there once was a beautiful witch queen in old new orleans the story of mary oneida toups

8/3/2019 There Once Was a Beautiful Witch Queen in Old New Orleans the Story of Mary Oneida Toups

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THERE ONCE WAS A BEAUTIFUL WITCH QUEEN

IN OLD NEW ORLEANS: THE STORY OF MARY

ONEIDA TOUPS

By Alyne A. Pustanio Original Article © 2010 alynepustanio.com - All rights reserved

Mary Oneida Toups is recognized to this day as the most powerful witch to have

practiced in New Orleans in the 20th century. She was the founder of a powerful coven -

The Religious Order of Witchcraft - the first to be recognized by the State of Louisiana

as an official “church,” and formed the central axis of a powerful network of



practitioners dedicated to the pure, unfettered study and practice of Old Style European

witchcraft that still exists in New Orleans today.

Many things about Mary Oneida (she preferred just Oneida) are shrouded in mystery,

such as her origins. She is said to have been born in Mississippi, in the heart of Delta

country, in April 1928 and, like many youths of her generation, when she reached herteens she began to feel restless and took to the road. Hitchhiking, exploring the back

roads and byways of the rural South, her path eventually brought her to New Orleans,

where she soon became part of a burgeoning bohemian movement already thriving

there.

The New Orleans of the early 60’s was filled with a current similar to that moving

through cities such as San Francisco and New York, a youthful current of exploration

and discovery, sometimes aided by drug use that culminated in the Summer of Love and

Woodstock moments. In New Orleans, where everything has always been more “laissez

faire” or laid back, the moment crystallized in an “Age of Aquarius” kind of esoteric

awakening. Oneida arrived here just as this new awareness was about to bloom.

Always attracted to the supernatural and unexplained, and possessing tremendous

innate psychic gifts, Oneida plunged deeply into esoteric and occult studies. Soon she

met a man whose interests in the occult complemented her own; they hit it off

immediately; this man was “Boots” Toups. The couple quickly set up house together

and after a whirlwind courtship, they were married. They shared several mutual

friends, and this tight-knit group of like-minded individuals became Oneida’s most loyal

followers and the core of the coven she and Boots were about to form.

The Toups and this circle of friends – Oneida called them her “Scribes” – would meet

every Friday night to discuss witchcraft and the occult, to practice rituals and magical

workings, to share spells and increase their overall knowledge of the occult through this

sharing. Oneida’s Scribes, many of whom still live in New Orleans, remain loyal to her

to this very day and describe the bond linking them to Oneida, though dead, as

something still very active and real. In other words, Oneida still visits with them

regularly.

A true occultist, Oneida assumed the objective reality of witchcraft and the supernatural

and it was this approach that she applied to her studies. Because of this openness, she

could as easily work from a mostly-harmless Gardnerian spellbook as she could

summon demons with Crowley’s Goetic grimoire. To Oneida it was all the same, all alearning experience; she did not fear the results of the magic she was working, but she

had a hefty respect for it, and taught this to all her adherents.

In 1971 Oneida and Boots opened The Witches’ Workshop, the first shop of its kind in

New Orleans. Where other shops were essentially botanicas that predominantly served

the New Orleans Voodoo community, the mission of Oneida’s shop was to support

individuals studying the path of traditional, Old Style witchcraft. Although she

acknowledged the power of Voodoo, and was often called upon to fight her share of

nefarious hoodoo spells, Oneida’s shop was dedicated to her passion for the traditional

witch practices of Europe – exactly the kind that got so many people burned in the years

of the Inquisition. Oneida also offered education, classes usually held in the rear of hershop, and seeing a growing interest and need in those who came to her, she decided to



form first a coven and ultimately an organization that became the first “church” of

witchcraft in Louisiana.

The Religious Order of Witchcraft was launched by Oneida and Boots Toups on

Candlemas, February 2, 1972, and immediately there was a flood of requests for

membership. A simple dues system – members paid $100 per year – and an agreement

to participate in a set number of rituals was all that was required; additional education

was readily made available to all members.

By this time Oneida’s personal practice had evolved to encompass all the High Ritual

and ceremonial practices of the Western and Judaic Traditions (Qaballah). Oneida was

an expert in the works of the Golden Dawn, Crowley’s Thelemic tracts, and the

Enochian magic of John Dee. Oneida worked with many of the great practitioners of

modern times such as The Chicken Man, Sister Margaret, Sister Miriam, and many

others, and her reputation as the reigning Witch Queen became well-established.

Oneida could command enormous fees for personal readings and rituals, but she always

kept to the stricture that a true Witch will not demand payment for the practice of her

craft; she accepted whatever donations her clients wished to make. Thus, she was

always busy.

One incident in particular still remains prominent in the minds of her Scribes, her inner

circle, because it brought Oneida into contact with one of the prevailing legends of Old

New Orleans – the Lalaurie House haunting.

At the time, the Lalaurie Mansion was still subdivided into apartments, and a resident

living there, a young woman referred by one of the Scribes, called upon Oneida to sort

out a troubling haunting she was experiencing in her small apartment. Queen Oneida,

accompanied by one of her most loyal friends, explored the apartment and other parts

of the old home, identifying several specters present at the location. She decided that in

order to identify the actual culprit responsible for the woman’s encounters, the best

thing to do would be to hold a séance. Members of her closest inner circle joined her in



the courtyard of the old Lalaurie house at the hour of 3 a.m. and watched as Oneida

went into a trance state. Almost at once she was in contact with a variety of entities,

ghosts of people who had lived there over the years since the house had been broken up

into apartments. Soon, however, the layer of years began to peel away as a worried-

looking, bedraggled man in 19th century clothing approached her in her mind’s eye. His

look was sad, and Oneida was overcome with a melancholy and a need to cry. Then, theman appeared to step aside and from the misty depths behind him a woman stepped

forward. Oneida cried out for a pencil and some paper. She felt the overwhelming

desire to write or draw – at this point she didn’t know which, but as the woman came

closer, she knew she had to commit what she was seeing to paper.

Oneida – not an artist - made a rough drawing of the beautiful, dark-haired woman and

made her best effort to get the woman’s visage and clothing correct. Again she felt the

overwhelming feeling of melancholy; the woman withdrew and the man stepped

forward again, reaching out his hands in an imploring manner, as if asking or begging

for help. Oneida said out loud, “So sorry.”

No one at the table knew what had happened, nor had anyone seen anything, although

there was a notable temperature change during the time when Oneida was interactingwith the apparitions. Once out of the trance state she looked at her drawing and, though



exhausted, had to laugh, calling it “pathetic.” Among her inner circle was one

individual who was an excellent artist and she gave him the spirit drawing and asked

him to “do the best you can with it.”

The result was a portrait of the infamous Madame Delphine Lalaurie, in a look and pose

never before seen, provided entirely by spirit interaction. Oneida had a strong feelingthat the woman in the portrait could affect a positive influence in the apartment of the

young woman who had originally called for the Witch Queen’s help, so the spirit

drawing and the original charcoal portrait made from it were given to the young woman

who had both framed and hung them for years in her apartment and later her home.

The artist had, however, made an additional copy of the portrait, now known to be of

Madame Lalaurie, and kept it in his personal collection. That portrait is now one of the

most eagerly sought-after and highly-demanded images of Madame Lalaurie ever made

available to the public, and it would not exist except for the psychic skills of Oneida

Toups.

During this heyday of her work, Oneida met with her coven in various locations.Sometimes it was at the home of a coven member; often, however, Oneida held her

rituals outside. She loved the location near the now-destroyed Shelter One on Lake

Pontchartrain, which was very near the original spot where Voodoo Queen Marie

Laveau used to host her own ritual ceremonies. But another favorite of Oneida’s was

located in City Park.

The crumbling, neglected beauty of Popp’s Fountain had always attracted her; unlike

today, in the 1970’s the fountain was open – unfenced and easily accessible. Oneida

would go there alone to meditate in the quiet beauty of the place, sitting amidst the

wisteria-covered columns, the sun playing on the vibrant fuchsia of the azalea blooms

nearby. Eventually, Oneida began to bring her coven to the location because it was

perfect for their workings. Built in the round, with the derelict fountainhead at the

center, surrounded by a low wall, it was the most “perfect circle” any coven could wish

for.

In all seasons, throughout the year, Oneida led her coven to Popp’s Fountain where theyconducted some of the most powerful magical workings they had yet done. Lost in the



darkness, with only an empty City Park surrounding them, they could work unhindered

and did so for several years.

Today, in the post-Katrina rebuilding of City Park, Popp’s Fountain is surrounded by a

fence and is off-limits to visitors. The wild wisteria and azaleas are all gone; the place is

stark and sterile and set aside for use by corporate types and big-wigs as an eventvenue. But in the years prior to Katrina, when Popp’s was still abandoned and ignored,

though Oneida had been dead almost two decades, visitors to the fountain were still

claiming to have strange experiences there. Most common, according to some reports, is

a sense of losing time, of spending hours there but feeling as if one has only been there a

few minutes. No explanation has been offered, but those who knew Oneida, who

participated in the rituals that took place there years ago, do not need further

explanation. They know the reasons for the weird experiences near Popp’s are just the

result of so much of Oneida’s powerful magic still lingering over the place. Perhaps,

they speculate, there’s a portal still left open through which things come and go.

Recently, someone offered as proof of this theory a photograph* of the iron bars of the

fence bent outward as if someone – or something – had successfully escaped thefountain’s magical hold.

In 1975 Oneida published her first and only book. Entitled Magick, High and Low the

book was a compendium of Oneida’s personal system along with highlights from those

systems that had resonated with her along her Path. Copies were given to each of her

Scribes, who had all participated in the book’s creation in one way or another, and it

was sold at her shop. Now out of print, Magick, High and Low is considered a rare

collectible.

About this same time, Oneida’s marriage to Boots came to an end, as did her lease on

the French Quarter location of The Witches’ Workshop. Seeking a change of outlook,

Oneida leased a new shop on Broad Street near Orleans Avenue and planned for her re-

opening. According to sources who helped with the move, an unnamed man arrived at

the near-empty shop with a going-away gift for Oneida – a hat box with something

rolling around inside. When Oneida opened the box she was shocked to find a fully-

intact preserved human head; thinking it a prop of some kind, she showed it to her

friends and even pretended to chase them around with it. In the end, the head and the

hat box were forgotten, that is until a story appeared in the local paper about a severed

human head being found in the old Witches’ Workshop; locals assumed someone had

used it for a ritual. No one from the police department or the newspaper bothered to

track Oneida down, which is one lesson about how legends are sometimes born in NewOrleans – through pure laziness on the part of local authorities!

Oneida soon remarried a ranking Navy officer and with him was able to travel around

the world. She turned over management of her new Witches’ Workshop to a close

friend, but ultimately the shop was not as successful at the new location and it soon

closed. Her second marriage also ended in divorce, but Oneida took it all in stride and

prepared to settle into a quiet life as the local eccentric, the witch on the edge of town.

But she was soon about to face a new and final challenge.

In early 1980 Oneida was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Around this time she moved

in with a close friend who offered to care for her during her illness. A certain individualin New Orleans these days likes to take credit as the woman who nursed Oneida Toups,



but in reality Oneida’s nurse was a dear friend named Carol, a woman she had known

since her earliest days in New Orleans. As Oneida’s health declined, Carol remained

staunchly at her side. Then in September 1981 Oneida, the one and only Witch Queen

of New Orleans, succumbed to her illness and died.

Mystery still surrounds the disposition of the Witch Queen’s remains. Even her closestcircle of friends is still not sure what happened to Oneida’s body; no funeral was ever

held. Most believe that her caretaker Carol had some standing arrangement with

Oneida’s family back in Meridian, Mississippi and that Oneida’s body was returned to

them for burial. Some will swear that they know for a fact that Oneida was cremated at

the Schoen Funeral Home and that they even saw her ashes before they were sealed in

an urn; but that is the extent of their knowledge. Others say that Oneida’s ashes were

given into the keeping of one of her closest confidants, a member of her coven who had

been at her side in all her endeavors during her entire “reign” as Witch Queen; if this is

so, the person in question has never confirmed it.

And then there are those others, some of them friends of Oneida in life, others whodiscovered her and came to admire her after her death, who insist that Mary Oneida

Toups still walks the stony streets of New Orleans, still lingers near her old “haunts” –

the old Witches Workshop and the locations where she ruled over her coven’s activities.

Many claim to have seen Oneida, or the ghost of Oneida, walking in the Quarter, and

there are some who even claim to have had long conversations with a woman very like

Oneida, a woman they only realized was a ghost when she disappeared into the shadows

of the Quarter as she walks away.

Members of Oneida’s inner circle only smile when they are asked about reports like

these. They will look at you strangely when you say the words “Oneida” and “dead” in

the same sentence because apparently for them Oneida is nowhere near dead.

“I see Oneida all the time,” says one old female friend. “She comes and goes whenever

she wants to. And she’s still the Queen – no doubt about that.”



*Author’s Note: I have seen the referenced photograph and also went to City Park to

inspect the Popp’s Fountain fence. It was just as shown in the photograph.

Unfortunately, the owner of the photograph wishes to remain anonymous and would not

extend permission for reproduction to us.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF WITCHCRAFT TODAY

The Religious Order of Witchcraft founded in New Orleans by Mary Oneida Toups still

exists today and is currently operating from its base in Manchester, CT An overview of

the group’s profile shows that the organization is vastly different from that envisioned

and created by Oneida. It has, apparently, moved from its tradition of the practice of

genuine, Old Style European Witchcraft to a practice indistinguishable from the

multitude of other “Wiccan,” “white witchcraft” or “neo-pagan” groups on the scene.

This, at least in my opinion, takes the “Oneida edge” off the group and seems to deviate

from her original intentions. Oneida Toups is sadly missed.



Haunted New Orleans

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