Basics of Cleansing in Witchcraft
In this blog post we'll explore the fundamentals of cleansing magick together and why it's crucial for every witch's practice. We will talk about
✨ What cleansing magick is & what it is not!
🏠 Why cleansing your space, objects, and yourself is essential, especially as a witch!
🔮 Various methods for cleansing
🌙 When to do cleansing magick
What is Cleansing Magick?
So what exactly is Cleansing magick?
Cleansing Magick is the practice of removing or letting go of stagnant and unwanted energies from objects, spaces and even yourself. Otherwise this stagnant or unwanted energy can (and probably will) have an unwanted effect in your everyday life and your magickal practice and even interfere with the spells you do. There is a difference between Cleansing and Purification and I want to explain the difference with the example of your home.
Cleansing is the basic maintenance of your home. Like the small actions every single day to make sure it is not turning into total chaos. Putting away that mug or putting away your drawing supplies after a drawing session for example.
Purification is the extensive, deep cleaning. Like taking the plants from your window sills once a week to clean the sills with water and some drops of essential oils, or taking every bits and piece from your altar to really cleanse that space, remove all the dust, and then cleansing all the tools on there, too.
And as always: there is not a one-type-fits-all-solution when you should do the deep cleaning. Maybe it’s the new moon for you, maybe the full moon, maybe the Sabbats from the Wheel of the Year. Try to find out what works best for you! :)
But before we take a deeper look into cleansing magick, let’s talk about what cleansing magick CANNOT do for you.
Because doing Cleansing Magick is not magically changing your life overnight. No matter if you are doing physical cleansing of your home or on an energetic level: cleansing magick will not remove physical aspects of your life or change the nature of something.
like if you have unwanted spirits in your house, cleansing magick can help you to chase them out of your home, but it will not remove the unwanted spirit itself.
Cleansing magick also is not going to remove illness or emotions from your body, nor will it remove that annoying co-worker from your life, or miraculously move you from one situation to another, like getting you out of that job you hate. But it could help you afterwards to feel more motivated in your surroundings to put your CV online to get a new job. Like taking that aligned action, right.
But don’t rely on cleansing magick and don’t think of it as this “instant fix” for a problem in your life.
Why you should do cleansing magick as a witch.
So why should you do cleansing magick as a witch? And we will use 3 categories for that: Objects, Spaces and Yourself
Why should you cleanse objects? This could be new objects you buy for your witchy home or your practice, the tools you use in your witchcraft practice regularly and also thrifted things. And the basic principle for all of these is that everything in our Universe is energy.
If you buy a new tool for your practice or your home, you want to make sure its energy is not influencing you in any way. Because you don’t know the touch points this item had until it arrived at you (factory, workers, distributors, etc.). You want to reset the energy of these items so you can put your own energy and intentions into them, so that they can support you in the best way possible in your spell work.
I also personally love thrifting, but that means that I’m bringing things into my home that were passed on before and may have accumulated all different kinds of energy. This could be really beautiful antique necklace that belonged to a lady that wore this necklace daily. She wore it when she was happy, when she was sad or even in a fight. By properly cleansing that piece of jewelry I make sure to reset it to its original state of energy.
Probably there are also tools that you use in your witchcraft practice on a daily basis. When it comes to these tools, it’s about doing the maintenance that we talked about before, so that they don’t influence your spell work in a way that you didn’t intend.
Why should you cleanse your spaces? Because you are probably doing some spell work, where you need intention and focus and a clear mind. But a cluttered space can lead to a cluttered mind, and make it difficult to focus and channel your energy effectively. By regularly cleansing your space, you create an environment that is conducive to your magickal practice, and allows for clearer intentions and more powerful results. And always keep in mind: The cleaner your home, the less likely it is that unwanted energies or spirits can get stuck in there.
Why should you cleanse yourself? While going on with my day there are many situations that could leave me emotional overloaded or keep me from focusing on doing the spell work that I want to do. And while this state is natural and most of the time often goes away on its own, there are certain activities that, as a witch, could require more cleansing magick. Not cleansing yourself can interfere with your witchcraft practice, and make it difficult to perform the spell work you anticipated, to perform divination, or to communicate with a deity, to just name a few.
You want to make sure, you are presenting yourself and your intentions clearly. So cleansing yourself before ritual work or casting a spell really helps you to make sure that you're in the right mindset and also energetic state. It allows you to approach your practice with more clarity and focus.
In Shamanism, after doing extractions on the energy body of a client, you wash your hands in water to make sure you don’t take anything with you from that client. So this concept is not only present in witchcraft, but other spiritual practices as well.
Cleansing Methods
So know that you have a good understanding of what cleansing magick is and why you should cleanse, let’s take a look at some cleansing methods. And there are so many that don’t require a lot so don’t feel the need to do that extensive smoke cleansing because that’s what everyone tells you. Try out different methods and just have fun experimenting with them to see what works for you, your objects and your spaces, and what not.
Next time, before you do a cleansing magick ritual, do this little exercise:
Before you do any cleansing, feel into the energy of the object, your space or yourself. This will allow you to feel the difference in energy after you actually did the cleansing. This will help you to increase your intuition and learn to feel the energy, and you’ll learn when somethings feels stuck, unwanted and when it’s time for a cleanse or purification.
So next time if you have a new tool and you hold it in your hand or walk into a room in your home, or into that new apartment, or when you take a moment to see how you feel: take a moment and close your eyes. Breathe and just see or listen or feel what comes up. What is the feeling that arises? After your cleansing magick ritual, you simply do the same. Make sure to take notes to have some references in future.
Methods for Cleansing your Space:
Probably the most recommended method for cleansing your space is using smoke from herbs like sage, palo santo, or cedar. But it basically comes down to your preferences and what is available / local to you. I love to use local herbs that I can find in my local area and I found that they work much better in practice. So I love using rosemary, or lavender or use some resin from a spruce to cleanse my home. I do use sage when I do my extensive house purification, because they do get rid of all energy, not only unwanted.
Instead of smoke you can also use cleansing sprays that you can either buy or make yourself with ingredients that you choose for the results you want. I usually spray into each corner of the room.
Sound is another beautiful way to cleanse your home. I love using a little bell or a singing bowl because both scatter the energy, so that you can then “move it around”. But you could also use your voice and chant to clean your space. The repetition of the words your chanting makes it perfect to direct a certain energy into a goal, like sending out all unwanted energies from a room out through the windows. Also dancing and using the movements of your body to clear out energies is a possibility to cleanse your space. This could be clapping into your hands, stomping with your feet, which again, scatters the energy. So cleansing magick can be a lot of fun as well. :)
As you may have seen in my Samhain Witch’s Guide, I use my broom to get rid of energies in corners and under furniture to really swipe it out energetically through my balcony door or the windows. I imagine how the energy gets caught in the branches of my broom and I can then shake it out of the window. Basically I’m turning into Mother Holle with her pillows. So doing a visualization also is something that works really well for cleansing a space (or anything really).
And of course physically cleaning your home is necessary to REALLY cleanse your space. I love doing smoke cleansing and using my bell to clean my sacred spaces before doing spell work, but without properly cleansing the spaces with water
(with orange peels, apple cider vinegar or rosemary oil) will simply not have the same effect.
Methods for Cleansing your Tools & Other Items
The first thing that I usually do with everything (new or thrifted) that I accumulate is cleaning it with fresh clear water. I usually place the item under cold running tap water if possible and imagine a white bright light that is pushing out any remaining unwanted energy from the object. This could also be a stream where you physically put items in the water.
You can use smoke to cleanse your tools and other items, and let the smoke encase the object. Sound works well for items as well: you can again use a bell to cleanse your objects, your voice or even your breath! Imagine blowing the energy out of an object with your breath (this is a shamanic practice I learned, but it works really well for objects as well!)
Using the Sunlight and/or Moonlight to cleanse something or on the other hand charge it, like crystals, is another way how I usually cleanse objects,
And there is many more on this list, I just like to keep it simple, local and practical.
Methods for Cleansing Yourself: This is probably my favorite part because to me that usually involves doing extensive self-care.
My daily ritual to cleanse myself is a daily ritual shower. While being in the shower I visualize that the water carries away all unwanted energies. While taking a shower, I usually listen to high frequency music or affirmations.
Doing a ritual bath is another way of cleansing yourself. That includes adding appropriate herbs (for example in a sachet), organic tea, milk, himalayan salt or anything that represents your intention and purpose for the ritual bath into the bath water.
One of my most favorite ways of cleansing myself is by grounding myself. This could be walking bare feet, or moving your body to get back INTO your body.
I usually do this by visualizing! So here is a small meditation that you can do to ground yourself instantly:
Imagine that strong roots grow out of your root chakra and feet. They grow stronger and stronger, all the way down into the center of the Earth (to me the center of Mother Earth is a huge orange ball of light). Grow your roots down until you really feel the connection in your body. This could be a tingling sensation for example, or seeing a light or hearing a certain sound. Then imagine golden antennas growing up from your crown chakra into the sky. As above so below. Imagine, see, feel or simply know that you connect to Source Energy. Then imagine releasing everything from that day that was bothering you through the roots. I always send love to Mother Earth as well for holding me and transforming this energy. Now all you need to do is to imagine how beautiful bright light is pouring in through your crown chakra from Source Energy, filling you up with endless possibilities, pure bliss & love.
When should I Cleanse?
Try to get an understanding of when something needs cleansing. Find a routine that works for you and your specific practice. But here are some examples when I would probably do some cleansing.
Before and after doing spell work with a deity
When moving into a new space. The first thing I do before putting any furniture into my new home, is to walk around each room clockwise, use sage and open all windows to get rid of all the energy that is still hanging out here. Make sure to not activate the smoke detectors (and make sure that you are allowed to use smoke in there, first as well!)
After having arguments or an emotional draining day
I prefer to cleanse on full moons, but it could be a new moon for you
When buying or thrift something and I don’t know whose energy touched it.
When I feel that there is stagnant or unwanted energy in my surroundings, my tools, or myself
When my surroundings make me feel unfocused (clutter)* make sure to check in with your doctor if you feel confusion or anxiety or anything like that and you are not 100% sure that it is because of your surroundings!! before you take out your broom
When items feel like they WANT some cleansing
When guests or people I don’t know (e.g. craftsmen) were in my home.
I really hope this blog post acts as a good foundation for you and your own research. What I found is that, regular cleansing will enhance your magickal practice and create a more harmonious and creative environment in your daily life. But remember that cleansing is a personal practice, like everything else in your witchcraft practice. Experiment with different methods to find out what resonates with you.
You can also watch the full video on YouTube! :)
All my love,
Bebea
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