#cleansing methods

A basic knowledge every baby witch needs to know is how to cleanse your work space. You don’t want to be using a tainted item or invite negative energy into your work. There are many techniques to cleanse your work space.

Smoke cleansing: Using a match, a candle, an incense stick or Sage (*** this may be a closed practice, ask ahead of time if you can***), you can light them and stop the flame, causing smoke to come out. This is a popular method for Jar spell cleansing and making a prayer area and riding of bad energy. This is also popular in grounding yourself. 

Sound cleansing: You can use a bell, I use a spoon against another spoon. This is my preferred method because I'm allergic to strong scents so I will almost always try to use a non-smoky method. You can make a ringing noise using a cup or a bowl if you’d like.

Water: placing your container or certain stones (not all crystals should be placed in water) in a naturally running stream or lake/river is a great way to cleanse what you’re using. Note: Make sure it’s not muddy or unclean water.

These are the forms of cleansing I am familiar with and I personally use on a  regular basis. There are other forms such as Moon/Sun cleansing where you leave your object in moonlight or sunlight but I'm not very familiar with these so I will not say anything about them. Using crystals is also popular, but I do not use this method personally either. 

Pomelo Leaf and Water Cleanse

This was a method taught to me by my grandmother. You take a bowl with water and and using a pomelo branch, you dip into the water and flick it into the areas that you want to cleanse (usually entrances and exits of a building, windows and the area surrounding the home, just be mindful water can damage certain surfaces).

You can also gently slap yourself with the water dipped branch to cleanse yourself. An alternative method is to boil the Pomelo leaves in a pot and let it cool off to a comfortable temperature for your skin and either pour it over yourself in the bath or add it directly to your bath water. Another method is to run a hot bath and add a few handful of Pomelo leaves and bathe in it. If you don't have a bath, you can use a cloth to wash yourself with the pomelo leaf water or you can take a small piece of cheese cloth with the pomelo leaf on it and tie it over the shower head before you shower.

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Embracing the power of sound is nothing new. The ancient practice of using sound to deepen meditation and bring harmony within the spirit dates back thousands of years, and across many civilizations. Tibetan bells and crystal singing bowls have gained popularity in recent years thanks to the resurgence of sound baths.

Sound baths use a variety of singing bowls, each acoustically tuned to emit a single note, that when played together, creates a blend of tranquilizing vibrations. The reason these experiences are called sound baths is because the vibrations of sound feel almost palpable within the body, as if they are washing through you. Knowing how to use these cleansing notes in your space can add to the impact of your space clearing.

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Singing Bowl

Singing bowls are powerful tools for breaking up stagnant energy. Metal singing bowls are especially good at stimulating a fresh circulation of grounding energy. You can either use a mallet to hit the side of the bowl, or circle the mallet around the rim of the bowl to create a lasting note.

Once you’ve got the hang of making your bowl sing, move throughout your space, letting the noise reverberate against the walls. Try to get the sound vibrations up toward the corners of the ceiling, the corners by the floor, in the closets and anywhere else that energy tends to get overlooked.

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Bells

While Tibetan bells have additionally sacred symbolism to them, the ring of any bell will brighten up your space with positive energy. As the sound vibrations disperse blocked energy, the sweet chimes work to uplift the fresh energy leftover. Ring your bell throughout your space, working the vibrations into those overlooking areas.

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Drums

Drums are a central aspect to the rituals of many cultures throughout the world, and can enhance the cleansing ritual within your own home. Use the beat of a drum to break up stored energy. You don’t need a special drum or rhythmic talent. Just beat the drum at a steady pace as you walk clockwise throughout your home.

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Chants

There’s a reason that we use chants to cleanse and charge the crystals we sell. Chants help to revitalize and align the spirit of both yourself and your space. If the energy of your home is feeling off, use chants to cleanse the negativity, and get the energy of your space back in sync with the intention of love and positivity.

The chants we that use most often are “Om Mani Padme Hum” and these Om mantras. You can find a wide range of other restorative chants online. You’ll want to play the chants loud enough to fill your space, but not so loud that you bother the neighbors.

Tip: Our co-founder and crystal expert, Heather Askinosie, also recommends playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to freshen up your space with an exuberant energy.

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Clapping

If you don’t have any tools, and you can’t play chants on a stereo or computer, there’s still one method of sound cleansing that you can likely perform—clapping. This simple technique for dismantling built up energy is surprisingly effective. Just move clockwise through your space, clapping to release those tricky energy blocks in corners, doorways and closets.

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Your Voice

We all have great power when we use our voice. The topic of the sound of your voice is a very complex one. It starts with the resonance of your coie and goes all the way to your ability to speak your truth and stand up for what you believe in. You might use words or phrases, or you may work with tones and different sounds.

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Recorded Music

Include powerful music in your cleansing ceremony. The music has to be fairly loud, and it has to be powerful and meaningful to you. The music can either be instrumental, or include words that resonate with your intention for the room.

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Wind Chimes

Metal or wood wind chimes are a great way to keep energy flowing once you have cleared a space. They can enhance a particularly difficult spot that retains stale energy, such as corners. They are great to place over your work area, including your desk chair and stove.

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Always remember to keep the intention of your cleansing practice in mind while performing any sound purification method. Combine the power of sound with other cleansing tools like sage and selenite, and the energy of your home will feel brighter than ever.

P. S. Don't forget to open the windows while cleansing so the negative energy can leave the space.

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Unfortunately, some materials commonly used in witchcraft are either endangered or have unethical harvesting practices, including white sage, palo santo and dragon’s blood. We are going to be focusing on white sage.

There are ways to get these materials without these problems, but often they require you to live in the area where the plants are from and buy from people who harvest it, so the source is known and known to be responsible, rather than shops and companies, which is harder for a lot of people, especially if you don’t live in the South West of the US or Mexico like me.

I find the following methods useful in my practice so if you want to avoid using white sage but are stuck on what else to use, here are some alternatives for you!

There are so many ways you can cleanse your decks!  Here are a few that range in difficulty/complexity

Leave them under some crystals!  

I like to use amethyst, selenite and quartz

Place them under the light of the moon

Windowsills work just fine!  I love to leave mine on the windowsill overnight

Draw a personalized charging/cleansing sigil and leave it on top of your decks overnight

Leave your deck in a small dish of salt

Salt cleanses and charges, wrap your deck in plastic wrap beforehand however!

Meditate with intent while holding your decks

You can incorporate crystals into this as well :)

Place them under the light of the sun

Just be careful to not sun-bleach your cards, don’t leave them out too long and definitely do not leave them in the humidity

Reshuffle/reorder them!

What I do is organize the suits from ace - king, the major arcana from The Fool to The World, and then give it a nice shuffle

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This method is for a 78 card Tarot Deck.

When you recieve a new deck, it’s important to remember to purify and cleanse it before using it for readings. This allows the deck’s natural energy to amplify, it allows you to be able to use the energy to connect with the deck and to understand your readings. Essentially, it is the first step in creating and strengthening your relationship with your deck .

Purify

By Light (Fire)

Sort your deck by suit, and place each suit to its corresponding coordinate. (Wands-Fire/South, Pentacles-Earth/North, Swords-Air/East, Cups-Water/West, Major Arcana-Spirit/Center)

Place a candle for each suit around each pile of cards. For the major arcana, use a jar candle and place that on top of the pile.

Light the candles starting in the center, then North, and continue clockwise.

Visualize the energy from the deck forming a pyramid, the point should be above the center candle. The pyramid shape purifies the cards, with the aid of the candles pushing negative energy out, while keeping the deck’s energy within and sealed to itself. This allows you to remove any negative energies from past owners, shipping or packaging errors (when i recieved my new deck,  two of the cards were damaged due to packaging errors) etc., yet leaving the decks energy connection to the cosmos untouched.

By Water

Sort your deck by suit and place each suit to it’s corresponding coordinate.

Anoint a candle with moon water, and light it.

Sprinkle moon water around each pile of cards, careful not to drip on the cards themselves.

    “By this sacred water, you have been freed. Unbound and reactivated, only truth you shall see.”

By Smoke (Air)

Sort your deck by suit and place each suit to it’s corresponding coordinate.

Use incense, an herb bundle, or aromatic wood incenses as your source of smoke.

Light your choice of incense, and pass over all the piles of cards counterclockwise.

     “By these sacred herbs, you have been freed. Unbound and reactivated, only truth you shall see.”

Put the incense in a cauldron or holder, and pick up a pile of cards, place it a safe distance away from the smoke, as not to stain the deck, and watch the smoke wrap around it. Visualize a growing bubble of energy as the smoke surrounds the cards. Repeat this step until all 5 piles have been purified.

By Earth

Sort your deck by suit and place each suit to it’s corresponding coordinate.

Place a crystal on each pile.

“Open up to these healing Earthly vessels. For as they cleanse you, you cleanse them and all transgression returns to The Source.”

Let the crystals sit overnight on each pile.

Channeling

Cleansing is the magickal process of removing all energies (both positive and negative) from an object, space or your own body, to be able to welcome new, fresh and positive energies. Cleansing oneself should be done daily - you can add these to your morning routine and do them before/after a spell, a workout, etc - and whenever feeling drained or negative overall.

🌟 Add lemon to your water! It cleanses your system and makes your energy lighter.

🌟 Green teas are generally great for cleansing.

🌟 Shake it out! It will rid you of negative energies sticking on you.

🌟 Washing your hands is a simple way to rid yourself of other people’s energy throughout the day.

🌟 With that being said, your bath/shower time can easily be turned into a cleansing ritual by simply visualizing the water rinsing off all negative energies, and/or chanting (or simply saying the words).

🌟 Same with washing your face.

🌟 When using scrubs, try visualizing all negative energies, even from deep in your pores, being scrubbed away. (Bonus points if you drew a cleansing sigil with the scrub before massaging it into your skin!) Same with, for example, nose strips and peeling masks.

🌟 Taking off makeup can be great for cleansing yourself from energies you got confronted with throughout the day.

🌟 Brushing your teeth and using mouthwash can serve as small cleansing rituals too! (Just like pretty much everything to do with personal hygiene, as you may have noticed)

🌟 Brushing negative energies out of your hair.

🌟 I’m not too experienced with crystals, but holding a cleansing crystal (such as clear quartz) in your hands and visualising all negative energies being gone, should work.

🌟 Going outside for a moment on a rainy or windy day, visualising the rain rinsing off negative energies or the wind blowing them off you (don’t get yourself sick though).

🌟 Just like with most of these, simply visualising negative energies going away, leaving only pure, white light in your body.

These are a few, but of course you can find a lot more ways to cleanse yourself! Remember to try out some new things as well, whether you’re a beginning witch or a more experienced one.

Feel free to add more!❤️

🌸🥛💧 Diana 💧🥛🌸 @unearthlylips @angel-sobs