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Populär Culture Review
8 According to Denise Alvarado, “works using the color purple are typically
concemed with power, psychic ability, commanding, compelling,
Controlling, or bending other’s to one’s will” ( Voodoo Hoodoo, 56). Black
can be used to send “inflicting harm or destruction” on someone ( Voodoo
Hoodoo, 57).
9 Pictures were taken from the film Angel Heart. Dir. Alan Parker. Lionsgate
films, 1987. DVD.
10 Even though beetles do not play any role in the Voodoo religion, it should
be noticed that according to old Egyptian beliefs, beetles symbolize rebirth
of the deceased. Thus, they are a connection to the afterlife. Alan Parker
might have decided to place the beetle on the altar simply to allude to
Voodoo’s belief in the ancestors and the afterlife.
11 In the Mississippi Valley and especially in New Orleans, le Bondye can be
compared to the Christian God, and the Iwa to the Catholic Saints, for
example: The Iwa of Papa Legba, the gate keeper “who opens
communication between humans and other Iwa, corresponds to St. Peter,
keeper of the keys to heaven” (Anderson, Hoodoo 34); Erzulie, “who is
considered to be a mother goddess,” represents love and beauty and finds its
counterpart in the Virgin Mary (Malbrough 19). Unique to New Orleans’
Voodoo, the Iwa Ogun (warrior and blacksmith) represents Saint, St. Jude,
and is honored and celebrated in “Our Lady of Guadalupe Church” on 411
North Rampart Street, New Orleans.
12 Gris-gris often comes in form of small cloth bags that are filled with hair
and nail clippings as well as herbs and graveyard dust. According to the
Louisiana Voodoo museum, gris-gris is “made to affect the magical
properties of Voodoo.”
3 For the colonizers, these dolls were more than just talismans holding grigris. As magical links to the underworld, they symbolized “a war waged
against your very soul” (Alvarado Voodoo Dolls, 3).
^ W h ile Crossing “refers to spiritual works that cause harm or bad luck [...],
uncrossing refers to works that reverse it” (Alvarado, Voodoo Hoodoo 6).
Works Cited
Alvarado, Denise. The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook. Scotts Valley, CA. 2009.
—. Voodoo Dolls in Magic and Ritual. Lexington, KY. 2009.
“Ancestral
Altar.”
Virtual
Voodoo
Temple.
2009-2012.
http://www.planetvoodoo.com/voodoo-temple/ancestral-altar.htm
(accessed August 30, 2012).
Anderson, Jeffrey E. Conjure in African American Society. Baton Rouge,
LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
—. Hoodoo, Voodoo, and Conjure. A Handbook. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 2008.