Denise Alvarado - Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints: A Guide to Magical New Orleans

New Orleans is legendary, complex, and delicious, and I suspect few people know it better than Denise Alvarado. Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints is her love story to the practices in this great American city and to the diaspora that carried it with them wherever they settled. This is as good as the best gumbo.

H. BYRON BALLARD, author of
Seasons of a Magical Life

Reading Denise Alvarado's words is like sitting in the kitchen the morning before Mardi Gras, nibbling on warm pralines after devouring a heaping bowl of boiled shrimp and crawfish. As the Skull and Bone Gang rattle the iron wrought fence bearing remnants of Akan artistry, each twist and curvature of Denise's words seasons the poignantly satisfying and deliciously clever gumboa feast for the liberated African soul. Alvarado blends New Orleans's indigenous queens, spirits, and saints into a holy trinity that is part myth, part tall tale, and part historical accuracy, as only a daughter of the Crescent City could. Alvarado stirs each story with warmth, compassion, and salvation, while never once scorching the roux. This book is a must-have for any serious lover, devotee, or student of New Orleans from an African-centered perspective.

MAWIYAH KAI EL-JAMAH BOMANI, award winning playwright,
author of Spring Chickens

Denise Alvarado's Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints is the book I wish I could have read as my introduction to the folklore of New Orleans. As my surname suggests, my family has a long history in New Orleans, and I have visited many times, over more than fifty years, since I was a small child. Despite a thorough grounding in the spiritual history of New Orleans, I learned a lot from this book. A superb account of the important spiritual figures, unusual saints, and renowned practitioners of New Orleansa multicultural crossroads with a fascinating religious historythis book gives readers a well-rounded picture of the cross-cultural spiritual gumbo of New Orleans, America's most interesting city.

CAROLINE KENNER, founder of
The Fool's Dog Tarot app

Witch Queens, Voodoo Spirits, and Hoodoo Saints is filled with fascinating and lesser-known historical facts alongside insightful, detailed, and intimate introductions to the spectral or unseenbut felt!New Orleans hidden just beneath the city's surface. Denise Alvarado brings to life the powerful divine loa from Africa, as well as ancestral spirits, such as Mamzelle Marie Laveau, who are the wisdom, truth, and power of its Voodoo, Hoodoo, and witchcraft practices and lore, the delicious cultural synergy or gumbo that is magical New Orleans.

ORION FOXWOOD, author of
Mountain Conjure and Southern Rootwork

This edition first published in 2022 by Weiser Books, an imprint of
Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC
With offices at:
65 Parker Street, Suite 7
Newburyport, MA 01950
www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2022 by Denise Alvarado

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-674-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover and Interior design by Kathryn Sky-Peck
Cover art Karol Bak

Typeset in ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

Printed in the United States of America

IBI

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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This book contains advice and information for using herbs, spellcraft, ritual observances, shamanism, and ritual possession and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe. It should be used to supplement, not replace, the advice of your physician or other trained healthcare practitioner. If you know or suspect you have a medical condition, are experiencing physical symptoms, or if you feel unwell, seek your physician's advice before embarking on any medical program or treatment. Readers are cautioned to follow instructions carefully and accurately for the best effect. Readers using the information in this book do so entirely at their own risk, and the author and publisher accept no liability if adverse effects are caused.

To Zephyr, the Italian Greyhound,

My conjure dawg and pandemic partner,

You are my heart and my muse.

May you rest in power and joy,

Meet me at the crossroads,

Let's rise together

with the

Sun.

From all, to all, with all,

For all, through all, be all,

We thank the Ancestors and the gods of creation.

We thank the orishas, loas, and saints.

We thank the spirits; we thank Mother Earth.

We pay homage to the Mother and Father of New Orleans Voudou,

Marie Laveau and Doctor John Montene.

We thank them for their protection, their guidance, and their sustenance,

For showing us and allowing us to know and enjoy life to its fullest.

Ashe!

We desire to bequeath, two things to our children; the first one is roots,
the other one is wings.

SUDANESE PROVERB

C harming. Soulful. Captivating. A foodies' paradise. A ghost hunter's wet dream. A veritable smorgasbord of cultures. A city that never sleeps. These words and phrases describe much of what can be seen and experienced in New Orleans. As anyone who has been to the Crescent City will tell you, you get a feeling when you are there that screams elusive and mysterious. It's a gut-level feelingyou know there is more to it, but you just can't put your finger on it. All you know is that you want to see more, know more, and, ultimately, feel moremore of that good ole N'awlins supernatural vibe.

And New Orleans doesn't disappoint in that regard. She is inhabited by fascinating visible and invisible worlds, full of mysteries and haunted by spirits. Some legends can be connected to documented, factual people and events, while others are relegated to folklore. In this guide to supernatural New Orleans, I introduce twenty magickal figures found in Louisianathe witch queens, Voudou spirits, and hoodoo saintswho reside in the spiritual underbelly there.

Take Mary Oneida Toups, for example, who was popular in the 1970s as the Witch Queen of New Orleans. Originally from Mississippi, Oneida founded the Religious Order of Witchcraft, the first church of witchcraft to be recognized in Louisiana. A one-line reference was made to her in the American television series American Horror Story: Coven, about rituals she performed at Popp's Fountain in New Orleans. This prompted a renewed interest in her among modern-day witches. Sadly, other than a few articles in the newspapers in the 1970s and one article published in Hoodoo and Conjure Quarterly, nothing substantial has been written about this fascinating contemporary witch. I believe I have provided the most thorough public accounting of her magick to date.

And who hasn't heard of the legendary Julia Brown, who said she would take the whole town with her when she died, and who literally did just that? Well, if you have never heard of her, you are about to meet the woman who not only owned the whole town of Frenier, she served as a healer and spiritual advisor, as well. But when the townspeople shunned her and the people began abusing the environment, the unthinkable happened.