Witchcraft as an officially recognized religion? Yes, it happened, due to the efforts of a unique woman named Mary Oneida Toups.
THE OCCULTIST
Mary Oneida Toups
Born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1928, Mary Oneida Toups came to New Orleans in 1968. She married a Cajun named Albert Toups, who owned a bar in the French Quarter and served in the upper echelon of the Freemasons. An occultist, Mary opened two witchcraft shops in the French Quarter, the first in 1970.
What is an occultist? By definition the occult (Latin: occultus, or secret) is a category of supernatural beliefs that fall outside the realm of organized religion and science. It can encompass phenomena involving a secret agency such as magic or mysticism.
THE COVEN
Mary founded a coven called the Religious Order of Witchcraft, with herself as High Priestess. The coven often gathered at Popp Fountain in the New Orleans neighborhood of City Park. Unlike the Afro-Caribbean voodoo and hoodoo practices that many associate with the Big Easy, Mary’s order practiced Western ceremonialist magic, a benign tradition that she was forced to publicly defend when magic was blamed for a brutal murder.
In 1972 the “High Priestess of the French Quarter”—another unofficial title—chartered the Religious Order of Witchcraft, the first coven to be registered in the state of Louisiana as an official religious organization. She would go on to write an instructional occultist text, Magick High and Low, in 1975.
Sadly, this unique life was cut short. Mary Oneida Toups, the “Witch Queen of New Orleans,” a pioneer of the Wiccan church, died of stomach cancer in 1981 at the age of 53.