What a great question this is! It goes against all of the stereotypes of Hollywood and popular culture to think of a Voodoo doll as an heirloom. But, indeed they have been passed down as heirlooms among the oldest of family lineages in New Orleans.
Heirloom dolls are designed for a specific purpose and serve to keep certain traditions alive within the family. Dolls handed down in this way tend to accumulate generational energy and are often quite powerful. These dolls were decorated with charms and baubles of sentimental value for good luck and protection. Subsequent generations continued to add their own personal items so the dolls end up with quite the ancestral history.
It is also not uncommon for fertility Voodoo dolls to be given to women in the family who are hoping to conceive,or given to couples trying to have a second child. These dolls were made of cloth and cut like conjoined twins, sort of like paper dolls joined at the hands or hips. The twin dolls were given to the first child with the hopes of drawing a brother or sister into the family. Then there were the handcrafted Devil baby dolls passed down from generation to generation to keep the Devil baby spirit away.
Another type of heirloom doll is the Voodoo doll that represents a
long-standing hostility between two particular families. These dolls are kept in a secure place by members of subsequent generations, and with each generation, additional protective talismans are added to ensure peace and protection from the rival family.
Read more in Voodoo Dolls in Magick and Ritual.
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