How To Use Washes and Baths In Folk Magic & Witchcraft
- Austin Fuller
- Aug 4
- 14 min read
History of Washes and Baths in Folk Magic & Witchcraft
The spiritual powers of water have been used since time immemorial to purify, cleanse, and give power to those who use them. Water is the mother of all.
To many ancient cultures, water is the source of life, or even the source of the universe itself. In Hellenistic astrology, the Thema Mundi, or the (mythic) birthchart of the world, places Cancer in the ascendant, meaning that our world by its principle nature is cool, watery, and generative, like the sign Cancer.
Like the other articles I have written on using formulas to produce magical results (such as how to use oils, how to use incenses, or how to use spiritual perfumes) the use of washes and baths is for matters of health; That is, to many cultures outside the United States, the spiritual, the physical, and the psychological are not wholly separated. For the ancient Greeks, miasma was the pollution of everyday life: a psycho-spiritual vapor that could produce sickness. These malignant airs could be cleansed with ritual washing and smoke. A common lustral water was to take water and light a bay leaf or some other fragrant material and drop it into the water while proclaiming "Xerniptosai!”.
In Turkey, the use of a miraculous water that would be collected from the bones of Saint Nicholas would be placed inside small decorative bottles and carried around for the sick. Saint John's Water, made from herbs collected on the eve of the Saint's feast, and the dew from the herbs would be bottled and used for all manner of purifications and ailments.
By the 1920’s, in the United States, we see the rise of codified washes much like we do with incense and oil formulas. Washes put into mineral crystals to easily carry perfumes and essential oils were used heavily in catalogs that would sell products alongside each other, such as Come To Me Love Wash, with Come To Me Love Oil; Crown of Success Wash, with Crown of Success Oil; Uncrosing Wash with Uncrossing Oil, etc..
Many of these washes, however contained very little plant material, or sacrificed the leaves for the essential oil, or would take a portion of the oils which were produced and mixed into the wash crystals. At Bane X Bramble, we want to emphasize and uphold the tradition of using both scents that correspond with these traditional formulas (Crown of Success should smell like bay leaves and orange; Come To Me Wash should smell like a sweet floral) as well as genuine plant material in our washes.
How Washes Are Used
Our Wash Crystals can be used in a handful of ways- not only for making spiritual baths, but also for making floor washes, door scrubs, and adding to laundry to fix linens and clothes.
A good rule of thumb with washes is: if you’re removing something, wash from head to feet (up to down), or back to front. If you’re trying to bring something in, wash from feet to head (down to up) or front to back.
Making Washes
It is important to combine the materia magica formulas with the immateria magica: breathe, prayer, focus, etc. When making a wash, whether for the laundry, a bath for ourselves or clients, making a floor wash, or a door scrub, we should always conjure our formulas, either with Psalms, songs, or earnest prayer from the heart.
Making Floor Wash
For example, if you’re doing a cleansing on your house, you might use Uncrossing Wash and wash the floors from back to front. You might energetically rebalance your living space with another condition, such as money, success, or love, with Money Drawing Wash, and mopping the floors from front to back. If you don't have hardwood floors to use, you can always wash the baseboards. To mix the floorwash, in your mop bucket or a basin, mix hot water and some of the wash crystals.
Making Baths
If you’re making a bath for yourself, mix a large basin of hot water with some of the wash crystals, and let them dissolve. If its a bath for bringing in love, you might take this basin, wand with a clean washcloth, from the feet to the head, draw this bath upward, all while praying for your desires.
You might then pour this wash over your head a number of times, and collect the bathwater, which might be used in floor washes, sprinkled on letters, or used in other rituals.
Making Laundry Rinses
For dressing clothes and linens, we might mix up some of the wash crystals in a warm basin or measuring cup, and pour the solution in the rinse cycle.
For example, if you have a job interview, you might fix your clothes with Crown of Success Wash in the rinse cycle.
Making Door Scrubs
Another way washes can be used is by making a door scrub. As our doors are the threshold of our home, our kingdom, we honor the door and the spirits that guard it by washing it, perfuming it. Door washes or door scrubs can be made by taking any formula and washing the door and entryway or porch. Whether it is for a business or home, the front door, porch, entryway, or sidewalk can be scrubbed with an old broom you have designated as the “outside” broom, or with a scrub brush. The door can be washed in the same manner as we wash ourselves: to take off conditions, we will wash from top to bottom, to add conditions, we wash from the bottom up.
Simple Washes
Bane X Bramble washes contain genuine botanical material. Simply mix with warm water and pray. This is enough to produce some spiritual effect. Of course, all washes can have other materia added to them according to divination or desire.
Simple Bath For Drawing Love
Take Come To Me Love Wash, and mix with warm water, and allow to cool. Wash this up to you from feet to head, receding Song of Solomon Chapter 1:
1 The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver. While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green. The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.
Air dry.
For added power, anoint yourself in Come To Me Love Oil, and splash some Come To Me Love Cologne Water on.
A Bath for Service Industry Workers To Make Good Tips That Night
Take Cleopatra Wash and mix it in warm water, and allow it to cool. Wash upwards to you, and recite Psalm 115:
115 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.
For added Power, reserve some of the bath water and add this to the rinse cycle of the washing machine. Anoint the hands and heart with Cleopatra Oil, and splash with Cleopatra Cologne Water.
A Money Drawing Bath
Take Money-Drawing Wash crystals and mix it in warm water. Pray Over it Psalm 8:
8 O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
Wash upward. For added power, burn Money Drawing Self-Igniting Incense Powder while reciting the prayer, and drop the hot coal into the wash. Collect the bath water and use as a door scrub outside of the home or business.
A Bath for Success In An Interview
Take Crown of Success Wash and mix it in warm water. Recite over it Psalm 78:
78 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law; And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them. Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap. In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths. He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness. And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this, and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation: Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind. He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea: And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations. So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire; They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths, The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel. For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works. Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble. When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant. But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan. And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink. He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycomore trees with frost. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts. He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence; And smote all the firstborn in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: But made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not: but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain, which his right hand had purchased. He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images. When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts: he put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands.
Wash this from feet to head, and then take the bath, and pour it over the head nine times. Allow the water dripping off your body to be collected then use this in the laundry to fix your interview attire. For added power, burn Crown of Success Self-Igniting Incense Powder during this whole process.
An Uncrossing Bath To Break Evil
Make a bath in a basin with Uncrossing Wash, and warm water. Mark over it the sign of the cross, and pray over it, 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.
Use a washcloth, and with the basin of water, wash the uncrossing bath from your head down to your feet. Do this seven times, all while reciting the prayer above.