General Spiritual Bath Instructions

Timing

THE TRADITIONAL TIME TO TAKE A SPIRITUAL BATH IS AT DAWN. Most people have to be up near dawn to get to work anyway, so “in time to get ready for work” is about right.

Some baths are better suited to specific days of the week; Love baths are often prescribed for Fridays, prosperity baths for Thursdays, etc. If you are familiar with astrology, you can also use it to select the right time for a bath. But remember, with some exceptions, dawn or early morning is the most traditional time.

Choosing ingredients

While there are many effective spiritual bath blends available, you may need to improvise in a hurry. I include a few simple recipes below, made with things most people already have in their homes. You can also read “When There’s No Conjure Shop In Town” for tips on finding spiritually useful herb blends in other places.

Having selected your herbal blend, brew it into a tea. Make it good and strong. You can do this the night before.

Preparing the tub

Some bathing spells call for you to step into the tub between two lighted candles. It makes a sort of otherworldly gateway for you to pass through. This isn’t very common, but I don’t think it is ever contraindicated.  Let fire safety be your guide here.

Fill your bathtub with warm water and mix the bath tea into it.

The ritual itself

Spiritual baths are not designed to remove physical dirt. You will not be using soap and scrubbing. The grime and grunge that you remove will be spiritual. Remove physical dirt at another time.

When you have stepped into the tub, you will now wash yourself. How you will do this depends on the purpose of your bath.

To remove bad luck, jinxes and curses, or other negativity, wash from your head (or neck) downward. You can pray “Remove these conditions from me.” Some people simply pour the water over their head several times — three, seven or nine.

To attract prosperity, love, gambling luck or any other kind of goodness into your life, bathe from the feet upward, three or seven times. (I have been told that the number nine is usually associated with banishing negative conditions.)

You may pray while bathing, in any way that you find comfortable and effective. You can read a passage of scripture or a prayer from a holy card or prayer book; you can improvise from your heart; you can recite short affirmations or mantras. You can speak aloud or pray within your mind. But do pray.

The whole process can be accomplished in a few minutes.

When you have bathed yourself, be sure to collect some of the water!  You will need it to toss out into the yard. In the old days — from time immemorial until indoor plumbing became widespread — the bath would have been done in a washtub, either indoors or outdoors, and the entire contents thrown into the yard  when the bath was finished. It was both a way of disposal and an offering to the sun. Nowadays, to maintain the practice, we collect a glass or bowl of the bathwater to toss into the yard.

If you are removing negativity, throw the bathwater into the front yard or into the street, so lingering energies can be dissipated by passers-by.

If you are attracting blessings, throw it into the back yard, to keep those good things at home!

If you are cleaning up after cursing work, take the bathwater to the crossroads — in modern terms, any four-way intersection. Pour the water out as you pass through the intersection. (If you ever see someone pouring a go-cup out of a car window, they might just be draining the dregs of a soda — or maybe disposing of a cleansing bath.

“Kitchen Cupboard” Bath Blends

Each of these blends can be boiled like any other herbal tea and used as above. Many other combinations are possible. For further information, see Hoodoo Spiritual Baths:Cleansing Conjure with Washes and Waters, by Aura Laforest.

Cleansing, Uncrossing and Jinx-Breaking Baths

  • Cleansing and purification:
    • Mint tea, vinegar, a very small quantity of ammonia.
    • Epsom salts (from the drugstore), table salt, blue food coloring.
  • Protection:
    • White (actually yellow) mustard seed or powder; red pepper; black pepper; salt.
    • As above, with a cup of vinegar or a chopped lemon.
  • Conceal yourself from enemies: oregano, bay leaf, poppy seed.

Blessing Baths

  • Prosperity: Cinnamon, allspice, sugar or honey.
  • Love and fidelity: Rose petals, cloves, basil; sugar or honey.
  • Passionate sex:
    • Rose petals, cinnamon, ginger, catnip (pet stores have it)
    • Cumin, ginger, sexual fluids.
  • Peace in the home: basil, rosemary, white mustard seed, bay leaf.
  • The Consolation Bath deserves its own page. Click here.