The Voodoo Queens, as the most famous American sorcerers of the 19th century were called, were the mother and daughter of Marie Laveau. They shared the same name and practiced the same craft. The life of these extraordinary female relatives has long ago become a legend.
NICE WIDOW
Marie Laveau Sr. was born in New Orleans, presumably in 1794. Metisca, in whose veins the blood of white, black, colored and red-skinned ancestors flowed, was free-born. Marie was strikingly beautiful and drove many crazy. But to all the rest, she preferred the "colored" Jacques Paris from the island of Sao Domingo (now Haiti). On August 4, 1819, she was legally married to him.
Marie and Jacques did not enjoy each other's company for long - the young hubby quickly disappeared. Marie insisted that he had returned to his homeland. Although evil tongues chattered, as if Marie had sent her husband to the next world with her own hand. The widow did not grieve for long.
She set up something like a beauty salon, whose clients were wealthy ladies and Creole women in New Orleans. Marie was known as a jack of all trades: she combed her hair, curled her hair and cut her hair. Clients willingly shared with her intimate secrets, talking about husbands and their income, lovers, relatives, illnesses. Subsequently, the energetic lady used these revelations for selfish purposes: she did not hesitate to blackmail her former clients.
MASTER CLASS
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Around the year 1826, Marie became the mistress of a certain Louis Christophe Dumigny de Glapion. Louis and Marie lived in love and harmony until 1855 - until his death. Lovers never sealed their bonds by legal marriage, but this did not stop them from giving birth to 15 offspring. Having entered into a relationship with Dumigny, Marie closed the hairdresser and devoted herself entirely to witchcraft.
New Orleans at the time was the scene of a brutal battle of several witchcraft queens fighting for spheres of influence. Marie fearlessly got involved in the battle, wanting to subjugate everyone else. It was rumored that for the sake of her goals she resorted to the help of otherworldly forces.
The talented sorceress added elements of church worship to the already sensational witchcraft sabbaths - sprinkling with holy water, fumigation with incense, joint prayers to Christian saints. A natural born actress, she turned secret ceremonies on Lake Pontchartrain into grandiose performances with prayers over a black coffin and the sacrifice of live roosters.
As a result, Marie Laveau's brand performances were wildly popular. The cream of society, members of the press, police and, of course, thrill seekers - all considered it an honor to be on the "show". Marie demanded from visitors only one thing - an entrance fee.
Meanwhile, there were other, more private events for the rich. There you could spend the night with a pretty mulatto, Negro or Creole - of course, for a fee.
So, step by step, Marie achieved her goal and became the "chieftain" of the entire city. All local sorcerers, sorcerers, healers and sorcerers obeyed her without complaint. Laveau was approached for miracle cures and advice by both blacks and whites. She did not hesitate to rip off whites for services at exorbitant prices, while she did not take a dime from blacks.
CRIMINAL TALENT
In 1830, the scion of a wealthy aristocratic family dishonored a young girl from a lower, albeit respected class. The evidence against the young man was strong enough. The desperate father of the young man went to Marie Laveau to enlist her support.
In case the witch helps to obtain an acquittal for his son, the rich man promised her a house in the city center. Marie quickly got down to business. At the dawn of the day, when the trial was to take place, she went to pray at St. Louis Cathedral. There, the powerful sorceress spent several hours at the altar grate with three pods of guinea pepper in her mouth.
Later she contrived to put these peppers under the judge's chair. It is noteworthy that one of those young rakes who used the services of a New Orleans sorceress was appointed judge. No matter how much the district attorney called for a conviction of the defendant, no matter how much he appealed for justice, his fiery speech did not affect either the judge or the jury. The defendant was found not guilty.
The happy father kept his word, and soon Marie and her large family moved to St Ann Street in the prestigious French Quarter, where she lived until her death in 1881. This house became the focus of witchcraft, and the small outbuildings probably served as a secret meeting place for white men with black mistresses.
FAMILY BUSINESS
After the death of the mother, one of the daughters took over her role. Marie Laveau was strikingly similar to her mother, only her skin was lighter.
Laveau Jr. was released on February 2, 1827. It is not known whether Marie the eldest appointed her daughter to be her successor or she took on this mission herself, but everyone agreed that Marie the youngest lacked the scope and talent that her famous predecessor possessed. Marie, like her mother, began with her hair, opened a bar, and soon a brothel.
However, in some ways Marie II still outdid her mother. She considered herself a zealous Catholic, trying not to encroach on the holy of holies - church services, rituals and holidays. The daughter, on the other hand, demonstratively neglected these things. For example, she did not hesitate to completely reshape the day of St. John the Baptist, which fell on June 23, in her own way.
One of the newspapers described this festival as "a la Marie Jr." The event was celebrated in the St. John Delta on Lake Pontchartrain. First, the crowd cheered their queen with singing, then built a huge bonfire under the cauldron. The container was filled with water from a beer barrel. Salt, black pepper were poured there, a black snake cut into three parts (which was supposed to represent the Trinity), a cat, a black rooster and all kinds of powders were dropped.
Marie ordered everyone to undress, which was sung to the endlessly repeated refrain. At midnight, everyone rushed into the lake to cool their ardor, and stayed in the water for about half an hour. When everyone came ashore, the singing and dancing continued for another hour. Then Marie delivered a sermon and allowed the audience a half-hour "renewal of strength", that is, group intercourse.
Then they all had a snack, sang a little more, until the signal was given to put out the fire under the cauldron. Four naked women lit up the fire, the brew was again poured into the barrel. Now only Marie had allowed everyone to get dressed and made another speech. By that time, dawn had already dawned, and everyone began to go home.
FULFILLING WISHES
Like her mother, Marie Jr. practiced sexual orgies, arranged drunken fights - in general, she was PR as best she could. But, no matter how she tried to achieve the same influence, she did not succeed. True, she reigned for some time at witchcraft sabbaths with blacks, ruled on Lake Pontchartrain, but her career was quickly declining. Very little is known about the second half of Marie's life, and this information is very contradictory.
Even the circumstances of her death are not exactly known. Some insisted that she drowned during a storm on the same Pontchartrain lake in the 1890s. Others said they saw her as early as 1918. It is believed that Marie II was buried in the cemetery of Saint Louis. They say that girls from all over the neighborhood often rush there: just one visit to the burial place - and the young maiden miraculously finds the man of her dreams.
By the way, in the same cemetery rests the famous sorceress "number one" - Marie Laveau I. There is not even a name on her crypt, but the path to it also does not overgrow. Here sacrifices are left in the form of food, money or flowers, and then, turning around three times and placing a red cross on a stone with a brick, they ask Mari for help.
Residents of New Orleans tell tourists that they have met the famous queens of witchcraft more than once in human or animal guise. Mother and daughter allegedly turned into a raven, in old women in long white dresses with characteristic structures of blue shawls on their heads.
Another time, the ladies roamed the city in the form of Newfoundlands, turned into snakes, floated in the air. And on the eve of St. John's Day, they made their way to Lake Pontchartrain to perform secret witchcraft rites. In general, to this day, the main New Orleans sorceresses do not give anyone peace.