Origins and Spiritual Uses of Florida Water
With its sweet floral scent and lemon overtones, Florida Water—named after the Fountain of Youth—is commonly used for ritual offerings and purification. Some replace Holy water with Florida Water. The sacred cologne contains numerous spiritual benefits and has become a staple in Voodoo, Hoodoo, Wiccan, and Santeria practices.
Mixed with spices, herbs, lavender, and citrus oils, the Water can be used as a simple cologne or perfume for protection, to draw in good fortune, and in any kind of spell to block out negativity and harmful entities.
While thousands of fragrances have gone in and out of style, Florida Water has maintained its true recipe since 1808. When Florida Water was introduced in the 1800s, enslaved African-Americans in the Southern United States used the cologne while serving their masters. They would use Florida Water to scent the bed linens, sprinkle in bathwater, mop the floors and shave men’s faces. Enslaved African Americans were forbidden to practice African religions and were forced into Christianity practices.
According to Witch Swap, those forced into slavery would use Psalms in the Bible to hide Hoodoo rituals in the scriptures. While publicly worshipping Catholic saints, slaves worshipped African deities. Florida Water became a staple ritual tool of slave-based magic.
In secret rituals, Florida Water found its way into magical/spiritual practices performed by the enslaved. Rituals like spiritual floor washes became more popular.
According to Gabriela Herstik’s 2018 book, Craft: How To Be A Modern Witch, she calls the Water “the baking soda of the magical world.” For Latinos, those maintaining cultural traditions and spiritual practices, it’s believed Florida Water can do powerful and mundane deeds to connect to the spiritual realm and ancestral spirits.
“It can be added to a bath, used as a perfume, put on energy points like the third eye, sprayed in the air, and utilized to clean a counter, to name a few. The citrusy scent of the cologne means that it’s both energizing and purifying. It’s also said to represent the fountain of youth, which is supposedly in Florida,” Herstik said.
Florida Water was used in enslaved people’s practices and spiritual practices throughout the Caribbean, and continues to be used by their descendants to this day through purification, ritual offerings, attracting love, etc… Its use became more commercialized in the last few years as social media popularized it through Wiccan practices and other pagan magical practices. In the last 200 years, its power comes from the traditions of spiritualists, even now its used in the same way.
Some beneficial ways to use Florida Water in your spiritual life include:
Sprinkling it or spraying it through a spray bottle throughout the room to remove heavy vibrations and encourage the healthy expression of emotions, especially after arguments. This is especially useful for empaths who come in contact with negative people.
As a purification and blessing floor wash, one can mix the cologne into usual cleaning mixtures.
Make a crystal cleansing solution whenever your stones begin to have stagnant, low energy by placing them in the water or spraying them. Cleansing them under the Full or New Moon is favorable as well.
If you’re an empath or have spiritual gifts, spray onto the body to fight anxiety, sadness, and protection from absorbing others’ energies. When feeling ungrounded or “evil-eyed,” take a cleansing bath and spray the Water on your crown, neck, heart, hands, and feet.
When contacting ancestors, set a glass/bowl on the ancestral altar to receive clear messages with protection from interfering energies. It can also be used as a ritual offering to ancestors or deities.
To relieve aching muscles, rub Florida Water on problem areas to soften skin. Dabbing a small amount on bug bites and sunburn spots is great for relief.
Cleanse down all the items on sacred altars, including the altar itself.
Make a protection spray and bless it to activate spiritual protection and defense.
Bless your wallet to bring more abundance and financial success by spraying it onto the money and soaking cowrie shells in the water and carrying them in your wallet.
Washing hands and feet after coming into contact with people after a long day.
Protecting energies and auric fields in workspaces by keeping some near your desk in order to transmute negative energies into loving energies.
For attracting true love or unblocking obstacles in a current relationship, add a few drops in a bowl and set aside your bed, and light a red or pink attraction candle while programming with desired intention.
When moving into a new space, bless and cleanse by anointing floors, windows, and doorways for protection, health, wealth, and luck.
Those who gossip can benefit from its calming effects when spraying onto the throat chakra.
As a pendulum cleanse, rinse pendulums in the cologne after use to rinse them of existing energies and dross.
Mix with inks when writing spells or manifesting to increase power of intentions.
Protecting yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually and physically by wearing as a cologne for a protective shield. This can also be used in cleansing rituals in spiritual baths to enhance purification from external energies.
Prevent nightmares by adding the Water to bedding and offer protection while sleeping. For dreamwork, place Water in a crystal bowl next to your bed for prophetic, clear messages from spirit guides, ancestors and angels.
While doing laundry, add a quarter cup to your laundry and rise water to both cleanse and bless clothing.
For practicing scrying, mix half of Water and half river water in a clear jar or dark bowl and use for divination.
As a pet blessing, anoint your pet’s forehead with a dab to cleanse them.
As a facial cleanse, keep Water in a spray bottle in the refrigerator during hot summer days.
As a rubdown, it contains therapeutic qualities with stimulating effects to calm nerves and ease anxiety—especially when applied on the forehead.
Adding the cologne to rinse water after shampooing to clear the mind of heavy thoughts, anxiety, stress, intrusive thoughts, doubts and fears is beneficial after a long day of encountering stagnant, unwanted energies.