Arts and Crafts: Making Magical Liquid Soaps

While I include the basic instructions for this process in my book The Conjure Cookbook, I figured I would give a more detailed -- and illustrated -- version of the homemade soap-making process.

Now of course, one can often buy ready-made magical washes, but they are sometimes little more than generic perfume with a lot of colorful dyes added and a pretty label asserting that it's now "Fast Luck Soap" -- and the exact same bar can also be bought as "Road Opener" or "Uncrossing." In some cases the, "washes" have no soap at all and are just colored and scented water.

To avoid this, one can make their own wash (particularly if you have access to a good formulary like Conjure Cookbook and thus know your magical recipes.) An obvious way to do this is by adding essential oils to an unscented soap base -- but what can you do if the recipe requires ingredients that don't come in essential or fragrance oil? Many traditional recipes use things like cinquefoil, sugar, bistort and solomon's seal root that aren't exactly fragrant. For these cases, we use the following process:

Step 1: make a nice strong infusion of your herbs. I'd recommend starting with at least 3 cups of water, and simmering it down till you get 1 cup. How much of your herb or spice mixture to use depends a bit on the specific recipe and whether you're going to add any essential oils to the final mix, but just keep in mind you're probably going to get four or more uses from the final mixture and so, try to use enough herbs for four or more occasions.

Step 2: grate up about 1/3 cup of solid castile soap with a cheese grater (or chop it very finely.)

Step 3: to 1 cup of your cooled herbal infusion, add your 1/3 cup grated castile soap. Stir till dissolved.

Step 4: if you are adding any extra essential or fragrance oils to the mixture, now is the time to do so.

Step 5: bottle your mixture in an 8-ounce bottle, and keep it for your use. You may need to shake the mixture before using, as the castile soap can create an interesting pearlescent sediment when left undisturbed. (An old beauty formula called Pearl Water was made in this way.)

The result.

This simple recipe is ultimately a variant on Hungary Water. It is not strictly hoodoo, or magical in any way, but due to the large amount of rosemary oil can be used for uncrossing, for memory or for spells to help women be more dominant in the home. The stuff is called Pearl Water, probably due to the visual effect one gets upon dissolving Castile soap in water. I found the recipe here, but I think it's one of my new favorite soaps.

1 ounce castile soap, shaved

1 cup water

3 tbs + 3 tsp vodka or other spirit

1/2 tsp rosemary essential oil

Boil the water and stir the soap shavings into to, till dissolved. Let cool, then add the alcohol and rosemary oil. Blend well. Bottle and save for your use.

Paper-in-Shoe Spells

A popular and very traditional hoodoo spell, often used for any situation where you need to control someone with magic , is the namepaper-in-shoe spell. It's very easy: you write the target's name 3, 7, or 9 times on a paper (depending on intent and who's giving instruction) then fold it up, sometimes after dressing it with oils or powders, then put it in your shoe. This "keeps the person underfoot" or "stomps out the trouble" or "puts pressure on them" or any other number of metaphors. I have had this work several times over the years. In one instance, I was working for a very unpleasant boss, on a short-term job. It was the last day, and I only had about 3 hours of work left on the project; and I wanted him to up my pay for the day since it almost wasn't worth the trip across town for the amount he was paying me, for only 3 hours. He was very reluctant. So I wrote his name 3 times on a 5-dollar bill he'd given me, and dusted it...

Cut and Clear Purification Spell - White Witchcraft to Forget the Past

The time has come. You're over and done with that relationship. It could be a romance, a friendship, a business partnership -- any sort of connection really. But now you're done, and you want all ties severed. This spell helps clear up any lingering energies and makes people let go of past feelings. You need: 1 bottle Jinx Removing salt Lemon verbena leaves Purification oil or Cut and Clear oil Personal or representational items of the person(s) you are removing yourself from (names and photos are easy) Purification incense 4 white candles You will also need to make your own Cut and Clear bath salt. For this you'll need about 1/2 cup epsom salt to which you add 5 drops each lemongrass oil, lemon or melissa oil, and rue or rosemary oil. It's important to make this salt yourself with only oils (no herbs) because we want it to run clean down the drain with no residue left behind to be cleaned up. Many spiritual bath blends contain herbal matter and curio...

13 Herb Bath for Curse Removal

13 Herb Bath for curse removal can be made from from any 13 uncrossing and purification herbs. For example, if I needed to fix a batch of 13 herb bath right now based on what I've got in the house, I could mix bay leaves, rue, mint, rosemary, wood betony, sage, verbena, angelica root, white rose petals, lemongrass, lemon peel, agrimony and arnica, and it would suffice well. Other herbs like hyssop, pine needles, juniper leaves, boldo, eucalyptus leaves, mullein, basil, lavender, or marshmallow leaves would be good to use too. By no means complete, here is a list of just a few herbs said to remove a curse or jinx that you can use to make your own 13 Herbs bath: Agrimony Alkanet Angelica Arnica Basil Bay leaves Black Pepper Blessed Thistle Boldo Cayenne Pepper Chives Eucalyptus Garlic Hyssop John the Conqueror Juniper Lavender Lemon Lemongrass Lime Marshmallow leaves Mint Mullein Onion Pine Rosemary Rue Sage Sandalwood Verbena White Rose Petals ...

Ammonia - A Spiritual Cleansing Agent for Magick

Ammonia is a strong cleansing agent in hoodoo magick, both physically and spiritually. In Edwardian times it was advised as an old home remedy for a nerve tonic (see recipe below.) "Household ammonia" or "ammonium hydroxide" is a solution of NH3 in water. Household ammonia ranges in concentration from 5 to 10 weight percent ammonia. The Romans called the ammonium chloride deposits they collected from near the Temple of Amun (Greek Ἄμμων Ammon) in ancient Libya 'sal ammoniacus' (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple of Amun, the chief god of ancient Thebes. Salts of ammonia have been known from very early times; thus the term Hammoniacus sal appears in the writings of Pliny, although it is not known whether the term is identical with the more modern sal-ammoniac (ammonium chloride). In the form of sal-ammoniac (nushadir) ammonia was important to the Muslim alchemists as early as the 8th century, first mentioned by the arab chemist...

Spiritual Use of Turpentine in Hoodoo and Witchcraft

I have posted in the past about the use of giving one's bedding a spiritual cleansing from time to time. I recently was laundering my pillows in the same load of laundry as some turpentine-soaked rags, with the result that the pillows emerged from the wash reeking of turpentine. From a magical perspective, this may not be a bad thing. Turpentine is used in old-time hoodoo rituals for purposes such as uncrossing, protection and sometimes as a feed for mojo bags. Its solvent powers and strong odor do indeed suggest a powerful spiritual cleansing agent, and it is still used in some modern day cleaning products on a purely practical level for these same reasons. Old time medicines sometimes included turpentine as a thing to drink, in small doses. A book from the 1850s, The Domestic Medicine Chest , recommends giving it to children in a dose of one teaspoon for killing tapeworm. Relatedly, in old time hoodoo cures for "live things" turpentine might be made into a tea...

The Spellcaster's Source Hoodoo and Voodoo Witchcraft Blog of Talia Felix

Search This Blog