Marie Laveaux the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans

 

Her aura is surrounded in mystery. Legends circulate about her well after he demise. She herself left now written record but the stories about her are numerous. While many of the real facts are hidden the stories told about her conform not to reality but to our own imagination, desires and fears. It takes a lot of research to get the real picture. In fact there may not have been just one but three in fact. Legend and fact are mixed. Who was this famous Voodoo priestess everyone is gabbing about?

Her name is Marie Laveaux the famous voodoo queen. As mentioned earlier fact and legend are mixed and it is hard to tell the difference between the two.  The authoress of this book set to work on doing just that to give us the real picture of Marie Laveaux.  Legends have it that she is descended from a line of Voodoo queens or was indoctrinated in secret from a family member  In fact her Father was Henry Laveaux a mixed race freeman. Her great grandmother all thee way to her mother were born in slavery. Only her mother was man united. Legend further states that she owned a hair salon which had a back room which she did her working. This cannot be verified.  What can be verified is that she cared for prisoners and consoled those about to be put to death. She also used herbs to heal others. Her first husband was named Pari and it is believed that he was a freed mulatto. They had two children together and then he exits the scene. Her second husband was Christophe Glaca or something like that. .  While not legally married they were together and had 4 children together. He was a white French man with aristocratic blood. Back in those times Caucasian and African could not legally be married. Laveau reigned as voodoo queen until her early eighties and when she passed rumor and fact begin to blend yet again.

Most prevalent is that her daughter also with the first name of Marie took over giving the impression that she reigned longer than she really did. This seems most likely.  Voodoo ceremonies were held out in the woods away from society. Sometimes they were held discreetly in some building. It was attended equally by both white people and those of African descent. She was highly influential. Unconfirmed legend also has it that she was a procures . Arranging for rich white men to hook up with mullatoes or women of pure African descent. Sometime this lead to Placage where In the man maintained another house for his mistress and many times they shared children.

The authoress goes deep into the New Orleans culture and history with this book to give the reader a good backdrop to the story of Marie Laveaux. Finding the Voodoo queen was a challenge.  She left behind no writings, so court records, church records and funeral records to find the real Marie Laveaux

The Pauline Origins of Christianity

The Christianity that many people practice today is not the Christianity that Jesus authored but rather it is Paul’s revelations that gave birth to the Christianity practiced today.

Paul’s Christianity veers sharply away from it’s parent religion Judaism. In fact is was meant to supersede and replace it.

Jesus and his original follower were Orthodox Jews who firmly believed in the Torah and ways of Judaism. After Jesus was crucified the movement beacame a Jewish Christians sort of religion. They believed that Jesus was the messiah born from a human mother and father. Jesus himself was most likely a rabbi. After the death of Jesus his brother James took the helm.

Paul came about like a decade after the death of Jesus. Paul was originally Saul who was from the tribe of Benjamin. Himself a practicing Jew, originally he had been a persecutor of the Jewish Christians .  It was coming back from/Damascus That he had his revelation. He met Jesus in the spirit as opposed toJesus in the flesh.

Paul’s revelation was from Jesus’s spiritual body.Paul brought a revelation that salvation could come through accepting Jesus. Jesus was not just a messiah but he was also so new Adam. He was the first of spiritual being that God created . He would bring heaven on earth and everyone would have spiritual bodies. The leadership In Jerusalem adhered more strongly to Jewish traditions and were opposed to Paul. There was a break between the two. In fact it was open hostility.

Most of it has been glossed over in favor of Paul’s version with the Christianity of Jesus being lost in a literary battle. Most of the New Testament in Pauline rather then but traces slip out like in the Q source and in Didache and Jerome.

If trying to figure out who Jesus was challenging enough try figuring out Paul. Only seven original letters of his exist. Other writing that are attribute to him are written in a different style, vocabulary and used of setting.