven’t done it because I want to make sure that I do it as respectfully as possible.

I’m very aware of my place as a white person with a platform with the ability to talk about a largely black topic and I don’t totally know my footing in that and I don’t want to be disrespectful.

2:32

So this is also a good time for us to say that we’re host of a show called rituals.

So it wouldn’t be fair for us to not include video as a topic and we’re very excited to discuss it.

But just keep in mind, this is Bite-sized information compared to what’s out there?

So, if this does spark a new interest for you, please go do additional research.

2:50

Prioritize content creators, or histories written by people of color with much more experience than us in this.

But that being said, I am so fascinated.

I have heard good things.

I’ve heard bad things.

I have a feeling that Voodoo is probably better than good.

3:06

And media has just told me things that are not true.

So I would love to unlearn that and if today’s Start of that.

I’m very excited.

Wow, no pressure on me, I guess.

But yes, we’re going to talk about specifically, New Orleans VooDoo to I2 which I want to also clarify as one specific branch of voodoo.

3:26

So whereas Voodoo in general has obviously a long and varied history and diverse History.

New Orleans, VooDoo more specifically is the kind of the branch were talking about.

Well not to Hype you up Christian, but I you to literally just taught me something.

I didn’t know that New Orleans.

VooDoo is was different.

3:41

Well, we’re going to get even more into it.

So listen, You’re helping me up already.

I’m loving it.

Can I ask what you think of what comes to your mind?

When you think of Voodoo or here Voodoo?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Thank you for asking him.

So I think kind of going off of what you said, my understanding of voodoo feels like something.

4:00

I’ve picked up through media representation of.

And, you know, we had a discussion about curses earlier and I think this is where what I was trying to get at is that I think that word sometimes thrown around to kind of Degrade or like, you know, put down a belief system that maybe people don’t understand or are scared of.

4:22

I think misunderstood is the word that comes to mind.

I think that’s a great word to put for it because I am very aware.

I don’t know a lot about it and I think the only way I’ve learned about a growing up was, like, whatever TV told me, which I have a hunch wasn’t accurate.

Yeah, so there’s definitely some sort of wall built up because you kind of hear like, oh, it’s dark and taboo, which Which I again have a hunch is not true.

4:46

And so you just kind of hear the word an associated with negativity and I that’s definitely not fair.

Yeah, absolutely.

Did not know enough about it to determine whether or not it’s taboo.

Yeah, exactly.

I mean, we just talked about the Catholic Crusades talk about like dark history and I feel like it’s not fair to link one spiritualism practice or one religion to a dark history and ignore the rest.

5:08

So, can I ask you another question to you met?

What do you know specifically about Marie Laveau?

I honestly did not know too much before this episode and I had been to her grave in New Orleans on a.

I have to it’s kind of cool on a graveyard tour and people like to, you know, leave offerings in that kind of thing.

5:27

And I obviously heard what the tour guide told me but that was kind of the extent of it.

What about you?

I know she is called the queen of voodoo.

I know that she was really respected in her community.

As far as I know, because I when we did our New Orleans trip, which we certainly should do a little shout out about after this, but Lee as Christine Knows, I ran off separately and had my own day in New Orleans, but everywhere I went everything was either named Marie Laveau or there was a mention of her.

5:54

So I imagine she was pretty well loved or is highly respected.

I mean, she’s literally be queen of voodoo.

So that’s all I know though.

I just know that she was a big figure in New Orleans.

Oh, yeah.

She is a big name and still is, did you ever watch?

Because like I am a big baby and I don’t watch American Horror Story because I’m scared of me.

6:13

Do you?

You ever seen it.

I worked on it, but I did.

I never saw it.

Is it?

Because you worked on it that you didn’t see it?

Yeah.

I just I already saw the spoilers.

I made this to ruin the magic for.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, apparently in Coven, which is one of the seasons, there was a fictionalized version of Marie, Laveau played by Angela Bassett.

6:32

So I love Ashley.

Yeah, if you’ve seen that, you know, Season you probably have some reference as to, you know, how she’s still relevant in today’s world, huh?

Okay.

Okay, cool, so Marie.

Laveau goes hand-in-hand with New Orleans, as we’ve both kind of discussed.

6:48

We’ve both been and seem to run into her, not physically at least.

I don’t think everywhere we go.

You did take a gator Tour on a swamp so I’m hoping she wasn’t involved with that but, you know, well, hey, I had a great time in New Orleans except for that Gators swamp tour.

7:04

It was 6:00 in the morning.

It was 120 degrees out and with like, 100% humidity index.

And then at the end, they didn’t tell you this but there was Like an alligator at the whole time sitting in a cooler and at the end of your fun, ride on a swamp, they make you hold the alligator and the person handing it off to me half dropped the gator.

7:28

So I almost dropped the gator, the gator knew that and both of us didn’t like each other very much.

It was a whole thing.

If it starts squirming all over me, I can’t I still think about it.

There’s a picture of me right before the gator, lost his mind.

And I also lost my mind and both of us look, Hide in the pictures is poor Gator.

7:45

I’m I can’t get over the fact that they kept him in a cooler.

Like cheese.

What had I known?

I would have been the cooler with him to be honest.

It was so damn, hot.

Anyways anyway, so Marie, Laveau goes hand-in-hand with New Orleans.

She was actually born in the French Quarter in 1807.

8:02

Yeah, and if you’ve been to New Orleans at all or know anything about it, you know that the French Quarter is like the the center, the central Hawks spot where the hubbub have the house the main drag by me.

The main drag if you will.

And so she was born like, right there in 1819.

8:19

She was about 18 years old.

She got married, and the couple had two daughters, but for whatever reason, in 1824 few years later, her husband disappeared.

Mmm.

They’re right here, went on a, on a Gator toward never came back.

Honestly, you should have learned and you have no one to blame.

8:35

But yourself him.

Just don’t rotate any information from that trip, except the actual Gator.

So she claimed he had died and that she was now a widow.

Widow.

And then two years after her husband, went missing.

She got into a common-law marriage with a French nobleman, and stayed in that relationship for roughly 30 years, until he passed so long time.

8:55

They reportedly had em 15 kids.

What here I go.

Insert generalized joke about the Duggars and Eric’s please continue insert semi relatable joke about the doctor like many times.

9:12

I hear about board.

Like for children, I’m just like what?

I just immediately just jump to the Beggars.

Okay.

Well, they reportedly had 15 kids, even though only seven are documented.

So another kind of strange kind of inconsistency here that as her biography goes on.

9:30

There are just more questions being raised and she had two others from the previous for marriage.

Yeah, they had to daughter.

She had two daughters in her first marriage and then right.

Exactly.

She and the sex.

So at the very least, there are a pair.

Only nine documented children.

9:45

So Duggar comment still applies.

I was going to say I’m fine with keeping it there.

Yep.

So watersheds.

Holy crap.

If you go to New Orleans and dude, touristy things, you’ll hear about Marie, Laveau, becoming a hairdresser.

And she heard her fair share of dark secrets from the wealthy clients, which sounds like something that you, or I would do to kind of entertain ourselves back in the day, like, what jobs are available to us.

10:09

I don’t know.

I guess we could gossip at the hair.

Salon any opportunity.

Are gossip is a high one on the list for benefits.

Yeah, 100%.

There’s no health insurance.

Oh, that’s okay.

I don’t need it.

Honestly, speaking of when I worked on American Horror Story it half of the perks of working there.

10:27

One of the perks was getting to make props for TV shows.

Number two was mowing the gossip behind all the sets of TV shows.

It’s pretty cool.

Why do you think I stayed that long green kidding me?

I want to know it all.

Why do you think I became friends with them by?

Hey, I’ll let you.

Marie was also a devoted woman of Faith who gave guidance to prisoners her community and made her home a safe space for anyone who stayed or visited.

10:51

So, this kind of goes back to what you were saying of, she seems to be based on what we see now, a very well-respected member of the community, because sure, even before she got into Voodoo at all.

She was, you know, she basically made her home like a welcoming safe space for anyone who needed, her help.

11:09

Including, I mean, she guided prisoners, she helped her community.

Over time these Catholic Traditions that she had been kind of mixed in inner brought up and soon got combined, basically, with Voodoo practices and beliefs because she started learning from a quote, voodoo doctor.

11:26

Mmm.

Okay.

This is, this is where it all kind of starts to blend together.

I see.

And I think you, and I talked recently in a different episode about how different religions sometimes, even if they feel like they’re very different, like Catholicism in voodoo.

11:43

There is that overlap that happens.

Yeah, and that people tend to kind of ignore, but I feel like that’s kind of.

This is a perfect example of that, right on.

So she would recognize spiritual forces that affected people’s daily lives and then connect to those Spirits.

Using dance music, singing and snakes.

12:01

I think this is the first part first time where you’re fully not agreeing with Miss leveaux, I believe, I think she sounds wonderful and everyone’s got a flaw and that’s so If you told me that I had to work with snakes to be able to practice anything.

12:17

I just simply wouldn’t do it.

And even if you told me it would connect me to the spiritual world and help people.

And I’d be revered for the rest of the time.

I still wouldn’t do it.

I’d be out, do it ever, not even a little bit, unless I was known for, like, having a rivalry with snakes.

I’m fine with that.

12:33

That’s a healthy food.

Like the rewrite, the script be like, okay.

I know you have me loving on these snakes, but how about honestly?

Yeah.

Years and years from now with the story would get twisted and to like I was a snake or something, but I know you couldn’t pay me enough.

12:50

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

Did the snake lovers or listening to this?

I’m so glad snakes have you to love them?

It’s not my responsibility in this life.

So in the next life Evans gonna come back as a freaking snake.

And we’re all gonna have to watch.

I might be eaten by a snake by the end of this one.

13:06

I don’t know.

It’s like there’s a reason I have a diversion and I’m cooling, but something is happening.

Yeah, well then maybe you can appreciate it the very least that she connected to these Spirits using dance music and singing and we’ll just put a period at the end of the sentence.

Don’t don’t say and sinks at the I’ll put the snakes in brackets for now and you can appreciate the rest.

13:27

Thank you.

So Marie really help the community except her Voodoo practice as mainstream which wow is hard to believe back.

Then when things were more traditional.

I mean, I guess in a town like New Orleans is the only place maybe that that could really happen, but even nowadays like, You wouldn’t necessarily think of voodoo at all as mainstream.

13:46

Yeah.

No, I wouldn’t.

But then again, you know what, New Orleans, I still think of it as mainstream.

If you were to ask me what I think of earlier when you asked what you think of Voodoo, or when we were talking about it.

I think the only thing I didn’t mention was that it’s exclusively to my knowledge, a New Orleans practice or is known best for being part of New Orleans culture.

14:07

There’s definitely at least a strong connection there.

I think it is practiced elsewhere as well, but I think definitely New Orleans is the one that we most associate with Voodoo.

And that’s probably mostly because of Marie Laveau.

So she was able to and I do wonder if that’s partially because she started off in the Catholic community and then kind of brought in Voodoo.

14:29

So it was a less daunting great Point.

Roach, you know, I think maybe that’s part of it.

I’m not I’m not positive obviously, that’s just conjecture.

But essentially she became locally known as the queen of voodoo and was even referred to as As her majesty by the press in New Orleans.

14:45

Hey, talk about a climbing the ranks.

All right.

I love that honestly, I mean hand over a snake.

I’ll take it.

Wait a minute.

Nevermind me a hand.

Me a snake M’s out.

I’ll do it.

I’m very much a diva and a lot of ways and I would love for someone.

I would love for the whole town.

15:01

I would love Burbank to know me as like your highness.

But if it, if I had to carry a snake around or work with snakes at all for that, I’m fine with just being unknown, being m.

Laughing my coming up.

15:21

I’m going to give some basic Voodoo 101 so that we can kind of appreciate and understand, Marie laveau’s Legacy, even more very exciting stuff.

I cannot wait.

15:46

Let’s get into New Orleans VooDoo a little bit and by a bit obviously, like you said, we’re just scratching the surface.

There is so much more to be learned that we could never fit into a podcast episode.

But as usual, the wonderful researchers at Park has to have put together just a very awesome.

16:01

Kind of comprehensive little introduction here for us.

So like I was saying, earlier, New Orleans.

VooDoo is a very specific kind of branch of voodoo.

So that’s what we’re going to be talking about.

Got it.

So New Orleans video is an afro Catholic religion, brought into the colonies in the 1700s.

16:18

There are many stories told about its arrival and its history in the North American colonies.

The most prevalent being that after the Haitian revolution in 1791, many French enslavers relocated from the islands to New Orleans and some of the enslaved.

People is that they brought with them brought that Voodoo Faith kind of held on to it and brought it with them.

16:37

Okay?

To New Orleans, which is an interesting kind of backstory.

Yeah.

So amongst the colonists, a story began to spread that the Haitian revolution started with a voodoo ceremony.

So we’re already god.

Wow, I know, I know so we’re already starting with like these rumors that as you called in a different episode kind of a game of telephone over the centuries.

16:56

And here we’re already beginning with like rumors like from day one, truly.

I’m like already took these.

So these people and now is just saying like oh and also they’re performing ceram.

And also, they’re dangerous and scary and we shouldn’t trust them.

17:12

Exactly right.

Talk about really projecting that there, the danger.

Okay.

Next that honestly, I think that line is probably the best way to sum up kind of this America United States.

Yeah.

I’m just gonna leave it at that.

17:27

You’re right.

You’re right.

So amongst a colonist, a story began to spread that the Haitian revolution started with a voodoo ceremony led by a voodoo priest or a pig was sacrificed and a Blood Oath was given to overthrow the French and then just a few days later, some of the enslaved, population began to burn the sugar, plantations kill the white Haitian colonists.

17:47

And I mean, obviously, today, just based on your reaction.

We know this Uprising had less to do with just Voodoo and more to do with.

Hey, these people are enslaving us.

They’re cruel.

Is a, you know, they’re calling us is more politically based culturally-based than just, you know, we do Voodoo quote unquote.

18:07

You had me at burn sugar, plantations and kill white Haitian, colonists.

And all I thought of was like the Lucille Bluth meme of like good for her, you know, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s like what, how do we look at that?

And blame them, right?

It’s, can you imagine?

No, I mean, I got nothing negative to say about that.

18:24

So this is the story that made the white community in Louisiana scared of voodoo.

This is kind of Of how we started off on that foot, and it probably explains why even today, a lot of people think of voodoo as dark magic.

Yeah, but, as we were saying earlier, you know, it’s a very misunderstood religion and it’s been said that the core value of New Orleans.

18:43

VooDoo is protection, which is I did not know that.

OKC already, unpacking unlearning, bada-bing bada-boom unlearning, relearning.

I love it.

Good for her, good for good for me.

Good for me.

18:59

I was talking about myself.

So there’s also a documented story in the New Orleans Spanish judicial archives from 1773.

That says several enslave people were actually tried for conspiring to kill their Master using gris-gris.

19:15

How do you know?

What a grigri is?

No, I do.

Okay.

So a Gris Gris and I think plural, you do pronounce the S at the end.

So, Greek reads, they can be amulets for example, or a bag of herbs and allegedly this this amulet or bag.

As magical powers that are used for protection for good luck or for curses or hexes.

19:34

So it can kind of go either way, good or bad, but the idea is just that the roots are in African culture.

The bags have blessed objects or substances in them that are meant to help with protection or power.

And so, of course, this would scare the slave owners who looked at it as you know, something in direct opposition to them and what they stood for.

19:54

Well sure.

Yeah, of course, you know, even if it’s just being used for protection or for good luck if Enslaved person is holding this in using this and believing in this, you know, it makes sense.

Why a slave owner would say, oh that is dangerous to me because it goes in direct opposition to what I am.

20:10

What my goals are right?

Well also, I mean, I’m sure like Through the Grapevine these like slave owners.

At least heard that it has to do with protection and probably felt threatened and exactly the exact.

Yeah, they felt threatened.

And so that’s why again gets getting a bad rap because even though the goal is protection.

20:27

That’s kind of not what?

These it’s just the opposite of what they’re looking for as people who are enslaving these people.

Yep.

So as more enslaved, people were brought into Louisiana, New Orleans, African and Haitian practices.

Mixed together to create what is now known as New Orleans VooDoo.

20:43

So kind of cool.

It was a mishmash.

Got it.

Okay, things are coming together.

I see, I see, I see.

So now by the mid-1800s Congo Square in New Orleans became a community center and Marketplace for people of color in the city, and this included me.

20:59

Lovato, who would sell her gris-gris bags there and offer advice and services to her community.

So she’s kind of doing what she did earlier.

As, you know, part of the Catholic community and now she’s mixed in the kind of protective practices of voodoo and is now offering her services to the community as well.

21:16

So far.

She sounds based on the information.

I have.

She sounds lovely that she’s just hanging out in the park offering advice giving you protection bags.

I mean, what’s not to love?

You know, what’s not?

So, Love so far.

She sounds like a pure delight.

I love it up here Delight indeed.

21:34

So let’s get into Marie laveau’s Legacy.

As we said, Murray’s, Good Samaritan side was definitely showing she helped feed the hungry.

She nursed the sick back to health, her use of religious rituals and ceremonies allegedly helped make that happen.

So, she was using her kind of religious background and practices to help her community, which is just, I don’t know, an awesome quality in a person, I would say, yeah, even Cool politicians is a fun fact went to Murray to help them make decisions.

22:03

Hmm.

Well, hey, that doesn’t sound much different.

Then Abe.

Lincoln allegedly getting seances at the White House.

I was wondering if you had that same thought because I thought that sounds really familiar.

It sounds like spiritualism in the White House all over again.

Sure does.

22:19

Yeah.

So as I mentioned earlier, all of this led to Marie Laveau becoming the leader of voodoo culture in New Orleans, she became the queen of voodoo.

Hmm.

And basically made a pretty good living telling fortunes and making custom gris-gris for people.

So, this is where the belief in Voodoo came into play.

22:37

Whether, you know, we wonder where her practice is real.

Was this based in high hopes and fear some Scholars actually say her magical powers were based in the fact that she knew all the town gossip from being a hairdresser.

So maybe she was able to utilize kind of also her charm and social skills and that kind of played into it.

22:57

So it’s hard to say Yeah, also just based on what you’re telling me where she sounds like, she’s just like being a kind person.

I imagine that.

She’s if she’s talking to people a hairdresser.

You got to have some social skills to be able to talk back and forth to the person you’re working on.

23:13

And so I imagine she’s an active listener.

So I don’t know how much voodoo actually does play into it or how much of it is just kind of a legacy story at this point, but it sounds like if she’s reading fortunes for people are giving people Sage advice.

Maybe she’s just like An active listener and thinking things out, and just someone who gives good advice because she can read the situation.

23:36

I mean, maybe Buddha is also furthering that or making that an even stronger skill, she has but so far, I can’t really tell the difference.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I agree.

And I think it’s hard.

It’s definitely probably impossible to say, whether you know, how much is, what aspect of her personality versus religion.

23:54

But yeah, I imagine like what you said, I think food Probably at least further did or helped it because considering it was a religion or spiritual practice based in protection.

I assume that helped when she was, you know, providing people advice.

24:10

And I wonder too if it even from a social standpoint if it helped her because like who would listen to a woman, but if she has a connection to spirits that you don’t have, then maybe she’s worth listening to, you know, like it could have just been a power move.

24:26

You know, that’s a really good point because No, you’re totally right, because if you think about it, as I said, local politicians were going to her to help them make decisions.

I’m not so sure, if they would just go to the hairdresser to help them, make the exactly.

I feel like she had some sort of clout that nobody else had.

24:42

So she had herself without certain position.

So and I also this is not to poopoo on the fact that maybe there was or was not voodoo involved.

Absolutely, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

I think.

Yeah.

I imagine those went hand in hand, especially when she’s being, you know named essentially.

24:59

Royalty queen of voodoo and the Press is calling her, you know, her majesty.

I assumed that her charm and empathy toward people also and came into play.

You said earlier that she would like had the in on all of these like wealthy clients of her as, right.

So like she probably also just she just knew a lot more than other people did.

25:18

I think she was just in a good position in a lot of places and it just worked very well for her.

No, I 100% agree.

Like I said, some Scholars, say, maybe this was all just based in her knowing that.

Town gossip and by getting info from those who worked for the wealthy white people in town.

25:33

Which again, I can’t blame her, right?

Like, if she’s just getting this information and using it to help people.

I have no problem with that.

Yeah, around 1875, Marie Laveau announced.

He was retiring, but it’s reported.

She’s still visited the prison and gave readings in her home, which by the way, was on st.

25:51

And Street in the old quarter.

So, if you’re looking to pay a little homage, because her grave is not publicly accessible drama, can maybe give a little A way of to her old home there.

So, you know, she was older.

This point.

She allegedly still went to the prison and helped people there and gave readings in her home, which is kind of lovely.

26:08

But she wasn’t doing it as her main career anymore.

She had retired and then on June 15, 1881, Marie Laveau died peacefully in her home and after Marie died, her daughter also named Murray followed in her footsteps, but it is rumored that she had gotten into kind of a darker side of voodoo.

26:25

And I don’t know.

You know, how much of that is truth or just kind of Legacy.

But her daughter looked so much like her that people thought it was the original Marie, Laveau.

That’s how similar they were.

They had the same name in supposed to do.

I wonder if that played it all into people outside of New Orleans or the general ignorant knowledge.

26:47

We’ve all gotten a voodoo when I think of Marie Laveau, or I think of voodoo it all, there is the old tinge of like dark magic.

I wonder if that played in Wait of like, oh, well your daughter also named Marie Laveau did a darker version of voodoo allegedly.

27:04

So it’s easy to associate.

The absolutely.

And plus if they looked so similar, I feel like one person could have started the rumor that Marie Laveau.

And her time used magic to like reincarnate herself and we’re to just stay alive or whatever.

It may stay alive and it just, you know, perpetuated, this this concept of voodoo being incredibly powerful and maybe a little darker, you know, absolutely.

27:26

And I think there’s that lie at the very least.

Least some Mystique behind thinking this woman who practices this powerful, spiritual magic has been alive For What 100 years, you know, there is definitely some Mystique there, whether it’s dark or not.

Like I can understand why people would get a little like, taken aback.

27:45

Well, it also probably than just furthered.

Let’s say, someone really believe that like, oh, she lived two lives or, you know, whatever the story could have been.

It only probably made her seem even stronger, and more powerful magically, so that by filling, it only kept the story.

And absolutely kept the story live, which means, I guess I need to name my next child after myself to just add.

28:05

Well, we use like that’s what a, what a turn that’s not where I was.

I wasn’t having their you, I wasn’t hitting, there it is.

Is it too late to change my daughter’s name?

Because I accidentally gave her the wrong one.

Here’s the problem though.

If you’re trying to Marie Laveau this and have a daughter that’s identical to.

28:22

You can have to have a whole other kid because that is 100% your husband’s face on that baby.

Okay.

I’ll try again.

I’ll try again another time.

Up next look-alike, daughter aside.

28:38

We’ll talk about Marie, Laveau, ghost, sightings your favorite and her inspiration on modern day pop culture as well.

28:57

Marie laveau’s final resting place has been disputed, but she’s generally believed to have been buried in plot 347 in Saint, Louis Cemetery.

Number one, and we’ve both been there, right?

We have and her.

Well, guess who else has a burial plot?

Their my National Treasure.

29:13

I National Treasure.

Good Old National Treasure, Nicolas Cage.

The Nicholas.

But no, I’ve all I’ve seen Marie laveau’s grave.

It’s a tomb.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It’s like her.

Its allegedly, her tomb.

Yes, and how did you see all the exes all over it?

29:29

Yes.

Do you want to know about that?

Yeah, because I I saw it there and I saw someone else writing.

So on my tour.

I saw someone writing an X.

I know if it was like a cultural thing, so I didn’t want to do it.

I don’t know what that’s about.

Yeah, that’s probably good because it’s also called vandalism, but I’ll just pay our house.

29:46

Okay?

I didn’t like I know you were on the swamp and everything.

I was not going to visit you there.

I also wasn’t planning on visiting you, in a New Orleans jail.

So I’m glad we kept it that way, but I will tell you about the exes.

I’m very excited about this up.

This is actually the next thing on my list here.

So tourists would visit the tomb wanting Marie Laveau to grant them a wish.

30:05

And what they would do is they would draw an x on the tomb turn around three times, knock on the tomb and then yell out their wish now did you?

Okay, I’ll finish this.

And then I have Question for you.

So if their wish came true, they would come back and circle the X and leave an offering Marie.

30:23

Laveau.

That’s nice.

When you witness somebody doing this.

Did they or did they not yell out because I’m so curious as a nosy / so they seemed sneaky about it.

I think they like Fran off.

I think they were taking a picture away from the tour and I was talking to the tour guide.

30:39

I don’t know if it’s allowed or not.

But the tour guide.

Certainly didn’t see it happen.

I don’t think it’s necessarily.

I think it’s at the very least.

Frowned upon, I don’t think it’s something.

I would like to endorse on this show.

Also.

Wow.

Can you imagine being like, on call when you’re dead like, everyone’s still wants you to answer all of their wishes.

30:58

I’m so curious, how many of those X’s are circled because that means you had to have the follow through to come back and say thank you.

And I wonder if you don’t say, thank you for your wish coming true.

If that’s if that’s a bad thing.

Yeah, so as of March 1st, 2015, there’s no public access to St.

31:15

Louis Cemetery.

Number one, so if you do want to See the tomb.

You do have to do a tour because they have specific access to these cemeteries and can show you so.

Marie laveau’s.

Original House on st.

Ann Street where she died was torn down in 1903.

31:30

There is a new building.

They’re using the same foundation.

So, you know, it is believed that her spirit still resides there being part of the original location where she lived and where she died.

So, of course, there have been sightings of Marie walking down st.

Ann Street.

Why wouldn’t there be in a In a cool and creepy place like New Orleans.

31:49

One of the most famous Marie Laveau ghost experiences.

Allegedly happened in the mid 1930s and The Story Goes that an old woman came into a drug store near the cemetery and the store owner ran off in fear the woman then turned to a customer named.

El more Banks.

32:06

Por El more, what a name and said, don’t, you know, me and Banks replied?

No, ma’am, the woman then slapped him across the face.

She ought to Potatoes out the door chin up in Into Thin Air.

Over the cemetery.

32:21

That’s right, you know?

Wait, there’s more.

Oh, okay.

So Elmer had passed out and when the store owner, you know, who had run away, came back and woke him up.

He said that was Marie Laveau and that’s why he had run away because he had recognized her a new she had passed.

So can you imagine seeing literally the most famous person to come out of New Orleans or one of the most of people to see their ghost fly in slap him across the face.

32:47

And fly away that man gets to go home and tell his parents who work with or his early, his family.

I work with big experience.

Also to get such different reactions.

If you’re the ghost of Marie Laveau and you see one person properly react and one person, not I’d be mad too.

33:04

I’d be like, look what your it’s not like I’ve been forgotten.

So where have you been to?

Not know what my face looks.

It’s only been a couple decades.

Yeah, I better keep my name a lot.

You live in New Orleans.

Exactly figure it out earlier.

You better learn.

Can you imagine though, like being very well known and coming back to haunt only one person and they don’t even recognize you, like, of all the people that’s rough because I imagine it’s gonna take a lot of energy to kind of summon your own Spirit to, what a way to go into a drug store.

33:33

I mean, it’s enough for me to summon my own Spirit to go, leave the house.

Go to a Walgreens.

So imagine if you’re a ghost.

Well, it also makes sense why she never came back.

She was like, I tried one time and someone had the nerve to not know who I was.

I don’t want to be an editor.

Yeah, forget it.

I’m going home.

Let’s talk about her connection to pop culture.

33:50

Okay, like I said, a fictionalized Marie.

Laveau is played by Angela Bassett on American Horror Story, coven and American Horror Story apocalypse.

Neither of which I have seen fun.

Me either, there are plenty of songs about her including the song called Marie Laveau.

34:06

Oh, and this song was co-written by my favorite Shel Silverstein.

Hang on, the guy who wrote a draft and a half.

Also wrote Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Yeah, one of my face.

34:22

He had some pretty in-depth solid poems.

I I have faith that the song isn’t too rough.

Well, now, he’s also a songwriter.

He was also a playwright and songwriter.

I mean, I think he’s very famous for his children’s work, but he also has quite a legacy behind him.

34:37

As far as like, see, I didn’t writing cartoon about cartoon.

I only know him from, like, my ten-year-old experience with his book.

So, I’ve, and then after that, I really never The thought of him again, so, you’re blowing my mind.

Again, I think about him a lot.

Because I’m stuck in my, I don’t know, Childhood Days, I guess.

34:54

But there’s also a character in Marvel Comics, Loosely based on Marie Laveau.

Did you know this?

Yeah, I think her name is literally a Marie Laveau in Marple.

I see.

Okay.

I remember her being in a doctor strange comic, which would make sense because they both do magic.

So, apparently, she first appeared in Dracula lives.

35:11

Number two, in 1973.

Whatever.

That is again.

I don’t really know anything about Marble, but yes, you are correct that her name was Marie Laveau and I guess she had become mystically enslaved by the silver dagger and something about dr.

Strange.

35:26

I don’t know.

I lost interest after that.

I just watched the light in her eyes died.

That’s okay.

I’m here to tell you that.

I can’t confirm.

I’ve seen a picture of her.

I think she was wearing purple or something.

Anyway, I try I mean I tried the research comes from Marvel dot fandom.com, which is not a sight I ever expected on my browser.

35:45

So hey, what?

However, I’m into it.

I know you’re into it.

Yeah, I guess technically, that means like we could find Marie Laveau hanging out with Chris Evans.

One day.

I don’t know.

That would be fine.

Fine.

When you could go back to your prop working days and really get in on it.

If I found out that there was going to be a crossover with Captain America and Marie Laveau.

36:04

I certainly would be texting, my old co-workers being like what do you know?

What do you do?

Podcasts, and go back to your old job?

Yeah, I go back.

Yeah.

You’re right.

Well, what do you think?

What do you think?

Have you changed your mind about anything?

Guarding Voodoo.

Have you learned anything?

I’m hesitant to ask that question.

36:21

But how do you feel I do?

I definitely learned it but still definitely bite-sized information compared to what’s out there.

But this whole episode has are no of changed.

My mind is the right phrase because I didn’t think - things to begin with, but I was aware that I didn’t know a lot.

36:37

I feel like I know more.

I feel ya no more.

I do too.

And I’m really thankful for all this research.

I feel like it was such a cool way to.

Like, you said.

It’s a very intimidating.

Dating topic because it’s so overwhelming.

And there’s so much of it stands.

We don’t personally with our position in the world, don’t want to research it wrong, or exactly.

36:55

So, I was very thankful for this kind of overview and introduction to Voodoo.

And, you know, I think I know the answer to this, but obviously, like you don’t consider Voodoo dark magic.

No, at the core.

I don’t either.

And again, the only based on what I’ve read and heard.

I mean, today alone.

37:11

I learned one piece of voodoo history that honestly had I learned only that.

History, my entire perspective would have been different a long time ago, which is that the second it got to the states white men ruined it.

That’s all I needed to know from the very beginning.

37:26

I would have been like oh God, it’s so it’s actually a great thing and that’s where we should have left it.

I think the core takeaway for me is that the main belief behind or the main goal of voodoo is protection.

I just think that’s a really powerful had no idea.

Yeah.

I think that’s just a really awesome way to look at it and it can see how that would get twisted.

37:45

Yeah.

By people who felt Threatened, you know what I mean?

And I would love to again, everything overlaps at different points in different ways, but I would love to see how Voodoo either influenced or was influenced by levels of paganism.

38:02

Just because I feel like both of them have a lot to do with energy.

I’m imagining this Voodoo being about protection.

I feel like a lot of Wicca is about just you know, protection and good things.

So I wonder if there’s any overlap to their studies and you know, it’s interesting about that.

That since New Orleans VooDoo is based in Catholicism as well.

38:21

It just makes me wonder if there are elements of paganism.

How the cathode?

Like how that how they are in child that yes, how they reconcile that and how the Venn diagram.

I don’t know if it’s still been diagram.

If there’s like 85 circles but like a big bubble chart.

Yeah.

Suppose our like, how they would all overlap and so yeah, that’s a really interesting point and like I mean, that’s exactly what we were saying is that this topic just can keep going and going and It’s something I think I just want to keep reading and learning about and it’ll probably long time but it’s very fascinating.

38:53

Yeah, I’d love to also learn the darker sides to Voodoo because I feel like whatever my interpretation of dark Voodoo looks like as probably also wrong because I feel like if there’s one generalized opinion, amongst ignorant people, and what Voodoo looks like dark magic or whatever.

39:10

That means is kind of a term that’s floating around and I feel like even though that’s only a part of it that’s part is still So, probably wrong.

And I got a I mean just from what I learned today, Voodoo sounds like it’s lovely but I feel like there’s a dark side to all belief systems and I guess, even a very good point.

39:28

Marie laveau’s daughter was allegedly part of darker circles.

I guess.

That does mean it exists.

We just haven’t really learned too much about it yet.

And even with the gris-gris, the, you know, amulets or the sachets or, you know, little Parcels that were meant for either protection or curses.

39:45

So exact sort of Like what is the other side of the coin?

Like?

What does that look like?

And yeah, I agree.

I would also.

So, hopefully someday you can do a four-part episode on a night like we drink can Twain part A whole bubble chart.

I don’t know it.

40:00

Can’t wait.

And as for the, the Ghost part of Marie Laveau, yeah, I I mean, I’m always going to assume that there are ghosts abound, especially when they are known to be that powerful spiritually, especially in such a spiritual space and also, because I am very Pro ghost.

40:16

So it Could have been like the middle of the woods in a rural town and nobody actually died, but there was a sound one time and I’d assume it’s goes so Marie.

Laveau in New Orleans.

I’m going to say it’s for sure if a tree falls in the woods.

Was it haunted?

It’s mostly it.

Ghosts.

40:32

Fuck.

Yeah.

That’s a signed em Schultz.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I mean, you know, I am slightly more skeptical than you about most things but we’re talking New Orleans.

You and I had ghostly experiences there as we’ve discussed on another episode.

If Murray.

Ela though, the queen of voodoo, Her Majesty herself is around.

40:50

I believe it honestly, if she is not a ghost.

There are no ghosts.

41:03

Thanks so much for listening.

We’ll be back next week with another great episode information.

On today’s episode came from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

Go city tours history of American woman, Pelican State of Mind.

No ladakh.

Cam decider Wide, Open Country and fandom.com., Remember to follow rituals on Spotify to get a brand new episode every week, and you can listen to this and all other episodes of rituals for free exclusively on Spotify, and if you liked this show, follow at par casts on Facebook and Instagram.

41:34

And at Park as Network on Twitter, you can find me on social media at VM Schultz, and you can find me at Eckstein Schieffer.

Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next week.

Rituals is executive produced by Max Cutler and is a Spotify original from par cast.

41:50

It was created by Max color, sound design by Kristen Acevedo with associate.

Sound design by Jamie Ryan research by Chelsea would fact-checking by Cheyenne Lopez.

It’s produced by Kristen Acevedo and Jonathan Ratliff with production assistants by Ron Shapiro.

42:06

We are your host, Christine Schieffer, and M Schultz.