Van Van oil is a favorite Louisiana standard with many uses, including banishing, purification, ritual preparation, and meditation. Focus: Blessed Sea Salt

Van Van is used to prepare a magickal working space and to anoint ritual participants. Add it to mop water, washrags, and room sprays.

Most of the traditional ingredients in Van Van have pest-repelling properties, which is a constant need in the Deep South! Traditional Van Van potions are based on the citrus-smelling grasses like Citronella, Palmarosa, and Vetiver. Some of these are included in my Van Van oil.

For my formulations I took an intuitive leap, based on New Orleans pronunciations. What we call Vervain in Europe and Texas (Ver-VANE), is pronounced (vurh-VaHN) in French and Cajun. Vervain is a European witchcraft mainstay herb, used by Druid and western Witches alike for purification and magickal power and healing. Lemon Verbena essential oil (Aloysia triphylla or Lippia citriodora) known by its common name as Lemon Verbena) would have been available to early French perfumers based in New Orleans, but since it is quite expensive, it would be unaffordable for most New Orleans styled HooDoo practitioners and potioneers. Because of its powerful purification properties, I conjecture that Vervain (European Verbena officinalis or American native Verbena hallei, which has no scent or essential oil), was used in infused oils to obtain the powers of the Verbena, and that the lemony scent and purifying qualities were added in with Lemongrass, Citronella, and Palmarosa grass essential oils, as necessary, affordable and available, to approximate the elusive scent of Lemon Verbena essential oil.

My version of Van Van oil pays tribute to this history, and contains real Lemon Verbena essential oil. It contains sea salt blessed on the Wednesday after the New Moon.

For more Voudou and Hoodoo magick potions, read our blog article.

For other potions for cleansing and purification, see this blog article.