Sallie Ann Glassman


Sallie Ann Glassman is an American practitioner of Haitian Vodou, a writer, and an artist. She was born in Kennebunkport, Maine and is of Jewish—Ukrainian heritage.

Vodou

Glassman has been practicing Vodou in New Orleans since 1977 and in 1995 became one of few White Americans to have been ordained via the traditional Haitian initiation. She owns Island of Salvation Botanica, a botánica and art gallery with religious supplies, medicinal herbs, and Haitian and local artworks.
She was quoted in The New York Times in November 2003:

Art

Glassman's art is both esoteric and syncretic. She has produced two major non-traditional tarot packs: the Enochian Tarot is derived from the Enochian magical system of Elizabethan magician Doctor John Dee, and the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot replaces the standard four tarot suits with depictions of the spirits of the major strands of Vodou and Santería practices.

''New Orleans VooDoo Tarot''

In 1992, Glassman published a set of tarot cards called the New Orleans VooDoo Tarot. It was through this that she "gained national fame". The cards depict black people on the tarot cards, unusual for the time. The cards feature:
The tarot cards came with a book co-written with Louis Martinié, an author, liturgist, percussionist, and an advocate for New Orleans style Voodoo in the spectrum of New World religious practices.

Media

Glassman has lectured extensively and has received international television, radio and magazine coverage, including a front-page article in The New York Times and a feature on World News Tonight. She has received mention in other publications including Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic and The Washington Post.
In an MSNBC interview Glassman said that she cured her own cancer using Vodou in 2003:
She appears in the film Hexing a Hurricane. Her New Orleans Voodoo Tarot was also an influence on the first album by the band Sun God.