Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. I | ✓

Chapter 20: Love, Sex & Passion

     

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I dressed quickly. Sweat stains were already showing through my white blouse.

Seeing the altar for the very first time pushed my nervousness to an entirely different level. It was large, heavily accented and decorated with sparkling jewels, bric a brac, flowers and bottles of rum and wine. And the candles - dozens of them, not yet lit but bright with innocent colors of blue and pink, Erzulie's veve painted on some of them. When I came out of the bathroom and back into the room everyone was already dressed, having taken less time hyperventilating since a ceremony like this isn't unfamiliar to them. As a supplicant, I was the one that was to tell Erzulie what I wanted. The hard part was if she was going to listen to our plea for help anyway.

The dozens of candles that crowded the altar were not yet lit. Esther and Rocio stood by the walls while Kizzy was right behind Miss Aza, sitting with an African drum on her lap. The pastries were laid out on silver platters by the altar as were perfumes and incense sticks. Aza meditated silently, having changed into a light blue dress. Her locs touched the ground behind her, pink flowers weaved all the way down like the flowers on the altar. I stood by and watched as she finished.

"Are you ready?" she asked me when she stood.

I nodded, even though I wasn't too sure.

On a small parchment, Aza told me to write my intent; why I was summoning Erzulie.

"Be honest," she advised. "You don't want to waste Her time."

"I don't think any of us want that," I muttered nervously before taking the quill and writing on the parchment 'enchant this sacred dagger to destroy a vampire. A vampire that seduced me. But he also took some stuff from the Coterie...and from me as well.'

"No, child. Start over," Aza told me, giving me another parchment. I ended up settling for just 'enchant this sacred dagger' before folding it up and giving it to her. Aza threw the old parchment away and didn't forget to eye me judgingly.

With a match, she lit the parchment aflame and burned it into ash. The ash settled onto the floor before she swept it into her hand and placed it into a wax doll that sat in a bowl in front of us. She then lit another match and handed me one that I lit myself. Together, Aza and I set the candles all around the altar aflame and lit the incense sticks as well. Slowly, the room illuminated to a soft red glow. It was beautiful; the scent was pleasantly intoxicating. The candles reflected off of the trinkets and jewels that sat all over the two-tier altar, making the altar sparkle. It looked like something out of a painting or a tale.

When Kizzy began drumming slowly, Aza sat down and gestured for me to sit down next to her. She took a piece of chalk and began to trace Erzulie's veve—her sacred insignia. There was already a large faint mark from the countless times Aza must have drawn it before, so the action was quick. Before us was Erzulie Freda's veve—a heart, accurate to the goddess and her sphere. Aza stood again once the veve was completely finished. I knew what was next—she had to circle the veve with flour. I quickly grabbed the brown vase next to me and handed it to Aza respectfully, then watched as she poured flour into her hand and trailed it behind her while walking around the veve. And once the flour encircled the veve completely, she blew the rest out of her hand into the air, held open hands to the vibrant altar and said:

"By the power of Legba Atibon, guardian of the crossroads, Legba, guardian of the bush, Legba, guardian of the gouse, Ago, Ago, si, Ago la."

She knelt once again until she sat on her knees inside the circle she created. I sat next to her without having to be instructed. Rocio and Esther recited with us as Kizzy continued to drum: