“Dear Ms. Q,
I heard that vinegar
is good for keeping demons and ghosts away, and to use 4 Thieves Vinegar, is this true and what is 4 Thieves Vinegar?”
Hello everyone, you'd be surprised at how helpful this common contentment is.
Vinegar, either apple cider vinegar, or wine vinegar (red or
white) distilled white vinegar, even rice vinegar, has it’s uses either in cleaning out irons, in
cooking or marinating foods, or on
salads. It’s been used for pickling and
preserving since the time of Hippocrates and the ancient Bible. So it is no stranger to spiritual, cleaning,
medical, preserving or cooking uses.
4 Thieves Vinegar (also called Marseilles vinegar) came about during the time of the Black Death
in the 1300’s. Legend has it (and there
are two variations) that a gang of 4 thieves would use this vinegar on their
clothing and person to avoid catching the disease and then rob the houses of
the dead or dying. They were caught and
sentenced to die (now here is where it varies) in one story they were going to
be hung, in another they were sentenced to collect and bury the bodies of the
plague victims. In the story where they
were going to be hung they offered in exchange for their freedom the recipe to
not catch the plague, in the other story the officials saw that they were not
getting sick and they were offered their freedom if they told the officials how
did they escape catching the plague.
Both stories originated in France one in Marseilles and the
other in Toulouse, my Father’s side of the family and my Father himself came
from an area near Toulouse and his Mother was big on cleaning the kitchen and
bathrooms etc. with a mixture of white wine vinegar and herbs to prevent
mold.
My Granny on Mom’s side (where I got my training) was also
big on using vinegar as well for cleaning, and for marinating Pork, and rabbit,
yes I ate Mr. fluffy bunny, but when I was growing up, rabbits were considered
Food and their pelts for fur that was what they were raised for, their droppings were excellent
fertilizer, just like chickens.
But the recipe for cleaning and the one for cooking or food
use were different.
Early recipes for 4 Thieves vinegar called for a number of
herbs to be added into the vinegar solution and left to steep for several days.
The following vinegar recipe hung in the Museum of Paris in 1937, and is said
to have been an original copy of the recipe posted on the walls of Marseilles
during an episode of the plague:
“ Take three pints of strong white wine
vinegar, add a handful of each of wormwood, meadowsweet, wild marjoram and
sage, fifty cloves, two ounces of campanula roots, two ounces of angelic,
rosemary and horehound and three large measures of camphor. Place the mixture
in a container for fifteen days, strain and express then bottle. Use by rubbing
it on the hands, ears and temples from time to time when approaching a plague
victim.”
It is believe and plausibly, the reasons for not contracting
the plague was that the herbal concoction contained natural flea repellents,
since the flea is the carrier for the plague bacillus. Wormwood has properties
similar to cedar as an insect repellent, as do aromatics such as sage, cloves,
camphor, rosemary, campanula, etc. Meadowsweet, is mainly used to mask odors
like decomposing bodies.
Another recipe called for dried rosemary, dried sage
flowers, dried lavender flowers, fresh rue, camphor dissolved in spirit, sliced
garlic, bruised cloves, and distilled wine vinegar.
Modern versions include various herbs that typically include
sage, lavender, thyme, and rosemary, along with garlic. Additional herbs
sometimes include rue, mint, and wormwood.
Legend has it that one is to use four herbs in the
recipe—one for each thief, though earlier recipes often have a dozen herbs or
more. It is still sold in Provence, France, and in Italy a mixture called
"seven thieves vinegar" is sold as a smelling salt, though its
ingredients appear to be the same as in four thieves mixtures.
Eventually the recipe for 4 Thieves Vinegar arrived in New
Orleans and was respected not only for healing and disease-repelling
properties, but for its ability to guard the wearer from danger and sure
disaster and it found its way to become a vital component in many banishing and
healing spells.
New Orleans in the early days was subject to malaria because
of the water and swampy conditions, so it would not have been unusual for this
recipe to be used to banish “evil spirits” such as the mosquito.
My brother was a scout master and would take his troop
camping, and there were times when they’d be plagued with mosquito’s and have
to get out the repellant, but it would work only for just so long, one boy
never seemed to be bothered by mosquito’s it turned out that his mother cooked
with a lot of garlic and the amount of garlic in his system repelled the hungry
blood suckers.
My Granny had a dog and to prevent it from being bothered by
fleas she would bathe the dog in a mixture of vinegar, garlic, cloves, rue, wormwood,
lavender and sage, he never had a flea problem, but he didn’t like the bath and
would at the first opportunity roll in the dirt.
My Granny told me that in 1918 -1919 when people, especially
children were dying from the Spanish Influenza (it was horrible) she made sure
her children wore masks soaked in vinegar and herbs and neither her, the
children or the adults got sick. She
would give the recipes to neighbors to wash down the sick rooms and to wear the
masks and to wash their hands with it, followed by soap and water. In her neighborhood only one person died but
she was very elderly.
But it was not unusual for Granny to have a bowl of vinegar
with herbs mixed in it, on top of a tray on her dining room table, since her
house has one room flowing into the other and the family always congregated
around the table for dinner and discussions or homework having Vinegar is pretty
powerful stuff. It can disrupt magic, stop ghosts and spirits from manifesting,
and keep demons away.
It’s also very simple to use. Just pour wine vinegar or
apple vinegar in a dish and let it evaporate overnight. It will disrupt the
magic/ghost/demon for a few days. You can also put other protective herbs in it
to amplify its purifying power. She
would also have either cups or bowls in other parts of the house with the same
vinegar and herb mixture, but where the family gathered a lot was in the dining
room.
And she would wash down the sick room with a mixture of warm
water and soap with the vinegar mixture as well. In the bathroom and kitchen it was never diluted
with water.
One neighbor had her basement flooded and after everything dried
out she had a mold problem, using white
wine vinegar in which herbs had been seeped in, and then screening the herbs
out she sprayed it all over where the mold appeared and even above the mold
line, the mold disappeared and never
came back.
So how do you prepare 4 thieves vinegar, as I said there are two types, one not
edible and one edible.
The main ingredients is good quality vinegar, either wine or
cider vinegar, just remember if using
red wine vinegar do not put on clothing or stuffed furniture as it will stain,
so use white wine vinegar.
Garlic, followed by Rue, Sage, lavender, thyme, wormwood,
cloves.
Crush the garlic and boil in the vinegar, add the other
herbs one at a time and when you do give it a quick stir. Once all the ingredients together let it boil
a little longer just remember wormwood is poisonous, do not ingest.
It is also advisable to open all the windows in the house or
at least in the kitchen and this is strong smelling and you do not want to
inhale it as it will be pretty powerful smelling.
Then turn off the burner, allow things to cool down, give it
a bit more stirring, and bottle it,
herbs and all, allow to marinate for 4
days in a cool dark place. Before using
or decanting give it a good shake.
This can be used in spells for banishing spells and rituals,
for protection and healing spells and
rituals, to cleanse negativity in that case use it as a floor wash and add
either kosher or black salt, Granny also
found it useful to get rid of an unwanted person (we use to have a mean gossip
and she could never stay in Granny’s house), also you can use it in times of crisis,
Other herbs that could be added are camphor, mint, Black
pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Coriander, Chili pepper, rosemary, meadowsweet, lemon
balm, hyssop, even more recently eucalyptus but you have to be careful because
some herbs such as wormwood, camphor and even rue can be poisonous so if you
have that in your vinegar do not ingest, check out websites that can tell you
which herbs you can take internally and which ones you cannot.
On Yronwould’s Lucky Mojo site she quotes “According to John M. Hansen
(jmhansen@erols.com), the original recipe for Four Thieves Vinegar dates to the
15th century in Italy and consists of garlic steeped in soured red wine. Based
on his own family's experience, John says that, "As an inoculation against
epidemic diseases it actually works. Its use in magic came about much later; as
with many other substances it became useful in the magical arts."
Barbara Griffith
(Barbara.Griffith@Colorado.edu) presents a variation of the formula which she
says is "from a 1965 reprint of an old Southern cookbook,
"Housekeeping in Old Virginia," originally published 1879."
Says Barbara, "In
the chapter on the sick room, the following recipe is given for 'Thieves
Vinegar.' No instructions were given as to its use - you were supposed to know:
'A handful of sage and the same of mint,
tansy, rue, rosemary, lavender, and thyme; one ounce of camphor. Put in
demijohn, and fill with good vinegar. Set in the sun two weeks with a piece of
leather over the mouth (of the demijohn or jug), and then stop nightly. - Mrs. D. R.'"
That is a wonderful
variation, and again demonstrates the antiquity of this recipe. However,
because it includes Rue and Camphor, the "Old Virginia" version would
not be suitable to use as a salad dressing, but would make an excellent
body-wash and rub-down in the sick-room.”
And that is correct, Granny used a variation of that as
well.
Now Katie on the Wellness Mama web site gives this recipe as
a tonic, I provide for your information:
Vinegar of the Four
Thieves Ingredients:
2 TBSP Thyme (dried)
2 TBSP Rosemary (dried)
2 TBSP Sage (dried)
2 TBSP Lavender (dried)
2 TBSP Mint (dried)
4-8 cloves of minced garlic (optional)
One 32-ounce bottle of organic Apple Cider
Vinegar with “the Mother”
[Note: Most herbs can
be found locally, but are also available online at places like Mountain Rose
Herbs]
How To Make the
Vinegar of The Four Thieves:
Put all the dried herbs and garlic (if
using) into a large glass jar (I used half gallon)
Pour the Vinegar over the herbs and garlic
and seal tightly. The vinegar is strong enough to corrode some metal lids, so
in this case, consider putting plastic wrap or a plastic bag on top and then
putting the lid on.
Leave in a cool, dark, place for 6-8 weeks
(for health tonic recipe) shaking daily if possible.
After 6-8 weeks, strain the herbs out using
a small strainer and store tonic in smaller jars for easy use.
Uses for Four Thieves
Herbal Vinegar:
As I mentioned before, this vinegar makes a
very effective (though strong smelling!) insect repellent. If you make it to
this strength, just put 1/4 cup of the vinegar in an 8-ounce spray bottle and
fill the rest with water. Spray on skin, clothes, etc. when in heavily insect
infested areas. We store in the fridge to minimize the vinegar smell and make
more refreshing.
In cases of illness, the Vinegar of the
Four Thieves is very helpful in quick recovery. Adults can take 1 TBSP several
times a day (dilute in water!!) and kids can take 1 Tsp several times a day
(well diluted in water/herbal tea).
When a family member is sick, diluting this
with 1 part water and putting in a spray bottle will make a potent disinfectant
that can be used on surfaces or sprayed in the air.
I’ve had some people report really good
success using this vinegar as a soak or topical spray for foot or nail fungus.
Diluted and used on the scalp, this remedy
is also said to be effective against dandruff.
This vinegar makes an effective natural
disinfectant spray for use in house cleaning.
The Vinegar of the
Four Thieves smells awful and tastes almost as bad, but it is very effective
against a variety of ailments! Plus, its healthier and cheaper than antibiotics!
Now that is according to the Wellness Mama website, but for
those who like to go organic is appears to be fine, but I am not a medical
adviser, nor a doctor. But there are
people who swear by taking a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar a
day.
So does it keep ghosts and evil spirits away? Yes it does, the herbs in the vinegar as
well as the smell of the vinegar itself repels them.
If you feel that negativity or ghosts are around just get
one of those diffusers where you put the liquid in the dish above a holder that
you can put a tea light under, put the 4
Thieves vinegar into that and light the tea light (Make sure it burns
safely) allow the vinegar to evaporate
during this process, add more liquid as needed but make sure that the dish
holding the liquid does not completely dry out,
usually after the tea light burns out whatever negativity that bothered
you will be gone, you can also wash
around the door frames of those doors (including sliding doors) that lead to
the outside and windows as well.
I still to this day will burn or evaporate 4 thieves vinegar
in my house, as needed. When I do I
always get a nephew coming over asking if I’m cooking a pork roast ‘cause he’s
hungry, sorry Bo I’m not, and he gets so
disappointed that I have to promise that I’ll cook a pork roast for Sunday
dinner.
Now there are so many spell and rituals using this vinegar
that I do not have the time to post them, but as I come across them I will post
them.
Hopefully this will answer your questions about Vinegar and
4 Thieves Vinegar.
Bright Blessings,
Ms. Q
