Spiritual Housecleaning — A Vodou Method

by Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen was an American-born mambo asogwe (senior Vodou priestess) initiated in Haiti, where she ran a peristyle in Jacmel in the Southern Department. A regular presence on alt.religion.voodoo and soc.culture.haiti through the 2000s, she was known for providing detailed, practical, and authoritative accounts of authentic Haitian Vodou practice in an era when misinformation about the religion was rampant.

This post, written in late December 2003, was shared with the Vodou Arts discussion group and the Usenet community as part of a "Cleansing and Renewal" cycle. It is a step-by-step guide to spiritual housecleaning — a well-attested Haitian Vodou practice for clearing a home of negative energy, evil spirits, and accumulated spiritual gunk. The method described draws on widely available materials: salt, fresh branches (pine or spruce at the time of year), Florida Water (a traditional American cologne used extensively in Vodou and other Afro-Atlantic traditions), water, and a simple prayer formula.

What distinguishes this account is its directness and practicality. Mambo Racine does not mystify the practice. She gives clear reasons for each step — working from back to front, top to bottom; trapping negative energy in salt before sweeping it out; the urine as a "super spiritual cleansing agent"; the coins to attract abundance; the white bath and white clothing to maintain the energetic cleanliness afterward. She names what is not needed (expensive botanica floor washes) and what to do with the tools when finished (throw them away, never keep them).

This is a primary source document from within a living Vodou community, written by a trained and initiated practitioner for a mixed audience of fellow Vodouisants and newcomers.

Dear folks, this is the next step in the Cleansing and Renewal cycle we are doing in our house and on the Vodou Arts forum. Spiritual housecleaning is simple, fun, and leaves your house a place of love and light. I am offering a method of spiritual housecleaning that is appropriate for people living in the USA or some other developed country — it doesn't require herbs available only in Haiti, for instance.

Some basic principles — work from top to bottom, and from the back of the house to the front. Use all new tools, a new broom and so on, and then be prepared to throw them away; don't keep them in the house when you are done.

The First Stage

For the first step of cleaning, you will need:

One bundle of brushy twigs or branches. At this time of year, a bundle of pine or spruce branches is fine.
Salt (some people use lye but it's a very dangerous chemical — I don't recommend it)
A bucket
Water
Florida Water if possible (I guess you could use some pine-scented disinfectant if you can't find Florida Water, but I really recommend you try to obtain Florida Water)

Starting from the back of the house, put a small pile of salt in each corner of each room of the house, going from the top floor down and from the back of the house to the front. This "traps" any negative energy, so it can't run from room to room eluding capture.

Now, take your bucket and fill it with clean water and add the Florida Water. Dip your branches in the water and starting at the room in the back of your house, on the top floor if you have two floors, at the top of the wall in each corner, sweep from the top down, so that drops of water fall into the little pile of salt. (This is why I don't want you to use lye — wet lye is hugely dangerous.)

Sweep every corner from top to bottom. Leave the salt where it is. This way, any negative spirit, bad vibe, whatever, is swept down into the salt, where it gets stuck. Go through each room, again, top floor to bottom, back of house to front. Then take what is left of the water in the bucket, go out your front door with it, and throw it away in the street, or the woods, somewhere away from the house.

The Second Stage

For the second stage of cleaning, you need:

A new broom
Your first urine of the morning, or cider vinegar
A few spoonfuls of brown sugar
Some coins from your pockets

Take that same bucket and put more water in it. Add your urine, or if you are squeamish and don't want to use urine, add vinegar. (Urine is good! It won't stink or anything, and it is a super spiritual cleansing agent.) Toss in a few coins from your pockets, and a little brown sugar.

(Let me mention at this point that some people will recommend commercial floor washes of the sort sold in botanicas, "Van Van" or whatever. This is not necessary and I don't recommend it — it's just spending money for no good reason, those things are just a little perfume and some food coloring really.)

Now, again starting at the top and the rear of the house, dip your broom in the water and start to sweep that salt away from the corners. Sweep vigorously! While you are sweeping, say this —

"In the name of God! In the name of my ancestors! In the name of all the lwa! I am happy in this house! I am healthy in this house! I am prosperous in this house! I am loved in this house!..."

— and so on, make all the affirmative, positive statements you can. When you get to the kitchen, for instance, say, "I cook healthful food in this house! My family is never hungry in this house!"

Keep sweeping that ever-growing pile of salt and dust and gunk ahead of you, sweep it down the stairs if you start upstairs. If there are throw rugs, sweep them and then take them up and sweep under them. Sweep under the beds, under the tables, be VERY thorough.

Don't go back to a room you have done already. Just do each room very thoroughly. If you need more water, just make some more, it's okay. Keep dipping that broom and sweeping.

Once you get to your front door, you will probably have a good sized pile of dirt and salt. Sweep it out the door! Say, "OUT! OUT! Out all evil, out all bad spirits! I send you OUT OUT OUT!"

Then, sweep the dirt and salt into a pan or onto a newspaper, and take it away from your house. Throw it into a crossroads, a river, or the woods. Take that bucket and throw that water away in a crossroads, a river, or the woods. Throw the broom away in a public dumpster away from your house — don't put it in the trash in the basement and wait for the garbage pickup two days later!

When you come back, toss a few coins (not the coins in the water) around your house, and don't look where they go. Say, "My house is full of money!"

Bathe very thoroughly. Take a white bath, and if you don't have time or can't obtain one, at least scrub your face, hands, genitals and soles of the feet with salt while you are in the shower. Rinse well or it will itch.

Dress in white if possible. Light some nice incense, open the windows and let a little breeze blow through — even if it's cold out, do this just for a moment. And then relax! Give yourself a well-deserved reward. You are going to see that your house "feels different" — lighter, happier, more spacious. There will be fewer arguments, and more love.

Colophon

Written by Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen (Kathy Grey), a mambo asogwe of Haitian Vodou, founder of the Roots Without End Society, posted to alt.religion.orisha and alt.religion.voodoo in December 2003. Mambo Racine ran a peristyle in Jacmel, Haiti and trained initiates from multiple countries. This post was shared as part of a "Cleansing and Renewal" discussion cycle with the Vodou Arts online community.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected]

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