Kala Ambrose - Spirits of New Orleans: Voodoo Curses, Vampire Legends and Cities of the Dead

Let Kala Ambrose be your tour guide to the ghosts, spirits, and revenants of New Orleans. What so distinguishes this book from the rest of the contenders is the respect with which Ambrose treats spiritual topicssomething that is indeed rare. She writes about New Orleans with love, offering practical travel advice alongside chilling tales of ghosts and vampires. Highly recommended!

Judika Illes, author of Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells;
Encyclopedia of Spirits; and
Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints & Sages

New Orleans, a city with an almost palpable mystique of the supernatural, the unknown, the unexplained. Imagine visiting this iconic city with a trusted guide who can not only inform about the extensive ethereal population of ghosts earthbound in their old haunts, but one who also can actually speak to the spirits themselves and relay their fascinating stories. Spiritual teacher, priestess, and oracle Kala Ambrose has written a fascinating book that is bound to become a paranormal classic.

Brad Steiger, author of
Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places

Kala Ambroses Spirits of New Orleans shows us how New Orleans is a magical city filled with hidden spiritual secretsit is a practical, entertaining, and expert guide to its other side.

Bradford P. Keeney, Ph.D. & Hillary Keeney, Ph.D.,
authors, professors, and internationally renowned spiritual
teachers; The Mojo Doctors, New Orleans

Once again, Kala Ambrose delivers the supernatural goods and takes us on a wild ride as we discover the truth about the paranormal entities of one of the nations most mysterious of all places: New Orleans.

Nick Redfern, author of Monster Diary

Titles in the Americas Haunted Road Trip Series:

Ghosthunting Florida

Ghosthunting Illinois

Ghosthunting Kentucky

Ghosthunting Maryland

Ghosthunting Michigan

Ghosthunting New Jersey

Ghosthunting New York City

Ghosthunting North Carolina

Ghosthunting Ohio

Ghosthunting Ohio: On the Road Again

Ghosthunting Pennsylvania

Ghosthunting Southern California

Ghosthunting Southern New England

Ghosthunting Texas

Ghosthunting Virginia

Cincinnati Haunted Handbook

Nashville Haunted Handbook

Haunted Hoosier Trails

More Haunted Hoosier Trails

Spooked in Seattle

Twin Cities Haunted Handbook

Dedicated to the people of New Orleanspast, present, and future

Spirits of New Orleans: Voodoo Curses, Vampire Legends, and Cities of the Dead

COPYRIGHT 2012 by Kala Ambrose

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion, print, facsimile, or electronic, or by any method yet to be developed, without express permission of the copyright holder.

For further information, contact the publisher at:

Clerisy Press

306 Greenup Street

Covington, KY 41011

www.clerisypress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ambrose, Kala, 1966

Spirits of New Orleans: voodoo curses, vampire legends, and the cities of the dead / by Kala Ambrose. First edition.

pages cm (Americas haunted road trip)

ISBN 978-1-57860-509-5 (pbk.) ISBN 1-57860-509-1 ()

1. GhostsLouisianaNew Orleans. 2. Haunted placesLouisianaNew Orleans. I. Title.

BF1472.U6A457 2012

133.109763'35--dc23

2012018953

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Printed in the United States of America

First edition, first printing

Editor: Vanessa Rusch Thomas

Cover design: Scott McGrew

Cover and interior photos provided by the author unless otherwise noted

Introduction

E MBRACING THE S PIRIT AND S PIRITS OF N EW O RLEANS

Seeing a ghost in New Orleans is as common as having a bowl of gumbo. The question is not when but where best to savor them both. Each person who lives or visits the city of New Orleans quickly finds his or her favorite haunts and returns to them time and time again.

Kala Ambrose

A S AN INTUITIVE CHILD growing up in Louisiana, my soul flourished along the running waters of the Mississippi Delta, the Red River, and the Gulf Coast. I grew up seeing ghosts, as well as hearing about the haunted history of each location we visited. While most every city in Louisiana has its haunted tales, my favorite has always been New Orleans.

New Orleans is a port city known for its food, where a thick roux base is mixed with spices, vegetables, seafood, meat, and everything else in the kitchen, and is thrown into a gumbo pot to the culinary satisfaction of the most discerning soul. This unique, eclectic mixture spills over into the people and their history, creatingamong other thingssome of the most soulful and haunting music the world has ever seen. The spirit of New Orleans is so enticing that whenever I hear blues or jazz music playing, I have to stop what Im doing and dance to the rhythm reaching deep within my soul, connecting me to the roots of my mind, body, and spirit.

Present-day New Orleans on Bourbon Street

The energy of this land is so potent and powerful that it places a hold on each person who enters these swampy grounds and claims you as its own. This may explain in part why the city of New Orleans is so haunted with ghosts much older than its current residents.

One never runs out of things to experience in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). Recently, I returned to my roots in the great state of Louisiana and spent some time in my favorite place in the world: the French Quarter of New Orleans. Truly captivating, this city is a veritable feast for all five senses, as well as the sixth sense.

The best way to describe how I feel in this city is charmed. New Orleans is many things to many people, but for me it is charming and embodies a spirita joy for living (joie de vivre) that is expressed throughout the city.

I remember the first time I returned to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I had no idea how the vibe of the city would feel after having gone through such a horrific experience. My heart was thrilled to see that the great lady was holding her own with a state of grace, while still undergoing major renovations on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels.

I traveled around parts of the city riding the streetcars, taking in each neighborhood, enjoying the stunning architecture, smelling honeysuckle and jasmine in the air, and chuckling at the sight of Mardi Gras beads hanging from the boughs of trees. As the streetcar delivered me near the French Market, the smell of beignets and coffee coming from Caf du Monde lifted my spirit. Yes, I sighed with relief; New Orleans has been through the worst and still she standsproud, strong, and vibrant.

It is my sincere belief that New Orleans is charmed: charmed by the artists and musicians when their art and music spill into the streets touching the soul at the core, charmed by the chefs who tantalize our appetites in sweet rhapsody with their culinary delights, and charmed by the people who are kind, good natured, and some of the most loving and joyful people who I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

T HE J OURNEY B EGINS

As we begin this journey into the spirit and spirits of New Orleans, we will tread carefully into the cities of the dead and visit the land of magical Voodoo queens. Growing up in Louisiana, I assumed that people everywhere spoke about mojo, gris-gris, juju, and Voodoo and celebrated Mardi Gras and other joyous occasions, for the simple joy of being alive and around family and friends. Later, as I lived and traveled around the country, I soon discovered that Louisiana has a very unique style of living. There is no other place like it in the world. Im of French, Scottish, Irish, and German origin, and my family has lived in almost every area of the state. My mother was a Cajun queen born in Lafayette; my great-grandmother lived in South Louisiana, where she supported her family by reading tea leaves and making folk remedies.