New Moon Cleanse
Keeping our homes and personal spaces clean and clear is essential. We naturally feel more clear-headed, relaxed, and positive when things are tidy. So what about the energy of those spaces? How often do you really think about cleaning the energy in your home?
As we move through life, experience things, interact with others, or enjoy personal time, we expel energy. The spaces where we do these activities absorbs that energy, creating a consciousness of its own. Over time, this is how homes, personal belongings, and entire communities develop their own soul. And just like us, when these spaces absorb enough negative energy, they need a refresher—to be tidied up on a spiritual level—to get them feeling like themselves, again. Especially with everything going on in the world, we’re all feeling the constant hits of negative energy. As we work through that, our homes absorb it, which creates a need to cleanse them more now than ever before.
Most practitioners will know what I’m talking about, but many only have a vague idea of how to cleanse a home. So I’ll share a tutorial on how I cleanse my home—feel free to tweak it as needed:
Supplies:
Cleansing incense (anything that you would typically use in your practice to purify energy—keep closed practices in mind when making a selection. Examples of free-to-use options are Rosemary, Juniper, or Frankincense)
A small, fire-resistant bowl or dish
A broom (ideally one that is used strictly for cleansing purposes, but any broom will do, just make sure it’s clean)
First, you want to make sure the house itself is clean—declutterring at least to its normal state, dusted, clean dishes and laundry, and sweeping/vacuuming. Just so there’s no extra spaces for energy to sit and collect.
Next, collect some incense in a fire-safe bowl or dish. If you’re using incense sticks instead, you might want something to hold underneath it to collect any ashes that might fall, the ashes do stain the carpet so be careful.
Light the incense and start at the back of your house and work your way through to the front door. If you have multiple floors, start upstairs and work your way down. You want to make sure you’re walking around to every corner/boarder of each room and closet and waving the smoke into those areas. If you don’t have a spiritual item to use (it could be literally anything), just use your free hand—our hands are our biggest tools.
As you go, focus on some sort of mantra or cleansing incantation. Keep it simple and easy to remember; it doesn’t have to be fancy. I usually say something like “I cleanse this space of all negative energy. No negative energy is permitted in this space.” And just repeat it over and over as you go. Remember to get around every doorway and window and focus on areas that are well-used that might collect more energy (altars, sitting areas, beds, etc).
Once you’ve gone through the whole house, open up all the doors and windows moving from the front of the house to the back—try to keep it in the reverse order that you cleansed each room, like retracing your steps. If you have pets, make sure they’re somewhere safe where they won’t try to run outside while you’re working. While you’re letting the rooms air out, take your broom and “sweep” through each room, visualize yourself literally sweeping the energy out the doors. The broom doesn’t have to make actual contact with anything so don’t worry about knocking stuff over, just sweep over it. Again, try to go in the same order that you initially went through the house. Once you’ve gone through each room, you can go back and close all the windows and doors.
It will take a lot out of you energetically, and you’ll be feeling pretty tired once you’ve finished so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t feel super upbeat and energized afterwards. Try to plan to do this on a day where you don’t have much else going on so you can have some well-deserved rest and self-care time. If you take a nap, set an alarm beforehand because you’ll sleep like the dead.
The best time of the month to do this is on the New Moon, but you can do it any day, whatever suits your schedule better. And, of course, typically when things are pretty peaceful we only really need this once a month; however, with everything going on, you might want to do it at least a couple times a month if not every week. (With how crazy things are for me, usually I’m a 3-4 times a month type of person depending on what’s going on).
That’s really all you need to know—I hope if you were confused about a proper routine or weren’t sure if you were cleansing correctly, this offered some insight. Remember, everyone’s practice is different, so if you do things a little differently but it works for you, don’t worry, you’re not doing it wrong. Make it your own and enjoy your peace.