Cleansing and blessing spiritually – yourself, your home, or your business – is one of the most important magical practices you should undertake before doing any other work. If you don’t, any negative energies built up around you may cause contamination.
Spiritual cleansing is also useful if you think you might be crossed, jinxed, or just having a particularly bad run of luck.
Florida Water is often used for these kinds of purposes in Hoodoo. You can use it on yourself as a simple cologne or perfume for protection, in your house or business to draw good luck, and in any kind of spell where you’re looking to block out negativity from your life.
Florida Water and Van Van oil often show up together or in very similar spells, as both are used for protection and to draw positive things into our lives, but they have slightly different purposes you should understand before you use them.
Van Van oil is more about attraction of love, luck, or prosperity. Florida Water is more often used for repulsion of bad luck, negative energy, or just to clean spiritually.
What is Florida Water
Despite the name, water isn’t actually used in the recipe for Florida Water. It doesn’t even come from the state of Florida. Florida Water is a type of “Toilet Water”, which you can think of as a very weak perfume or cologne. The main ingredient is alcohol – so be careful using it on candles!
Florida Water is usually dyed a pale green and the label will often include a floral arrangement.
The origin of the name Florida Water is disputed. Some say it was named for the location of the fabled Fountain of Youth. A more likely explanation is that it is based on the Spanish word “florido”, which means “full of flowers”, to indicate to potential buyers what it smells like.
There is no one-true-recipe for Florida Water, but historically the main scent in Florida Water is lavender and citrus.
The History of Florida Water
“Perfumed spirits” were created in the middle ages and were not only worn as perfumes, but also ingested because they were believed to have miraculous healing properties. The reference to “water” in the names of these preparations is confusing, because alcohol is their main ingredient, used either to infuse fresh ingredients or to dissolve essential oils which give it its scent.
In 1709 one perfumed spirit began to be manufactured in Cologne, Germany, and attained such a powerful reputation that it was imitated by perfumers and apothecaries across Europe.
Florida Water originated in the early 1800s as an American answer to eau-de-cologne (water of Cologne). The name hints at the flowery smell of the scent, in contrast to the lemon and neroli smell of Cologne water.
The earliest known manufacturer was Murray & Lanman, who created it in New York City before moving to New Jersey, where they still operate to this day as Lanman & Kemp.
Recipes from the 1800s usually included lavender and bergamot, but variations included adding orange peel, neroli, rose, cloves, cinnamon, or turmeric.
In her paper, “Searching for Nineteenth-Century Florida Water Bottles”, Catherine Sullivan writes :
“It is significant that Florida Water was considered part of an American druggist’s standard stock by the 1850s, had been sold in establishments selling colognes almost 20 years earlier, and was appearing in literature directed at American households by the same period.”
By the 1870s, a formula for a product known as Florida Water was established and standardized to some extent.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Murray & Lanman Florida Water was advertised as “The Richest of all Perfumes” and “The Most Popular Perfume in the World.”
The miraculous nature attributed to “perfumed spirits” survives today in the magical nature of Florida Water.
How to Use Florida Water
Florida Water’s main use is in spiritual cleansing. You can use it on yourself as a perfume and cologne to protect yourself from negative energy and bad luck.
The same effect can be used to cleanse ritual items like candles, or to clean your magical or ancestral altars. If you do use it to clean a candle, be sure the candle is completely dry before you use it, because the main ingredient in Florida Water is alcohol!
You can also leave a cup of water on your ancestral altar with a few drops of Florida Water added, both to attract the spirits and for its wonderful scent.
To Bless Your House
To create a floor wash to bless your house, add a few drops of Florida Water to a bucket of water, along with basil, for family protection, and rue for cleansing. Use it to clean your house from the inside out, to drive negative energy and evil spirits right out your front door.
As a Cleansing Bath
After you draw your bath, add a dash of Florida Water, a handful of salt for purification, and a few drops of frankincense oil for spiritual cleansing.