Having finally ran out of my Amazon-bought Florida water, I finally decided to make my own. Florida water’s some good stuff; it’s originally a kind of citrusy perfume or toilet water, but it found its way into American-style magic as a good spiritual cleansing agent and offering to the dead. It’s pretty Light-based, so dark-workers may not find the stuff particularly useful, but I love the stuff. I got the basis of the following recipe from a friend, but I customized it and charged it differently than how they did it, so let me share my process with you guys.
Ingredients used:
- A handle (750mL) of dustbunny-shelf cheap-ass paint thinner vodka (90 proof or above is suggested)
- A lemon
- A lime
- Six cloves, crushed
- A heaping tablespoon each of dried: vervain, bergamot, lavender, rose petals, hyssop
Process:
- On a Sunday in an hour of the Sun while the Moon is waxing, get all your crap together.
- Zest the lemon and lime. Thoroughly juice the lemon and lime. Slice up the remainder of the flesh and rinds finely. Put all into a clean 1gal container with an airtight, fitted lid.
- Put all the dried ingredients in the container.
- Pour the vodka into the container. You should have plenty of leftover space.
- Cap and seal the container. Give it a good shake.
- For each day over the next complete lunation until the Moon returns to its phase when you began, shake the container (preferably in hours of the Sun) thoroughly while charging the mixture with Light and prayers. (I use my Blessing of Light, the Trisagion six times, and the Song of the Serpent six times).
- When complete, separate out all the solid ingredients, strain out all possible liquid from them, and save the Florida water in appropriate bottles.
While the Florida water was stewing, it had about the right scent, but also smelled obnoxiously like salad dressing or dill-based vinaigrette. It was a little annoying, but the smell went away once the plant matter was strained out well enough and once I added another half liter of distilled water (may as well dilute it ahead of time and get rid of some of the alcoholic kick). It came out a light, murky brown-green, but for how it capital-L Looks ethereally, it’s pretty bright and solar for what I want. Overall, a success! I’m eager to use it, especially since it’s a whole handle of the stuff.
I like to use Florida water in cleansing mixtures (a spray bottle of holy water, 7-11 Holy Oil, and Florida water to cleanse all my magical tools, for instance), as well as putting a bit in my aftershave astringent. I’ll also put a splash into liquid offerings I make to the local dead or nature spirits, since apparently a lot of things enjoy this stuff, though it might be kept away from dark or deathy entities or workers.
UPDATE (2/18/2013): After Andrew’s comment below, I went through and filtered the Florida water. I had already used a fine-mesh strainer to get most of the gunk out, but after filtering it through cheesecloth and coffee filters, the color changed into a bright and smooth amber. Very nice improvement.
