Van Van cologne: cleansing, uncrossing, and clearing the house

Van Van is a working formula, not a perfume that happens to smell clean

Van Van is one of the best known formulas in hoodoo, rootwork, and Conjure, and it is best known for exactly what this cologne is offered for: cleansing, and getting rid of what does not belong.

That plain language is worth keeping, because it tells you what Van Van is for in practice. It is not a perfume you wear to smell pleasant, though it is worn on the body as one of its uses. It is not a general blessing formula, and it is not a luck formula first and foremost. It is a clearing formula: something you use when a situation, a place, or a person feels crossed, heavy, or interfered with, and you want that interference gone, cleanly, so that ordinary life can go on without it.

If you are working in hoodoo, rootwork, or Conjure, work from the instructions and teaching you already follow in that tradition. A general article like this one is not a substitute for proper teaching, and it should not be used to invent a rite for a formula you have not been taught to use. If you are not working in that tradition, be honest with yourself about that, and about whether Van Van is the right tool for the work you actually do, rather than an attractive bottle you are reaching for without a practice to put it in.

Uncrossing: what the word means in practice

Uncrossing is a specific word in this tradition, and it means something more exact than feeling better. A crossed condition is a condition in which work has been put on you, or in which your affairs keep going wrong in a way that feels blocked rather than merely unlucky: plans stall, doors close, small things go wrong in a run, and the pattern holds even when you change your ordinary approach. Uncrossing is the work of removing that crossed condition, so that your own efforts can take effect again.

That is why Van Van is described first as an uncrossing item, before it is described as a general cleanser. General cleansing is maintenance: keeping a house, a body, and a working space clear as a matter of routine. Uncrossing is repair: dealing with a specific crossed state, or a specific piece of work put on you, and getting rid of it. The two are related, and Van Van is used for both, but they are not the same job, and it is worth knowing which one you are doing before you start.

Be specific with yourself about which one you mean, because a vague purpose produces a vague working, and a vague working is hard to read afterwards. If you cannot state the matter in one clear sentence, write it down, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it. And if the matter is a medical matter, a legal matter, or a safety matter, deal with that matter in the ordinary world first, or at the same time. Cleansing work is not a substitute for a doctor, a lawyer, or for leaving a dangerous situation.

Four ways to use Van Van cologne, and why there are four

A cleansing formula that only worked at one scale would be a limited tool. Van Van, as a cologne, is made to work at all four, and that versatility is part of why it is so widely used.

First, it can be used in a bath. A bath is the fullest form of personal cleansing in this tradition: the whole body, immersed, washed, and rinsed, with the formula in the water. A bath is used when the crossed or heavy feeling is on you personally, all over, rather than in one place, and when you have the time and privacy to do the work properly. It is the slowest of the four uses, and the most thorough, and it should be done as a deliberate working, not as a quick addition to an ordinary bath you were going to take anyway.

Second, it can be used as a floor wash. A floor wash is house cleansing at its most practical: the floors themselves are washed with the formula in the water, room by room, so that the house is cleared from the ground up. This is the use for a house that feels heavy, or crossed, or interfered with as a place, rather than for a person alone. It is physical work, and that physicality is part of it: you are cleaning the house in the ordinary sense and in the ritual sense at the same time, and the two are not separate.

Third, it can be used to spritz around your house. Spritzing is the quicker, lighter form of house work: a spray through the rooms, into corners, around doorways, where a full floor wash would be too much for the day, or where a room needs a quick clearing between fuller workings. It is not a substitute for a floor wash when a floor wash is what the situation calls for, but it is a genuine use in its own right, for maintenance and for quick clearing, and it is the use most people reach for most often.

Fourth, as a quick option while you are out, it can be put on oneself, to get rid of unwanted magick or negative energies. This is the personal, portable use: the cologne, worn on the body, as a cleanser you carry with you when you are out in the world, in places you cannot wash or spritz. It is the fastest of the four, and the least thorough, and it should be understood as such: a quick clearing for the moment, not a replacement for a bath or a floor wash when those are what the situation actually needs.

Choosing which use fits the situation

Choosing between the four uses is a practical decision, and it is worth making it deliberately rather than by habit. If the heaviness is on you, personally, and you have the time, use the bath. If it is on the house, as a place, wash the floors. If the house needs a quick clearing, or a room needs attention between fuller workings, spritz. If you are out, and you feel interference or negativity in the moment, put it on yourself.

That decision is also a diagnostic. If you keep reaching for the quick option, day after day, and the heaviness keeps returning, that is information. It may mean the situation needs a fuller working, a bath or a floor wash, rather than another quick application. It may mean the matter is not a cleansing matter at all, but something else: a practical problem, a relationship problem, or a situation that needs ordinary-world action rather than more cleansing. A record will show that pattern, if you keep one.

Do not use cleansing as a way to put off dealing with a situation you already know how to deal with. Cleansing used as avoidance will give you a clean room and an unchanged problem, and the record will show it, if you keep it honestly.

Preparing yourself and the house

Preparation for cleansing work is quieter than preparation for a full evocation, but it is preparation all the same. Settle the house first, in the ordinary sense: tidy what can be tidied, so that the cleansing is not fighting through clutter. Then settle yourself: bathe or wash, change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands if you are doing a full bath or floor wash, and know what you are doing and why, before you begin.

Know what you are going to do, in your own practice, before you start, and know what you are not going to do. A cleansing that tries to cover every possible problem usually covers none of them well. Keep it direct, keep it honest, and keep it to the matter at hand. If your practice calls for words, prayers, or psalms alongside the washing or spritzing, use the ones you have been taught. If it does not, plain, direct intention, held through the work, is better than a long improvisation that loses its shape halfway through.

Keeping a record, and knowing when the work is done

Keep a short record for each cleansing: date, what you used it for in one sentence, which of the four uses you chose, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days, not just on the day itself. Not what you hoped would happen, but what actually happened, in plain language. That record is what lets you tell, weeks later, whether anything changed, and whether that change had anything to do with the work.

A cleansing is done when the crossed or heavy feeling has lifted and ordinary life can go on without it, not when you have used a certain amount of cologne, or repeated the work a certain number of times. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise.

If nothing changes across several proper cleansings, that is also information. It may mean the purpose was unclear, the use chosen did not fit the situation, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the situation needs a different approach, in the ordinary world as well as in ritual.

Van Van cologne

Van Van is a clearing formula, not a perfume that happens to smell clean.

This is the cologne I offer for cleansing and uncrossing work in the hoodoo, rootwork, and Conjure tradition: for uncrossing, for getting rid of work put on you, for chasing off negative energies, and just for cleansing in general. It can be used in a bath, as a floor wash, to spritz around your house, and, as a quick option while you are out, put on oneself to get rid of unwanted magick or negative energies. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is the Van Van cologne I offer for this work.

If you want Van Van for that work, this is the one I offer: Van van cologne, $44 CAD. View the product

I also offer Van Van as an oil, for the same cleansing and uncrossing work, where an oil suits the working better than a cologne: Van van oil, $44 CAD. View the product

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