Hoodoo Series: Marie Laveau

Hello. For this week’s article, I want to write about a prominent figure in the Hoodoo spiritual practice.

I am going to start a series that details the spirits and spiritual workers of Hoodoo who have played a major role in making the practice what it is today. I believe this series will be helpful so that new workers can learn who to work with to further their spiritual development.

Marie Laveau, also known as Marie Laveaux, is one of the most prominent Hoodoo workers in New Orleans. Marie was born on September 10, 1801, and she was a free woman. She was a Creole who did many things—she was a Hoodoo worker, a herbalist, and a midwife. Throughout the South, but especially in New Orleans, she was respected as a Hoodoo worker. She was both feared and revered by the people of New Orleans.

Some of her most impressive works involved spirit communication and divination. It was also alleged that, through her ownership of a hair salon—frequented by many different guests—Marie would receive valuable information. The workers would listen in on conversations and relay what they heard to her, which she could then use to help or advise others.

Marie Laveau is one of the most prominent spiritual workers of all time. In many different texts, some describe her as a Hoodoo worker, while others say she practiced Voodoo. It is my belief that she was a Hoodoo worker, but the people who wrote about her often used the terms Hoodoo and Voodoo interchangeably. Her spirit and spiritual knowledge made her one of the most respected spiritual workers in New Orleans and throughout the South. She was also known for helping prisoners and offering aid to those in need.

Marie Laveau is someone people look to for strength and assistance in their spiritual work. Many will ask for her help, and she is known to aid those who sincerely seek her. There are countless stories about Marie Laveau—some true, others perhaps embellished—but she remains one of the most remarkable figures to come from New Orleans.

Now, I want to talk about some spiritual practices you can use to connect with Marie Laveau so that she can assist you. I will also discuss offerings you can use to invoke her spirit.

If possible, visit her alleged burial site at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans. You can leave offerings and ask her for assistance. However, I must caution you—as with any spirit—do not begin by asking for favors. First, build a relationship. Give offerings once or twice without asking for anything in return. During this time, research and learn about her life and energy. Once you have built that connection, you may ask for her help, and if she chooses to assist you, she will.

Another way to connect with Marie Laveau is to create an altar dedicated to her. This is a great idea because altars serve as sacred spaces to honor spirits, give offerings, and perform spiritual work. In the case of Marie Laveau, you can include items such as flowers (roses), Florida Water, tobacco, rosary beads (since Marie was Catholic as well as a Voodoo practitioner), rum, and a statue or picture of her. You should also include a glass of water, which you will change weekly.

Once you have gathered these items, construct your altar, give offerings, and ask for signs to see if she is receptive to working with you. If everything aligns, you can begin your work with her.

This is everything you can do to start building a spiritual relationship with Marie Laveau. She was a woman who always sought to help others and improve their circumstances through her work. Even though she is no longer with us in life, her spirit remains powerful—and she can still help those who call upon her with respect and sincerity.

“Here is the day, we must welcome it with a song.” 

    - Marie Laveau 

Using divination in spiritual work

Hello everyone, today I will talk about using divination in spiritual work. Divination comes in many different forms. You can have prophetic dreams, you can hear messages from spirit, or you can use items such as chamalongos, cowrie shells, playing cards, or tarot cards. All of these items you can use to receive messages from your ancestors, or the spirits who are with you for your protection. If you are using any of these tools that I have listed to receive messages from your ancestors or spiritual guides, these are great conduits to receive messages. Many people think that you need to be psychic to be able to receive messages, but this is not the case. You use divination to receive messages and understand a situation or an event you may need clarity on. Now that we have clarification on why divination is important, the next step would be choosing the right divination tool for yourself.

I would say choose the divination tool that will be easy for you to work with. Personally, I use tarot cards and playing cards, and I also receive messages from dreams. I will go into a little anecdote of my experience with divination to show why you should focus on divination with your spiritual work. This event was years ago, and I was doing a setting of lights(candle work). I was creating a bath for my client, and this experience was different from other experiences because most people who come to me are not being spiritually attacked by a rogue spiritual worker. I want to keep the anonymity of my client, so for this story, I will call them Hank. Anyway, Hank was experiencing a lot of negativity in his life, and he felt like he couldn’t move forward with any of the endeavors that he tried to do.

When I heard this, what I did was use my tarot cards to get more information about the situation. What I noticed with the reading was, there was a person in his readings, but they were trying to shroud themselves from any detection. I continued to do my reading, and I asked my spirits for more information. However, what I discovered shocked me. My client's money, health, social life, and many other aspects were being affected, and everything that he was doing would not work out. With all of the information I had, and sidenote (by the way, a tip to increase psychic ability is praying Psalm 78 verses 1-4), after doing my tarot reading and getting the information that I needed. I started the work for my client, which was preparing a bath for him, also working a candle, and this was not just any ordinary candle, it's called a 21 root candle, which is used to uproot any and all negative workings and energies.

The Reading for my client that showed the issue

The 21 root candle is a powerful candle to use when you are experiencing negative spiritual attacks. So with this candle, the bath, and some other workings to send back what was thrown at my client, things in his life started to turn around for the better. Hank was starting to see better results, and I did a follow-up reading on the person in his life who was using spiritual work to curse him. What I discovered was that the return to sender work was successful, the worker was struggling with finances, and other things were happening to them. So, I share this story because I want everyone to understand the importance of divination along with your spiritual work. It is such an important tool when you need information about things that we can and cannot see.

Later on, I am going to write more about the Tarot and how I use Tarot cards in my divination, also how I use Tarot cards in my daily spiritual practice. Thank you all for reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to leave a comment.

"Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic, and miracles."

                                                       - Roy T. Bennett

The difference between Road Opening and Blockbusting

Hello, in this article, I will be talking about the differences between a road opening and a blockbusting work. With these two workings, many people believe they are the same thing, but this could not be further from the truth. The specific names are important because you need to know what you are doing and what type of work it will be. It's important to know that doing a specific work will bring about different effect on your life. 

So, what I am going to do is highlight the difference between the two works. I will start off with Road Opening. So, road opening work is a spiritual spell that is used to open the roads to potential opportunities, jobs, money, or love. Really, it’s any manner of opportunity or goals you are trying to achieve that are available to you. On the other hand, a Blockbusting work is normally used for removing obstacles, but in a forceful way. Blockbusting is used to remove all obstacles that are in your way; think of it as an extreme removal.

Now, I am going to describe two instances in which I have done both of these works, and by the end, I hope you will fully understand the difference between these two works. First, this was a few years ago, and I had a client who was recently having a rough go of life. So, to start off with the person I was working for, I did a spiritual reading for him. I believe that it is very important to do a spiritual reading when you are working for another person. I was doing this reading for my client, and through the reading, I did see the stagnation and blockage within the client's life. The blockage wasn’t evil or hoodoo thrown on them, but it was because of a buildup of negative energies surrounding him. Because I found the cause of the issue with my client, the best course of action for this individual was to do two things, the first is a spiritual cleansing bath to remove all of that negativity and the second thing was to do a road opening, to ensure their paths could be clear, and also they would be able to have success in any situation. The ritual I used a road opening candle and added road opening oil to the candle. Then I prayed Psalm 119:105 "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" and Psalm 23:3 "He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake." This was an example of a road opening, and after the work was complete, my client felt a lot better, and they saw opportunities come their way to get ahead. Now, we are going to look at an example of blockbusting work and how that differs from road openings. 

This happened a few years ago. I got a request from a distressed client that they needed some help because everything they have been going through was bad, and no matter how much they have tried to improve their station in life, or their situation, nothing would work. So, I began my process that I always do, which is doing a spiritual reading for my client, so we would be able to see what is going on in their life. In the reading, I saw that there was more than a buildup of negative energies; what I saw was active blockages in his life. This was more than the normal spiritual buildup for the average person, who also, I might add, does not do any spiritual work. So I had to prescribe him something different. What I did was have my client take a powerful spiritual cleansing bath and a house cleansing. Also, I did a blockbusting work to make sure that he would be able to eliminate any issues that may arise in his life. Specifically, with the blockbusting work, what I had to do was a more powerful type of work to remove negativity from his life, and I used a blockbusting candle and special herbs to make that happen. I used a candle and added specific herbs, roots, and oils to the candle to see the desired result. Then I said a series of prayers and declarations and added words of power to the ritual. This ritual is a little more intense than the road opening, so I cannot go into detail about the specifics. It is important to know that blockbusting is far more aggressive in removing obstacles from your life. You can think of it as a far more aggressive form of road opening. 

So, in these instances you see the difference between road openings and blockbusting. It is paramount to be able to differentiate between the two if you are starting this journey. Thank you so much for reading this article, if you have any other questions please feel free to leave a comment or click my Fiverr link for consultation.

“I address you all tonight for who you truly are: wizards, mermaids, travelers, adventurers, and magicians. You are true dreamers.” 

• Brian Selznick, The Invention of Huego Carbret

How to Communicate with your Ancestors

Hello, in this article, I am going to talk about being able to communicate with your ancestors. This is very important because your ancestral battery is important. You need your ancestors to empower your work and to receive messages. Plus, they are your first line of spiritual defense if there is anything plaguing you. There are many other important things that your ancestors do for you, but these are the most important and immediate. With all of that said, now that you know the importance of your ancestors. I am going to relay to you in this article how to communicate with your ancestors, to honor and be in communication with them, as well as increase the power of your workings. 

Starting, the first step in communicating with your ancestors is to choose the ancestors who loved you in life. I know this sounds strange, but it is important to choose an ancestor or a person in your family who, while they were alive, loved you and had a good relationship with you. This could be someone whom you had a good relationship like a grandfather or grandmother. While they were alive, they loved you, so even in death, they will still love you and want to protect you. So, you will have to choose the people who loved you while they were alive, and if any of them were rootworkers, that is even better for you for your spiritual work. Next, I have already spoken about both spiritual and ancestor altars, so I will not go over this again, but I will link to the article here. With all of the ancestors you have selected, you will need a white candle and a glass of water; these are things that you will use to interpret messages from your ancestors. 

First, with water, if you see bubbles in the water and it’s not sparkling water, then that is normally an indication that your spirits are there with you at your altar. Also, with your white candle for your ancestors, if you see that the flame is popping or flicking, they are giving you a message, and if this occurs while you have a candle for yourself or a client going and the flame pop, then your ancestors are trying to give you a message and from there can you use your divination tools to receive more instruction or message. Divination tools are great to use for all manner of spiritual communication. I will talk about using divination tools to understand the messages your ancestors are trying to tell you. Whether you use Chamalongos shells, tarot cards, playing cards, bones, or any other type of spiritual divination tool, you should use them to interpret the messages of your ancestors because they may have important information to tell you. I do this method with my tarot cards. I normally keep my cards on my ancestor altar, which helps because they are charging the cards with their energies. 

Also, this is not the only way to receive messages; you can also get messages from dreams. Something I was taught to do was, before I go to sleep, I call my ancestor or ancestors by name before going to sleep and ask them to come to me in a dream if something is bothering me or if I need to ask advice. Also, before bed, you can recite Psalm 23 before going to sleep to get instruction from your ancestors. Finally, the last method that I use to communicate with the ancestors is asking them for a sign. Normally, what I do is go to my altar, pray, and ask them for a sign. These signs can come in many different ways, but always make sure that if you get a sign, it is not something vague. Thank you, everyone, for reading this blog post, and always make sure that you are honoring your ancestors.

"Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic, and miracles." - Roy T. Bennett