Halloween Voodoo

Halloween Voodoo by voodoomama
Design custom t shirts at Zazzle

A spooky Halloween Voodoo design for you to enjoy.

The cover of my new book Voodoo Dolls in Magick and Ritual has a nifty Voodoodle that combines the ritual symbol for Papa Legba with a Voodoo doll. It's kind of an inside thing between him and I, this Voodoo doll thing...

In any event, my book is now available as a Paperback book and instant download!

Download: 1 documents, 41376 KB
Printed: 213 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, cream interior paper (60# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-color exterior ink

Description: Tracing the Voodoo doll’s roots back in time, this book provides a fascinating account of the most provocative and mystifying icon of the African-derived healing tradition of Creole Voodoo. The author explains the multicultural history of the Voodoo doll, dispels stereotypes and myths, while at the same time showing the reader how to make and use Voodoo dolls to enhance everyday life. Learn how to make three kinds of Voodoo dolls, find over 40 spells and rituals to find love, attract wealth, offer protection, and promote healing and happiness. The book is richly illustrated with over 50 photographs of all kinds of Voodoo dolls, both vintage and contemporary.

Copyright Year: 2009
Language: English Country: United States
Keywords: voodoo, voodoo dolls, New Orleans, religion, spells, rituals, magick, vodou, Africans, slavery, Creole, Haiti, folk magick

 Preview this book

To purchase a copy of this book, head on over to The Mystic Voodoo.

Mal de Ojo Voodoodle

This is the first Voodoodle of the new year. He is inspired by ancient mexican designs and the evil eye, "mal de ojo". He is a good luck voodoodle, designed to ward off all evil and negativity for 2009.

At the Cemetery

Okay, so I haven't been posting a Voodoo doll a day for awhile, but I have been creating them. This one is the melding of a photograph I took in a local cemetery. I have been trying to find the right place to put this Voodoo doll, and he ended up here. These are two renditions.

Swamp Zombie Art

Today's piece features a swamp zombie theme and uses the image of the only zombie ever photographed, Felicia Felix-Mentor. The original photograph, taken by Zora Neale Hurston, does not reveal much detail and looks as though her eyes are closed. I wanted to let her see so I painted some eyes for her. I also painted an image of les Grande Zombi on her forehead. In New Orleans Voodoo, zombies are often portrayed as Simbi, the water serpent. If you look closely, you will see a water moccasin swimming in the water in the background.

As the story goes, Felicia Felix-Mentor was found wandering half-naked on a road in Haiti's Artibonite Valley. To everyone's surprise, she was was identified by her father and brother as Felicia Felix-Mentor. However, in 1907 she reportedly died from a sudden fever. The now infamous ethnographer and writer, Zora Neale Hurston happened upon her while she was at the hospital and took a photograph of her. I can't imagine that she would have only taken one photo of her, given she was an ethnographer. But, this is the only photo I have ever found, and it is reportedly the only photograph of a real zombie ever taken. According to Zora Neale Hurston:

"The sight was dreadful. That blank face with the dead eyes. The eyelids were white all around the eyes as if they had been burned with acid. There was nothing you could say to her or get from her except by looking at her, and the sight of this wreckage was too much to endure for long."

At the same time Ms. Hurston observed Felicia, a psychiatrist named Louis Mars also observed her and attributed her strangeness to schizophrenia. You can read more about it here:
The Story of Zombi in Haiti

Sequin Effect with Photoshop

This piece was inspired by the drapo flags unique to Haitian Vodou art. Once I decided on the design, which incorporates the ritual symbol for the loa Agasou, the challenge was to make the image look like it was crafted out of sequins like a real drapo. After a bit of trial and error, I finally figured out a way to give the image the effect I was looking for.

Legba Bust in Earthenware Pot

Legba has his origins with the Fon people Of Dahomey (Benin) Africa and is said to be the guardian and trickster of the crossroads and entrances. He is one of the most widely worshipped loas and is known by several names. In Surinam in Brazil he is known as Exu, in Trinidad, in Cuba he is known as Elegua, and in Haiti and New Orleans he is known as Papa Legba. Papa Legba is the master linguist, the trickster, warrior, and the personal messenger of destiny. He has the power to remove obstacles and he provides opportunities. All ceremonies begin and end with Papa Legba, and there can be no communication with any of the other loas without consulting him first. His gift for linguistics enables him to translate the requests of humans into the languages of the spirits and loas.

This piece was inspired by the ancient Legbas found in terracotta and earthenware pots of Africa. Legbas come in many forms. Some are depicted as male and female, some with enhanced manhoods, some as healers, and some as protectors. Still others can be apologetic legbas and petitioned for forgiveness when a person has insulted the gods through awful behaviors like rape and burglary. Sometimes legbas are created with 2 or three heads. Many of the legba busts have cowry shells for eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

Love Puppet, I Mean Poppet

The making of Voodoo dolls, poppets, fetishes, and ritual effigies has taken place since antiquity. Though the practice is ancient, their present use remains similar.

Poppets can be used for healing purposes, promoting health, finding love, creating happiness and good luck, for protection, for binding, cursing, and to manipulate energy in numerous other ways. Poppets comes in several forms, including wax, cloth, paper, wood, root, and clay.

Today's Voodoodle was inspired by one of the vintage poppets that can be found in the New Orleans Voodoo museum. This style of Voodoo doll used to be quite popular in New Orleans. He has a red pin for love and a white pin for attracting love to him.

Baron Samedi

This is another work in the Voodoo veve series I am doing. My goal is to do my interpretation of several of the loa's ritual symbols. This one is for the Lord of the cemeteries, Baron Samedi. This guy loves to party, and is partial to dancing, cigars, and rum. But don't let that fool you, he is also a fierce protector of children, so all you perps out there better watch out.

Simbi, Bearer of Souls

In Haitian Vodou, Simbi are a large family of serpent deities. Pictured is the ritual symbol for Simbi of the Water (Simbi Dlo), which is actually taken from a photograph of a shield on one of my Voodoo dolls. The background is a vintage photo of Marie Laveau's grave. Simbi is the bearer of souls to all places, and the creative principle.This is one in a series of vintage feel Voodoodles I am working on.

Digg Voodoo

So, I have been wanting to make a Digg Voodoo doll for awhile now, and here it is. For those who are unfamiliar with the color significance of Voodoo, the red means you love it, and the black means avoid it at all costs. Feel free to grab it as a button and use it on your blog or site, but you can't charge for it in any fashion. Enjoy!

Voodoo Doll #13 Found in St. Pete Cemetery?

Here is Voodoo doll # 13 and a story to go along with it...

Voodoo Dolls Found In St. Pete Cemetery The Real Deal
By MELANIE AVE
St. PETERSBURG TIMES

ST. PETERSBURG | The mystery began innocently enough.

Boy Scout Troop No. 305 agreed to help clean up the historic Greenwood Cemetery, the final resting place for many of St. Petersburg's early leaders.

It's been in terrible shape, with weeds as high as toddlers and broken headstones scattered like gravel. But improvements have come in recent years.

Over a week ago, the Boy Scouts — 11 boys ages 12 to 18 — put on their work clothes and started digging, cleaning and traipsing through the tree-covered cemetery.

A few loaded a downed tree.

That's when they spotted the strange objects on a nearby Spanish moss-draped oak.

Three 5-inch-tall voodoo dolls, hung in a vertical line on the tree's bark.

"They looked nothing like dolls," said Bryan McDonough, 12.

"They were kind of like ugly creatures that would eat you alive," added his 10-year-old brother, Kevin, a Webelos Cub Scout.

Nails peeked through their stuffing. Rusty pins stuck in their faceless heads, arms and legs.

"It freaked out a couple of the boys," said scoutmaster Marty Robertson. "Some thought it was kind of cool."

• • •

It didn't take long for word to spread.

It penetrated a few of the classrooms at Lutheran Church of the Cross School, where some of the Scouts attend. E-mails passed among a devoted group of preservationists who have worked for years to restore the cemetery.

One curious adult claimed she touched one of the dolls, and her friend wrecked his scooter that same day.

Was there a connection? Cue spooky music.

Located at Dr. M.L. King Jr. Street and 11th Avenue S, the Greenwood Cemetery buried its first resident more than a century ago. Dozens of Civil War veterans, Union and Confederate, are buried on opposite sides.

Ancestors of some of the city's most notable families are there. The first mayor, David Moffett. Local hermit Silas Dent.

So is the body of Almon B. Strowger, inventor of the automatic telephone switch, who was interred in 1902.

A local artist from New Orleans got wind of the dolls and insisted on seeing them, said Chris Kelly, a historical activist and key player in the Greenwood Cemetery restoration.

The artist confirmed it.

The dolls are the real deal, meaning they appear to be the kind used in various African-derived religions like Santeria and Vodun.

"The nails are through the sternum," Kelly said last week, eyeballing the grayish-brown dolls hanging near the grave of a dentist. Their edges look scorched.

"I wonder if somebody got a bad root canal," he said, jokingly.

• • •

The dolls don't appear to be causing anything more than a stir.

The St. Petersburg Police Department has not investigated any voodoo-related incidents at the Greenwood Cemetery recently, according to police spokesman Bill Proffitt. No dead animals. No body parts.

Local lawyer Marian McGrath said the cemetery's grounds­keeper noticed the dolls in the winter.

"They've just been there," said McGrath, administrator of the Greenwood Cemetery Association. "We don't know where they came from."

Some of the Scouts theorize the dolls were hung as a prank. Others are not so sure.

Scout Thomas Bulu, 13, did some research after the discovery and learned sometimes the dolls are used to put curses on enemies.

"They can also be used to help people," he said. "Why do people do this? I just started wondering."

University of South Florida religion professor Mozella Mitchell, who studies Caribbean faiths, said the dolls are associated with a whole host of African-derived religions. They're common among people of Haitian, Cuban and Caribbean descent.

She said believers often use the dolls as sacred objects to connect with the supernatural world. Graveyards are ground zero for making that contact, she said.

Typically, the dolls are not used for evil purposes, she said. "I'd say certain sects might work a trick on somebody," Mitchell said. "But that's a very minor aspect of the religion."

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080515/BREAKING/439140310

Voodoodle #12

I can't seem to find the voodoodle I did yesterday, so I had to resort to this one as a backup. It is a graphic of a portion of the wall of Marie Laveau's tomb and my virtual graffiti.

The X practice, as it is often referred to, is considered desecration and thus illegal. Marking on any grave in any of the historic New Orleans cemeteries is subject to legal action. In no way is the X practice encouraged by this artwork.

You can read more about the X practice and the Haunted New Orleans Wish Spell here.

Doodling is a Universal Art Form

Doodling is a universal art form. Anyone who can hold a pencil has doodled something at some point in their lives. However, some are taking doodling to new heights, elevating it as a legitimate art form. For example, a group of Filipino graphic artists promote their creativity through doodling. This art form takes hold as creative decor for restaurants, galleries and office spaces.



If you are interested in doodling as an art form, check out my friend Gretchen Little's site at Squidoo, Doodle Art.

Cinco de Mayo Voodoodle

Yes, even Voodoo dolls love to party!

Voodoo Power Talisman

After a serious bout with the flu that precluded me from doodling, I am back with a vengeance. Here is the latest voodoodle. It is a power talisman for Ogun.

Zombie Plant and Voodoo Doll, Baby

Well, it's not a George Bush zombie...but it is another voodoo doll, baby.

Three New Voodoo Squidoodles

This Voodoo Squiddoodle was created for my new lens Voodoo Squidoodles at Squidoo by Gretchen Little. I knew she would do a great job incorporating one of her fabulous hearts with the squid, and I can't wait to put him on the lens Thanks Gretchen!



Here is the same squiddoodle. This time the Oshun's ritual symbol is on the heart. Now it is officially a Voodoo Squiddoodle.



This guy is my new Voodoo Squiddoodle, swimming with La Baleine, who is the Mother of the Waters. My, he looks like a huge phallic symbol, doesn't he?

Voodoo Squidoodles

Voodoo Doll Baby

Here's the latest Voodoodle in the Voodoo-Doll-a-Day series. She's a Voodoo doll baby, one of several who will be part of my Voodoo doll tree I am working on.