Mambo Sallie Anne Glassman is the proprietor of the Island of Salvation Botanica, the

author of "Vodou Visions: An Encounter With Divine Mystery", and creator, with Louis
Martine, of the New Orleans Vodou Tarot. She leads a congregation in New Orleans and
works ceaselessly to promote the image of that city, and of its voodoo heritage. Mambo
Sallie was trained in the OTO and rose in the ranks of that organization (I don't know
much about the OTO and so can't be more specific), although she is not currently active
as an OTO priestess or leader. She has studied many religious traditions. She comes
from a Ukranian Jewish family and was raised in Maine as a child, so she has been
exposed to a wide variety of places and people and cultures.

I met Mambo Sallie almost ten years ago now, and she received me graciously, gave me
a powerfully concise and revealing reading, told me some really great jokes, and invited
me to a lovely ceremony at her house. I got nothing but good vibes from her. I also met
her then-partner, Shane Norris, who was likewise gracious and positive and pleasant to
me.

New Orleans voodoo and Haitian Vodou are not the same. They are related, they share
some vocabulary, but they have distinct differences. Mambo Sallie is very clear about
this. At some point, I believe, she conducted initiation ceremonies in her practice of New
Orleans voodoo, and these ceremonies took place in New Orleans. She chose not to
perform animal sacrifice during those ceremonies.

If it were a Haitian Vodou initiation, animal sacrifice, specifically that of chickens, would
be absolutely mandatory. There's just no way around it. The manje tet, the feeding of the
new initiates' heads, requires sacrifice. The brule zen, the ceremony of fire, requires
sacrifice. Feeding the kolyes, the sacred necklaces, requires sacrifice. It's unavoidable,
it's required, it's necessary. Buying chicken meat at the supermarket for offerings...
doesn't work, it's the life energy of the animal that is offered to the lwa. The meat is for
the congregation to eat.

Haitian Vodou initiations must be conducted in Haiti. Any other service, a dance, a
maryaj lwa, a lave tet, anything else, can be done anywhere. But just as a Pope is made
in Rome, just as Muslims bow to Mecca, a Houngan, Mambo or hounsi of Haitian Vodou
is made in Haiti.

But Mambo Sallie never said, "This is an authentic, correct, Haitian Vodou initiation."
She said, "I am a priestess, I am initiating my people into my interpretation of the New
Orleans tradition, and I choose not to do animal sacrifice." There is absolutely nothing
wrong with that, in fact if every Afro-diasporan religious leader was so candid it would be
a good thing.

Because Mambo Sallie is powerful, she has detractors. Because she is creative,
destructive people don't like her. Because she is an achiever, losers hate her. And so
when life handed her a spate of misfortune, including a breakup with her domestic
partner and the death of one of her congregation members, there emerged a few mean,
hateful so-and-so's. One fellow, who had already gone through, as initiators, Mambo
Yaffa, me, and I think one more by that time, and who was billing himself as "the only
real Houngan in New Orleans", claimed to have caused the breakup, and the
congregation member's death, by magical means. He insisted that this proved that he
was "more powerful", when even if his claims were true, all they meant was that he was
more destructive.

To add insult to injury, the former domestic partner threw in his lot with the "only real
Houngan", and allowed the "only real Houngan" to decree that he, the domestic partner,
had not been "correctly initiated" and that Mambo Sallie's "lwa are no good", and a
bunch of other ridiculous stuff. Mambo Sallie treated all of this with the frosty disdain it
deserved, God love her.

And yet this very day, here comes one of these players again, yammering about how he,
high-and-mighty he, does not consider Mambo Sallie to be a Mambo, because "Vodou is
not a vegetarian religion." It's so pissant, so annoyingly petty and specious and negative,
it upset me today.

So... Shane Norris, I'm sorry I was grumpy. But I don't like this constant effort to tear
down each and every woman of note in the American Vodou/voodoo/hoodoo
community! And I don't like the bullying that is utterly epidemic in this community, the "no
wonder everyone says you're such a bitch" tactics, the arrogance, the snarkiness.

I think I may be forgiven for opining that this arrogance is all the more astounding since it
comes from American white men! Not rural Haitian hereditary Vodouisants who might be
excused for laughing behind their hands at our antics, our stumbling attempts to dance,
our inability to pronounce Creole! But no! These are men who, most of them, can count
on their fingers and toes the number of days they have spent in Haiti! Meanwhile I, who
spent twenty-five years of my life in Haiti, am not yelling, "Listen to me, I don't consider
so and so a Mambo," but instead, "Shut up and listen to black people!"

I'm telling you, this so-called "community" is in trouble deep. Thank God and all Guinea
it's Haitians, and not we internationals, who will be primarily responsible for insuring the
survival of the Vodou tradition in years to come.

Peace and love,

Mambo Racine