Occult Black History Month
did you know the most powerful practitioner in New Orleans history worked as a hairdresser?
Marie Laveau (1801-1881) knew something most modern occultists forget; real power flows through networks of whispered secrets, shared struggles, and strategic silence. while she's remembered as the Voodoo Queen, her true genius was in understanding that liberation requires both spiritual and earthly power.
her salon wasn't just a business... it was command central for an intelligence network that would make modern hackers jealous. rich white women's secrets flowed freely under her hands, while her spiritual services gave her access to every level of society. she didn't need encrypted channels when she had a city's worth of devoted eyes and ears.
she walked freely through a violently segregated city, entered prisons at will, and made both governors and slaves tremble at her name. not through elaborate rituals or fancy grimoires, but through a perfect fusion of practical cunning and spiritual authority.
the history books want you to see her as some exotic mystery, all snake dances and gris-gris bags. they don't want you thinking too hard about how a free Black woman built an empire of influence in the antebellum South, or why the powerful feared her while the oppressed sought her protection.
they definitely don't want you thinking about how she used that influence. she secured pardons for the condemned, protected fugitive slaves, healed the sick regardless of race or status, and maintained a power base that lasted decades in a time when most Black women couldn't even own property.
she understood something fundamental about power. it's not just about what you can do, it's about what people believe you can do. every rumor of her abilities, every whispered story of her influence, every public display of her authority... all carefully cultivated tools in a arsenal of liberation.
her greatest trick? convincing the powerful she was just entertaining while building networks of resistance right under their noses. she didn't need to hide in shadows, she made herself so visible they couldn't see what was really happening.
that is just amazing shadow/void work. funny how they focus on the rituals and ignore the revolution beneath them. there's a lesson there.
next time someone tells you to keep your spiritual practice 'pure' and separate from politics, remember Marie. she knew that real power isn't about keeping your hands clean, it's about using every tool at your disposal to protect your people.
