The original recipe for cologne was reputedly given to St. Elizabeth of Hungary by an angel -- the concoction was known as "Hungary Water" and was used primarily as a medicine, rather than just a mere fragrance. Charles Godfrey Leland remarked that it therefore was appropriate hoodoo practitioners would use such a substance for feeding their conjure bags and other talismans.
The term cologne actually comes from a later preparation, Cologne Water (named for the German city.) The original Cologne Water is a spirit-citrus perfume launched in 1709 by Giovanni Maria Farina (1685–1766), an Italian perfume maker from Santa Maria Maggiore Valle Vigezzo, Italy. In 1708, Farina wrote to his brother Jean Baptiste: "I have found a fragrance that reminds me of an Italian spring morning, of mountain daffodils and orange blossoms after the rain". He named his fragrance Cologne Water, in honour of his new hometown.
The Original Cologne Water composed by Farina was used only as a perfume and delivered to "nearly all royal houses in Europe". His ability to produce a constantly homogenous fragrance consisting of dozens of monoessences was seen as a sensation at the time. At the time, a single vial of this aqua mirabilis (Latin: miracle water) cost half the annual salary of a civil servant. When free trade was established in Cologne by the French in 1797, the success of Cologne Water prompted countless other businessmen to sell their own fragrances under the name.
Cologne is now a generic term for an alcohol-based fragrance, usually mixed with a small amount of water. Popular lucky colognes used by American folk magic practitioners include Florida Water, Hoyt's, Kolonia 1800, Jockey Club and Bay Rum. Certain conjure formulas like Van Van, Has No Hanna and Essence of Bend Over also began as similar spiritual alcohol perfumes. Traditionally they'd be used to feed mojo hands or to impress spiritual powers on one who wore the scent, by way of their special fragrances.
If one is in the habit of reading older occult and hoodoo themed texts, one notices that perfumes were more popular in the past than the scented oils which have nowadays overtaken them and their utility. Florida Water and Hoyt's are the only hoodoo perfumes that seem to still get much use, but the original Van Van was a perfume, and other scents like Bay Rum and Chypre used to be popular. Even the famous Essence of Bend Over began as an alcohol perfume.
Perfume has the advantage of soaking into things more easily than scented oils, especially mojo hands which just become greasy and dirty looking when fed with oils. The old time leather packets and hands also benefit from alcohol perfumes, since the leather contracts and tightens around its magical innards when fed with such substance.
This helpful list of 14 unusual ways to use perfume can help you get some ideas for employing old fashioned magical mixtures in your life to bring luck, money, cleansing and all the other advantages that these old perfumes were renowned for bringing. Read below to learn more about traditional hoodoo perfumes used for witchcraft.
Florida Water Cologne and Its Use in Hoodoo
Florida Water is a popular spiritual perfume used in hoodoo, Santeria, and other magical practices. It has a scent resembling a citrus-spice, but with some soothing floral elements that give it its famous calming, cooling fragrance. It was considered a "universal perfume" because the odor is suitable for both men and women, and it can be used in a variety of ways. One popular trick in hot weather is to mix it with cold water and use it as a spray or to soak a cloth in it and rest the said cloth around your neck.
Magically speaking, Florida Water cologne tends to be used most commonly, these days, for purification. It is sometimes even used as a substitute for holy water. It is sprinkled as a spiritual cleansing agent onto mojo hands that one worries have received negative influences, it is added to baths and washes, and is even used in some versions of Peace Water. Just opening a bottle and leaving it in a room is said to purify the air of bad spirits and energies. Some people also recommend it for removing a person's melancholy and depression. Many people also now use it to cleanse their candles and altar tools before use, replacing the more traditional Bay Rum which was once preferred for the purpose by magical spell casters.
Historically in old time hoodoo magic, though, Florida Water was more often used as a drawing ingredient. One simple trick for using it was to put it in a small fireproof container and ignite it, then warm one's hands over the flames as a way to call money into one's hands. Another old money spell was to hang a little horseshoe magnet over one's door that had been fed with gold and silver magnetic sand, and then periodically sprinkle it with Florida Water perfume so that it would attract success and money into the house. One variant on the honey jar spell for love uses an apple full of Florida Water, clover and verbena oils, and honey as its mechanism: it is placed in a flower pot beneath a plant, and as the plant grows, so grows the target's love.
While Florida Water is a relatively inexpensive cologne, there are some people who prefer to make it themselves. Here is one old time recipe:
Essence lemon, 6 ounces
Oil lavender, 8 ounces
Oil lemon grass, 2 ounces
Oil cloves, 4 ounces
Alcohol (use perfumer's grade or Everclear - NOT rubbing alcohol!), 4 gallons
Distilled water, 1 gallon.
Mix and bottle, let sit for 2 weeks before use.
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| 1870s Florida Water Label. |
We've discussed Florida Water and its occult properties in a previous post, as well as having previously link to this wonderful list of unusual ways to use perfume. Why not give them a try with Florida Water cologne? Here are some other ways to use Florida Water:
In hot weather, mix the cologne with cold water and soak a towel in it. Drape this wet towel over your shoulders to cool off.
Spray your hairbrush with the cologne before using it.
Or try the tips from this old ad:
(Transcription: "Once used, it is simply indispensible. Grateful on handkerchief or clothing; a fragrant Lotion or Spray; a refreshing addition to the Bath, the Basin, or to the tumbler when brushing the teeth; it is mildly antiseptic and always delightful.")
1) mix a bit of Florida Water with plain, cool tap water.
2) pour this into a spray bottle.
3) spray yourself with this mixture.
Ta-da! The alcohol evaporates a bit faster than water, so cools you down faster. The pleasant perfume also helps cover up the stench of old sweat on you.
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Florida Water cologne has been around since the 19th century, and it is a popular hoodoo perfume. For those who prefer to do their conjure old style -- this might be a fun buy!
Van Van Cologne and Its Use in Hoodoo
Van Van is among the oldest of hoodoo's conjure formulas. It is mentioned by name as far back as the 1910s, and some oral traditions place it being even older. It seems to have originated in New Orleans or the vicinity.
The original Van Van was always a liquid perfume. In the 1930s the famous occult goods supplier Mort Neumann began offering it in other formulations and even took out a trademark on the name (which apparently didn't stick.)
Older hoodoo mixtures are more likely to have names which are intentionally meant to obfuscate the intent, in order to avoid prosecution for "false claims," as opposed to modern mixtures like Uncrossing or Protection where the intent is made plain in the name. Van Van was typically considered a beneficial ingredient, though occasionally workers would warn it needed to be sweetened with sugar in order to ensure that it would produce only positive outcomes. It was something of a "power" formula, and perhaps it is named from the Spanish van van meaning an intensified version of action, literally "go go." However, another plausible theory is that it gets its name from the common pronunciation of the French word verveine, which usually is the perfumer's name for a lemongrass scent (due to conflation with lemon verbena.) Lemon or lemongrass is the usual odor for the formula, though some old accounts of the formula also mention it having a mint or cinnamon scent.
It was a common ingredient in return lover spells; one such old time use was for a woman to make a paper packet wrapping around four balm of gilead buds, then it was dressed with Van Van perfume, and this object hidden in the clothing of the ex-lover to compel him to return. Candles could also be washed in the perfume before burning them to draw back lost loves.
It was used to command and control people, by putting the target's name into a cup with Van Van perfume and burning candles upon it.
In gambling (the usual money drawing method of old hoodoo) one could rub their hands with Van Van, Fast Luck and Olive oils before playing, to bring luck.
It was additionally reputed to keep away evil spirits, negative blockages, and bad influences. Rootworkers were advised to ignite a small dish of Van Van perfume and use that to light their candles, instead of lighting them from a match. Added to the bath water, it was said to remove jinxes. Spiritual workers and believers in magic also added it to scrub water for cleaning homes. People could dress their hands and faces with it before going to, to ensure success in their endeavors.
You can find more recipes for making your own Van Van goods and spells here on the blog, or in The Conjure Cookbook and Homemade Hoodoo.
Hoyt's Cologne and Its Use in Hoodoo
This advertisement from about 1910 shows that the famous conjure perfume Hoyt's came also as a perfumed talcum powder that could be used as a sachet. I'd be very interested to see someone revive this -- I did include a recipe for Hoyt's scent in my Conjure Cookbook which you can also see below.
Nevertheless, my observations about the uses of Hoyt's in traditional hoodoo lead me to think it may have originally been used as a replacement for urine in spells -- which is to say a powder would make that impractical. Almost all of the old hoodoo spells I've seen that call for Hoyt's cologne, I've seen variants on that used urine in the same place (or sometimes both Hoyt's and urine get used together.) I can say as a professional hoodoo practitioner that this trick of using the Hoyt's instead has sometimes made my job easier when doing work for clients (I'm not going to ask people to send me bottles of their pee to work with. No.)
So if peeing on your mojo grosses you out, douse it in Hoyt's instead. If bathing in your own urine seems nasty, use Hoyt's instead. If you can't bring yourself to keep a bottle of old urine around for your bottle spells, try a bottle of Hoyt's instead.
While there's some well known confusion over the name of Hoyt's Cologne (rendered mistakenly Heart's Cologne by Hyatt in his Hoodoo-Conjuration-Witchcraft collection) it seems there was a period when more than one Hoyt's might have been used. To make approximately 66 ounces of Hoyt's Cologne, this old recipe was discovered:
1 ounce bergamot oil
1 ounce lemon oil
1/4 ounce neroli oil
1/2 ounce sandalwood oil
20 grains camphor oil
7 pints cologne spirit
1 pint rosewater
Mix and let sit for 1 month.
Bay Rum Cologne and Its Use in Hoodoo
Bay Rum is prescribed in mainly older hoodoo spells for cleansing purposes. It's been largely replaced by Florida Water in modern use, but for those who want to keep up tradition, here's a genuine old-time recipe for how to make your own:
4 ounces Jamaica rum
16 ounces rectified spirits (190 proof alcohol)
12 ounces water
1/4 ounce bay essential oil or laurel leaf essential oil
Note that originally bay rum was made from pimenta racemosa, commonly called bay tree, but there was a lot of confusion over this and the bay laurel plant, as well as plants of the myrica genus from which bayberry come. Consequently, many 19th century recipes are actually made from the more common bay laurel -- therefore, you can use either pimenta racemosa or laurus nobilis to happy effect for this recipe.
Alternately, you can buy readymade Bay Rum from a variety of sources. Commercial blends often have additional spices added to enhance the scent. There are cheap brands that run about $6 for 12 ounces and pricy blends that go well over $10 an ounce.
Hungary Water Cologne and Its Use in Hoodoo
The first I heard of Hungary Water was in Denise Alvarado's Gypsy Wisdom Spellbook where she admitted the recipe was borrowed from Rosemary Gladstar. The Gladstar recipe strictly speaking is more of a Hungary Vinegar. True Hungary Water is an alcohol perfume/tonic with rosemary or rosemary flowers as the primary ingredient. It is a very old recipe, sometimes thought to be the first alcohol perfume. The recipe for it in the Petit Albert goes like this:
"You put into an alembic a pound and a half of very fresh rosemary flowers, a half pound of pennyroyal flowers, a half pound of marjoram flowers, two pounds of lavender flowers, and cover this all with three pints of good aqua vitae. Having well-stopped the alembic to prevent evaporation, you place it for twenty-four hours into digestion in very hot horse dung; then you put it to distill in a bain-marie."
If that's too complex for you, Culpeper mentions in his herbal that it can be "crudely" made from rosemary oil added to alcohol. This Victorian Era recipe might make a good compromise between the elaborately distilled formula and a homemade cologne:
Grape spirit (60 over proof) 1 gallon.
Otto of Hungarian rosemary, 2 ounces.
Otto of lemon peel, 1 ounce.
Otto of balm (melissa) 1 ounce.
Otto of mint (m. viridis) 1/2 dram.
Esprit de rose (triple) 1 pint.
Extract of orange flower, 1 pint.
Rectified alcohol, 1 gallon.
Otto of rose, 3 ounces.
Combine, mix. Let sit 1 month before use.
Nowadays the spiritual workers like to use Florida Water for purification. Bay Rum was used for this purpose in older hoodoo spells. Yet, I find Hungary Water is my favorite -- it's cleaner, sharper and more disinfectant than the others, and a much, much older recipe. Spray your candles down with some of this and just see if any negative energy remains on them!
Vale of Kashmar Perfume and its use in Hoodoo
L. W. De Laurence loved to pitch his special Vale of Kashmar perfume -- he even altered the text of Mathers' Key of Solomon to explain its beneficial powers:
"The advanced Occult student, and Disciple of Magical Art, use Vale of Kashmar, the great Oriental Perfume, today, instead of the spices mentioned herein. Vale of Kashmar Perfume, owing to its pure and beautiful fragrance, strength, and virtue, is believed to possess wonderful power to attract the Good Spirits and banish the Evil Ones, and for this reason is now generally used in all invocations instead of the spices mentioned above."
Here is the picture of the original packaging for Vale of Kashmar Perfume:
You will notice in the bottom left-hand corner of the box image, a symbol of a circle with two flags in it. This is the emblem of A. A. Vantine's company. De Laurence loved to relabel othe products as his own, and this was another example of it. The "Vale of Kashmar" perfume was actually one of A. A. Vantine's products -- probably the Corylopsis or Violet perfume. Here is an image of the box without the De Laurence stickers, taken from Ruby Lane:
As happened with the Temple Incense -- another Vantine's product -- once the Vantine company went under, De Laurence had to create a new formula to replace it. Sadly the modern Vale of Kashmar sold by the De Laurence company is nowhere near as high quality as the original item, neither in presentation nor fragrance. Here is a photo of a modern bottle, from the collection at the Museum of Good Luck:
