Marie Laveau

and the dead of night as people sleep. That's when the spirits creep. As the bell tolls three, dark things take power. We like to call it the supernatural hour.

Another exciting episode. If I keep saying exciting, it will make it true. It's exciting. It's so exciting.

It's exciting. It's exciting. It's going to be fun. It's awesome.

Listen to us talk. It's the best. All right. Let's start out with business as normal.

Do we have anything? No, but I think that we should probably put together another public investigation with everything going on. I think most people like them to be outdoors because they're less spreading of the virus. And I haven't talked to anybody about this until just this very second.

So we don't know what we're doing yet. So you just keep watching our website and soon we'll have something exciting. Yes. Exciting.

Very exciting. Word of the day. Wherever time is exciting or something like that. This episode was brought to you by the word exciting.

Exciting. Okay. Now that everyone's turned off the podcast and no one's listening anymore. Yeah.

So watch for something that will do something. In the meantime, go to our website at VansPairnWorld.com. Check out the merchandise tab and buy stuff. We appreciate it.

Yeah, there's some really cool stuff on it. I tried to find more information about the grandma's. Remember we talked about the grandma's last time? I'm talking for whatever.

I couldn't find anything. And I remember I think it was the last time I heard about it. I found stuff on the the inner webs about the grandma's and it's a I don't know if it's an urban myth or a real thing. But I know Kenny Dee from Radio Ronan knows about the grandma's.

So maybe we need to ask him more. But yeah, it's a real thing about like old grandma's that drive around the middle of the night. But I couldn't find anything about it on the the webs. Well, if I remember I'll shoot him a text and see if he knows what you're talking about.

The grandma's. If he knows more about the the grandma's. Or if any of you listening know anything about the grandma's and the Ogden. Feel free to send us a message.

Don't know what the grandmas are. If you text him and say, hey, tell me more about this. The grandma's thing. The ghost grandma's.

Let me sit down. I'll have to bend your ear. I will blow up your phone. That's cool.

I'll have to head him up and find out more about the grandmas. Do we have any recent investigations that we've done in the last three weeks? We do actually. And the last one we did was really, really cool.

So it was, I remember right. Was it just you and me Chad? Because I think we couldn't find anybody else kind of last week, and this in this home, it was actually one of the males in the home. There's like two brothers, a sister and grandma.

And when we got there, it was grandma and sister and grandma spoke very, very little English. I mean, she could say a few things, but mostly Spanish. And there were two spirits in her home. One was her aunt.

And the other was her father. Or maybe it was her grandmother and her father. But they were just kind of hanging out and trying to get their attention. Not really for any specific purpose, but just, hey, we're here.

You don't pay attention to us. And so through the dowsing rods, we let grandma ask in Spanish, you know, yes, I know questions. You know, the daughter kind of interpreted for her. And it's interesting because I know very little Spanish.

I should know more, but I don't. I know like Burrito and Taco, Chimi Changa, Chilupa. Growing up in Utah, you could... That's my joke.

The necessary ones. Hola, como esta, dada, a seo banyo, que ores. Yeah, you know, growing up in Utah. Swiper nose, swiper.

You figure out a few words here and there, you know, because there's a lot of Spanish speakers in Syria. But I, you know, I could understand maybe one of every 30 words she said, but I didn't know what she was asking. And you know, the dowsing rods were doing their thing. And I thought, I hope she's getting a little bit of answers because I got nothing.

We should get one of those little devices. This should be one of our ghost hunting tools. Because they make those things that like, you can talk into it in your language and then have it translate in the person's language. And then they can talk back to you and I'll translate to you, which would get one of those for that reason.

The way that would be perfect, like if we're in Romania, talking to Romanian ghosts, we can have the device not only at EVPs, but have it translate them for us. That just makes me think of the scene in a European vacation where the French waiter's talking to him. And he was like, or the English guy, the English hotel guy, he was like, Dad, he's speaking English. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, type of translator.

Wow, that's a great movie. Yeah, but it was kind of validating in the way though, because at one point I needed to duck into the bathroom. So, you know, Chad asked the... The woman's daughter?

Yeah, the woman's daughter. He said... Who spoke in the English weller than I do. Oh, wow, yes, yes.

You tell this part because I'm a bathroom. Oh, you go. And he asked her, he says, you know, are you getting, you know, relevant answers? Are you, you know, are you getting, you know, the answers to your questions that make sense and that you should be in the end.

Yeah, and it was just kind of validating because sometimes you ask yourself, you know, is this really working? And is this, you know, is it the power of my mind that's, you know, moving these rods or... But yeah, so... Yeah, they said it was context, you know, that the answers were being answered in the context in the way that they would kind of expect them to be answered.

So it was very interested because it was like all Spanish and the rods moved and did things and they didn't always answer yes, and they didn't always answer no. They, there were some of the wiggling ones, which means can't answer. Who was holding rods? Okay, so that's actually really interesting because if you take that aspect out where you don't know what they're saying, you can't subconsciously answer the question correctly for them.

Right, right, and that's, you know, that's one of the things in the back of your mind. You're like, I'm gonna read them and... No, I was just standing there. I was just like, yeah, I got nothing.

So I... I mean, there was, there was one question she asked and the, you know, if you're familiar with the dowsing rods, if they just kind of wiggle back and forth, that means maybe or I don't know. And, you know, they did that. Excuse me, she kind of looked at me and I said, he, and I could kind of feel his emotions because I can feel emotions.

And I said he really, really wants to answer that question, but for some reason he can't, he can't give you the answer. And that was the, that was about the only input I could give. And she asked probably a hundred questions, at least, maybe more. Yeah, she asked a lot.

Do you know what particular question was? Does she tell you? No. Okay.

So, um, but as far as what was going on in the home, because I don't, listeners like to hear that, um, they would hear footsteps, they could see shadows. Didn't they have her grandson was, what was happening with the grandson? He was sensitive. I don't remember what happened with the, the grand, oh no, it was a little granddaughter.

It was a little granddaughter. There's a little girl there, probably three or four years old, and she, um, she could see it and she kept calling it to the dragon. Yeah. She could see a dragon.

Um, turns out the dragon was a Native American spirit that was in the backyard. You know, with the, with the headdress on and she thought it was a dragon. Um, in the kitchen they could hear, you know, crinkling, like people opening, um, you know, packages of food. Um, I think they said cupboards and drawers would open and shut.

So, you know, nothing too crazy, but enough going on that they thought, what's going down with you? And so, they ended up both crossing over. So, but it was, I think the most fascinating thing about that investigation was just the fact that, um, you know, it was the language barrier. So, on that particular question, obviously I was in there.

I don't know what she asked and, and you don't know. I was there. So, um, what I'm getting is it's, I feel like she asked something about an upcoming event, something that's going to happen in the future. And it's, I kind of get the feeling, I could be completely wrong on this.

I honestly have no idea. But kind of what the feeling I'm getting right now is that, um, she was asking, inquiring about a certain event. And I believe, wanted her the outcome or like how it was going to go down. And the spirit, like, I get the feeling he wanted to tell her, but she just, it's one of those where you just kind of have a wait and see type of things where it's like, he could tell her, but that would change the way things are supposed to happen.

So, things are just going to happen the way they're supposed to happen. And it's just one of those things where it's like, he wanted to give guidance, but really couldn't at the time. That makes sense. No, when she first started asking questions, um, her daughter said, you know, she's asking questions about some family thing, you know, some other people in the family.

But that was like the first five or six questions. But then she probably asked another 90 after that. Then she really got into it, didn't she? No, she just, I've never seen some ask questions so fast.

Just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And the, and the Dowsigner ads were responding very quickly. Mm-hmm. That's cool.

I wish, uh, I could have been there for that one, but I was probably working because that's what I do. Work all the time, except for now on my vacation. Uh, so yeah, is there anything else? No, we do have two in the works.

So, next time. Actually, I need to give you a phone. No, we have three in the works. So next podcast, we should have them.

All right. Uh, so if there's no other investigations, no other business to attend to, I think we'll just jump right into our topic this week. Uh, this is topic, the end picks. So I'm going to kind of let her lead us on topic this week.

Uh, we are talking about, uh, sometimes actually very famous, I know at one point, I believe it was Nicholas Cage, bought her home. I could be wrong, maybe it might have been the other home. Um, I know he bought a home in New Orleans and, uh, there's supposedly a curse on this home. I could be mixing up with, um, a different person in New Orleans because there's two.

There's a lot of homes in New Orleans that are cursed and haunted. And you know, you see those memes with the, uh, for sale signs that are, that will stay on there, not haunted. Yeah. People think that it's a joke, but I mean, you understand that you live in like a hotspot for Voodoo, which is, you know, this person we're going to be talking about.

And for, uh, for doing paranormal stuff. So to have, to have a sign on a house for sale sign, a sign on a sign saying not haunted, that makes sense. So one of the two people that we'll, we'll, uh, I worked hard. Um, so we're going to end up talking about both of these ladies.

One of them is, uh, Madam Delphine Lalleru. Um, but that's what we're talking about today. And it could have been her home that Nicholas Cage bought. Um, I could be wrong, but the person we're talking about today, it was actually a very popular, famous, uh, Voodoo priestess at the time.

And her name was Marie LaVoe. So, you know, one of the things that I found the most interesting is she hear Voodoo. And, and this is my own thoughts. So, um, I'm not trying to project that on anyone else.

When I heard about Voodoo, the first thing I think of is, oh, it's evil and it's, you know, black magic and it's bad. Bringing people back to life. Yeah, you know, real, real crazy stuff. But, you know, the more that I kind of researched her and looked her up, she was actually about Catholic.

Um, she was, you know, buried about in her Catholicism, which I was like, oh, okay, well, that doesn't really, you know, jive in my head very much. And she used a lot of her Voodoo as very kind of almost holistic. I mean, it wasn't nearly as creepy as I imagine. Now, I'm not saying that it hasn't gone that way and people haven't taken it that way.

But with Marie specifically, hers was, you know, a lot more peaceful and, and, you know, nature based than I had envisioned. Less less chopping chicken heads off and more gathering plants. Right. But didn't she like incorporate Catholicism and Voodoo together kind of made a new form of Voodoo just so people would be more accepting of it?

Right. Um, yeah. So it wasn't like, oh, here's all this crazy stuff you've never seen. That's like, okay, let's take stuff you know the vegan Voodoo diet.

Right. And that's, you know, just add my stuff to it. The chicken. Yeah.

So I think for me, one of the things that really impressed me about her is she was the granddaughter of a slave who had purchased her freedom. Um, she was like one of the very few free women of color during the antebellum, you know, period and I put it down. I think her, her, both of her parents were slaves or grandmother was a slave, but the grandmother bought her, bought her way up and actually bought a home. And that's the home that Marie lived in and did her practice it.

And Marie, you know, you got to remember this is the antebellum period, you know, kind of that civil warish period. She was a business woman. She was a free woman. She was a healer.

She would go and frame in from the gallows. And she was a very savvy business woman. And she pretty much kind of ruled that city in a way. You know, they had their elected officials and whatnot.

But she had great influence. She had a lot of influence and people would come to her, you know, for all sorts of blessings and favors and things that this movie could do. And so in that time period for a black woman to be so loved and so popular and, you know, so influential in the city was rather uncommon. Am I confusing this?

But was she like a hairdresser or someone that did? She was. So she was a hairdresser. And that's kind of how she got her into power.

Basically, yeah, she gathered the information just like chatting with random women or not random women. They came in to get their hair done. And very high class women. Very the women, the society women.

So she basically used this information that she gathered to help kind of push herself up that political will or status or whatever. Right. Going back to the bringing, you know, the Catholicism and the voodoo together. She was actually a self-proclaimed pope of the voodoo.

That's what she kind of called herself. But she was also considered herself a voodoo herbalist or if you're a great written herbalist. And she was also a good. There's an agent.

I say herbalist. Yeah, I say herbalist. Her. That's an American thing.

It is. The age is silent. America. America.

Her. But she was also a midwife. And so many people would come to her for that too. Yeah, she was also close to, I think it was the Archbishop at the Cathedral in New Orleans, the main cathedral.

And as I remember right as they talked about it, she actually would do things with his permission at the altar. Right. So she had these voodoo altars and they consisted of common elements. And it didn't really matter what the spirit or saint she called upon or served to get these.

But they're not common or seen in your traditional African voodoo that you think of. And people have thought, you know, these things derived from Catholicism. So she really, really intertwined it. Yeah.

And as she said many times when she was talking to people about her form of voodoo, she said that she did not feel that her voodoo was incompatible with her Catholicism in her head. And I'm not Catholic, so I can't vouch for that. But in her head, she meshed them and melted them together. And I did find my notes.

So she was born to a freed slave in a free, wealthy, mulatto businessman. So she was a first generation in her family to be born free. And her father actually owned slaves of his own. And her grandmother's name was Catherine.

And Catherine was the one that bought her freedom. And after she bought her freedom, she built her home. And the home that Catherine built, it was where Marie would come famous, would become famous. And then Marie had a daughter, and women, you know what we don't call Marie Levo, Jr.

But basically Marie Levo, Jr. kind of followed in her footsteps and carried on the work. And I think her daughter didn't adhere so much to the Catholicism. I think she kind of leaned more towards the traditional African voodoo and went away from the Catholicism, just a smidgen.

As I was researching this, there was a really cool book I haven't gotten it, and I might, but it's by Denise Alvarado, and it's called The Magic of Marie Levo. And it's, I look like it was really good book. So if you're interested, you want to read an interesting book, grab that one. One of the things I found interesting too is her grave, Marie Levo, the original mom, is second only to Elvis on the most visited cemetery in the nation.

She's in New Orleans. I went down to New Orleans probably about five, seven years ago for a convention. And in my downtown I took one of those cheesy bus rides around the city where you look at the different cemeteries and stuff. And I remember she was one of the more prominent graves that we visited.

Like hers actually has, like, people will come by and still burn candles and write stuff on her mausoleum. So yeah, she's pretty prominent. Right, there's this, you can actually still ask her for a little favors. And you have to put it, you write an X on her, Timstone, and then you do whatever you want to do, you know, to get her to give you this favor.

And then they say, if you get it, if it happens, you have to come back and circle your X so that people know that she, you know, helped you with your request. And she is, if you ever go there, she is in St. Louis Cemetery number one, I guess the name of the cemetery that she's in. Now, I've never been there.

It's definitely on my bucket list to go there, but I have seen pictures. And the cemeteries there look fabulous. Well, the ones that are in New Orleans itself, like the St. Louis number one cemetery, they are a little bit rundown.

They're right in the midst of the French Quarter. But you had a little bit outside. We went to this one, which is halfway between New Orleans and Kenner, which is northwest of New Orleans itself. But it's probably about 10 miles or so outside the city.

And it's several acres. I want to say it's like at least 100 acres of a cemetery. And all of them are mausoleums. I mean, we're talking like at least multi-million dollar mausoleums that are just unbelievably beautiful because it's all underneath the water table.

You know, you have to bury above ground. You can't go in. You can't go in. So you have to build up.

And this cemetery, that's all it is. Just a walking mausoleum tour. And it's amazing. Some of the gravesites there.

No, and you guys can correct me if I'm wrong because this actually doesn't really have anything to do with Marie Lovel and her voodoo. But it has to do with the cemeteries. If you've heard the phrase, you know, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Yes.

So this is where it comes from because they would lay the body kind of on top and then behind. There's a cavity. And so, you know, you put the body in, they could lay here for a while. When the next person died and needed that spot, you got a 10-foot pole.

And you push the body, whatever's left bones, the bones kind of go in the back, fall down and then you put it in the body. So that's where that phrase comes from. I learned about that too on that. I very seem to worry about, don't touch things with the 10-foot pole because the crypt space is the niches that they have outside that are, you know, that's all buried above ground.

They don't cremate, but with the crypt space being sealed and the temperature within a year, that body will cremate itself because of the heat and biology and everything. So yeah, that's what they literally do is they'll take a pole with a big brush at the end and push everything to the back where it all filters down underneath. There's like a huge repository. I forget the actual word is for a safe place for all the ashes of cremate of people.

But that's essentially what it is, falls into this huge repository. And then you can reuse the same spot again for another family member. But I was just looking up her Marilla Fos tomb and it's covered in X's. There's flowers, there's poetry, the people have written, there's all kinds of candles all over the place.

It's pretty cool to look at. It reminds me a lot of Jim Orson's grave in France as well about how all the Americans will come and visit and graffiti on these crypts and mausoleums that are hundreds of years old. They've got French nationalists and poets and writers and these, you know, people that are historically important in our timeline that get their tombs desecrated because Americans want to visit and write something on their, you know, the lizard king this way. But yeah, it's pretty cool when people will make a pilgrimage to see someone and upkeep their graveside a little bit, whether it's just burn a candle or leave something behind.

But I don't mean to ramble, go ahead, Deanna. Oh, no, you're totally fine. So when I think of Voodoo, one of the things I think most people think of is a Voodoo doll. Yeah.

And you know, you stick pins in it and then any other person there's to make sure everyone knows how this works, right? And everyone has wanted to make a Voodoo doll if somebody gave it a couple of good steps. I can guarantee you that. I know I have.

But I have a real life story for you about a Voodoo doll. I have to make a Voodoo doll. We're covering that on this episode. Awesome.

No, first to get their hairbrush. So I know somebody. It's a friend of mine. And her daughter, this has been a couple of years ago, but her daughter went to New Orleans for some school that require something.

And while she was there, you know, what do you do when you go on a little tour? You go on the shop and you buy stuff, right? So she went into this Voodoo store. So I'm sure there's a lot of them down there.

And she bought this cute little doll. And I don't know if I've seen that doll. I've only heard about that all. But the impression I get is it's not very big and it's just kind of your typical, kitschy little tourist Voodoo doll, right?

So she brings it home, you know, along with other souvenirs, gives it to her mom, like it's cool doll. So in this family, you know, there's mom, dad, there's a, you know, four or five kids. Most of the kids are grown and moved out and couples still left at home. And it was during school, but it had to have been at least last year before Corona shut us all down.

You know, dads at work, kids are at school, mom's home alone. Okay. And she hears talking. And at first she doesn't really think much about it because, you know, there's neighbors and people outside.

There's nothing much about it. But you know, this goes on a couple of times and you know, she doesn't think much. Well, one day she's in her bathroom getting ready and she heard a very definite hello in her ear. And she's kind of freaked her out.

Anyway, long story short, because I don't know how long story. She posted on Facebook, the little doodoo doll that my daughter brought home from the strip just said hello to me, should I worry? No, satchel. And so I sent her a text and like, do you need us to come over?

You okay? Because we can come take care of that. And she says, let me see what it does. Anyway, we never actually went over there.

She said that it got to the point where it really freaked her out and I think she threw it away. You know, whatever happened and she says it was creepy at the right. So somewhere in a land feeling you're talking about there's a haunted doodoo doll. An actual haunted doodoo doll.

How do we know the spirit attached actually went with the doll and didn't just say her house? Well, I haven't heard anymore about secret whisperings. Even if it didn't stay at the house. I don't think it stayed with the doll because I don't know what the spirit's gonna want to landfill.

I don't know what the spirit's gonna want to do. Were spirits that wanted to sell up with the spirit's house? No, no one haunted my house. No, what I did tell her, I said, next time you have a haunted object, I'll just throw it away from the let me know.

So there's better ways to take care of it. There's a common misconception with the doodoo doll, where most people think that it's something that's used to harm only. Like it's something that you know, like you said, you want to hurt somebody, stick a pan in their stomach or whatever, they're actually used to help. Kind of like an acupuncture type thing.

Shall we wear it hurts? Went on the doll to where you hurt. Yeah, similar to that. Show me on the doll, where you need the panorrhic.

But no, they actually used them to help people. It wasn't just to harm. So there's actually to every religion whether it be paganism, wickah, which is a form of paganism, voodoo, all that. There's a good, well, maybe not, no, there's a good side and bad side, everything.

But a lot of people just, they want to focus on, like you said, voodoo being like just this negative thing and it's not. It's actually a very positive religion. And if it wasn't for California's lockdown right now, I would be on my way to California. And I was actually going to, when I was there, I was going to meet my friend, Jimmy Darling, who actually just owned in a cold store called PanPipes in Los Angeles.

And she actually is a practitioner of voodoo, or she says a voodoo is a proper pronunciation. I was going to sit down with her and actually do an episode on this with her, but because of the lockdown. Voodoo rhymes. It has to be voodoo.

It's a rhyme. It depends on who you're talking to, voodoo, voodoo, voodoo. Yeah. It's, I was going to do, I was going to sit down with her and have a conversation with her on this subject, but because of the current lockdown that's going on in California, if I went there, I would have been stuck for two weeks and I'd have a week of vacation.

So one of these things I will get her on the show and will have her tell her story about how she again, how she got into voodoo and things that she's learned throughout the years on this. But yeah, the dolls were actually used to help heal people and not just hurt. And a lot of people don't realize that. Like I said, they all just focus on the bad side because of voodoo is scary.

Right. I think of the Disney movie Princess and the Frog and that's got, you know, voodoo and that guy's voodoo and he's evil and scary looking. No, I'm not saying you should run out and become, you know, a voodoo follower. But it's, yeah, it just doesn't really give me that super evil vibe that I imagined.

It's kind of like what we talked about Anton LaVey and the literature to Satan where they focus more on like helping people as opposed to like being this satanic cult that just wants to do all this negative and evil stuff in the world. I think it's a Hollywood thing. They just put this terrible spin on the religion, not saying you should run out and be a Satan stealer. But it's just that people don't, they don't want to focus on the good that some of these religions can do.

They all want to focus on the bad because that's more entertaining, I guess. Right. And I think people kind of like being scared. I think that's why they go go swimming with us.

Now me, I actually find kind of this time period, you know, the antebellum, the voodoo era. I find it interesting. You know, I'm not going to start practicing voodoo because I like my religion and I would like to not be excommunicated. But I do find it interesting.

And so another book if you're interested in this is a little bit of a teenager-y type book. But I read it and I liked it so that maybe that'll do something about me. And I don't have the author right off the top of my head. But the book is called Ruined.

And it's a story that takes place in New Orleans, you know, during Mardi Gras, gets a lot into, you know, kind of some of the voodoo aspects and a lot of stuff that happens in the cemetery. And it's a really cool book if you want to read a book kind of, you know, within this genre kind of give you the feel. Also, a couple nights ago I told Chad I'm like, oh, we need to watch Skeleton Key. Have you guys seen Skeleton Key?

Okay, that's one. So in fact, Lurch, were you in Pike Band when we went to Jackson Hall and we went to the theatre and watched it? Not when we went to Jackson Hall. Was it Jackson Hall?

Was it a different? No, I remember we went to a different place. I went to, oh crap, I can't remember. Two songs?

No, I don't recall. I didn't see Skeleton Key with you guys. Okay, because we're like, we're going to go to a movie. And I didn't know what it was.

I never heard of it. All I know was enormously pregnant at the time. And so I took a pillow to the theatre. And I'm like, if they don't let me bring this pillow in, they're going to get a grumpy pregnant woman or pillow to the theatre.

I was ready. I was in fine mode, but I thought this was going to be a scary movie. So I sat there, you know, braced waiting for the, you know, the jump house where I'm going to get it wasn't. It's not a scary movie.

It's more suspenseful. But again, it gives you the flavor and kind of the taste of the mood. If you haven't seen it, I really highly highly recommend it. Skeleton Key.

Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson. And when we watched it, it didn't end. I think I've got two movies mixed up in my head because it didn't end the way I remember it and it's a good ending. I'm not going to spoil it for you.

But I was like, uh, I remember the ending. But it's really, really cool. But it's a, it's a slower paced movie. It's not a high action movie.

Right. It kind of builds. It's a mystery. It builds.

It's suspenseful. And Kate Hudson, you know, is putting pieces together. And if you, if you're a fan of Kate Hudson, most of the stuff that she does are kind of the rom coms, you know, the funny things. This is, this is more serious.

So it's kind of fun to see her play a little more serious, you know, role that's not as light heart as a little darker material. Which does deal with Voodoo. And that's why we brought it on this podcast. A good nature nurse living in New Orleans, quits her job at a hospice to work for Violet and the other one who's been.

And that doesn't sound like Marina, though, at all. It is a poor health following a stroke. When Carolyn begins to explore the couples rundown by you mentioned, she discovers strange artifacts and learns the house has a mysterious ass. She continues to investigate, she realizes that Violet is keeping a sinister secret.

How is Ben's illness? Dun dun dun. An actor who plays Ben is the same guy who plays all of Andrin. So if you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll like this movie.

Yeah, because they're the same. I can hear all the Harry Potter fans rushing out the door to go rent. They go to their Blockbuster to get the Blockbuster video cards all dusted off and polished. Be kind, rewind.

You think at this point they'd just be like fiercely typing out their cell phone so they could rent it on a red box or something. We're just going to stream it. We'll go outdoors anymore. Yeah.

You can go outside and get the Camus. Does Comcast have it on stream? We just download it. I'm sure somebody's got it.

Between Hulu, Comcast, Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, I probably could name like four others that I don't know if- Yeah, we had it on Plex. It's insane too because, you know, we were just on vacation. And that's all that we have is like streaming services, you know, Disney Plus and Hulu and Netflix, and we don't have cable TV. And so we went on vacation.

They don't- they only have cable TV there. So my daughter's like trying to figure out which remot pauses the show. It's like honey, that's a- it's live, you know? She just doesn't understand the concept though.

Kids are funny. So my eight-year-old was out in the garage and we have a big tall tower full of CDs that we don't play anymore. We've ripped them. DVDs that we've ripped and put on Plex and she goes out there and you know, these kids are on Netflix and you just see a little square on your screen.

So she comes in the house and she goes, Mom, I found a bunch of channels in the garage. I was like, Channel, we talk about it, she takes me out and shows me. She has no idea what it was DVD. It's like, but they're channels.

They found a whole bunch of channels. I don't feel old now. I'm sure we don't feel old now. You know, and there were these things called records.

Yeah. They only get real old school. You probably grew up with A-Track. Yes?

I barely remember A-Track. I don't remember A-Track, but yeah. And it would play and then you'd hear a click and it would go to the next track. And it would just cycle forever.

My parents had a Muppets. A- A-Track. Muppets and John Denver. That's what I would listen to when I was little.

And this relates to Voodoo because... It's old. Because we were practically born in the end of the Belland times. So, yeah.

Hang on, pause it for a second. No. Alright, so I guess we should kind of go back to Marie LaVoe since that's where our topic is on today. Wait, what?

Who? We're talking. So back in that time it was illegal for a mixed marriage. You couldn't do it.

So she actually had two children. Only two that survived into adulthood. One, as we mentioned before, was also named Marie. And she kind of took and ran with her mother's practice.

Like I said, I think she did kind of go a little darker. And I don't even know if it was darker or just more traditional. And have quite all the Catholicism. But when her mother died.

And if you look at pictures, these are very pretty women. They're very, very beautiful. But she was so much resembled from her mother and did the same practices from her mother. That they're not sure if...

I mean, obviously they knew Marie. But sometimes they would see the mother walking around. And they just didn't know if it was, oh, that's just the daughter that we're seeing. Or if they actually saw the mother, the original Marie in spirit.

Because of the boudou coming back. Like the Jedi in Star Wars. I knew that would make you laugh. Marie became a force ghost.

She's a Jedi. No, but we just see the ghost of Marie or was that the daughter. And so they've been reported sightings of her. But again, they don't know.

Is it a sighting or is it just the daughter that they're seeing? Where are they sighting? Does it specifically say where in New Orleans? Nothing to say.

The accounts that I read just walking down the street near her home. Or centralized to where she would have been. But then, so Marie the original. The kind of name there.

So Marie Luevo the mother. After her husband died, she actually had a domestic partnership with a French guy named Christoph Dominique Dumini de Grappola. And I never really took French in school. So if I just slaughtered that, my apologies.

And she lived with him until he died in 1855. And they were reported to have had 15 children. You needed to read that name like the substitute teacher in that Kean Pilskit. A-A-Ron.

Yo. What's his name? Dominique. So Christoph Dominique Dumini de Grappola.

How's that better? DeGlay-Pian. Where you have to play? DeGlay-Pian.

A-Ron. It's how the substitute teacher, my Kean Pils, looking up. You've done messed up A-Ron. You also have to look up the East-West Division for sports.

It's hilarious. Oh yeah. That is freaking hilarious. I do know that, I think it was 1831, Marie's grandmother passed away.

And the home that was supposed to go to Marie, some dude was like shut up and he's like, oh this is actually my house. And I'm supposed to get all the money and stuff like that. And they ended up putting the house up for auction. And that's when Christoph came in and actually bought the house and gave it back to Marie.

So Marie is actually able to stay living in her child's home. And it's like they said, it's rumored they had like 15 to 20 kids. 15. At some point I would have said you know what you were sleeping in the other room.

But from what I was reading, they've only actually been able to confirm, I don't know if it's 7. Stop washing your underwear with mine. Yeah, so I mean it even said if you do the research that it's unclear if that number 15 included children and grandchildren. So there may have been 15 children in the home, but some of them may have been grandchildren.

And I think I mentioned this before, but it's confirmed that she owned about seven slaves. But I can only imagine that she would have treated them quite well. There are probably more employees in her home to help her. Because I can't imagine that being the granddaughter of a slave, that you would, you know, a daughter of slaves that you would treat your slaves poorly.

So, and that's just supposition on my part. But I would imagine, based on just everything I've read about her and you know her parents and her grandparents that she probably treated her slaves very well. Well, it's said like we mentioned earlier that she with her practice, she did healings and was it was a healer of sorts. Basically and my experience when I come across like energy healers or other people of that nature, they it's very difficult for them to treat people badly because they just have that need to help people feel good about themselves and live a better life.

So I think it would be highly unlikely that she treated her slave poorly. You know, it's probably, hey, come with me. I'll give you a job and I'll make sure that you're not on your own. So it was announced that she died on June 17th, 1881.

You know, her actual death date was a little unclear. They did say that she died peacefully in her home. The thing that I find interesting is she was such an important part of the city, at least for many people that wanted her skills and abilities, that her funeral was very lavish. And it was attended by a really diverse audience, you know, including members of the white elite, members of the black community.

I mean, everybody was there. It wasn't just, you know, these kind of people, that kind of people. And then there was just a little bit of everybody. And then, you know, oral tradition, I don't know that it's really written down anywhere.

They just, maybe it's been, or oral tradition, as they said, that she was seen in town almost immediately after her death. So we talked about her daughter that's Marie, her two daughters, according to French tradition, were both named Marie actually, and they would go by their middle name as their common name. But it was one of these two daughters that did carry on her work after her. And then, in the first time, there was almost kind of a revival of seances, you know, of spiritualism, where they, it was kind of almost like a party thing.

You know, you get together, you put on your tuxedo and your ball gown, and you get together with all your other debutant friends. And let's have a shaman come over and do stuff by singing to her crystal ball. So, you know, she was probably a very prominent woman in both the white and black communities, being an ex-labor self. You know, she had ties to both cultures.

And so I can understand how her funeral would have been lavish too, how a lot of people from both cultures, from both the white community and the black community were showing up. And that's pretty typical for a southern funeral too, is you know, you google like a New Orleans-style funeral, and there's a band, a swing band playing music. It's a party. It's a party down the street with drinking, and they carry your casket through the street, and they parade you around, and you know, they don't do it small.

And that's even for just like, you know, a very, you know, I don't want to say unpopular for someone who's just a normal person, you know. But yeah, I could imagine that for her it would have been a different sort of celebration. So, not really surprised by what she said. So, you know, we talked about her tomb, which is in, you know, the St.

Louis Cemetery number one. It was actually vandalized in December 17th, 2013, and somebody decided that it would be a great idea to go in and paint her tomb with pink latex paint. And you know, the problem with that is one, you know, you don't just go around painting people's headstones at them, but you know, especially where this is so old and so historical. They removed the paint because the actual structure was made of an old plaster, and if you paint it with latex, it's going to seal in the moisture, and then the moisture's going to destroy it, the plaster.

So, the people who maintain the cemetery is the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and they decided to go in and pressure wash it, rather than strip it with like a paint stripper. And you know, some conservationists kind of criticized them because they said that was not right, they do it, but either way, they did get to paint off. And because of that, you can't just go traipse them around her headstone anymore, her mottilyam or any more, you have to go on a guided tour now. And I think that same cemetery is where they filmed scenes from Easy Rider, and there's a scene in the movie where what's named Hopper and Fonda are both tripping on acid, and they're all over this mausilyam that has like angels and stuff hanging from it.

And I guess someone tried to recreate that scene themselves. I don't know if they were under the same influence, but they tried climbing on that mausilyam. And you know, you have to climb up there about 10 or 12 feet, and it's a dome mausilyam that's probably about 20 feet, you know, in diameter. And so you have to climb up there and then you're literally hanging on the side of this building, and it's not enough years old, but I think they knocked off one of the statues.

So, you know, they just, I think they're just being careful with security, keeping people from vandalizing that grave and Marie's grave and all the other mausilyams that are in that area, especially in the downtown area, it's easy to get to in the French Quarter. There's kind of a lot of tourists, a lot of crime in that area. So, one thing I think we have yet to touch on, you know, we keep saying that she did all these things and people go and ask for favors, what are these favors? So, in the front room of her house, that her grandmother built, she had altars, and these altars were filled with candles, holy images, you know, probably some of the Catholic saints.

You know, in different offerings, every week she would lead a meeting, and this would include, you know, again, just like her funeral, a very diverse, you know, group of people there, white people there, black people there. It didn't matter, you know, rich, poor, if they felt like they needed her services, there they were. These participants, when they come, they would dress online, and they would chant and sing, and then they would leave offerings of liquor and food to the spirits that they were asking these favors from. So, so she would do these group meetings, but she also would have individual clients come, and she would give them advice on everything, you know, from women lawsuits, you know, attracting lovers.

In fact, when she died, in the New York Times her obituary said, lawyers, legislators, planters, and merchants all came to pay their respects and seek for offices. So, you know, if you needed it, she could do it, you know, most likely. So, you know, we've talked a lot about how it didn't matter what color you were, what walk of life you were, you know, you'd go to Maria if you needed something. But they did say that the white community, as a whole, never accepted, you know, voodoo as a legitimate religion, which in part is why it's kind of considered the occult still today, is because, you know, the majority of the people in the area, I mean, some of them would go and get her services, but as a whole, they kind of put it as a religion, and considered it as a cult.

So, because of that, you know, the naysayers, because there are going to be the naysayers out there. They, exactly, you say nay. Who said that, anyway, the naysayer. So, you know, there were those that were racist, and you know, their natural tendencies to try to, you know, make her sound bad.

And so, you know, they'd have these sensational stories in the newspapers that would describe her ceremonies as, you know, drug and orgies, which is not what they were. I mean, they were, there were a lot of people there, they were all in white, and they did leave liquor for the spirits, but you know, they weren't the drug and orgies that the newspapers would try to, try to lay out. It wasn't the deleted scenes from Eyes of White Shut. The news lies?

What? This is hundreds of years ago, or a hundred years ago, even. And it just got, I know. So, but during her lifetime, besides, you know, besides her religion, and besides the voodoo that she performed, she did other acts of community service.

She nursed people with yellow fever, she had post-bail for free women of color, she would visit condemned prisoners, and you know, pray with them during their final hours to bring them some comfort. And she was just so huge that even after her death in 1881, you know, her legend just kind of keeps, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So, she was pretty cool, maybe, from what I can tell. She actually had in an American Horror Story, I believe it was season three, which are coven, actually.

One of the characters was actually Marie Levo. They did a little thing with her in the show, and I believe they also had her in Apocalypse as well. They kind of put her in a couple of seasons, kind of showing a little bit about the Hollywood version of voodoo, if you will. She's been depicted in a couple of different things when it comes to TV and movies.

So, I mean, people still talk about her, you know, even to this thing. Yeah, so, you know, if you're like a sea liz on it, and just kind of garage, you know, at the time she must have been something. Yeah, she must have been a big deal. Her obituary made it all the way up to New York.

Yep, so that said something, especially in that time. So, yeah, I'm sure there's more stuff on Marie that we're just kind of covering some of the basics and how she was a person which she did. I looked it up, the House of Nicholas Cange actually bought was of Laularoo. It wasn't Marie Levo's house.

But that's something we'll cover in another episode, as well as the spiritualist movement of the 1800s, because it all kind of fits together. Because of the spiritualist movement. I mean, we've already tackled a couple of topics that happened during the spiritualist movement. This being one of them.

You have the Ouija board episode I did with Mike and Castle. That also took place during the spiritualist movement around that time. So, there's a lot to that I think we'll definitely get into in another episode. But I think that's all we have for Marie Levo at this time, right?

Yep. So, we'll Marie later. Yeah. Where's the rimshot?

The rimshot. The only weird wild stuff for us this week? Yes, that being said, my weird wild stuff was the haunted booty doll. And I gave it as part of our story.

So. Okay. I guess we'll jump into the stone of the week. I do not know if I've already talked about this.

I didn't see it on my list, so I don't think I have this week. I will be talking about adventuring. Sounds like a fun step. It could be.

I want to go on an adventure with it. It's an adventure. Maybe. It's an adventure.

It's sponsored by the adventure. It comes in a couple of different colors. It can be green, blue, red, brown, or peach. It's readily available.

You can find this everywhere. That was more than a couple. Yes. It can be found in five colors.

A few colors. Basically, any crystal shop in your area or online, you can find a venturing. It's all over the place. The color I see the most, though, is green and blue.

I haven't really seen the other three colors. I think I have one of those, actually. So, let's jump right into it. Adventuring is a very positive stone of prosperity.

It has a strong connection to the Devic Kingdom and is used to grid gardens or houses against geopathic stress. Wearing a venturing absorbs electromagnetic smog and protects against environmental pollution. Taped to a cell phone, it acts as a protection against its emissions. This crystal diffuses negative situations and turns them around.

Psychologically, a venturing reinforces leadership qualities and decisiveness. It promotes compassion and empathy and encourages perseverance. It takes you back into the past to find sources of dis-ease. This stone relieves stammers and severe neurosis, bringing understanding of what lies beneath the conditions.

A venturing stabilizes one state of mind, stimulates perception, and enhances creativity. It sees alternatives and possibilities, especially those presented by other people. This stone brings together the intellectual and emotional bodies. A venturing calms anger and irritation.

It stimulates emotional recovery and enables living with one's heart. Physically, a venturing promotes a feeling of well-being. It regulates growth from birth to seven years. It balances male-female energy and encourages regeneration of the heart.

A spiritually-eventuring protects the heart chakra, guarding against psychic vamparism of heart energy. Now, it's healing. A venturing benefits the thymus gland, connective tissue, and nervous system. It balances blood pressure and stimulates metabolism.

Luring cholesterol and preventing heart attacks, it has an anti-inflammatory effect and helps ease skin eruptions and allergies. Relieves migraine headaches and soothes the eyes. A venturing heals the adrenals, lungs, sinuses, heart, and muscular and urogenital systems. As an elixir, it relieves skin problems.

When you use this, you want to place or hold on the appropriate point on your body. Some of the specific colors that have a little bit different properties. You want blue as a very powerful mental healer. Green is a comforter and heart healer and general harmonizer, protecting the heart.

It brings things back into control and is useful in the malignant conditions. It sells nausea and dissolves negative emotions and thoughts. It's an all-around healer, bringing in well-being and emotional calm. That stone this week is adventuring.