Voodoo Takes the Big Banana Down Perhaps the werewolf’s touch was a turning point that the energies of the universe responded to, maybe the gods looked down and were pleased, or maybe it didn’t make one bit of difference. I had one more visit to make in my magical research. My Jesus dream and its connection to voodoo made me determined to experience at least one voodoo ceremony. I particularly liked New Orleans’ Sallie Ann Glassman, a voodoo priestess, or manbo, whom I’d talked to a number of times. I liked her for exactly the reason that some other voodoo practitioners didn’t like her. Among her followers, animal sacrifice is not done. Instead, they generate the energy that spirits want by meditation that brings up prana, or life force, energies. Her teacher in Haiti does conduct animal sacrifices, and Sallie Ann has been to some of them. But Haiti is a far different place than New Orleans, she says. Sallie Ann believes that religions adapt to new circumstances. She believes voodoo deities will come to devotees just as forcefully when enticed by less bloody offerings.
