FINDING MY RELIGION (NOLA Vodou)

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FINDING MY RELIGION
Sallie Ann Glassman, a Vodou priestess in New Orleans, on what Vodou is really about

Voodoo: The word conjures up visions of crude dolls stuck with pins, hungry zombies and malicious magical practices so bizarre that we now refer to anything that we can't easily understand -- from economic theories to computer maintenance -- as "voodoo."

But Sallie Ann Glassman says that Vodou (actual spelling) isn't incomprehensible or spooky. She is an initiated Vodou priestess, one of the few Americans to be ordained into Vodou via the traditional Haitian initiation rites. Vodou, to Glassman and the members of her temple, La Source Ancienne Ounfo, is a faith that helps people escape self-imposed boundaries and envision a world of infinite possibility. Vodou's roots can be found in West Africa's ancestral religious traditions. Different forms are practiced in New Orleans, New York City, Brazil and the Caribbean islands.

Glassman is the author of the widely acclaimed "Vodou Visions: An Encounter With Divine Mystery" (Random House, 2000). After Hurricane Katrina, she founded The New Orleans Hope and Heritage Project, a public charity that conducts free trauma-relief sessions and distributes donations to New Orleans' residents trying to rebuild after Katrina. Through La Source Ancienne, she also conducts public and private prayer ceremonies that address issues of crime prevention, hurricane prevention and the shoring up of Louisiana's levees and wetlands.

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