Done & Dusted: Cleaning Up & Cutting Ties with Energies & Forces After Magical Works
by Keziah
Everyone everywhere comes in contact with various energies everyday — energies of people around us, energies of the environments we pass through, our own energies, energies of the unseen, and so on. Practitioners of magic and witchcraft, perhaps especially, are aware of or can attract various energies, and some can create or manipulate energies. Indeed, many magical models and methodologies heavily rely on interacting with, drawing down, petitioning, harnessing, and/or controlling energy, but the energies that we create, attract, or magnify whilst performing magical works aren't always something we want hanging around.
Sometimes magical workings can introduce negative energies into our space. This can occur when we're performing spells or workings for other people and are, therefore, exposing ourselves to their energies and/or the spirits around them; when we're performing workings that stir up or stem from particularly strong, painful, or disruptive emotions, such as healing work, baneful work, binding work, and such; or when our work brings us in contact with a negative energy or spirit in another way. Once the spell is concluded, these kinds of energies don't always just evaporate or dissipate. They can linger, both on the worker and within the space they're working in, and that does not serve us. This is why I have a particular way of 'cleaning up' after performing certain types of spells. These are my personal methods for averting potential lingering energy, and for cleaning it up and severing any link between myself and that energy. May this piece and these practices serve any and all in need of them.
Cleaning Up After Working
These are a few short, simple steps that you can take after concluding a magical working or reading that you'd rather not keep the energy from. I sometimes take all of these steps after a work, and sometimes feel the need to only take one or two. It really depends, for me, on the nature of the work I've just done and the feeling I'm left with after.
Cleansing Your Workspace:
After concluding the spell, work, or reading, I cleanse the area I was working in. My preferred method for this is smoke cleansing. This can be done by burning incense, herbal bundles, charcoal, etc. I often opt for incense or herbs to cleanse my space.
One can also use light to cleanse an area, be that sunlight or by lighting a cleansing or protective candle and leaving it to sit in the area. I've also used blessed, cleansing candles on occasion to do this and found that it works quite well for me. I've also used sound can also be used to cleanse a space or room — this can be bells, chimes, horns, voice, the recitation of sacred texts, songs, words, or incantations.
Emptying Drinks, Discarding Foods:
If there were drinks or foods in the room with me whilst performing a particularly icky feeling work, I make sure to get rid of them. Discarding food and drink exposed to especially harmful or potent negative, malicious, or disruptive energies and forces can help prevent you from accidentally inviting some of that nastiness into your person. Wash the dishes, as well.
The same goes for food or water bowls for pets. If any of them were in the area or room in which these kinds of energies gathered or were invoked, it's a good idea to discard the water and/or food and wash the dishes before refilling them with fresh, clean water and/or food.
Washing Up:
Whether it's a quick wash up, ritual hand washing, or taking a full shower or bath, washing your body after working with, calling on, or creating negative, powerful, or harmful forces or energies can be a great, easy way of both symbolically and physically ridding yourself of the energies you've been exposed to during your working. You can incorporate your preferred cleansing elements and oils in your wash up as well.
One can also perform a different form of magical cleansing in addition to or as an alternative to using water and soap. This can be smoke cleansings, sound cleansings, or cleansings using objects, tools, or charms preferred in your particular practice.
Changing Your Clothes & Shoes:
I always do this if I've performed a work for someone else and can feel their energy on me, or if I've done baneful work that involved particularly painful or powerful emotions. If there's anything I've been working with that I really don't want to take with me from there, I change my clothes, taking off all the clothes that I wore during that working and replacing them with fresh, clean clothes. Though I don't wear shoes in the home (which is where I do most of my magical work), if you do and you've worn shoes whilst performing any such work, be sure to change your shoes as well.
You can just toss the clothes in the wash and clean them, and you can either wash the shoes or cleanse them otherwise with magical means.
The same should be done for any jewelry you were wearing if you feel like there might be any energy trapped in it or attached to it. In that case, perform a smoke or light cleansing on the jewelry.
Storing Works:
If you've performed a working or spell that requires holding onto an object or vessel, or that requires upkeep, such as keeping a candle going, keeping a jar, etc. it's always a good idea to keep that within its own, specified area in or around your workspace if it's something that you'll need to revisit, top up, or hold onto. I make sure I have a designated space to house that working, where I can check on it or work on it further if need be, but also where it's not something I'll have to interact with or move around otherwise.
For example, earlier this year I worked some baneful magic that I poured a lot of powerful feelings into, and I wanted to hold onto this work so I could reenergize it as needed and whatnot. I made sure the physical item this work is kept in had its own place to be stored before I started the working. It sits on its own small shelf on the wall near one of my main workspaces, where I can tend that work as needed but where it's also out of the way and I wouldn't have to handle it if I didn't want or need to.
That's what I mean by having a designated space for storing these kinds of spells or work. It's not that it's a danger to keep them or have them around, but if you just feel that there is any lingering negativity attached to that work, or even if it's not necessarily negative but, rather, disruptive, then it's a good idea to give that space a home of its own.
Protecting Yourself Whilst Working
As well as cleaning up after workings, I incorporate a few simple methods of protecting myself from negative energies whilst performing magical works, as an added layer of protection that I feel lessens the likelihood of allowing attachment from any potentially disruptive, harmful, or negative energies, forces, or the like that I may be required to call on, work with, or come in contact with. These are very simple methods that anyone from any practice or background can incorporate into their craft.
Covering & Veiling:
I cover my head and hair with scarves while performing magical workings, but I wear scarves of particular colors when I know the work I'll be performing could expose me to someone else's energy, to spikes in energy caused by painful, powerful, or difficult emotions, or energies and/or forces that simply wouldn't serve me if they lingered on me.
Within my personal and ancestral traditions, the colors I prefer for this purpose are white to repel negative forces or black, blue, or red to protect. You should use whatever colors or symbols have protective or cleansing associations in your particular practice, or, if you don't have anything like that in your practice and beliefs, you should wear what makes you feel good.
Why do I cover my hair and head? In some traditions within my craft (and the crafts of many others), it's believed that the head left exposed could leave one vulnerable to negative forces or energies, or even psychic attacks or malicious magic sent one's way. Hair, as well, is believed in many traditions to hold energies, as in they can sort of get stuck or tangled there, if you will. Many practitioners from various magical traditions and paths use covering and veiling. Some veil every day, some only when they leave the home, and some only when they're working magic or divining.
One can also wear a hat or some other form of covering instead of a scarf, and some traditions even call for specific styles of headwear, particularly for those who are practicing a craft with strong ancestral and regional ties. How you cover and how much you cover is entirely up to you, and if you feel like you'd only want to cover while doing specific types of magic, that's entirely your choice. This is just one method I use to deter negative forces from sticking to me.
Using Protective Amulets, Sigils, & Charms:
One can also wear or keep an amulet, sigil, or charm on their person, crafted specifically for warding off, destroying, or protecting from negative energies and forces. While I can't share the specific amulets and symbols I use due to the personal nature of their design and the closed and ancestral practices from which they hail, I still would like to encourage anyone interested in incorporating such a work in their practice to do so. Crafting personal amulets and sigils or using personalized charms can often provide stronger, specialized protection.
These are just a few really quick, easy steps that I take to ensure that I'm not bringing any energy, feelings, or forces with me from a working that I don't want hanging around. Anyone can add these precautions and steps to their workings and should feel free to do so, or perhaps you'll take inspiration from this piece to come up with steps of your own. Either way, best of luck to you and your work.
SOURCES:
This piece was written purely based off of the personal experience of the writer and expresses the writer's personal opinion, along with advice coming directly from their own craft. Readers are welcome to conduct their own research into such matters and come to their own conclusions.
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Refresh your memory of your password by having a bag of lavender next to your computer.
Let snakes and dragons guard and protect your computer by either having them as your pause/desktop background or having statues near it.
Sprinkle cornflower to prevent evil spirits coming from your computer's reflective surface and into your home.
Much like a mirror, your computer screen is reflective too, so spiritually cleanse, protect, and lock it to prevent spirits to seep in and out.
Attach stickers of sigils (or draw them ) onto your computer, they can be of anything such as "focused work", "fast internet", "safe from viruses", etc.
Charge rubbing alcohol and clean your computer with it regularly.
Draw sigils in ms paint (or other drawing programs) and save the PNGs and have them on your desktop to see.
Lucky charms near your computer to ensure a good time on the internet.
Keep your grimoire digitally as well for easy fetching or write your stuff digitally first and refine until it's just right for you to put it on paper.
Scare away malevolant spirits by playing music from your computer speakers.
This isn't a Hoodoo working perse but some of these ingredients for this bath are used in a traditional hoodoo bath and if you follow me you'll recognize some of them.
This working is a bit of New Orleans voodoo one, it's used to not only reverse the bad but to protect you while your doing it and afterwards.
COFFEE & REVERSING OIL SPIRITUAL BATH
Ingredients: 1–2 cups used ground coffee or coffee grounds. This is used for “drawing out” negativity.
1–2 teaspoons Reversing Oil
Optional: a handful of blessed salt (sea salt or Epsom) for extra cleansing. It can be blessed by a lay person or yourself saying the 23rd Psalms.
Prepare The Bath: Fill the tub with warm water. Mix the ingredients: Add coffee grounds, salt, and herbs to the bath. Add Reversing Oil: Sprinkle a few drops into the water while focusing on the intention: “All negativity, harm, and bad luck leave my energy and return to their source harmlessly.”
Recite Psalms 23
Soak and visualize: Enter the bath and soak for 15–20 minutes. Visualize dark energy being absorbed by the coffee grounds and leaving your body.
RINSE (optional): You can rinse off in plain water. To give you that fresh energy.
After The Bath: Dry off naturally or air dry if possible, and imagine yourself wrapped in protective, golden light.
Step 2: Reversal Candle (Neutralize & Send Back Negativity)
Dress The Candle: Rub a few drops of Reversing Oil to your candle. Set intention: Focus on sending back any harmful energy safely. You can use a prayer or affirmation like: “All negativity, harm, and bad luck directed toward me return to its source. I am cleansed and protected."
Light the candle in a safe, undisturbed place. Meditate or focus for 10–15 minutes, visualizing harmful energy leaving your client and returning to its origin.
Let the candle burn safely for several hours, or extinguish and relight daily until complete.
Step 3: (Protection & Empowerment)
In New Orleans voodoo we also used Saints and St Martha is a good one for protection.
Now in this last step you could follow up with a St. Martha candle ritual to seal the reversal and invite positive energy or use a protection candle with protection oil with the 23 Psalms.
But for this post let go with the Saint
Place her candle on a safe surface, ideally on a small plate or altar. Light the candle and focus on their intention: “St. Martha, powerful helper and protector, remove all harm and misfortune from my path. Turn every obstacle into blessing and guide me in strength, peace, and victory."
You can meditate quietly for 10–15 minutes while the candle burns. If burning the candle fully is not possible, they can let it burn for a few hours each day until completed. Offer a simple gift afterward (like water or flowers) and thank St. Martha for her guidance.
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Stove top simmer spell for cleansing and uncrossing: fill a pot with water add half a lemon or more , a small bundle of dried thyme, a handful of corse salt, and a metal pin. Bring it to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer and let it go for as long as feels right, adding more water if it ever gets low.
What is cleansing, and why exactly do we need to do it? Let's break it down into its parts, discuss the context, and the different ways we can do it. Simply put, cleansing is the act of dispersing any energy build up, especially negative energy build up, in your space. You how after an argument or a bad visit, the air in your home or apartment can feel tense and heavy? Or how, after casting a couple of spells, you start to feel cluttered, or even overwhelmed? That’s energy building up that needs to be dispersed, and cleansing is what you do to take care of that. It’s important to cleanse before and/or after spell casting (especially curses), after bad experiences, etc. There are different kinds of cleansing, and different methods of doing so, and I’m going to cover a few of them here!
People and Object Cleansing Spells
You can cleanse objects, people and spaces. You might cleanse an object you use to cast spells often, such as a wand, an athame, spell bottles or (as in my case) a pot or spoon you use to whip up cooking spells. There are many methods to do this--some people bury the object and leave it there for a time, allowing the Earth to do the cleansing. You can leave the object out under the sun or the full moon, cover it in salt, or give it a cleansing bath in water infused with herbs, moonlight, etc.
Cleansing baths are also good for cleansing people! If you’ve had a particularly bad day (or week, or month, or year), feel like you’ve had negativity following you around or just want a new start, place some herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme into a tea infuser and place it into a bath, perhaps with some sea salt. Light some black and/or white candles and relax in the water until you feel lighter, or until the candles have burned down. Sugar scrubs are another wonderful method for personal cleansing. You’re literally scrubbing your skin clean, as well as scrubbing away your worries and negativity. They’re also a great choice for people that may not have access to to a tub for a bath.
Spaces
The most important and most likely the most common form of cleansing, however, is space/area cleansing. This method of cleansing often cleanses people and objects second hand. The most common method of cleansing is smoke cleansing. People burn herbs and waft the smoke through their home. Sage (regular garden variety sage, not endangered white sage) is most commonly used, but you could use a blend of herbs with cleansing properties. It can also be done with incense or a mixture of all of the above. Smoke cleansing is often accompanied by visualizing the negative energy leaving a space, prayer, and/or general affirmations and energy work. Fire has been known to have cleansing powers throughout many practices and cultures. The fire burns the energies, and the smoke carries them away.
(A note: smudging is not a term to be used interchangeably with smoke cleansing. Smudging is a *closed* Indigenous practice that involves a lot more than waving smoke around regardless of what some of these sites and books would have you think.)
Smokeless Cleansing
Using fire isn’t always viable, however. If you live somewhere that doesn’t allow open flame, like a dorm room. If you’re scared of fire, or you’re just worried about setting off your alarm, smoke cleansing can seem daunting. Luckily, there are other ways to cleanse an area. Water, of course, also has cleansing properties. Create a cleansing liquid infused with the cleansing herbs of your choice, and you can quite literally wash and wipe away the unwanted energy in your house. An example from a closed practice would be the floor washes found in Hoodoo.
Another way to cleanse with water is to take the same water-based cleanser, pour it into a bowl and flick it all over your home with your fingers or an herb wand, like rosemary, sage, etc. Or, if you’re in a hurry like me, a spray bottle works just fine. Salt water is also an effective cleanser, combining the protective and cleansing powers of both sea salt and water.
Sound cleansing is another method--use wind chimes outside to clear the energy around your home. Ring a bell throughout your home to clear the space of negative energies and presences. The idea is that the clear, sweet sound of the bells breaks up the energy in a space and replaces it with peace and clarity. Bells have been used in many religions and cultures for this exact reason, such as suzu, Japanese shrine bells known to repel evil, Tibetan bells and even Christian church bells.
In Summary...
What method you use comes down to personal preference, and what works best for your space. All of these are quite effective. What is important is that you do so routinely. Energy build up, especially negative energy build up, can cause spells to not work or even worse, to backfire. Consider it like washing a pot. If you used a pot to cook soup in, you wouldn’t start cooking another recipe in it the next day without washing it first. That would be gross and unsanitary, not to mention it would muddy up the flavor of the new dish. The same logic applies to spells, and life and general--you want the air clear before starting something new. Think about how fresh and calming your room or your house feels after you clean it. Cleansing is the same idea. In fact, I recommend cleaning your house physically along with doing a spiritual cleansing. The result is more than worth the time and effort you have to put into it.
I hope this left you with a better understanding of cleansing, its purpose and the methods available to achieve it. I’ll be writing more cleansing spells in the future, but this is a good place to get some ideas to write your own! Cleansing is one of the first things we should learn about as witches, and luckily one of the most versatile! With this in your repertoire, everything else will be a little bit easier to pick up. Good luck cleansing!
(I'm cleaning up my blog and reposting some of my spells/etc that were once hosted on my website.💕)
