The Living Altar: Breathing Life into Ancestral Lineage Outside the French Quarter

In a world where African spirituality is often reduced to Bourbon Street caricatures and neon “Psychic” signs, Andrew McKee approaches his practice with a quality of quiet covertness. Based in Milwaukee, McKee’s journey into the spiritual arts is deeply personal, rooted in his own family background and cultural inheritance. While he lives far from the cultural mecca of New Orleans, he maintains a profound, sacred bond with the city, viewing it as a pivotal melting pot of spiritual technology. For McKee, the power of the tradition lies not in the performance or the backdrop, but in the embodiment of ancestral lineage—a reality he carries with him regardless of geography.

McKee views the commercialization of the French Quarter through a critical lens, noting how Eurocentric perspectives have historically reimagined African energetic archetypes into witch doctor tropes. He argues that the tourism industry necessitates the exoticization of the sacred to remain lucrative, often appealing to fear and shock rather than genuine healing.

“True practitioners recognize that everything we do is really natural,” McKee said. “Whenever it’s commercialized, it is commodified.”

To him, this monetization creates a power differential that encourages dependence on a practitioner, whereas true healers work to disengage a person’s defense mechanisms so they can access the wisdom already residing within them.

Despite his distance from the bayous, McKee maintains authenticity through a decentralized community of practitioners and rigorous personal research. He treats research as a form of spiritual veneration, emphasizing that practitioners must be critical of their sources to avoid white-washed or co-opted versions of the culture. He draws a firm line between the communal, often hierarchical nature of religions like Voodoo or the Yoruba-based Ifá, and the internal, individualistic practice of Hoodoo, which he describes as a system of practice rather than a structured religion. For McKee, the truest expressions of these traditions are simplistic, natural, and accessible.

McKee rejects the idea that a practitioner’s environment defines their power. He describes the human body as a living altar—an extension of a bloodline that remains intact regardless of whether one is in New Orleans or the Midwest. He maintains that one does not need a localized community or a commercialized backdrop to engage with their spirit.

“You are the living altar,” McKee said. “You are an extension of that bloodline and that lineage. So wherever you go, your ancestors are there with you.”

For McKee, the survival of African spirituality outside of its famous hubs depends on this internal autonomy. By stripping away the gimmicks of the tourism industry, he finds that the most potent spiritual work is rooted in the presence and personhood of the individual. His philosophy serves as a reminder to those practicing in Milwaukee or beyond: the connection to the divine does not require a trip to the French Quarter. It is a conversation with the ancestors that can happen anywhere, from a quiet walk by the lake to a moment of stillness in one’s own home.

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into African spirituality, history, and culture. It was created by an immersion journalism class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on The Power of the Tongue: From Walker’s Point to Congo Square.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.