Cajun Traditions Are Steeped in Mystery

My Grandma, dad and uncle

Cajun Traditions Are Steeped in Mystery

Growing up in a Cajun family, I learned about the mysteries of the spiritual world at an early age. My family traditions were steeped in secrets and stories that were only shared with other Cajuns and family members. There were tales told anytime we met with cousins and other family members with the warning "don't tell anyone".

It was actually fun to hear about someone who had brushes with Voodoo and Hoodoo and the stories about miracles. We devoured every little detail about how a preacher lady made a family move from my grandma's home by discovering a little bag hidden in a cabinet that had caused her to get very sick.

The stories of healing and traiteurs - the traditional healers of our culture - kept us talking for hours. Then there were the ghost stories that were unlike any we had ever read.

Personal Experiences

There were also personal experiences, like snakes everywhere when we were moving from a small town in Louisiana and my grandmother telling all of us "The snakes are here. Hurry, we have to be out of here by sundown. Take the kids and go"

Then another time, there was an old man who called wasps to him in a small building my dad had. He killed them one by one with his fingers as they came to him. No more wasp nest.

My Mawmaw would remove warts with a string and a prayer.  My other grandma once cured an elderly couple during the swine flu epidemic after doctors had given up on them.  She used twigs from a tree in her yard and made a tea from them.  She also made me chew the center so I wouldn't get sick. It was very bitter, but I didn't get sick.

There were many such incidents in my life.

Legacies

There were also fascinating stories of legacies (gifts) being passed to individuals chosen by people before they died and a dream my dad had that his legacy would pass to me. Certain abilities seemed to be inherited while others were received from our elders as chosen by them.

I was called several times to come pray by the bedside of a dying elder in my family.  Later I would see a new ability or get a new impression I had never felt before.

MawMaw

The stories that held my attention the longest were the ones about readings. Card readings, coffee cup readings, lamp readings, there were so many different kinds that served many different purposes. 

My Mawmaw would have a client come in and tell us to all go outside. Then we would peak in windows and hide near the house to hear her read. Yeah, kids do that.

Late at night, my Mawmaw would bring out the lamp and a glass of water and a mirror. Hours were spent sharing with us how to scry the lamp.

There were memories of waking up in the middle of the night because Mawmaw was talking to someone and seeing a shadowy figure standing at the foot of the bed. "Who is that, Mawmaw?" She would always answer "Shhhh that is Aunt Dot, shaa, (or another friend who had long since passed) now go back to sleep."

When we slept over at Mawmaw's, the girls always shared her big bed. The boys slept in the other room, unless my parents were there. Then all of the girls slept in the living room on the floor on a mattress and the boys slept in the kitchen.

We had a big family

There were 11 of us kids - myself and my four siblings, and my cousins. Sometimes other cousins would be living with us and that would make the number even higher. But we would all gather at Mawmaw's for a big dinner on Sundays.

Harvest time was a lot of fun with cracklings, soap making, little egg yolks from the old hens boiled and given to us for snacks, and plucking chickens.  

 Any time we were all together, we spent the better part of the time crowded in a room for "just us girls". There we would learn from each other the way to read playing cards, and coffee cups and tell tales of our latest experiences.

My Other Grandma

My two grandmas, my Aunt Audrey

Every summer I got to go to Louisiana to be with my other grandma. This grandma knew a lot about herbs and how to help people with them. She also taught me about the saints and took me to her church. She once took me to watch a nun receive her vows. Being raised in a Pentecostal family, the Catholic church, with its rich traditions of ceremony and formality drew my interest.

Cajuns are Christian, not Voodooist

Most Cajun families don't actively practice Voodoo- a religion that came to the States from Haiti. However they do practice a form of magick we call "hoodoo" - which is the magick (like folk magick) without the religion.   Hoodoo spells and works are similar to Voodoo- but any Cajun practicing them would tell you they are Christian, not Voodooist.

What matters most is the magick- not the religious practices that may have spawned it. Not only did Cajuns learn from the Creoles and other African Americans in their neighborhood, most were of mixed blood with Native American tribes nearby and learned a lot from their Native ancestors and friends.

The Cajun culture contains remnants of the deep past that started in France, moved to Arcadia, and finally to Louisiana and Southeast Texas. They picked up a lot of things along the way, and simply added everything they learned into the mix. Just as they depended on natives to teach them to survive in the hot Louisiana marshes and bayous, so they drew on different cultures for spiritual beliefs and practices.

This adds up to a very rich culture, steeped in magick, and full of mystery. You can't separate the spiritual from the daily survival. 

You can't be Cajun without the history and all of the assimilation that went into it. Cajuns are inclusive. They will adopt anything they learn from other cultures, absorb it, give it a Cajun twist, and make it their own.

A lot of people don't get that about Cajuns. They think that we are simply a group of people who survived the exodus from Arcadia and who speak with a thick accent and cook good food. They welcome our fait-do-dos and our crawfish boils. They join in the fun of our Mardi Gras. They like that we find any excuse for a celebration in any happening - good or bad.

But they miss the important part- the spiritual part- of our culture. That is because that part has been kept almost a secret for many years. When outsiders hear about it, they think of Voodoo. However, the spiritual culture that has evolved has very little to do with Voodoo. You can't even say it has much to do with the traditions it evolved from. 

It is unique. And very Cajun.

4 generations of Cajun women

Author with brother and cousins