1. What sort of websites and information did you find when you researched Voodoo and Hoodoo?  What kinds of services and merchandise was for sell?  Are there any problems with the way that Voodoo is portrayed in popular culture?  If so, what are they?
2. What did you find interesting and/or troubling about Voodoo and Hoodoo?  What are you thoughts on this religious tradition?

[1]  Voodoo and Hoodoo are readily available on the internet of course, just like anything else. I usually go to Wikipedia first for a quick overview, and sometimes there will be links to more scholarly sites at the bottom. There are plenty of reference-type articles about Voodoo/Hoodoo, but for my research journal I focused mainly on the merchandise and services available. I also found an excellent and very comprehensive site that explained Hoodoo and its differences from Voodoo:

http://www.luckymojo.com/hoodoohistory.html (Links to an external site.)

A big online merchandiser is Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo, where one can purchase candles, dolls, herbs, charms, amulets, etc. (And don't forget the T-shirts, tote-bags, and such with the House of Voodoo logo). This shop is also a tourist attraction located in the French Quarter of New Orleans LA.

http://voodooneworleans.com/ (Links to an external site.)

Voodoo services are for hire online. I found one site titled Temujin Master Voodoo/Voodoo Spells, where you can get an "authentic Voodoo priest" to solve all sorts of problems- relationship troubles, bad luck, curses that need to be removed, and even erectile dysfunction. The prices are high, from hundreds of dollars per service up to a couple thousand for "custom spells". I contacted "Temujin" via e-mail, with a fake story about removing a ghost that's been haunting my wife and myself. He replied right away, stating that he needed a photo of both of us and our birthdates, and from there he could investigate the ghost and how to remove it. I left it at that and thanked him for responding- I don't like the idea of a voodoo priest having our photographs...

http://www.ancientvoodoorituals.com/services.html (Links to an external site.)

I was reminded early in the research of how much New Orleans is a hub of these traditions- many of the sites I found were based there. And therefore Hurricane Katrina did a lot of damage to this industry; before the storm there were over 3000 practitioners in the area, and this dropped to as low as 300 in the aftermath.

http://www.newsweek.com/2014/09/05/voodoo-rebounding-new-orleans-after-hurricane-katrina-266340.html (Links to an external site.)

One of the most prominent popular culture figures derived from Voodoo is the zombie. They're usually portrayed in horror movies (or spoofs thereof) as flesh-eating monsters, and those who get bitten become zombies too. But the original zombie (from the Congo nbzambi) refers to one's spirit or soul.

http://www.voodoomuseum.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32&Itemid=28 (Links to an external site.)

I'm looking forward to this last group discussion. There's been some very interesting exchanges so far.