Indigo Dye Cakes (Aró/Natural "Blueing"/Añil)

Handcrafted with reverence and ancestral knowledge, our Indigo Dye Cakes are made from pure, naturally fermented Indigofera tinctoria — the sacred “blue medicine” plant. Traditionally used across West Africa and the Indian subcontinent, indigo carries deep spiritual, medicinal, and cultural significance. It is often referred to as “blueing”, laundry bluing, bluestone or añil in the Americas. It is also the traditional main ingredient found in the original recipes for “Florida Water”.

This cake form of indigo dye is what was historically made and shipped to markets around the world. These cakes are made as part of the process of extracting indigo from indigoferra tinctoria.

Indigo is the legendary source of blues (a rare color found in the natural world). Its ability to produce a wide range of blue shades from pale sky to a deep navy that is almost black has made it the most successful dye plant ever known. Indigo grows all over the world but flourishes best in hot, sunny, humid areas. Our indigo is very strong (approx 40% indigotin). It reduces wonderfully in an indigo vat.

What’s Included

(1) .7 oz 100% natural indigo (Indigofera tinctoria), solar-dried and stone-ground extracted from organic gmo-free indigo leaves. 

No synthetic additives or fillers. Ethically sourced from traditional dyeing communities in Nigeria.

Suggested Use

1. Take a spiritual bath with Indigo. Make sure that you are physically clean first -- take a bath or shower as you normally would. Afterward, fill your bath (or a basin) with warm water. While your tub is filling, add a pinch of indigo to a mortar and pestle and add in a splash of fresh natural spring water and grind until indigo becomes a smooth paste. Add a small amount of the indigo paste to your bath and stir with your hand while speaking your intentions. When the water is completely blue, step into the bath and immerse yourself. Allow the indigo water to clear away any negative or unsettling energy.

2. 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.

Take a glass or vase filled with fresh, natural spring water. Avoid using distilled or purified water. Add a pinch of indigo to a mortar and pestle and add in a splash of fresh natural spring water and grind until indigo becomes a smooth paste. Add a small amount of Indigo paste to bowl of spring water 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.

3. Use in floor wash or surface cleaner. Take a spray bottle or mop bucket and fill with fresh, natural spring water. Avoid using distilled or purified water. Add other prtoctecting or cleansing herbs and essential oils. Add a pinch of indigo to a mortar and pestle and add in a splash of fresh natural spring water and grind until indigo becomes a smooth paste. Add small amount of indigo paste to the spray bottle or mop bucket filled with spring water. Indigo can build the astral nature of the person, place, or thing to which it is applied.

 

4. Dye & Adornment: Use in traditional textile dyeing to infuse garments with spiritual power.

5. Meditation Aid: Keep near your altar or Third Eye during meditation to open intuitive channels. 

*Please note that indigo is very pigmented and may stain fabrics and surfaces. Avoid using large amounts on surfaces and inside the tub. It is suggested to follow up application of indigo with an additional cleaning to remove any blue color that you don’t want to leave behind.

Cultural Note

Indigo is the color of higher consciousness — the deep blue of inner knowing. It is often used to help with enhancing intuition, insight, and spiritual vision. It is used in spiritual applications in various indigenous African traditions around the world. 

It is used in baths, soaps, and powders to cool the spirit, dispel negative energy (ajogun), and restore inner balance. Indigo is believed to strengthen one’s spiritual essence, creating a protective veil against envy, malice, and psychic disturbances. Traditional spiritual practitioners use it in ritual cleansing, calming, grounding the body’s energy. Indigo is often associated with the òrìṣà Yemọja and Ọ̀ṣun. 

In traditional medicine it is known to balance excess heat in the body, soothing inflammation of the skin and mind. Indigo is used in oils and pastes to clear heat, calm anger, and purify the blood.

Indigo is most commonly known as a dye plant. In Nigeria it has been a sacred dye of royalty and ritual for millennia. Specifically in Yorubaland, indigo-dyed cloths (adire) were traditionally crafted by women who carried the lineage of dyeing as a sacred calling. Each pattern was a prayer, a story, or a protective symbol, connecting the wearer to community, ancestry, and spirit. The process of dyeing itself — dipping white cloth into the indigo vat and watching it turn blue before one’s eyes — symbolizes rebirth.