Cleansing and warding a new home, Southern Appalachia style
In the last few months, as I've been focusing on promoting my new book and supporting Reclaiming events, I've been speaking less publicly about my folk magic practice. My partner and I recently moved into a new home, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to share my current go-to magical home security system. This post goes over my process for cleansing and protecting a home that has never had any kind of magical protection done on it before, but you could also use bits and pieces of this process to round out existing wards on your current home.
If you've never seen me talk about this side of my practice before, please note that I grew up in the southernmost foothills of the Appalachian mountains (that's "Apple-AH-chin" not "Apple-AYE-chin," thank you very much), so my personal folk magic practice is a mix of Appalachian traditions and Deep South traditions. I'll try to specify which body of traditions different pieces come from, but some of this is just pulled from the big ol' melting pot of family lore.
One thing I've noticed over years of living in shared and rented housing is that a lot of older folk practices assume that the practitioner owns their home. This just isn't reality for most of Gen Z and many Millennials, at least not in the USA, where I live. In the spirit of accessibility, I've included renter-friendly alternatives throughout this post.
Step One: The mother of all deep cleans
If you moved into a new home and found that the previous tenant had left all of their clothes, furniture, and trash behind, you'd probably be pissed. We don't want to deal with the previous residents' physical junk, and we don't want their spiritual junk either. This is where cleansing comes in.
A heavy-duty cleansing clears out any lingering spiritual gunk, emotional cords, energy, or whatever you want to call it from the home, giving us a fresh start. It's important to cleanse before putting up any magical protections so you don't accidentally trap spiritual junk inside your home.
My heavy-duty cleansing method of choice is a two-part process that combines an Appalachian practice with a Deep South practice. I start by burning asafoetida all through the house, then I clean the floors with ammonia.
Asafoetida is used for heavy duty cleansing, curse-breaking, and protection in Appalachian folk magic. It will clear out just about anything that you need gone from a space. It is traditionally burned for these purposes. I use a cast iron cauldron and a block of self-igniting incense charcoal for this. Sprinkle the asafoetida on the lit charcoal and it should almost immediately start to smoke. Carry the incense through the house, wafting the smoke around the rooms. Traditionally, you'd start at the back of the house and work your way forward, ending at the front door.
Ammonia is used in Deep South folk magic for aggressive cleansing and curse-breaking. Like asafoetida, it has a reputation for getting rid of EVERYTHING, both good and bad, leaving a completely blank slate. I buy pure ammonia from the hardware store, then dilute it with water according to package instructions. I charge the ammonia solution with my intention to completely and totally clear the home, leaving it empty of all spiritual residue and ready for a fresh start. Then I clean the floors as I normally would. (Full disclosure: I use a spray mop with disposable mop pads because it's easier for me. For carpeted rooms, I just spray a bit of water mixed with ammonia on the carpet for a refresh.)
Let's get one thing out of the way: yes, asafoetida and ammonia both smell bad. Yes, your house will stink while you are doing this. But I truly have not found a more effective combo for a spiritual deep clean. I usually just burn a nice-smelling incense or light a scented candle when I'm done, and I've never had issues with the smell lingering.
Renter-Friendly Version: If you can't burn incense, try mixing asafoetida and table salt into hot water, allowing it to cool, and then sprinkling this solution all around your house. (Don't try to use a spray bottle, because it will get clogged. Just sprinkle it around with your fingers.)
Tip: Make sure you have the windows open during your cleansing, especially when using smoke. On a metaphysical level, this leaves a path for all the nasties you're clearing out to leave the building. On a practical level, it increases ventilation and prevents smoke inhalation.
Step Two: Locking up with wards
I really like Althea Sebastiani's definition of warding from her book By Rust of Nail and Prick of Thorn: "Warding is a practical magickal means of protecting and securing a person or place⦠Most means of warding utilize physical objects as anchor points for energy."
In Southern folk magic practices, warding tends to be a "set it and forget it" kind of thing. You shouldn't really be thinking about your wards unless they've caught something or been compromised by an attack, in which case your guides will often let you know something is wrong.
I want to be clear that targeted psychic/magical attacks are rare. While we all occasionally have to deal with negative influences like evil eye or minor jinxes, these are usually sent our way unintentionally and without any real malice. These everyday nasties are easy to get rid of, and your wards should be able to take care of it on their own, even without regular maintenance. The average person does not need to worry too much about warding their home. The wards covered in this post are more than enough for an average household.
Warding in both Appalachian and Deep South folk practices focuses on three main areas: the doors, the windows, and the edge of the property. These are all seen as places where unwanted influences could potentially enter the home. The front door specifically is seen as a sort of metaphor for the things you allow into your life. (The common-on-social-media practice of blowing cinnamon through your front door to attract abundance is an example of the same principle.)
I like to include an element of modern witchcraft in my folk practice by focusing each of these three wards on a different type of protection. This idea was inspired by By Rust of Nail and Prick of Thorn.
I like to start with warding the property line. For this, I use four railroad spikes. Railroad spikes are made of iron, which is known for its protective qualities in many different cultures, and railroad spikes specifically are commonly used for protection in the South. I drive one spike into the ground at each corner of the property while praying for my home and the people who live there to be protected from all energy and influences that are not invited.
Renter-Friendly Version: If you don't have a yard, you can drive a railroad spike into a pot of potting soil. Do this with four pots, then place one in each corner of your home. (This was my setup in my previous home.)
Next comes the doors. It's important to remember to place a ward at every door that leads to the outdoors, including back doors and side doors. Once again, I use iron for this, but this time in the form of horseshoes over the door. In Appalachian folk magic, horseshoes are always hung with the opening facing up, so that the horseshoe looks like the letter "U." This shape is believed to catch good fortune, like a bowl or a cup. It's said that hanging a horseshoe the other way, so that it looks like a "n," pours out the household's good luck.
When I hang the horseshoes over the door, I pray that my home be protected from all uninvited people and spirits, so that only those who were explicitly invited may enter.
Renter-Friendly Version: If you can't use nails, try hanging your horseshoes with command hooks or another renter-friendly alternative. If you can't put anything on the walls at all, you could use a doormat to anchor your ward instead.
Finally, it's time to ward the windows. Every window that looks onto the outdoors needs to be warded. For this, I use 1 inch by 1 inch craft mirrors. Mirrors are used a lot in Deep South traditions for their ability to reflect energy and send it back to its source, which makes them especially useful for protection magic. To ward a window, I place a craft mirror in the corner of the window (which corner doesn't matter) with the reflective side facing OUT of the house. I use clear packing tape to keep it in place. As I place the mirror, I pray that my home and the people who live there be protected from all spying (including psychic spying and spying via divination), gossip, and unwanted attention from outsiders.
This ward is more renter-friendly than the other two, but if you can't put things in your windows for whatever reason you could instead place a single mirror in each room in your home, then pray over each mirror as described above.
A note on maintaining your wards: Like I said, folk magic wards tend to be of the "set it and forget it" variety, but you will want to "feed" your wards every now and then to keep them strong and active. You can do this by anointing the objects anchoring your ward (in this case the railroad spikes, horseshoes, and mirrors) with protection oil. (You can make or buy a protection oil blend, or you can use regular olive oil that you've prayed over.) I like to feed my wards once a month.
Step Three: Calling in what you want
At this point, we've spent several hours getting rid of everything we don't want in our homes and making sure it can't come back. Now it's time for a step I think a lot of people tend to forget: inviting in what you DO want! If you skip this step, your home will remain an empty shell, which isn't very fun to live in.
I start by explicitly inviting in the deities and spirits I work with. (Yes, deities can probably get around my wards if they want to, but it's still polite to invite them in.) I do this by making an offering to them and officially welcoming them into my new home in a way that is appropriate for that specific spirit. Most of the spirits I work closely with enjoy coffee and whiskey, but your unseen allies may have different tastes.
As a side note, I also like to make sure I introduce myself to the house spirits already present in my new home. I usually do this with an offering before I start cleansing and warding, just to be polite.
Finally, I like to call in the energy/qualities I want to see in my new home. I want to fill the space with good vibes. I tend to be pretty lazy with this part. I am not above buying a pre-prepared spell candle from a witchy business I trust, lighting it up, and going about my day. Witch smarter, not harder.
Beyer, R. (2023). Mountain Magic: Explore the Secrets of Old Time Witchcraft. Wellfleet.
Casas, S. (2017). Old style conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork, & Folk Magic. Weiser Books.
National Mortgage Professional. (2025, March 25). Gen Z And Millennials Are Locked Out Of Homeownership. Retrieved April 6, 2026, from https://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news/gen-z-and-millennials-are-locked-out-homeownership
Richards, J. (2019). Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia. Weiser Books.
Sebastiani, A. (2020). By Rust of Nail & Prick of Thorn: The Theory & Practice of Effective Home Warding. Independently Published.
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