Home Cleansing
Cleansing your home is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family. It doesn’t take much effort – it can be very involved if you want it to – and it’s the easiest form of magic. Our homes are very often the physical representations of our current mindset, and magic depends on a clear mind. In order to have a clear mind you have to have a clear space to work in.
I’m not going to tell you to set up an alter, light a candle, get smudging sage – or any other tool – for the purpose of cleansing your space. I’ll have another article about magical tools and their uses soon. All I want you to know right now is you don’t need any of them. The tools I do mention in this article are entirely optional. If the only thing you do is wander through your home willing it to be purified, then that is all it will take. Tools are simply symbols. Imagination enhancers. Use the ones you like. There are many tools for magic, because there are many different kinds of magical practitioners.
If this will be your first experience with magic, then I’m very much excited for you! Magic is a wonderful way of expressing your creativity. It is complimentary to any religion, for magic has no god(s), yet it is endorsed by all of them in one form or another. Prayer is the most common form of magic in the United States. Prayer is a petition to the universe (or whichever god you believe in) for assistance.
Growing up Catholic, I was introduced to a simple cleansing ritual very early on. When you walk into a church, you dip your fingers into a small bowl of holy water and do the Sign of the Cross. This little ritual is meant to cleanse the mind, heart, and soul of a believer before taking part in whatever ritual is planned in the church for the day. Anyone can perform a cleansing ritual. You need no special training, nor do you need to have ever practiced magic before.
Cleansing with water is very common, and it will be a tool in the cleansing ritual I describe below. Again, if (for any reason) you cannot or choose not to use any of the tools I use – or even if you want to add a tool, because it helps you focus – that is fine. More than fine, in fact, it’s encouraged. Let’s move on to how to perform a cleansing.
A Cleansing Ritual – Preparation
For the ritual I’m describing here, all you “need” is:
- A small bowl
- A sprig of pine (or your favorite herb, tree, plant – or even your fingers!)
- Water (tap water is fine)
- Salt (table salt is fine)
Pour some water in the bowl and hold the salt in your hand. Close your eyes and try to clear your mind. Imagine a fiery glow surrounding you, the salt, and the bowl of water. Sprinkle the salt into the water, and stir it into the water with the sprig of pine. With that done, you’re ready to start the cleansing.
The Ritual
Carrying the bowl of salt water (holy water) and the sprig of pine, walk around your house and see in your mind all the negativity covering the walls, floors, and furniture. I usually imagine them as great black splotches. If you have a hard time “seeing” with your imagination, feel it! Use any and all of your senses to imagine what the negativity is like around you. Don’t be discouraged when you don’t sense the negativity in your home. Especially if this is your first magical act. There may not be any negativity in your space. It’s highly unlikely that is the case…unless someone else has been nice enough to cleanse for you regularly. You’ll get better at sensing the energies around you as you continue to practice magic.
Use the pine to sprinkle the water (lightly of course, you don’t want to ruin any of your nice things) all over your home. As you do this, imagine the water hitting the negative energy and dissolving it. Try not to miss any room in your house, but if you can only go into certain rooms, or others you live with don’t appreciate magic – keep it to yourself and the places you are allowed to go in your home.
Protecting You Home (Optional)
Once you’ve cleansed your home, the next thing you might want to do is put up some form of protection from negative energy coming back. There is no way to completely stop negativity from creeping it’s way in. You bring it in yourself with the stresses you carry, and others will bring it in as well. Though, there is something you can do to stop it from coming in of it’s own volition.
Get a small white candle. A tea candle is nice for this. Light it, and walk around your house once more. This time, imagine the light of the candle casting a shield everywhere in your home. Let it cover the walls, floors, ceilings, and even all your possessions. You don’t need to say anything while doing this or the cleansing, but if you feel so moved by all means let it out!
Be Thankful
Gratitude is one of the most important elements to all magic. You’ll hear others talk about this element as Spirit. Thankfulness is the heart of the universe. It’s the power behind every act of creation, and essential in the working of successful magic.
After your ritual is complete, go to a solitary place in your home for a moment (it doesn’t have to be that long), and just say ‘thank you.” You can meditate if you choose, or perform another magical ritual with your newly cleansed home. The important thing here is to feel the gratitude. Your home will thank you for making it a better place, why shouldn’t you thank the universe for giving you the power of your imagination to make your home more comfortable?
Also, have something to eat and drink after you are done the ritual. Magic can be very draining – especially for those who haven’t practiced much of it. Like all new activities, you’ll need rest and recuperation from any magical act you perform.
A Final Note
This cleansing ritual is just the beginning of a series of articles Rhiannon and I are titling “Practical Imagination.” If you are new to magic, then you’ll find valuable advice here. In this article we’ve only demonstrated a simple ritual, but haven’t given you much detail on magic and how it works. As this series progresses we’ll get deeper into how magic works, and how you can use it to make your life a bit more like the fantasy stories we so love hearing.
For now, I wish you luck and much love. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be posting at least one of these articles a week, so I’ll see you next time!
Tags: Magic
Practical Imagination | Joey | 
11 September 2009 10:56 AM
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