Cleansing Your Home
When first coming to the Craft, many are taught or learn through books about rituals for creating sacred space. It is not hard to find information on the internet on how to consecrate and create circles and areas for various magical workings.
However; I have not seen very much information on how to create a magical home. I have found a paragraph here and there scattered throughout various books and some on the Internet too but very little. On this our Wiccan path, our homes are brought from the mundane world into the sacred as they are often our place of sanctuary to do our works of magic. With this in mind I decided to type and tell you about ways to create an environment where you some can incorporate some magic into your everyday life.
I have walked this path for most of my life and have learned a few tricks along the way. I hope to offer you a few helpful hints that you can expand upon as you deem fitting in your own lives. In creating a Magical home I found it is best if you start at the beginning, with a mop, bucket, a broom and a vacuum. You may think cleaning your house is not a magical task, but I assure you it is. I am often heard saying to my students, "It is all in the intent." I feel this way about cleaning too. Your home, sacred space, ritual place, always has a better feeling when it is clean. The act of cleaning changes the vibrational levels in your home. As do so many other things, from changing where furniture is placed, the curtains on your windows, to the colors of your walls and what you hang on them.
Music is also a good tool to change the vibrations of a room, and to help get you a little more motivated. Pick something you like which has an upbeat to it. Music that will put a spring in your step, and a toss of your hip, as you zip through your house.
Make sure to warm some water and set a bag of tea to steep, a tea which will energize you or fill a tall glass with ice water. I always add lemon to mine. Magical cleaning is hard work and I am always thirsty.
Let's start with the vacuum, some people feel you need to start with a clean bag each time. I am not one of those people, since intent is what is most important, and landfills do not need any more waists, I cannot see wasting a partly filled back. I have been known to add a bit of incense into the bag before I start vacuuming. Some people feel you have to use this scent or that scent, but since intent is what counts, pick the scent that fits your mood, not what someone else tells you it should be.
Now let's talk about the broom, I do have a kitchen broom and I also have a broom sitting outside of my front door. For some reason the birds take to nesting in that one every year. There is also a small broom I keep in the trunk of my car so I have it on hand for quickie rituals where ever I might need it. It is good for sweeping negative energies away.
It is with his small broom I sprinkle scented oil on and sweep through my home if I feel there is something hanging in the air, and I want it gone now and quickly. As I use this oil scented broom, I chant a short rhyme over and over focusing my mind to get rid of the unwanted in my home. Rhyming is good it helps your mind focus. It is a very good tool to use, when you want magic to work. You do not have to have a complicated rhyme. Three or four words which seem to fit your need will work.
Once the floors, chairs, sofa, and corners of the floor, and are all vacuumed and I have captured all the cob webs on the ceiling it is time to take out your mop. I like to use green house hold cleaners as much as possible for cleaning, some of them come pre-scented. Personally I prefer something with a slight lemon scent if I have to have a scent at all, but whatever scent you like, will work just as well. To this bucket of water I add about a table's spoon of sea salt. Salt left on wooden floors or on carpets can damage them; and so, I use this way to salt my home rather than take a chance of ruining my possessions. You see I am always thinking!
I always start at the top and work down; hitting everything I can reach from the tops of the door frames to the window sills. I have a chair rail through much of my house; and so, I make sure to clean that as well. Once you have finished with the rag it is time for the floors. Use the same bucket of hot water with the dab of salt in it to wash your floors.
Once this is done take a moment sit in your favorite room, take a sip of your drink and then close your eyes. Once you are breathing slow and deep, reach out with your mind and see how well the energy is flowing in your home. If there seems to still be places which seem to be a little murky, open your eyes and hold to it.
I don't know about you but I tend to have spots in my home where "Stuff" just gathers. You know like a draw where everything has just been tossed into, or a pile of old news papers. Perhaps you have clothing you had every intention of taking to be recycled and yet there it still sits. Take the time to sort through that draw, organize, toss out and reclaim it, take care of the old news papers, and put the clothing to be recycled into your car to take when you are finished with cleaning. Don't put them in the trunk but in the front sea where you will see them!
Don't feel bad if you suddenly remember you missed something, maybe it is the ceiling fan over head, or the top of the refrigerator. You will never get everything, but doing a magical cleaning once a month will drastically reduce the negative energy in your home and mind. I like to clean my house just after the New Moon for new beginnings.
Now sit again, breathe and relax as you drink your second cup, if the energy in your house flows smoothly, you are ready to continue.
Put away your cleaning supplies and gather together a red votive candle, white candle, a bowl of clean water, and a bit of sea salt. If different color candles seem to you to be the right color than by all means than use them. If you wish you may start with this small ritual, before cleaning or you can end with something like it. If weather permits and you have not yet done so, open all the windows letting the fresh air into your home. Take a moment to inhale the breezes as they dance though your home. Enjoy all the clean scents from green and growing ...MMmmm moist soil after a cleansing rain fall. My favorite scent in the Spring!
There are many ways to do a magical cleaning of your house, and this little ritual is just one of many ways. Be creative and pick one which fits you. It is your intent not mine which will change the vibrations of your home. It is a good thing to use the same ritual every time, re-enforcing in your mind what you are doing.
The house seems clean and now you are ready to do your magical cleansing ritual. There are several possibilities, choose one which appeals to you and repeat it regularly to ensure your household is good to go.
In your favorite room assemble the dish of salt water, incense and burner, 1 white candle, one red votive candle and a cloth to use as an alter cloth. On the alter cloth, place the dish of salt in the North, the incense and burner in the East, the dish of water in the West and lastly the white candle in the middle.
The white candle is the center candle from which everything will be lit.
Light the center white candle. From this light your incense and red votive candle. Now close your eyes and try to tune into the energies of your home. You can hear the sound of your clock ticking; perhaps a child's fussing or giggling, thoughts rush into your mind, don't worry, take note of them and let them go. Breathe.
When you are ready lift the center candle and three times round move it over the tools you have gathered and say something like this;
Tools of each element, I charge you (First turn with the candle)
To sweep clean my home, heart, and mind too.
(Second turn of the candle)
This is my will, So Mote It Be! (Third turn of the candle)
With the dish of salt water in hand, walk towards the east, moving clockwise through your house. If you feel there is a spot which needs a dab of saltwater sprinkle a few drops there. Each time you offer the dab of saltwater say something like this;
This house has been cleansed by the power of the earth,
Within each room there shall now be mirth.
Once you return to the table replace the dish of saltwater and lift the incense burner. Walk again towards the east, going clock wise.
Follow the same route you used when you walked with the dish of saltwater, envisioning the incense smoke melting away the negative energies in your home.
As the smoke wafts through the rooms, say something like this;
This house has been cleansed by the power of Air,
Within each room comes all that is fair.
When you are again at the table where your tools lie, set down the incense burner and take up the red votive candle. Follow the same route as you did the two times before. Envision the fire burning away the negativity, while saying;
This house has been cleansed by the power of Fire,
Within each room as is my desire.
When you are again at the table where your tools lie, set the red votive candle down and take up the bowl of fresh water. Follow the same route as you did the two times before. Envisioning the water washing away the last of the negativity as you sprinkle some of the water in spots you feel still need help, while saying;
This house has been cleansed by the power of Water,
With in each room I welcome the Crone, Mother and her Daughter.
When you are again at the table where your tools lie, set down the bowl of water down and close your eyes. Reach out again with your mind, if the vibrations of your home are not satisfactory to you, repeat the ritual.
When you are finished, remember to close any open windows, and if possible let the candle and incense burn it's self out.
~Since you are only going to be using a tiny bit of salt you can use salt only if you wish rather than salt water, the choice is yours to make.~