Banishing oil

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Dress a black candle on the waning moon and name the habit or influence you are ending.
• Anoint the frame of the front door after a cleansing to stop the old energy returning.
• Rub onto a written list of what you are done with before burning it.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Anoint the corners of a room after a floor wash, working toward the door.
• Dress a petition for a person to leave and bury it far from home.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Anoint the hands and brow before a banishing ritual of the pentagram.
• Mark banishing pentagrams on the walls with oil at the four quarters.

Demonology & Black Magick

• Dress the boundary of a circle or triangle before evocation so the space can be closed firmly afterward.
• Use as a closing oil to dismiss a spirit and seal the space when work is finished.

A Simple Working

• On a waning moon, write what you want gone on a square of paper.
• Anoint a black candle from the base up to the wick, pushing away from you.
• Dab the oil on the paper and fold it away from you.
• Light the candle and say, plainly, that this thing is leaving.
• Burn the paper in the flame, or in a fireproof dish beside it.
• Carry the ashes outside and scatter them away from your home.
• Wash your hands and open a window.

Pairs Well With

• Black salt, laid across thresholds once the banishing is done.
• A black candle, the traditional colour for removal and banishing.
• Rue, a herb used to clear and drive out.
• Obsidian, for grounding and protection after banishing.

What You Receive

Banishing oil, available in 2 dram, 4 dram, 1 oz and 16 oz bottles.

Origin & Lore

Banishing oil is a named condition oil used in witchcraft and folk magick to push out what should not be there, whether a habit, a person’s influence or a heavy atmosphere. It is usually worked on the waning moon and followed by cleansing and protection.

Banishing is the oldest kind of household magick: salt over the threshold, iron over the door, and a firm word telling something it is not welcome.

Most banishing traditions share the same order of work: drive out, cleanse, then protect. Ceremonial magicians open and close rituals with banishings of the pentagram, while folk practitioners sweep, wash and salt.

Banishing oils sold as condition oils come from the same early twentieth-century spiritual supply trade that popularised hoodoo formulas across the United States.