Voodoo Altars & Botanicas — The Living Practice

The botanicas across Rampart sell candles, herbs, and statues of the lwa — spirits from Haitian Vodou like Papa Legba, Ogoun, and Erzulie Freda — to practitioners of an active religion that died out in early 20th-century Louisiana, then revived after the 1960s. What emerged draws heavily on Haitian Vodou and Cuban Santería. In 1990, priestess Miriam Chamani established the Voodoo Spiritual Temple in the French Quarter. Sallie Ann Glassman, an initiate of Haitian Vodou, launched La Source Ancienne in Bywater and operated the Island of Salvation Botanica store. Tremé and the Seventh Ward have active temples where initiates call spirits to enter the body of a practitioner — called the "horse" — through which they heal or confer blessings. Each lwa is associated with particular items, colors, numbers, foodstuff, and drinks. Communicating with ancestors is an important part of practice, with ancestral spirits invoked during ceremonies. Many practitioners keep personal altars in the kitchen or living room, offering food and drink to the ancestors. F&F Botanica on North Broad has been in business for decades, selling the materials for these preparations. The commercial voodoo shops in the Quarter are for visitors. The real practice is across Rampart, where people buy what they need to speak to the dead.