Kristen Finlayson

Voodoo originated in Africa. It is a mysterious and highly powerful magical arts that depend on nature and the spirits in nature. Voodoo literally means "spirit of God". The voodoo practitioners believe that one God exists. But unlike any other God believed by many other culture, this God is someone who don't directly preside over earthly matters. He just allows the spirits (called as loa) to take control over man's life. They are the ones who are in control of man's daily existence. The loas are the ones called upon to aid the voodoo practitioner whenever they are performing the magical spells.

In the USA, voodoo has flourished in New Orleans. This is mainly due to Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen who lived during the 1800s. Her popularity and capability of helping many poor black slaves to improve their lives became the reason why she had many followers. She mixed voodoo with her Catholic faith. It has been said that Marie Laveau rarely does evil spells, and only agrees to do so if the situation calls for it. But her daughter ruined her name. Since her name was also Marie, she carried on her mother's legacy, but opened a brothel and threatened the authorities who wanted to close it with voodoo. Because of this, Marie Leveau's daughter never had the reverence of the people.

Voodoo can be used for both evil and good intentions. The danger with practicing voodoo the evil way is that you become really exposed with the danger of the evil spirits. Your bad deeds will boomerang and it will hurt many times more than what you did to the aggrieved party.

The voodoo doll is one of the most important part of doing voodoo. This is because it can be used both as a lucky charm and as a representative of a person to whom a spell will be cast. In the past, when voodoo was only practiced for good intentions only. There were many voodoo healing spells that were performed for those sick people who cannot directly attend the ceremony itself. When the slavery of the blacks began, voodoo became widely practiced as a means to avenge themselves from their white oppressors. We really cannot blame the blacks for this practice since they were the maltreated persons in this case.

The real purpose of how to do voodoo has never been meant to harm others. Voodoo dolls are also used as fetishes and charms, for protection, love and luck. The practice of voodoo is not limited to the voodoo dolls and spell casting, there are still many to consider. But none of this involves black magic.