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Cleansing

Florida Water Spiritual Wash

Also called Agua de Florida, Florida Water cleansing

A wash with the American cologne Florida Water, first sold in New York in 1808, used across Hoodoo, Latin American curanderismo and Caribbean spiritual traditions to cleanse a person or a room.

TraditionHoodoo and Latin American folk practice
RegionUnited States, Caribbean, Latin America
Era19th century to present
Moon☾ Waning moon
DayAny
ElementWater
Difficulty●○○ Simple
Time15 minutes

Tonight's moon is read when the page loads.

The working

  1. Light the candle if you are using one and say what you want to wash away.
  2. Add a generous splash of Florida Water to the basin of cool water.
  3. Dip the cloth, wring it out and wipe your hands, the back of your neck, your arms and your feet, moving from top to bottom.
  4. Dab a little on your forehead and wrists, the way many practitioners refresh themselves after a funeral, a hospital visit or a hard day.
  5. To cleanse a room instead, wipe the doorknobs, windowsills and the tops of door frames with the same water.
  6. Pour what is left out the front door or down a drain, away from the house.

Take care: Florida Water is mostly alcohol: keep it away from flames and candles, do not drink it, and patch-test on skin first. Never rub it on someone having a seizure or put it on babies.

Versions across time and place

i

Hoodoo cleansing and offerings to the dead

African American Hoodoo · Early 20th century onward

Root doctors used Florida Water in washes and baths, to dress candles and as an offering believed to please the spirits of the dead. Hurston, who trained with conjure workers in New Orleans in the late 1920s, recorded colognes and scented waters among their regular supplies.

Uses: Florida Water, candles

Recorded in: Zora Neale Hurston, Hoodoo in America, Journal of American Folklore (1931); Catherine Yronwode, Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic (2002)
ii

Peruvian curandero use

Andean curanderismo, northern Peru · Late 20th century

Healers in the Huancabamba and Ayabaca highlands sprayed Agua de Florida from the mouth over patients and offerings and carried it for protection. Some preferred locally made perfumes, worried that the factory product could offend powerful spirits.

Uses: Agua de Florida, local perfumes

Recorded in: Mario Polia, Despierta, remedio, cuenta (1996)
iii

Chinese hualushui

Chinese household use · Early 20th century to present

Florida Water reached China in the early twentieth century and inspired local flower-dew waters called hualushui, used to freshen the skin and keep off mosquitoes in summer. It became a cooling household staple rather than a ritual one, showing how far the same bottle travelled.

Uses: hualushui

Recorded in: Sixth Tone, A Chinese Eau de Cologne, by Way of America (2023)

History

Florida Water was introduced in 1808 by Robert I. Murray, a New York perfumer. In 1835 David Trumbull Lanman joined the business, which became Murray & Lanman and later Lanman & Kemp, still the maker today. It is a citrus cologne in the style of eau de Cologne, with sweet orange, lavender and clove. The name evokes the legendary Fountain of Youth in Florida.

Sold cheaply through the nineteenth century, it spread through the Caribbean and Latin America and was taken up as a spiritual water in Hoodoo, Espiritismo, curanderismo and Afro-Caribbean religions. Some of those, such as Santería and Haitian Vodou, are initiatory religions whose rites are not described here; the simple personal wash above is the open household use found across many of these communities.

Sources

  1. Florida Water · Wikipedia contributors, 2025
  2. Hoodoo in America · Zora Neale Hurston, 1931
  3. Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic · Catherine Yronwode, 2002

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