Anil, also known as anil modamo, ball blueing, blue balls, and indigo, is marketed as a way to whiten laundry. The blue tint that Anil gives fabric makes yellowed whites look brighter. Blue anil is made of dye extracted from the True Indigo plant, a species of plant from the bean family. Although today, most indigo dye is synthetic, it is still the blue associated with denim cloth and blue jeans. Resourceful people also use anil for more magical purposes, to protect and cleanse. While anil is usually regarded as a guarding and clearing magical ingredient, it is capable of much more. Here are just some of the things that anil (or ball blueing) can help with:

Anil For Better Sleep

Anil's protective and cleansing abilities extend to your sleep. If you have trouble sleeping or experience frequent nightmares, take a vessel of fresh water. (Natural water is better than water from the tap. If you do not live near a water source, collect rainwater and store it in a sealed container in a cool, dark place.) Add some anil and stir until it is completely dissolved. Keep it beside your bed to guard you against disruptions and bad dreams. Change the water every week.

For extra strength, you can add a bit of camphor to the water. Camphor is another powerful energy cleanser that can remove negative energy from your space so you can sleep more peacefully.

This can also help you with dream recall. In addition to keeping a glass of anil water near your bedside, try writing down whatever fragments you can remember as soon as you wake up. You might also want to keep some clear quartz (especially the Herkimer diamond variety) under your pillow.

Anil For Clearing Your Energy

You can also take a spiritual bath with Anil. Make sure that you are physically clean first -- take a bath or shower as you normally would and do all of your washing up there. Afterward, fill your bath (or a basin) with warm water. Add some anil and stir with your hand to help it dissolve. When it has dissolved and the water is completely blue, step into the bath and immerse yourself. Allow the anil water to clear away any unwanted energy, jinxes, or other malicious vibrations that have been sent your way.

Anil For Protecting Your Home

If you often have guests, you know how the energy of your home can feel different after someone leaves. Every person has their own personal energy, as well as any they may have picked up along the way. When they bring that to your house, it can disrupt things.

You can cleanse your home with incense, candles, and floor washes, but sometimes the best cure is prevention.

Take a glass or vase filled with fresh, natural water. Avoid using tap water. Add some anil and stir until it is completely dissolved. Place this vessel near your front door (or whichever entrance guests use most often). This will help remove any negative or unwanted energy people bring into your home. For added protection, add a bit of grated camphor to the water.

Change this water weekly. If you have a lot of guests, host a party, or have particularly disruptive guests, you may want to change it more often.

Anil For Improving Your Luck

Anil's energy cleansing can also help you with luck, especially when it comes to gambling. For objects like lotto cards, bingo cards, or slot machines, discreetly sprinkle them with a little bit of anil.

To make this easier on yourself, you may want to grind the anil balls or squares into a powder first. Using a mortar and pestle, crush the anil. Keep the powder in a small jar and take a little from it whenever you need to sprinkle some somewhere. Powdered anil also dissolves more quickly and easily than whole tablets or balls, so it can be good to have on hand for making floor washes, mixing into water, or adding to spiritual baths. Powdered anil also helps when you do not necessarily need a whole tablet or ball -- you can take just a pinch at a time.

Anil For Enhancing Psychic Abilities

Anil's deep blue hue, traditionally used for protection and cleansing, is also believed to enhance psychic abilities. Integrating Anil into practices aimed at developing or strengthening clairvoyance, intuition, and other psychic skills can be particularly effective. Creating a Psychic Enhancement Altar with Anil, surrounded by items that resonate with higher consciousness like amethyst crystals and candles, can serve as a focal point for meditation and psychic development.

Holding Anil or placing it in front during meditative practices can help open the third eye and crown chakras, believed to be centers of psychic power. Anil-infused water is also useful for cleansing divination tools such as tarot cards, crystal balls, or runes, helping attune these tools to higher psychic frequencies. However, it's important to approach these practices with respect and clarity of intention and ensure grounding after intense psychic work to maintain balance.

Anil For Warding Off the Evil Eye

In various cultures, Anil is revered for its ability to ward off the evil eye — a curse believed to be cast by a malevolent glare. Carrying Anil as a protective amulet in a purse or pocket, or placing Anil balls in different areas of a home, especially near entrances, can prevent negative energies from entering.

Additionally, wearing jewelry that incorporates Anil can serve as a constant protective shield against the evil eye. The significance of the evil eye concept varies across cultures, with Anil often playing a crucial role in these traditions as a protective element.

Anil For Spiritual House Cleaning

Spiritual house cleaning, which goes beyond the physical cleaning of a space, involves energetically cleansing a home or workplace to create a harmonious environment. Anil plays a significant role in these rituals. Mixing Anil in water to wash floors, doors, and windows is believed to cleanse the space of negative energy.

Dissolving Anil in water for use in a spray bottle can cleanse the air, especially in corners and dark areas where negative energy might linger. Placing bowls of Anil-infused water near home entrances acts as a barrier against negative energies. Regularly replacing the Anil water and combining it with other cleansing agents like salt or essential oils can enhance the effects, ensuring a spiritually cleansed and harmonious environment.

In the laundry, anil's deep blue color helps make fabrics look brighter. This same trait works in sympathetic magic, to help remove stagnant, murky energy to make you and your surroundings shine. It is traditional to use anil in baths or floor washes to provide protection and spiritual cleansing, but the uses are nearly endless.

Any situation that would be improved by fresh, bright energy or a bit of luck can benefit from some anil. Keep it around in a glass of water to generally improve the vibrations of a space, just remember to change it often to keep the energy fresh.