Sacred Spaces: 3 Steps to Cleanse Your Home
There are three foundational steps to a complete spiritual cleanse - purification, cleansing, and blessing. This ritual can be done as often as you feel necessary. I like doing this each season or during times of transition and transformation.
Note: this was originally published in SPELLbook Spring Vol. 1 available for purchase here.
INGREDIENTS & TOOLS
Cleaning Supplies
Bells, Chimes, or Pots and Pans
Holy, Florida, Sun, or Moon Water
Optional - Spiritual Home Blend
RITUAL
It’s best to perform this ritual during a waning or dark moon. Sunset is also an excellent time for clearing, protection, and banishing.
1. Cleanse
There’s some merit to the adage - cleanliness is next to godliness. The first part of this ritual is quite mundane but essential to creating a solid foundation for the following steps.
Physically clean your home and remove any clutter. If you have items to be donated, remove them from your home and drop them off at the donation center.
The idea here is simple - you want to clear your space physically. As you move through and clean your home, pay attention to any feelings or sensations you have. Are there cold spots or warm spots? Do you get any weird feelings in your gut in specific areas? Make a note of these as you’ll want to tend to these areas in the following steps.
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2. Purify
The purification process removes any negative or stagnant energies present in your space. Give a little extra attention to any sticky energy spots you felt during cleaning.
Smoke is a powerful purification tool used by many different traditions and cultures worldwide. Unless you’re indigenous to the Americas, steer clear of white sage/smudging. Look for incense or burn bundles that contain rosemary, pine, juniper, or cedar, as these plants have potent properties to help rid your space of sticky energies.
Open up a few windows throughout your home to allow an exit path for the energies you’re clearing. Open up all the interior doors and even open up cabinets and closets before you begin.
Work through your house from top to bottom in a counterclockwise direction, making sure to get smoke in all the corners, cupboards, and closets as you move through your home. Linger and do a thorough job in the sticky spots if you felt any earlier.
You can try reciting this spell as you move through your space with the smoke. Alternatively, you can write your own spell or recite a favorite prayer from your belief system.
Smoke of fire, pure and strong,
Clear this home all day long.
Negative energy is not welcome here,
Return it, gone now, disappear.
Sound is a powerful cleansing agent if the energy is challenging to clear or you can’t use smoke in your space. Repeat the counterclockwise process through the home using bells in all areas. If you don’t have bells, you can also clang pots and pans together.
3. Bless
Now that we’ve cleared any stagnant or negative energies in the space, it’s time to protect and welcome positive energies.
Moving clockwise, use holy water, Florida water, sun water, or moon water to sprinkle around your space as you recite the words below. Again, feel free to add your flourish here.
Safe and happy this space shall be,
For all who enter as well as me.
You can use the sealing oil recipe (coming soon) to create a protective barrier around your home.
This is Part Two in a series of posts that speak to different ways you can tend to the spiritual hygiene of hearth and home. Read Part One here.
Check back for new posts to be linked here as they come out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erin Harker (she/her) is a hedge witch who delights in the magick of hearth and home. She believes in a world filled with wonder and that there's magick in each of us and everything we do - even our simple, everyday tasks.
Despite working with tarot and witchcraft for over 25 years, she only recently came out of the broom closet when she launched The Magick Makers in early 2020.
Based in Durham, North Carolina, this charmed space is a pop-up shop and community where modern witches and craft-curious folks can inspire and supply their everyday magick. She is also the author of SPELLbook, a seasonal publication and upcoming book, and the fairy godmother behind, Kindred Club.
As she continues to explore her ancestral roots and identity, she’s found a passion for self-discovery through hearthcraft, tarot, symbology, and other esoteric practices.