Magical Properties of Lemon & Lemon Essential Oil

Discover the magical properties of lemon and lemon essential oil. From cleansing and purification to love, friendship, and fidelity, we’ll explore the practical and magical applications of lemon, and ways to incorporate lemon into your kitchen witchery, essential oil magic, and other forms of witchcraft.

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No part of this post or any part of this website constitutes medical advice. I am simply sharing my personal experiences and opinions in the hopes that they can help inspire you to live a better and more magical life.

Lemon, with its bright and invigorating energy, has long been loved by witches for its ability to cleanse, uplift, and purify. Whether you’re working with fresh lemons or their essential oil, this citrus powerhouse is not only known for banishing negativity and lifting the mood, but also for attracting love, strengthening friendships, and fostering physical and emotional wellness. Lemon’s sunny, vibrant scent makes it a favorite for spells and rituals that call for renewal, protection, and heart-centered connections.

In this post, we’ll explore the many ways that lemon and lemon essential oil can be used to enhance your magical practice and infuse your home with both positive and loving energy.

1. Magical Correspondences of Lemon
2. Lemon for Magical Cleansing, Purification, & Protection
3. Lemon for Positivity, Joy, & Mental Clarity
4. Lemon in Love, Friendship, & Fidelity Magic
5. Lemon in Health & Healing Magic
6. Lemon for Luck & Prosperity Magic
7. Bibliography

Magical Correspondences of Lemon

Lemon for Magical Cleansing, Purification, & Protection

Lemon juice and Lemon essential oil both have cleansing and purifying properties. Even the non-magic folk know it. Walk down the cleaning products aisle at the grocery store and you’ll be bombarded by the scents of “Fresh Linen,” “Spring Breeze,” and simply “Lemon.”

Sometimes, these (mostly horrible) products even contain some actual lemon essential oil, since its cleansing powers cannot be denied even by these companies that seem to truly despise nature and all things good & beautiful. (If you hate that aisle of the grocery store as much as I do, click here.)

Lemon has material qualities that make it a powerful plant ally for all things cleansing, and its spiritual and energetic qualities exist in parallel. Overall, lemon’s aroma, flavor, and very nature is well-suited to clearing, cleansing, and purification, and it may be that all the other magical properties of lemon can be traced back to its properties of cleansing and purification. After all, cleansing away sadness is part of inviting joy; clearing away poverty and scarcity mindset is part of attracting prosperity; purifying the mind of self-doubt is part of attracting love; and clearing the mind of distractions is part of creating an aura of focused intention.

And while we call them something with a little more apparent weight, banishing spells are really just a powerful form of cleansing magic. They tend to be directed at specific entities or energetic bodies rather than at “negative energy” in general, but the goal is still to remove negativity and unwanted energy. Therefore, lemon’s powerful cleansing energy is totally applicable to banishing spells, although you might want to combine it with something stronger depending on the situation.

The same is true of protection, in that spiritual cleansing can behave as spiritual protection depending on the context. While Lemon is not the first thing I would reach for when constructing magical protective barriers, it’s always good to have layers of protection, and Lemon can be an effective part of some of those layers.

Here are a few (quite a few!) ideas for ways to weave lemon into your witchcraft for cleansing, purification, banishing, and protection.

Simple Rituals for Cleansing & Protection with Lemon Magic

• Purifying Wash: Use lemon water as a wash for any items which require cleansing or spiritual purification, such as secondhand amulets and jewelry.
• Clean Hands: Use a hand soap scented with high quality lemon essential oil to wash your hands clean of residual energy as well as physical residue.
• Energetic Cleansing Potion: For a super quick and easy energetic cleansing potion, drink a glass of water with a drop of Lemon Vitality essential oil, a splash of lemon juice, and a pinch of good Celtic Sea Salt.
• Purification Potion: Lemon contributes its bright flavor and purifying power to this recipe & ritual for a green juice purification potion.

• Salt Sweep: Sprinkle your floors with salt and lemon peels and let them sit for a bit before sweeping up – you’ll sweep up unwanted energy along with the salt
• Spiritual Bath: Lemon juice or slices can be added to spiritual baths (especially during the full moon) to cleanse your aura of negative influences (Cunningham).
• Threshold Protection: A lemon placed at entrances or windows is said to absorb negative energy and protect the home.
• Sweet Dreams: Leaving a slice of lemon under your bed can ward off bad dreams and unwanted spiritual visitors.
• Spiritual Indicator: If lemons kept in your home go moldy or rotten rather quickly, your home is in dire need of spiritual and energetic cleansing. However, if lemons in your home dry out before they go bad, your home is probably in good spiritual health.

Practical Purification with Lemon

• Stain Remover: Use lemon juice to remove stains in white clothing and linens (see instructions below).
• Sticker Removal: Use Lemon oil to remove difficult stickers and their gummy residue almost effortlessly.
• Household Cleaner: Add Lemon essential oil to your natural household cleaners to help remove physical and spiritual gunk.

Natural Stain Removal Spell

To lift a stain from white cloth, combine the naturally purifying powers of lemon, salt, and sunlight:

1. Wet the stain with water to prepare the fabric.
2. Squeeze fresh lemon juice directly onto the stain, letting it fully soak in.
3. Sprinkle salt over the lemon juice and gently rub the fabric together, allowing the salt to work with the lemon to loosen the stain.
4. Rinse with water to wash away anything that’s been loosened up.
5. Apply more lemon juice to the area.
6. Hang the garment in the sun, allowing the sunlight to naturally bleach, cleanse, and purify the fabric.
7. Once dry, you may need to wash the cloth as usual to remove any stiffness or residue remaining from the lemon juice.

Lemon for Positivity, Joy, & Mental Clarity

Positivity, joy, and mental clarity don’t necessarily sound like they all go in the same category. However, rather than separating this category into two, I almost considered including these in the category with cleansing, purification, and protection. Lemon’s ability to induce positivity and joy is directly connected to the action of cleansing and clearing negative energy and emotion. Mental clarity and focus are directly connected to the removal of distractions and the purification of the mental state. Lemon’s magical ability to increase mental clarity and focus can be tied directly to its ability to clear away unwanted energy – in this case, the removal of distractions and doubts to purify the mental state.

And while the scientific world doesn’t (as far as I can tell) have a better explanation for why lemon’s powers extend to lifting the mood and focusing the mind, we do have evidence-based research to show that it does. In a 2024 study on the psychological effects of lemon aroma (by means of diffusing lemon essential oil), scientists determined that subjects exposed to lemon aroma had an increased ability to experience pleasure, were more accurate when performing choice reaction time tasks, and were able to more quickly encode (aka learn) new information.⁸

Another study found evidence to suggest that ingesting lemon essential oil can reduce both physical and psychological stress.⁵ While this study specifically looked into ingestion of lemon essential oil, the same chemical constituents can enter our body through aromatic or topical use, although they take a different path. Furthemore, lemon essential oil is typically cold pressed from the peel of the lemon, meaning that including either lemon zest or Lemon Vitality oil in your kitchen witchery can reduce stress and improve mood in anyone who consumes the fruits of your kitchen witchcraft labors.

Here are a few suggestions for simple spells and rituals for joy and clarity which incorporate the magic of lemons.

Simple Rituals for Joy & Clarity with Lemon Magic

• Fresh Start: Start the morning off right with a glass of lemon water and some positive affirmations to clear your mind, focus your intentions, and lift your mood.
• Draught of Focus: Add a sprig of rosemary to a glass of fresh squeezed lemonade and sip on it while you work or study to increase focus and support learning and memory.
• A Joyful Home: Diffuse a blend of Lemon, Geranium, and Vanilla to fill your home with warmth and joy and to welcome friendship and good vibes.
• Psychic Clarity: Incorporate lemon into divination rituals to enhance insight, foresight, and clear psychic vision.
• Wand of Focused Intent: Craft a magic wand from lemon wood to bring an additional layer of focus and positive energy into the magic you make.

Lemon in Love, Friendship, & Fidelity Magic

Lemon has strong historical ties to love and friendship. Historically, women would bake lemon pies for their husbands or lovers to ensure faithfulness. It is said that when the men ate the lemon pies, they would feel the woman’s love for them, which would inspire them to fidelity.³

I’d like to think our romantic relationships don’t need this kind of insurance, but I also know how far good food can go towards making a man – or anyone, really – feel loved. That’s part of why I’m a kitchen witch, after all – to help my friends, family, and loved ones feel the love I have in my heart for them filling up their bellies! And haven’t we all always heard that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?

Perhaps lemon-filled foods endear the people who make them to the people who eat them because they’re just so dang good. Plus, I think there really is something to Lemon’s power to uplift and inspire joy and happiness – so if a food is delicious and makes you happy, wouldn’t you want to continue, deepen, and preserve your relationship with whoever made it for you? And doesn’t being in a good mood make you more likely to have a good time with someone, and therefore to feel positive emotions toward others?

Whatever the explanation, Lemon and Lemon essential oil can definitely be used in magic for love, friendship, and fidelity. Here are a few simple suggestions for love and friendship magic with lemon.

Simple Spells for Love & Friendship with Lemon Magic

• Lovers Lemon Pie: Bake a lemon pie for your lover to help them feel your love and to keep them faithful.^2,3
• Forever Friends: Place a slice of lemon underneath your friend’s chair when they visit to ensure a happy, lasting friendship.^2,4
• Joyful Gathering: Serve lemon dishes such as lemon chicken or lemon salmon when friends come over for dinner to help everyone get along and have a good time.³
• Zesty Goodness: Zest a little lemon peel into your charm bags or spell bottles to add a little joy into your relationships
• Growing Together: Plant a lemon tree together with your spouse and watch love grow. Plant it in your front yard so that everyone who passes by it before walking into your home is touched by the cleansing, loving, and uplifting magic of your lemon tree.
• Lusty Leaves: Brew and drink an infusion of lemon leaves to stir up lust.²

Lemon in Health & Healing Magic

Lemon is well-known among health enthusiasts as a rich source of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and citric acid, both of which have a plethora of powerful effects helping to preserve, protect, and restore human health. Lemons contain a host of other nutrients which contribute to their healing powers⁷, and are a great ingredient to include in healing draughts and dishes.

Here are a few examples of ways to incorporate lemon into your healing spells, rituals, and kitchen witchery.

Simple Spells for Magical Health & Healing with Lemon

• Chicken Soup for the Body & Soul: A kitchen witch favorite for magical healing, chicken soup becomes even better for this purpose when boiled with a quartered lemon and several nickels of ginger. For bonus points, carve runes of health and vitality (such as Uruz and Berkana) into the peel before adding your lemon wedges to the pot.
• Emotional Healing: Lemon is believed to uplift the spirits and cleanse emotional blockages. Diffuse lemon oil to promote emotional clarity and healing, especially in rituals focused on overcoming grief, depression, or anger.
• Energy Boost: Drink lemon water to boost your energy and metabolism.
• Seasonal Support: When the plants start to party too hard, make a blend of Lavender, Lemon, and Peppermint essential oils to diffuse and roll on behind your ears daily.

Lemon for Luck and Prosperity Magic

The association between lemons and proserity may originate from their bright yellow color, a color often connected to the sun, joy, and abundance. The sun itself is associated with growth, vitality, and prosperity, making lemons a symbol of these qualities, even though lemon’s more popular planetary correspondence is the moon.

In the garden, lemon trees fruit prolifically, which also contributes to their association with abundance. A lemon tree’s ability to produce many trees from one fruit and many fruits from one seed reinforces its symbolic connection to growth and prosperity. In spells, this metaphorical connection to “multiplication” makes lemons powerful for increasing wealth and opportunities. Personally, I also associate lemons with prosperity because both whole lemons hanging on the tree and cut lemons sliced into rounds resemble giant golden coins.

Here are some simple ways to weave lemons and lemon essential oil into your luck and money magic.

Simple Spells for Luck & Prosperity with Lemon Magic

• Lucky Lemons: Keeping a bowl of nine lemons in your home is considered lucky in feng shui, although some say any amount of lemons in a bowl can bring luck and abundance.¹
• Golden Coins: Add round slices of lemon like giant golden coins to your simmer pots, kitchen witchery, and seasonal decor to attract prosperity and abundance.
• Lemon & Pins: Stick an unripe lemon with many colored pins (no black ones) and hang it in your home to bring blessings and luck.²
• Happy Wallet: Anoint several dollar bills, or better yet a genuine leather wallet, with Lemon essential oil to invite luck, prosperity, and abundance into your finances. (Lemon oil degrades plastics, so don’t try this with pleather.)

Lemons are a versatile and highly effective ingredient in everyday magic from candle spells to kitchen witchery, making them a must-have in the home for many witches, including myself.

How do you weave lemons into your magical practice? I’d love to know! Share your simple spells, tips, and tricks in the comments below.

Until we meet again – be well, seek beauty, and leave a little magic wherever you go.
Blessings,