Written by Before I begin this post, I want to mention that the image depicted here is an AI-generated representation of Mary Oneida Toups. I was unable to find a clear, freely available photograph of her. Mary was a mid-20th-century occultist known as the “Witch Queen of New Orleans,” but very few public photos exist online. Most available images are of paintings or portraits held in private collections. A painted portrait of her from the 1960s–70s, described as showing an elegant woman with dramatic brows and dark hair, survives in a private collection, but no clean photographic portraits are publicly available for reuse.
I also struggled with how to categorize this post. After much consideration, I’ve placed it under “mythology”. Not because Mary wasn’t real, but because of what the word actually means. Mythology, at its core, refers to a collection of stories, beliefs, and narratives that shape how we understand a person, place, or concept. What we truly know about Mary Oneida Toups is limited to what was made public, the documented facts, the legal records, the published book. Everything else exists in the realm of story, speculation, and legend. In that sense, Mary has become mythological: a figure whose truth is inseparable from the tales told about her.
Mary arrived in New Orleans with nothing but ambition and a vision. Within four years, she had chartered the first legally recognized Church of Witchcraft in Louisiana. Within seven, she’d published a book praised by Aleister Crowley’s former secretary. And then, at 53, she died under circumstances that remain disputed to this day – leaving behind no obituary, no known grave, and a legacy so shrouded in mystery that even her successors aren’t sure where fact ends and legend begins.
This is the story of Mary Oneida Toups, the Witch Queen of New Orleans. And like any good witch’s tale, separating truth from myth requires some serious detective work.
The Documented Facts ~ What We Actually Know
Let’s start with what’s verifiable – the paper trail, the public record, the things we can prove beyond the storytelling and speculation.
Born: April 25, 1928, in Meridian, Mississippi, to Arthur Hodgin and Mary Ellen Killing. Born Oneida Hodgin, she was the youngest of four children.
Life Before New Orleans: Here’s where the record gets sparse but suggestive. At some point before the mid-1960s, Mary (then Oneida Hodgin) had a son named Charlie. She later met and lived with a Navy man named David Berry in New Orleans for a few years, according to a former sister-in-law interviewed by researcher Alison Fensterstock. The couple went their separate ways in the mid-1960s.
So Mary wasn’t a stranger to New Orleans, she’d lived there before, as a housewife and mother, in what appears to have been a conventional life. Then she left. What happened during those years between leaving David Berry and returning in 1968 as Mary Oneida Toups? That’s one of the many mysteries.
Arrived in New Orleans (permanently): 1968, at age 39-40. She came with her husband Albert “Boots” Toups, a Cajun from the Lower Ninth Ward who was a high-ranking Freemason. The couple briefly ran a bar together on Decatur Street (at 1141 Decatur, now home to Café Angeli).
Opened her first occult shop: September 1, 1970. The Witch’s Workshop at 521 St. Philip Street in the French Quarter. She sold oils, floor washes, spell kits, powders, candles, and yes, dried bats’ hearts. (She insisted on selling whole bats so customers could verify authenticity, explaining that people might substitute chicken hearts otherwise.)
Chartered the Religious Order of Witchcraft: February 2, 1972 (Candlemas/Imbolc), with the Louisiana Secretary of State. This made it the first legally recognized Church of Witchcraft in Louisiana. A genuinely groundbreaking achievement at a time when witchcraft was still heavily stigmatized and fortune-telling for money was illegal in New Orleans.
Public rituals: The Order conducted ceremonies at Popp Fountain in City Park, which at the time was overgrown and neglected. Far from the manicured tourist destination it is today.
Published Magick High and Low: 1975. This occult manual focused on Western ceremonial magic in the tradition of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley. The book was dedicated to Israel Regardie (Crowley’s former personal secretary), who responded with praise and gifts. She also dedicated it to Crowley himself (who had died in 1947) and to Dr. John, the legendary New Orleans musician.
Public appearances: Throughout the 1970s, Toups gave talks to various groups, including the ladies’ auxiliary of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. She appeared at literary events and bookstores to promote her book.
Died: September 1981, at age 53.
That’s what we know. That’s the documented record. Everything else exists in that liminal space between history and legend.
The Transformation ~ From Mississippi Housewife to Witch Queen
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Mary Oneida Toups’ story is the transformation itself. This wasn’t a young woman finding herself in the counterculture. This was a 40-year-old mother who had already lived a conventional life – and then completely reinvented herself.
The Woman Before the Witch:
– Born Oneida Hodgin in small-town Mississippi
– Had a son, Charlie
– Lived in New Orleans as a Navy man’s partner in the early-to-mid 1960s
– By all accounts, lived an ordinary, domestic life
– Left New Orleans sometime in the mid-1960s
The Woman Who Returned:
– Now calling herself Mary Oneida Toups
– Married to Albert “Boots” Toups, a Cajun Freemason with occult connections
– Steeped in Western ceremonial magic
– Ready to open a shop, charter a church, and become the Witch Queen of New Orleans
What This Transformation Tells Us
This wasn’t someone who had been a witch all her life and finally came out of the broom closet. This was a radical reinvention. Whether it was triggered by spiritual awakening, personal crisis, meeting Boots, or something else entirely, Mary completely transformed her identity in her late 30s.
In a way, this makes her story even more powerful. She proves that it’s never too late to become who you’re meant to be. She didn’t need to have been “born a witch” or raised in a magical family. She chose it, learned it, mastered it, and became legendary. All starting at an age when many people think their lives are already set in stone.
The mystery of how she made this transformation is part of what makes her so compelling. Did something happen during those lost years in the mid-1960s? Did she have a teacher? A revelation? A calling she could no longer ignore?
We’ll never know. But the transformation itself is documented and undeniable.
The Mystery ~ What We Don’t Know (And Probably Never Will)
Here’s where things get murky, contradictory, and frankly, witchy as hell.
Her Training and Background
The Question: Where did Mary Oneida Toups learn Western ceremonial magic?
The Problem: There’s no documented evidence of her practicing magic before arriving in New Orleans in 1968. Even though she’d lived there previously as “just a housewife” with David Berry and their son Charlie.
This is what makes her story so intriguing. Katina Smith, who became High Priestess of the Religious Order of Witchcraft in the early 2000s (after Hurricane Katrina), has openly stated that she can find no records of Toups engaging in magical practice prior to 1968.
The timeline raises questions: Mary lived a conventional life in New Orleans in the early-to-mid 1960s, left (possibly back to Mississippi), and then returned in 1968 – now calling herself Mary Oneida Toups, married to a different man (Boots), and suddenly steeped in Western ceremonial magic.
What happened in those intervening years? Did she study in Mississippi? Did she have a transformative experience that sent her down this path? Did she meet a teacher during her time away from New Orleans?
Yet within two years of her 1968 return, she opened an occult shop. Within four years, she chartered a legal religious organization. Within seven, she published a book sophisticated enough to earn praise from Israel Regardie himself.
Possible Explanations:
– She had a mentor or teacher whose identity she kept secret (Smith speculates she must have had “an extremely learned teacher” given how quickly she progressed)
– She studied intensively during the mid-to-late 1960s through correspondence courses (common in occult circles)
– She was part of an established tradition or coven that valued privacy
– She underwent a significant personal transformation or spiritual awakening between leaving David Berry and meeting Boots Toups
– She had been privately studying for years and only made it public after returning to New Orleans with the right partner (Boots’ Freemasonry connections may have been crucial)
What We’ll Likely Never Know: Who taught her. If anyone taught her. What happened during those mysterious mid-1960s years. Whether the transformation from housewife to Witch Queen was gradual or sudden. Whether “Mary Oneida Toups” was, in some sense, a completely reinvented identity.
The fact that even her successor doesn’t know suggests Mary wanted it that way.
Her Relationship with Local Traditions
The Question: Was Mary Oneida Toups truly separate from New Orleans’ vodou and hoodoo traditions, or was there more crossover than the official record suggests?
What We Know: The Religious Order of Witchcraft practiced Western ceremonial magic, NOT African-Caribbean rooted practices. This is consistently documented. Mary was explicit about this distinction.
But Here’s Where It Gets Complicated
Her husband Boots was reportedly involved in Santería and frequented New Orleans’ spiritual churches, which blended Afro-Caribbean tradition, Catholicism, vodou, and rootwork. Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) claims in his memoir Under a Hoodoo Moon that he and Boots ran “a voodoo temple” out of Mary’s shop.
However, other sources suggest Dr. John and Mary’s practices ran parallel, not together. Mary’s work focused on planetary invocations, talismans, and Hermetic principles. Very different from gris-gris, rootwork, and spirit possession.
The Truth: Probably somewhere in between. In a city like New Orleans, where magical traditions cross-pollinate constantly, it’s unlikely Mary operated in complete isolation from local practices. But her official practice was Western ceremonialist, and that distinction mattered to her.
The Mummified Head Incident
The Legend: In 1977, a mummified human head was discovered in a trash bin behind Mary’s “abandoned occult shop.”
What Mary Said: When questioned, she explained she was a practitioner of Egyptian magic and had thrown the head away because it had “bad vibrations.”
The Questions:
– Was the shop actually abandoned, or was she just between locations? (She ran two shops in the Quarter throughout the ’70s.)
– Where did she acquire a mummified human head?
– How legal was its possession?
– Was this Egyptian magic practice, a prop, or something else entirely?
– What happened legally? (Records are sparse.)
This incident gets repeated in almost every article about her, but details are frustratingly vague. It’s the kind of story that sounds too bizarre to be made up, but also too convenient to not embellish.
The LaLaurie Séance
The Legend: Mary Oneida Toups conducted a séance at the infamous LaLaurie Mansion and made contact with Madame Delphine LaLaurie, one of New Orleans’ most notorious figures.
The Evidence: Mentions in tour guides, blog posts, and second-hand accounts. No primary documentation.
The Reality: This one’s almost certainly legend, or at least heavily embellished. The LaLaurie Mansion was (and remains) private property, not generally accessible for séances. Could Mary have done a ritual about LaLaurie? Sure. Could she have claimed contact? Possibly. Did she literally hold a séance inside the mansion? Doubtful, unless she had connections we don’t know about.
This is the kind of story that grows in the telling, especially in a city that loves its dark tourism.
The Manner of Her Death
Official Record: Mary Oneida Toups died in September 1981 at age 53.
The Conflicting Accounts
1. Wikipedia says: Stomach cancer
2. Katina Smith says: Brain tumor
3. Dr. John claims in his memoir: She was poisoned by her enemies
The Additional Mystery: There’s no obituary. No known grave. No death certificate in the public record. Court documents show that both Dr. John and Boots Toups ran ads declaring they weren’t responsible for debts “other than those contracted by myself” about three weeks after Mary’s death – the standard language for divorce proceedings. Odd timing.
Theories
– Natural causes: Brain tumor or stomach/abdominal cancer are both plausible and could explain a relatively quick decline at 53.
– Poisoning: Dr. John’s claim adds drama, but there’s no forensic evidence, no investigation, no substantiation. Occult communities can be competitive and drama-filled, so interpersonal conflicts certainly existed, but murder? That’s a leap.
– Intentional obscurity: Mary may have explicitly requested no public death notice or grave marker. Given how carefully she curated her mystery during life, this seems entirely in character.
What’s Most Likely
Natural causes (illness), with the “poisoning” narrative being either metaphorical (stress, conflict, “toxic” relationships) or Dr. John’s dramatic interpretation. The lack of public death records suggests Mary or her family wanted privacy. Perhaps anticipating the kind of grave vandalism that happens at Marie Laveau’s tomb.
What We Can Say With Confidence ~ Her Legacy
Whatever the mysteries surrounding her origins and death, Mary Oneida Toups accomplished something historically significant:
She made witchcraft legally legitimate in Louisiana.
In a state where people had been arrested for witchcraft as recently as 1910, in a Catholic-dominated city where fortune-telling for money was illegal, Mary successfully argued for and received state recognition of witchcraft as an official religion. That required legal knowledge, political savvy, strategic thinking, and sheer audacity.
She did this as a woman approaching 40 in the early 1970s.
Not a young hippie caught up in counterculture trends. A middle-aged woman, possibly divorced, definitely determined, who walked into a city famous for its magical traditions and carved out her own space. She wasn’t trying to be Marie Laveau 2.0. She was doing something different – and she made it work.
She earned respect from serious practitioners.
Israel Regardie didn’t just tolerate her, he praised her work and sent her gifts. That’s not something you do for a charlatan or a dabbler. Whatever questions exist about her training, the end product was impressive enough to catch the attention of one of Crowley’s inner circle.
She was selective about her students.
Mary famously declared she wanted “high-caliber witches,” not “drug-abusing hippies.” The Religious Order of Witchcraft was never a large coven, and that appears to have been intentional. She valued quality over quantity, depth over superficiality.
She made an impact that lasted beyond her death.
The Religious Order of Witchcraft still exists. Hurricane Katrina destroyed most of the paper archives, but the tradition survived. Katina Smith served as High Priestess after Katrina. The only thing that survived the floodwaters completely intact? An oil portrait of Mary, which had been stored in 11 feet of water for days in Biloxi. Completely undamaged. Eerily pristine.
Make of that what you will.
The American Horror Story Moment
In 2013, the FX series American Horror Story: Coven gave Mary Oneida Toups a brief but knowing shout-out. Jessica Lange’s character Fiona Goode, walking through City Park with her students, casually mentions: “Back in the ’70s, Mary Oneida Toups led an alternative coven down here.”
It’s easy to miss if you’re not listening. But if you know, you know. The fact that the show’s researchers found her, when most New Orleans ghost tours don’t even mention her, suggests how important she actually was to people paying attention.
Truth, Legend, and the Witch’s Prerogative
So what’s true about Mary Oneida Toups, and what’s legend?
True: She existed. She chartered a church. She published a book. She made history.
Legend: Most of the colorful details – the séances, the poisoning, the extent of her powers, the dramatic backstory.
Unknown: Almost everything about her inner life, her training, her true motivations, and her death.
And here’s the thing: I think she wanted it that way.
Mary Oneida Toups understood something fundamental about magic: mystery is part of the power. She cultivated an aura of enigma. She left no grave for people to vandalize or turn into a tourist attraction. She left no detailed memoir explaining her methods or revealing her teachers. She let people wonder, speculate, embellish.
A witch who leaves too much documentation becomes historical. A witch who leaves just enough mystery becomes legendary.
Katina Smith said it perfectly:
“I think she wanted to be a mystery. Because she knew she’d be remembered.”
And she was right. Decades after her death, we’re still trying to figure out who Mary Oneida Toups really was. We’re still telling her stories, debating her legacy, trying to separate fact from fiction.
That’s powerful magic right there.
For Modern Practitioners ~ What Mary Teaches Us
Beyond the legends and mysteries, what can contemporary witches learn from Mary Oneida Toups?
You don’t need to be young to start. Mary was pushing 40 when she arrived in New Orleans. She built her entire public magical career in roughly 13 years. Age is not a barrier to becoming powerful.
Legitimacy matters. Mary didn’t just practice in secret. She fought for legal recognition, creating space for everyone who came after her. She made witchcraft respectable without making it toothless.
Know your tradition. Mary practiced Western ceremonial magic and was explicit about it, even in a city famous for vodou. She didn’t try to be something she wasn’t. Authenticity matters more than trend-chasing.
Be selective about your students. Not everyone who wants to learn magic is ready for it. Mary understood that serious work requires serious commitment.
Cultivate mystery. You don’t owe anyone your full story. The witch’s prerogative includes privacy, boundaries, and the right to remain unknowable.
Leave something behind. Whether it’s a book, a tradition, a legally recognized church, or just stories people can’t stop telling. Make sure your work outlives you.
Further Reading:
– Magick High and Low by Mary Oneida Toups (if you can find a copy – it’s rare and out of print) – (I have my name on so many websites waiting – just incase a copy magically appears – but there are not even scanned copies to be found)
– Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper by Dr. John (Mac Rebennack)
– “The High Priestess of the French Quarter” by Alison Fensterstock (64 Parishes, 2019)