I discovered the hidden world of voodoo and other secrets of New Orleans counterculture
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“People have this idea that voodoo is used for harm,” says guide Andersen Gabrych, plunging a needle through the unblinking button eye of his feathered voodoo doll. “But these workshops are helping to change that narrative by showing how voodoo can actually be used for good, for healing.”
It’s a weekday morning in New Orleans, and we’re standing in a store chock-full of spiritual supplies. Tarot cards, candles, even a box of loose alligator paws are watched over by a beady-eyed taxidermied raccoon perched on a nearby shelf. “But it’s also about having a good time, because that’s what people come to New Orleans for,” Gabrych adds with a broad smile.
A new wave of practitioners is shedding light on voodoo, nudging open the door to this hush-hush world for some of the 19 million visitors who come here each year.
Since launching its voodoo doll-making classes in September 2025, Unique NOLA Tours – a shop and tour company based in the historic French Quarter, surrounded by buildings with iron-lace balconies – has become a hit. Its classes run six times a week and sell out at lightning speed, says Gabrych. Family-friendly sessions have been added to the schedule too.
Despite the bad reputation voodoo dolls acquired in 1980s pop culture thanks to films such as The Witches of Eastwick and Child’s Play, which portrayed them as tools used for causing pain, Gabrych says the dolls are actually intended for positive purposes.
Rather than instruments of harm, they are reputed to serve as links for channelling energy and attracting love, peace and happiness. He adds that public perceptions are beginning to change on that front: “A lot of young people became interested in New Orleans voodoo through Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.”
Inside the shop, the air is heady with the earthy aroma of sage and tobacco, sold in little bags pegged to the far wall. Gabrych, beaded necklaces hanging at his chest and a shock of white hair sculpted into a quiff, kicks off the two-hour session by cleansing our hands with citrusy Florida Water before setting intentions.
“What we’re practising here is actually hoodoo,” he is quick to highlight. “Rather than the religion, which is called voodoo, hoodoo is the American folk-magic side of things.”
Voodoo in New Orleans evolved from spiritual traditions brought by enslaved Africans who combined their West and Central African spiritual beliefs with elements of French and Spanish Catholicism, creating the unique tradition now known as Louisiana Voodoo.
“More people are getting curious about our culture here,” Gabrych notes as we bind little wooden sticks to form the base of our dolls.
“Sure, there are ladies coming here for a hootenanny party, drinking wine and laughing. But the classes also often attract those who have recently lost someone, because we’re working at the crossroads between life and death. For example, the red cotton we’re using symbolises Papa Legba,” he says, referring to the voodoo spirit who governs the divide between the living and the deceased.
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Content retrieved from: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/louisiana/louisiana-new-orleans-voodoo/.
