Lemongrass oil

How to Use It

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Van Van work: lemongrass is the dominant note of Van Van oil, used to dress lodestones, mojo bags and doorframes to clear bad luck and open the road.
• Uncrossing: add a few drops to a floor wash and scrub from the back of the house to the front door, then throw the water out the front.
• Luck: anoint the hands before cards, dice or a business meeting to cut through a run of bad luck.

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Lust: dress a red candle with lemongrass and a little cinnamon for a working with heat and quickness.
• Psychic opening: rub one drop on the brow before scrying or card reading to sharpen the eye.
• Snake lore: lemongrass is traditionally planted or sprinkled around a home to keep snakes away, and in a magickal sense to keep sly people at a distance.

A Simple Working

• Fill a bucket with warm water and add a splash of white vinegar.
• Add nine drops of lemongrass oil and stir counterclockwise.
• Say aloud what bad luck or crossed condition you are washing out.
• Wash the floors from the back of the house towards the front door.
• Wipe the front step last.
• Throw the used water out the front door and away from the house.
• Light a white chime candle dressed with a drop of the oil to seal the work.

Pairs Well With

• Van Van oil: the classic formula built on lemongrass, for stronger road opening.
• A lodestone: dressed with lemongrass for luck that sticks.
• White vinegar: the sharp base of a clearing floor wash.
• Citronella: its close cousin, for a second grass note in clearing work.

What You Receive

Lemongrass oil in 2 dram and 16 oz (1 lb) sizes.

Origin & Lore

Lemongrass (Cymbopogon) is a tall, clumping grass of South and Southeast Asia, grown for its lemon-scented stalks and leaves. It is a staple of Thai, Vietnamese and Indian cooking, is brewed as a tea across the tropics, and its close cousin citronella is the classic oil burned to keep insects away.

Ask a New Orleans rootworker what Van Van smells like and the honest answer is lemongrass: the grass is the heart of the city’s most famous clearing oil.

Van Van is a New Orleans formula from the early twentieth century, originally made from a blend of East Asian grasses such as lemongrass, citronella, palmarosa, gingergrass and vetiver. Its name is widely thought to come from ‘verveine’, the French name for vervain, a herb the old formula is believed to have replaced. Cunningham’s herbal lists lemongrass for repelling snakes, lust and psychic powers.