Mary Oneida Toups

Mary Oneida Toups (April 25, 1928 – 1981) was an American occultist. As the founder and high priestess of the Religious Order of Witchcraft, she was known as the "Witch Queen of New Orleans". Her order was the first coven to be chartered as an official religious organization in the state of Louisiana. In 1975 she published an instructional occultist book titled Magick High and Low.

Mary Oneida Toups
BornApril 25, 1928
Meridian, Mississippi
United States
Died1981
New Orleans, Louisiana
United States
Occupationoccultist
Known forwitchcraft
Spouse(s)Albert Toups

Biography

Toups was born on April 25, 1928 in Meridian, Mississippi to Arthur Hodgin and Mary Ellen Killing. She moved to New Orleans in 1968.[1] Toups was married to Albert Toups, a Cajun who was a high-ranking Freemason and ran a bar on Decatur Street.

On February 2, 1972 she chartered the Religious Order of Witchcraft, the first coven to be registered as an official religious organization within the state of Louisiana.[2][3] The order, which often gathered at Popp Fountain in City Park, practiced Western ceremonialist magic, not Afro-Caribbean rooted practices like voodoo and hoodoo that are commonly associated with New Orleans.[4] Later in 1972, Toups caught the attention of writer Howard Jacobs, who wrote about her in his column Remoulade, after she publicly defended witchcraft when the practice had been blamed for a murder in Opelousas.[1] She ran two witchcraft shops in the French Quarter, opening her first store on September 1, 1970.[5] Toups also published the occult text Magick High and Low in 1975.

Toups died in 1981.[1]

Legacy

Toups is mentioned in the 1994 memoir Under A Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper.[1] She is also mentioned in the book Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse by Brad Steiger.[6]

On the first episode of American Horror Story: Coven Jessica Lange's character, Fiona Goode, references Toups and her coven practicing witchcraft at Popp Fountain in City Park.[1]

gollark: Also, I think it's in Gō.
gollark: <@111569489971159040> libslingshot? I want client side encryption.
gollark: That reminds me, I really ought to figure out autocrafting.
gollark: Skynet? No.
gollark: Just realised that running two skynet instances at once may break horribly. I should fix that somehow.

See also

References
  1. "The High Priestess of the French Quarter". December 5, 2016.
  2. "Oneida Toups The Witch Queen Of New Orleans Haunted America Tours". Haunted America Tours. February 2, 1972.
  3. "There Once Was a Beautiful Witch Queen in Old New Orleans the Story of Mary Oneida Toups | Witchcraft | Magic (Paranormal)". Scribd.
  4. "GoNOLA Find: Popp's Fountain in City Park". GoNOLA.com. July 5, 2014.
  5. Bookhardt, D. Eric. "The Voodoo That We Do". OffBeat Magazine.
  6. Steiger, Brad (May 1, 2010). "Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse". Visible Ink Press – via Google Books.
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