Voodoo Priestess Eva Kay Jones and the Saints first ever playoff win.

Do you believe in vibrational frequencies? How about an unseen realm? Better yet, what about the power of voodoo?

The New Orleans Saints have gone 7-9 for three consecutive years and four of the past five. Perhaps its time to call on the Voodoo Priestess Eva Kay Jones………AGAIN.

Most Saint fans are too young to recall the Saints first ever playoff win. Presumably, many would not be able to imagine just how fortunate the Saints were on December 20th, 2000. Some would say that win was a direct result of the Rams beating themselves. But did they really? Or perhaps was there some unseen force that conspired with the Black and Gold on that fateful day?

An unseen force that would cause a player, who had next to no blunders or muffs that year to actually fumble with the game on the line. Additionally, the end was looking like a furious and relentless Ram comeback that we’ve seen before. However, the result was Az-Zhair Hakeem would fumble a punt return with the game on the line. Ultimately, that blunder gave the Saints their first EVER playoff win.

Before the game, Saints owner Tom Benson got the word out that he wanted the reigning and well-known New Orleans Voodoo Queen Eva Kay Jones to bless the Super Dome’s field. This game was going to be the Saints FIRST playoff game win in history. You can’t make this up, and yes it’s a documented fact. There is actual footage out there on NFL films and other credible sources that show Priestess Eva Kay Jones out on the field conducting her rituals.

The Saints had never won a playoff game before in their entire history, and Benson was pulling out all the stops. What would begin as a blessing for the Saints would be seen as a curse on the St. Louis Rams. Some Rams’ fans feel they are still under some type of spell, having been unable to make the postseason since 2004.

Tom Benson, the owner of the Saints both then and now was born and raised in New Orleans old 7th ward, a neighborhood with strong Catholic  multi-cultural and multi-ethnic backgrounds.  If there ever was a superstitious neighborhood where folklore, ghosts, spirits, and unseen entities all formed in one big gumbo, it was the New Orleans old 7th ward.

For these were the old neighborhood blocks where the legends of Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau came from. Moreover, the tales of real life pirates Jean Laffite and Dominique were told and heard by almost every kid back then and even to this day. Surely at one point or another; Saint owner Tom Benson had heard of Voodoo and all that surrounded both the craft and its New Orleans founder, the Creole beauty herself, Marie Laveau.

So it should have come as little to no surprise to people with New Orleans blood lines and family lineage, that Benson would eventually tire of the Saints constant losing in both regular season and post-season play. For this reason, he proceeded to call on the then and current Voodoo Priestess Eva Kay Jones.

Simply put; Benson and the Saint organization, in a well documented move asked Voodoo Priestess Eva Kay Jones to bless the Dome’s field prior to the game vs the Rams. This move was though to hopefully enable the Saints to come away with their first ever playoff win.

And win they did but by the most unlikeliest and strangest of ways…..

With the Saints blowing a Ram team out for most of the game, they almost found a way to lose it. The Saints were playing not to lose, and were GONNA lose. Everyone on planet Earth, much less in New Orleans had seen this sorry act play out before.

No way were the Saints going to hold on to get this win. This was a Rams team that had recently won the Super Bowl and featured at least five current Hall of Famers: Kurt Warner, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Marshall Faulk. And they almost came back and beat the Saints after having been blown out for most of the game. In fact, lady luck up to that time had never smiled on the Saints organization.

Rumors of the Dome being partly or even entirely built on an old cemetery led many fans to believe the organization would never flourish, much less go on to win a playoff game and an eventual Super Bowl.

But WDD will shed more of a light on Voodoo Priestess Eva Kay’s influence on that first ever playoff game in the second piece of this series. For now, let’s meet the Priestess herself, Eva Kay Jones.

Robert Gagnier: Where were you born and raised?

Priestess Eva Kay Jones: I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up in both the 6th and 9th ward and spent time in the 7th.

RG: When did you first hear the calling to pursue your current craft if I may call it that?

EKJ: Well coming up in New Orleans, I went to Catholic schools from the earliest of ages all the way up to law school. I was always a very deeply spiritual child but also very religious as well. My mother was a devout Catholic and early on instilled in me a love of school and education. But since I was born on Halloween, I always had a fascination for spiritual things and that realm. In New Orleans, even though we were and remain a Catholic dominated city, you could not exclude the fact that in our spiritual DNA lie people from Africa, the Caribbean (Hati), and elsewhere.

And as a little girl coming up in New Orleans, my mother used to always tell me that I would have to learn to protect myself from negative spiritual forces and so forth. As my spiritual path grew so did my circle of friends.  I studied theology under the well known New Orleans Priest Father Jerome Le Doux at Xavier University. In another one of my Voodoo videos you can see me speaking with Father Tony Rigoli, who is my parish priest at our Lady of Guadeloupe St. Jude church. They both understood that this is just a part of who we are coming up in New Orleans.

RG: Many people weren’t aware that the former president Obama had as his social secretary a woman with deep New Orleans roots, Desire Glapion. From what most can tell, she is blood to the founder of the Voodoo culture in New Orleans, Marie Laveau. Can you comment on this?

EKJ: I am not completely sure of that at this time, but I would venture to say that with a name like Glapion and her roots being here in New Orleans it’s likely somewhere in her ancestry to find her connection to Marie Laveau.

RG: What are your thoughts and concerns about the recent removal of the most prominent Confederate statues in New Orleans?

EKJ: My thoughts on that subject is that while some things are in fact historical, that in and of itself doesn’t mean they are necessarily good. We have to learn to let go of things.

RG: What makes New Orleans so unique to you?

EKJ: There used to be an old commercial that was put out by the Board of Tourism that spoke about the “spirit of Louisiana”. And I would always think to myself that part of that is of course our own unique spirituality. Our traditional Catholic and African spiritual beliefs intertwined together gave us our special mix. A lot of that aura of New Orleans is on par with a gumbo of spirituality and all of its unique ingredients.

RG: Just for the record and for our readers, how do you describe exactly what it is that you do?

EKJ: Well long ago, I decided that I would do the best I could to change the way Hollywood was portraying Louisiana culture. I view my role as a priestess today as a bridge between the old and the new. I don’t have to abandon my traditional African/Caribbean beliefs just because I am Catholic. We are French, African, and native American. Many people in New Orleans are all of the above.

RG: New Orleans is getting ready to elect a new mayor soon. Who do you think has the edge, and are you familiar with any of the candidates such as Desiree Charbonnet?

EKJ: I am well versed enough at this time to comment on who I think should win. But having said that, I would hope that whatever that candidate comes from that they would be big enough in spirit to embrace all people, regardless of whether they share the same political belief systems.

I am a registered Democrat, but am very conservative in some of my beliefs. We shouldn’t have to be all or nothing. This isn’t a zero sum game. What is going in the nation now is evil and divisive. That said, I am very familiar with the Charbonnet family. They are an old line New Orleans family.

RG: When was it that you were first approached by the New Orleans Saints to perform your ritual on the field of the Superdome before the game against the Rams?

EKJ: It was at some point in the year 2000, and I was asked to do a blessing there to remove what was then called the curse of the Saints or the curse of the Dome. This was based around the belief that the Dome was built on a cemetery. So in 34 years, the Saints had never won a single playoff game. So I came to the Dome along with my dance troupe, the Voodoo Macumba Dance Ensemble. I didn’t take the invite lightly. What people actually saw in the Dome was only a small part of what I did. Prior to my arrival, I prayed heavily and left the Superdome. After, I took a beeline to my church, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Jude.

After a time, I was told by Brother Ramon, the churches sacristan that I would have to leave. So, he put me out in the cold! Lol! Not to be deterred, I stood  outside the church in the cold with a friend and prayed hard to the ancestors to the Catholic Saints and to the blessed mother asking them all to bless the Saints football team. When the Rams were gaining on us, my friend and I walked toward Congo Square in the French Quarter where I proceeded to pour some of the gin I had on me to the ancestors. It was an experience and quite an effort that culminated with the Saints winning that game. That story was wonderful, but there was much more to come!