Voodoo Priest Shane Norris – Hougan Shane

During his entire childhood, Hougan Catela was exposed to several Christian based religions including Pentecostal, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Southern Baptist and Nazarene and possesses considerable knowledge of the Bible. His intense exposure to several traditions throughout his life developed his deep spiritual connection so much so, that Hougan Catela studied other esoteric paths including Freemasonry, Enochian, Native American Hopi and Vodou.

Shane was literally called from Haiti in Oct 1994 with then partner, Sallie Ann Glassman and was told kanzo initiation had been arranged for them and when could they arrive to Haiti? Although he had not been searching for this path, nor asked anyone to inquire about initiation, he could not deny the Lwa and decided to kanzo as Hougan Supwin in Nov, 1994 in the suburb of Bel-Air, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, West Indies. This took place about 3 weeks after the United States invaded Haiti and re-installed Jean-Claude Aristide as president.

It was at this time Hougan Catela gave his life and full commitment to Bondje and to Vodou. His lineage at that time was through his Papa Edgar Jean-Louis and Papa Silva Joesef. When they returned to the United States, Hougan Catela and his then partner founded and began Island of Salvation Botanica and The Simbi-Sen Jak Ounfo, in New Orleans, LA.

Hougan Catela co-owned and operated Island of Salvation Botanica, conducted all weekly Vodou ceremonies in the temple, established the first public ceremonies on behalf of the City of New Orleans to combat crime, created and conducted the now famous public ceremonies to protect the city from hurricanes, until December of 2001.

During this span of 8 years, Hougan Catela made numerous visits to Haiti to further his knowledge and studies in the Haitian Vodou tradition as often as possible. Due to the dedicated and service to the Vodou religion Hougan Catela was creating through his Botanica and Vodou Temple, he was invited to Australia in 1997 to teach and conduct seminars on the Vodou tradition, which he humbly accepted. He provided almost 3 weeks worth of seminars and teachings of the Vodou religion in Sydney and Melbourne.

Further, Hougan Catela has been filmed and featured on such networks as Discovery, Discovery Medical, The Learning Channel, Travel Channel and such shows as Sightings, Local Broadcast and featured in NY Times, Cond-Nast Traveler, National Inquirer, Time Picayune and many more mass media outlets.

In 2002, he was told by the Lwa he had to go into the djevo again and complete the process that started 8 yrs ago, but this time to receive the additional tools he had not received the first time. After he consulted the Lwa, numerous Mambos, and Hougans about this request, he then asked Houngan Yabofe and Mambo Marie Charles to take him back to Haiti and place him in the djevo.

Hougan Shane or Hougan Catela completed this process in Jan. 2003, was initiated and ordained as Hougan Asogwe and became a member of Sosyete la Belle Fleur de Ginea (of which a branch is currently located in New Orleans). Hougan Catela currently lives and works in New Orleans as a Systems Engineer for a large corporation and provides numerous Vodou services on behalf of Erzulie’s Authentic Voudou and New Orleans Mistic Botanica.