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How to Use Perfumes and Cologne Waters In Folk Magic & Witchcraft

Updated: 5 days ago

Colorful promotional artwork featuring the mermaid La Sirena surrounded by flowers and holding seashells, with three Banexbramble cologne waters above her. The image promotes the use of magical perfumes and colognes in folk witchcraft, set on a vibrant blue and pink glitter background with floral accents.

Perfume is a glamour. It is seductive and powerful. An expression of Venereal art in its own right.

While being a powerful and evocative tool, able to captivate, ensorcel, seduce, and glamour those under its spell, perfumes and cologne waters, and how to use them is rarely discussed in folk magic & witchcraft. It is, as a formula goes, often left to the unctuous formulas of fixed oils. While both are powerful and can be used in conjunction, the purpose of perfumes and cologne waters are to be fragrant. 

Perfumes were used to dispel the miasma of everday pollutants which were thought to bring disease: The vapours of death, places where the sick lie, dark magics, all contain the polluting miasma. Perfume, and cleanliness were thought to dispel these ill-airs away. Much like the magical oil, the perfume has a similar origin. Read more about how to use magical oils here.

In fact scent was originally extracted with oils, as found at the perfumery site in Cypress, as well as recorded in the Torah, where we can find the formula for Holy Anointing oil. It wasn’t until the perfection of distillation, attributed to Jabir Ibn Hayyan, that alcohol (al-Kuhl) would be rectified, and perfume would begin to take the form of something closer we know today. 

Many perfumes, as already stated, are intrinsic with the medical and magical. The oldest perfume still manufactured today, 4711, began as an Aqua Marablis, or miracle water, used something akin to a health drink. It’s so named for the address that the creator of the formula lived at, in the town of Cologne, Germany- which is where we get the word Cologne, meaning an alcohol-based odiferous preparation. Today, we discuss colognes to mean a preparation that is light in odor, and high in water and alcohol content.

Perfumes were prohibitively expensive till the Industrial Revolution, where machines were able to extract raw materials, improved freight, and logistics created a globalist economy, and experimental chemistry and petroleum byproducts created natural isolates and synthetics. Due to this freedom of income, fragrance was now more widely available for the middle-class white folk of America and Europe- still at the expense of Indigenous populations, slaves of West Africa, poor folk, and children.

However, in America, during the early 20th century, during the rise of the railway system, and mailorder catalogs, more general stores began to pop up across America. Here, we find the codification of spiritual and novelty supplies, candles, books, and more inexpensive perfumes. The most widespread and popular was Murray and Lannman's Florida Water, and due to its accessibility, marketing for use as a medicine, and relatively inexpensive price, this was a perfume that some folks with some financial mobility had access to use and became adopted into the spiritual practices of folks all around the Americas. It’s use in many American and Caribbean folk practices makes it so prevalent for magic, even today. Florida Water finds itself at the Bovida of Espiritsmo,

Mesa Branca altar during a Misa Espiritual hosted by Banexbramble, featuring white flowers, candles, and spiritual tools used in Afro-Caribbean Spiritism. Ritual context for using cologne waters and spiritual perfumes in magic and Espiritismo.
The white table of a mass I have held

and in many of the baths at the Mesa Blanca, where fresh herbs, perfumes, flowers, and anil are placed in before being prayed over and put at the feet of the table. It is often passed around the seance, and worked into the bovida, where it might be splashed in fuentes that collect flies, a sign of enemies or water that goes murky, a sign of malefica or confusion. At its simplest, Florida Water can be splashed on the skin to refresh yourself when it is hot out, especially for those who are prone to sweat: its cooling and tonifying effects wick away sweat, leave a refreshing scent, and cool the skin briefly. But it can also be doused liberally when one feels the eye placed on them in their day-to-day life. A stronger cleansing can be worked this way: 







To Cleanse With Florida Water

This is an effective bath which can also be used as a floor wash to dispel negativity and uplift energies in the home. 

Take fresh rue, and put it into a pot of water, allowing the water to raise to a boil. Pray over the pot the prayer of rue (translated from spanish):


Rue, green and fragrant,

wherever you are found

Be an omen of luck.

Your secret is unparalleled, and I will never lack anything.

There is no comparison, to you, you deliver us from all evil, and you bring us fortune.

For your  help, I bathe [your water on myself] and your water on my door so that it can be open to help bring love and money

So, be, so it is, so it will be.

Amen.


Then pray over it seven All Fathers. Pour this in a basin and add three large glugs of Florida Water. Wash this over you from the head, down. You can also add this to mop water and a door scrub to call in money, or add Money Drawing Wash and burn Money Drawing Self-Igniting Incense Powder. 


Another Cleansing Bath

Banexbramble’s Uncrossing Wash in a clear test-tube bottle, used in spiritual cleansing baths to remove negative energy. Pairs with Florida Water and magical herbs for uncrossing rituals and folk witchcraft.
Click Here To Shop Uncrossing Wash

Another cleansing bath is to take basil, rue, and mint, and mix this into a boiling pot. Pour this into a basin with some Uncrossing Wash, and three large glugs of Florida Water, and over it, recite Psalm 25:


25 Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great. What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease; and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

 

Allow it to cool, and pour this over the head nine times while reciting an Our Father each time.


"Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen"


Cleanse with any remaining water by pushing this down, from the head to the feet. You can also add this to mop water and wash the floors from back to front. 


There are other ways to use Florida Water besides just adding it to cleaning baths. Any cologne water can be made into an insorcelled water by adding materia magica. Florida Water is versatile and can be used for this readily.

It isn’t uncommon to see vials of cologne waters that people buy from the market, take home, and then add herbs. Rue is a common example, as we have seen it is used for spiritual protection, love, and money. Tobacco is another one to aid in facilitating spiritual communication that is added. Fixing herbs and other materia magica into bottles of cologne water is a way to enhance the spiritual properties of a material, and to etend its life while making it into a ‘fume, like we would do an oil, but emphasizing the powerful olfactive properties of cologne waters and perfumes.

 For example, I once had a client come to me telling me they went through a really bad break up over a year ago. Their partner would show up in their dreams, however, causing them to loose sleep at night. Despite not having feelings for this person anymore, they were in a room they had stayed in with them for years, and sleeping in the same bed. I told them to take a bottle of my Floida Water, and a bottle of Cut & Clear Oil, and/ or eucalyptus leaves and camphor, and put

this all into the Florida Water Cologne Water. Splash this on their pillow before they went to sleep at night, and do regular cleansings with Uncrossing Wash, washing their bed linens in it and

themselves in it, for three days. 


While many perfumes are used for love and cleansing, they can also be used to draw money and bring success. This is exceptionally true with Cleopatra Cologne Water. Like its counterparting Oil, Wash, and Self-Igniting Incense Powder, Cleopatra Cologne Water can be added to washes and baths to help femmes, working women, and gay men in the service industry, dancers, bartenders, camgirls, strippers, sexworkers, and performers. At its simplest, Cleopatra Cologne Water can be worn on the body or on uniforms before going to work. But it can also be used to train money and bring more to you, by burning Cleopatra Self-Igniting Incense Powder, and/ or Money-Drawing Self-Igniting Incense Powder, and burn it on top of coins. Douse these coins in Cleopatra Cologne Water, and spend them on things that are used to invest in your career.

Embroidered Cleopatra charm bag spell for bartenders, handcrafted for attracting tips and money using Cleopatra Cologne Water, Cleopatra Oil, and Self-Igniting Cleopatra Incense Powder; spiritual altar setup for wealth magic and attraction rituals in folk witchcraft.
A Cleopatra Charm Bag

Another working to take a Lodestone, Lodestone Grit, and Cleopatra Cologne Water or Cleopatra Oil. Feed the Lodestone some Grit, and anoint it in the Cologne Water. Put it in a dish and collect special tips, coins, and the Nine of Coins Tarot Card. Regularly burn Money-Drawing Incense or Cleopatra Self-Igniting Incense on top of or near the vessel.

Bags can be filled with materia like Jezebel Root, coins, cinnamon, bay laurel, pyrite, and cloves. It can be anointed occasionally in Cleopatra Cologne Water, or Cleopatra Oil.

Feeding charms, amulets, and talismans with perfumes is wonderful to refresh the powers and to feed them.












A fixed love-drawing perfume can be made with Florida Water or Come To Me Love Cologne Water, by taking some Queen Elizabeth Root, violets, and roses (Come To Me Love Cologne Water does have all these in it already, however). This can be doused liberally on the body to aid in attracting love. 

Another working to this effect makes use of Come To Me Love Cologne Water, Queen Elizabeth Root and some other ingredients:









A Bottle Working To Help Someone Love You

This working works best if there is already some attraction between you and the person. Take a bottle of Come To Me Love Cologne Water, some pieces of Queen Elizabeth Root

(I find a zester works well for grating some off), a photo of the person you want to work on, rose petals, violets, and lavender buds, and some of your sexual fluids. Put them all into the bottle of Come To Me Love Cologne, and on a Friday, when the moon is full, shake the bottle up, and tell the bottle that this person will be enchanted with you, and they will desire you. Wear some Follow Me Boy Oil and some of the cologne when you see them next.








Its not always so sweet, however. Perfumes can be of course enchanted to bring on negative effects. Much like other Double-Cross workings, the ability to give a gift or something which is received in blessing can also be hidden with other awful things.



One way I like to do this is with perfume. Someone will have had to really piss me off, but it can be helpful to be close to the person prior.



A gift of perfume can be given, which has been laced with a pinch of Crossing Powder, gravedirt, a drop of Crossing Oil, scorpions, wasps, rattlesnake shed,

and spiders.

Of course, spirits can influence or lend their powers to perfume. It isn’t uncommon for spirits to instruct or even give their tutelage in making perfumes. Water spirits are known for this, and I have a love for communing with certain spirits, some of my own personal magic, some bound up to cultural and specific traditions I’m a part of. 






You can lay perfumes on spirits' sigils or, to add their potency, write the sigil of the spirit in Doves Blood Ink on plain paper, and then put it into the perfume, allowing the ink to infuse with the Cologne Water or perfume. Working with spirits over time, they might give you formulas and workings, or may have you fix perfumes by adding more herbs, minerals, animalia, or immateria into them, such as prayers and songs. 






To Pact With Sirena to Perhaps Send You A Water Spirit To Help You In Perfumery

On a Friday or Monday, go to an ocean or stream, and collect the water. Take it home and add to it sweet perfumes, such as RI, orange blossom water, rose water, Come To Me Love Cologne, Florida Water, as well as rose petals. Bathe in this water, and rinse your mouth with rose water before taking on this experiment. 

Take with you to the watery place: a mirror, three silver-colored coins, an offering of perfume, an offering of red fruits such as apples, strawberries, raspberries, pink or white roses. With Doves Blood Ink, write your petition on a piece of paper. It can be something like this:


To the Good spirit of the waters, 

The nymphs and undines, 

Triotones, and emisaries, 

Of Salacia and Aphrodite:

And the Mermaid Sirena:

May you take this petition request-

Send me via a dream, 

The name of the spirit,

That is good unto me, and aids me in magic

For perfume, love, and all good things.


And leave this with the apples and roses, with a bottle of the perfume, mirror, coins, on a plate or dish. Leave the place, and do not look back. 

That night before bed, perfume your space with good smells, and go to sleep, and receive a dream of the mermaid which should help you in your endeavours. But if you do not, then try again the second night. If nothing comes by the third, then you should not have one. 


apples are stacked on top of each other on a sandy beach with mystical markings etched into the sand with rose petals scattered around. A cigarette rests on the apples, depicting an offering to a water spirit to do witchcraft and folk magic
A similar offering to a water spirit

There are other ways of pacting with spirits of the water for work however. For a love working here is a working from my Doves Blood Ink Spells & Workings Page:


A Pact With A Water Nymph For Love


On a Friday in the morning, bathe, either in Come To Me Love Wash, or a mixture of champagne, honey, white and pink fresh roses, saffron, cinnamon, and Come To Me Love Cologne Water, or some other sweet perfume such as R.I. Go to a beach or some watery place with running water. Bring with you a bottle of champagne, seven apples, a bottle of Come To Me Love Cologne (or R.I, or Venus Perfume), a bottle of any of the three: Come To Me Love Oil, Follow Me Boy Oil, or Southern True Love Oil, three white, pink, or light blue candles, Two Figure Candles each named and baptized, with their names inscribed in the wax, a length of red or pink ribbon, 7 silver-colored coins, pink, white, or red roses,(or a mixture of the three), and seven of the thorns from the roses (alternatively you can use 


seven pins, tacks, or Iron Nails) Come To Me Love Self-Igniting Incense Powder, and your petition which should go something like this:



I (N.) seek you, spirit of water, Murmuria, nymph, to aid me in compellling (N.) to Love me. Attract (They/ she/ he) With these apples, or by perfumes, by incense, and sweet smells, I call (H.S.T.) to be bewitched by me, by the spirit Murmuria, aid me in this work, and I agree if he does, and our love is true and unbroken, I will return with (state gift) within one year

Historic water spirit conjuration sigil from Reginald Scot’s 1665 ‘Discoverie of Witchcraft’—a ceremonial magic symbol used in early modern grimoires for summoning elemental spirits of water.
sigil of water spirits from Scotts Discoverie

This gift can be anything such as a bottle of champagne, a new perfume, a food offering of apples, roses, an offering of incense, tarot cards, jewelry, etc. Use your intuition (but never offer blood). 

Set up the working by marking this sigil in the sand: 

Light the three pink, white, or blue candles. Call to the nymph by chanting:


I call to you, Murmuria


Once the spirit has appeared, offer the apples in a pile on the sigil, saving one. Anoint the thorns, tacks, or Iron Nails in the appropriate oils, and, push them through the contract, into the apple, piercing the flesh. Anoint the ribbon in the appropriate oil, and tie the Figure Candles together. Pour over the working the bottle of champagne, and the Come To Me Love Cologne Water. With the seven coins, make a pile on the sigil, and pour a bit of Come To Me Love Self-Igniting Incense Powder on top, lighting it and allowing the smoke to waft about. Scatter the rose petals over the working, and ask the spirit if this is agreeable. If the spirit confirms (which should be confirmed with divination) then you may leave. 

If the working is beneficial to you, return with your offering. 

There are many ways perfumes can be incorporated into your practice. Spraying them on is enough if they’re magically worked: all my perfumes are made to be used in ritual, as they are handcrafted for spells and workings for practitioners, by a practitioner of folk magic, and many witchcrafts.

For example, my Visions of the Witches Rose Series is an exploration through my work with the plant spirit of Rose, and extracting my own roses’ essence and infusing it in three magical perfumes that encompass the rose's virtues. They can all be used in workings to attract love, but do it in very different ways. These perfumes are truly very special. For more generic love formulas, use Come To Me Love Cologne. 


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