One beginning in the tradition of hoodoo should know about the importance of baths. They are vital tools in hoodoo work and cannot be dispensed with.
Many people nowadays don't have bathtubs, and some adaptation can be achieved by way of showers. Other people use a large bowl or bucket of water to pour on themselves in place of a spiritual bath. In olden times, and also in some places today where water on tap isn't common, people will perform their spiritual baths in a river or pond outdoors.
A spiritual bath is similar to a regular bath, but with certain key differences. Spiritual baths are not meant primarily for physical cleansing and so washing items like soap might be taboo depending on the exact bath type. However there are some types of magical bath that do use the multitasking property of soap or other cleansers, and in those cases the cleaning aspect is appropriate to the work.
There is some controversy around washing the hair in a spiritual bath. Many people don't like to wet their hair due to elaborate hair styling or damaged hair that doesn't like water. Spiritual baths nevertheless require at least wetting the head (not necessarily soaking and soaping) and again, the purpose behind them is not physically washing, in most cases. Therefore, the wetting of the head is not optional; but presumably one is not taking magical baths too regularly, and so this shouldn't be much of an issue when it's done only a few times in a year.
The spiritual bath is primarily used for spiritual cleansing: washing away unwanted energies and attachments. However, in modern times it can also be used to draw certain powers (make one awash in them, so to speak).
While it's certain humans have been, in some way or another, hanging around and enjoying themselves in water since prehistoric times, the earliest evidence of bathing in the modern sense comes from ancient China, where the letter for the word "bath" appears as a pictogram of a person standing in a washtub. Other ancient sources indicate bathing was used for health and wellness, as well as spiritual cleansing which in these times was often considered one and the same (remember: many practices that are now considered science and medicine were formerly part of magical arts.) The tradition has been passed down through many cultures; and hoodoo, as is usual for this style of magic, uses a mixture of many.
Hoodoo doesn't really become hoodoo until around 1800, before that you have African magic, European magic, Native American magic, and other disparate influences. Only when the cultures merge does it become American hoodoo. American Indian tribes often had sacred hot springs where they went for healing and health, by the 16th century Turkish style baths were common in Muslim-influenced areas of the African continent and African soaps were famous among traders by the 17th century. Europeans are notorious for not bathing in this era but that was because it was considered vanity, and actual books of beauty recipes indicate washes and baths were not unpopular among those who cared about such things. However, overt spiritual baths were less commonly talked about, and the primary documenting cultures tend to have their records very influenced by what are ultimately Middle Eastern practices, due to Christianity and Islam (as the religions of record in these areas) both originating in the region. Some old references, however:
Agrippa (European):
"Apuleius saith, and I put myself forthwith into the bath of the Sea, to be purified, and put my head seven times under the Waves. And the Leprous person that was to be cleansed, was sprinkled seven times with the blood of a Sparrow; and Elisha the Prophet, as it is written in the Second Book of the Kings, saith unto the Leprous person; Go, and wash thy self seven times in Jordan, and thy flesh shall be made whole, and thou shalt be cleansed, and it follows a little after, And he washed himself seven times in Jordan, according to the Prophets saying, and he was cleansed."
Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (African):
“Wudu’ designates the action and wadu’ designates the water. Linguistically it means cleanliness and excellence, and in the Shari’a it means to purify certain parts of the body with water to make them clean and to remove the judgement [sic] of ‘minor impurity’ (hadath) from them to permit acts of worship which are forbidden by lack of purity. […]
Two things oblige wudu’: ritual impurity and certain causes. (Khalil says three things: ritual impurities, causes; and apostasy and doubt.)
Ritual impurity is what breaks wudu’ in itself, like urine, and causes are things which do not break wudu’ in themselves but leads to ritual impurity, like loss of sanity, touching someone with desire and touching the penis. (Ibn Juzayy states that apostasy also breaks wudu’.)
[…]
This must be done using pure water which is uncontaminated by any impurity.
(Purification from impurities is achieved by pure water, i.e. that which is not mixed with what changes any of its three qualities: colour, taste or smell, whether that change in its attributes is due to something either pure or impure. Thus if it is changed by rose water, it is not valid to use it for things like wudu’ and ghusl.)
[…]
It is sunna to use a small amount of water when washing provided you do it thoroughly. Using an excessive amount is extremism and innovation.
[The text describes washing genitals, feet, hands, hair, head three times, the right side, then the left side, then every part of the body that remains so all has been covered including the navel, between fingers, between buttocks and behind knees.]"
The earliest mentions of hoodoo baths are from the 19th century where washing in plain natural water was sometimes done, but also special baths with perfumes or herbal infusions are known -- for health as well as ritual.
It is in the 20th century when mail-order catalogues start to sell prepared products that bath formulas really take off. Some of these may have been standard bath soaps relabeled as spiritual products (a practice which is still to be found today) others were making use of the new technology to deliver magical formulas in better, more modern ways.
Traditional Herbal Baths:
To make a traditional herb bath, choose your herbs for the purpose. Boil them. Some say to plop them in boiling water for a set number of minutes like 7, 9, 13 or 30; others boil till the water is reduced to 1/3 the original amount; others boil till they feel the mixture looks well enough infused to their liking.
Strain out the herbs and put the infusion into your bathtub; OR if you are not bathing in a tub, use the straight infusion to sponge-bathe or to pour it over your head (be sure to let it cool to a comfortable temperature before applying it this way!)
Formula Baths:
If using a readymade formula, the task is much easier. You simply pour the liquid or powder into the water (sometimes in a fixed amount like a whole package, or quantities like 3 or 7 or 9 capfuls or spoonfuls) and let them dissolve in the water.
A Note on Spiritual Soaps:
Popular now that showers are more common, some people use spiritual bar soaps or body washes instead of baths. However the ritual has to be done differently and so that is not the subject of this post.
In your bath, the usual requirement is that the water be in contact with all your body parts, including the head. Sometimes it is poured 7 or 9 or 21 times over the head from a cup, perhaps with prayers or wishes stated in between. Some people like to soak till their skin prunes, making evident that the magical water has seeped into them. Others take shorter baths but let the water air dry on them instead of toweling off. The idea in both cases is that the water stays with you in some way.
If you are soaking in a bath instead of pouring water on, scrubbing yourself with a washcloth or loofa or sponge can be done; traditionally one scrubs upward on the body to draw in beneficial influences, or downward to cast away unwanted influences.
One can enhance the spiritual bath with candles or incense burning in the room. There are also those who use baths as an element of a larger ritual, such as a full spiritual house cleaning.
In modern hoodoo practice, it's not uncommon to take spiritual baths for purposes like drawing love or money. However, when writing Conjuration: Hoodoo Spells 1800-1920 I noticed that in the oldest spells, baths are only used for cleansing and purification. (Though drawing good luck might be an expected result of the bath, as once the victim was free from evil it could be supposed their good luck would be unlocked.)
These older baths were usually herb baths, or made from simple mixtures like salt, boiled pieces of silver and baking or washing soda. On a hunt to find the first commercial hoodoo baths, I found the 7 Holy Spirits bath from the 1944 O&B Catalogue. The advertisement is featured above. Clearly it's some kind of 7 bottle set, meant to be taken every other day.
The catalogue says little about the bath recipe, but as it happens, a sort of recipe is given in Lewis de Claremont's Ancient Book of Formulas. This book rarely gives complete conjure recipes, instead letting the reader know which "bouquet" fragrance blend to use when making oils (presumably de Claremont was selling these formulas or knew of some seller for them.) Cross-checking the fragrance blends for the bath with the fragrance blends for the anointing oils, we get the following formulas:
Seven Holy Spirit Baths
Day 1: Lovers, colored blue
Day 2: Commanding, colored red
Day 3: Van Van, colored yellow
Day 4: Indian Guide, colored green
Day 5: Temple, colored brown
Day 6: Uncrossing, colored green
Day 7: High Conquering, colored purple
The baths consisted of one ounce each soluble oil base with 4 drams of the fragrance added. De Claremont doesn't give his recipe for this oil base, but here is one from Jeanne Rose's Herbal Body Book:
- Melt 1/4 cup hydrous lanolin and add slowly, mixing all the while, 1 1/2 cups alcohol in which 1 oz. essential oil has been dissolved.
- Add slowly 1/2 cup alcohol in which 1 oz. essential oil has been dissolved.
- Shake all together thoroughly. This substance is milky although the milkiness does not show in the bath and it will disperse immediately in the water.