personal cleanse: Lemon Light
A simple and lovely way to powerfully cleanse your energy field is to imagine a powerful whirlwind of bright, sparkly, light yellow, lemon-scented light swirling through and around you. See it whipping away and detoxifying all challenging and stuck energy and then cocooning you in its protective, glowing freshness.
personal cleanse: Breeze
In her wonderful book Practical Protection Magick, author Ellen Dugan suggests allowing yourself to be cleansed by the element of air by stepping outside into the breeze, holding your arms out, and letting it blow around you. As you do this, feel the air invigorating you and blowing away any and all negativity or stuck energy. And even if you’re indoors or it’s not windy out, you can mentally invoke the element of air and feel as if it’s whipping around you, powerfully cleansing you in just the same way.
Cut Cords of Attachment
This ritual is designed to help you cut energetic cords of attachment between you and another person. This can be helpful when a person is not actually in your physical space but they seem to be lingering on in your mind or generally sending you less-than-desirable energy from afar. It can also be helpful when you aren’t in a position to physically remove yourself from the person or relationship, but you would like to stop any and all relationship-related energy drains. I suggest following it up with a strong protective visualization of your choosing.
Stand upright and visualize yourself growing roots that anchor you in the molten core of the earth. Then extend branches high into the sky. Connect with the infinite light of the cosmos, and let your branches hang back down like a weeping willow and caress the earth once again. Say:
Mother Earth, I hereby banish and release all cords of attachment between me and ____.
Father Sky, I hereby banish and release all cords of attachment between me and ____.
All cords are severed, all cords are demolished, all cords are destroyed.
All cords are canceled, cleared, deleted, and erased in all directions of time, never to return.
All my energy now floods back to me, filling me with vitality and encircling me powerfully in a protective sphere of light.
Thank you.
As you surround yourself in a sphere of visualized white sage smoke, see any and all energetic cords of attachment being completely deleted and destroyed. Then see any formerly co-opted energy returning to you as bright white light. See this light swirl around you in a rapid clockwise spiral and then return to your energy field, giving you a boost of vitality and surrounding you in a sphere of white light.
Guilt-Clearing Visualization
You’ve heard it a million times, but it bears repeating: we all make mistakes—all of us. And while guilt can sometimes be a natural side effect of a mistake, especially when we perceive that mistake to have negatively affected another in some way, it never helps to hold onto it. In fact, guilt has such a challenging and sticky vibration that it can actually do even more harm to hang onto it than to let go of it. For example, if you’re holding onto guilt toward a family member, that guilt will constantly hover between you, casting a shadow on your every interaction. And if you’re holding onto guilt toward a deceased loved one, that deceased loved one may feel responsible for putting your mind at ease and therefore may be somewhat more tethered to the physical realm more than he or she prefers at this stage. (Be assured that no matter how heavy and serious things may seem from this side of the veil, from the perspective of those who have crossed over, bygones really are bygones.) The truth is, once something has happened, it’s what happened. While of course asking for forgiveness and making amends is often a wise and appropriate thing to do, incessantly regretting what happened is fighting against the truth, and you will always lose that fight. It’s just a waste of energy, and it holds you back from being the best you in the present moment that you can possibly be. So for everyone’s sake, let yourself off that hook and let go! And if you need a little extra help, give this visualization a try.
Sit or recline with your spine straight. Close your eyes and take some deep, conscious breaths as you notice anyplace where you are holding onto tension. Breathe into that tension and let it naturally dissolve. When you feel relaxed and open, visualize yourself standing in a gently rolling field of lavender at sunset on a warm evening. Even if you’ve never been in a field of lavender in real life, pretend that you know exactly what it looks, feels, and smells like. Notice the flowers gently swaying in the balmy breeze. Inhale the strong, sweet, relaxing scent as it wafts around you.
In time, you notice six angels standing in front of you, glowing with an almost blindingly bright white light. These angels are holding a bag made of white light, as if they’re expecting you to place something into it. You look down and notice that you’re wearing a pendant on a chain around your neck. This pendant is a small bottle filled with heavy, murky liquid. It is your guilt! As you remove it from your neck, you notice that it is quite heavy—much heavier than you expected. When you throw it into the glowing white bag, you feel so much lighter than you did before. Instantly, the angels close the glowing bag around it and wordlessly communicate that they will take it up to their heavenly realm, where it will be completely dissolved and transmuted into light. And then, in a flash, they are gone. You glance up just in time to see them disappear into a cloud.
Again, notice the lavender around you and become aware that it is sentient and wise. Silently, the lavender assures you and gives you the strong feeling that you are safe and completely correct in letting go of your guilt. Emotions such as sadness or loss may remain, as these move through the psyche in their own way and time, but there is no valid reason to keep hanging onto the guilt. Inhale the scent of the lavender once more, and feel it brush your brow and your heart with energy and renewal. Revel in the lightness and feel confident in your ability to leave the past behind. You are free.
Open your eyes, flick your fingers toward the ground nine times, and then shake your hands, symbolically releasing any residual guilt into the energy of the earth.
Cleanse for Another Person
To cleanse another person’s energy field of challenging or stagnant energies, you might try this visualization, which I first learned about from the teachings of author Doreen Virtue. Once you’ve cleansed and shielded your own energy field (as above), tune into the other person’s true self on the internal plane. Then ask her: “Is it okay if I energetically cleanse you?” It’s highly likely that you’ll sense her saying yes in your mind’s eye, either by nodding, speaking, smiling, or just giving you a feeling that it’s fine for you to proceed. If you don’t, however, you can explain to her that it won’t hurt her at all and will only help. If she still does not seem to agree, stop and do not proceed. If she does agree, however, you can then call on archangel Michael (or a helper of your choice) to vacuum her of all challenging energies. See him doing this with a vacuum tube of light. Then ask him to surround her in a sphere of very bright white or indigo light, in which only love remains and through which only love may enter. For household harmony and everyone’s general well-being, it’s a good idea to do this daily for the people and animals who live in your household. You might get in the habit of doing so during your daily meditation. If you feel guided, it can also be a good idea to do this for people with whom you seem to be in conflict, such as challenging neighbors or coworkers. (Always be sure to cleanse and shield yourself first!)
Cleanse an Object
For the environment and my bank account, I often like to shop secondhand, and even when the energy of a new-to-me item feels generally positive, I still don’t want to unwittingly pick up an energetic pattern that is not in alignment with my truest good. What’s more, I sometimes want to cleanse the energy of a crystal but I don’t want to take the time to burn sage smoke around it, run it under cold water, or set it in sunlight. If you can relate to either of these situations, or really anytime you want to instantly cleanse and reset the energy of an object, this instant ritual can help.
Simply hold or direct your palms toward the item and visualize it igniting into a ball of golden-white, extra-hot fire. See this fire burning away and transmuting all negativity into positivity and blessings. Next, send visualized white sage smoke completely through and around the item, to remove any and all lingering energetic patterns from the past. Finally, bless the item with an energetic quality of your choice, such as peace, harmony, abundance, or love. Visualize a sphere of white light around the item, spinning slowly in a clockwise direction, and send the vibration of your chosen quality through that light. For example, you might simply think the word (for example, “harmony”) as you envision and focus on the rotating sphere of light. You might finish by thinking or saying a basic finalization phrase such as my favorite all-purpose standby:
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessed be. And so it is.
home cleanse: Invisible Smudge
Whether you’re physically home or not, call up your home in your mind. In your mind’s eye, see the weather as mild and sunny, with a light breeze. Open all the windows and notice the light and air streaming in. Then see yourself standing in a central location and lighting a huge bundle of dried white sage so that it’s smoking like incense. See this smoke billowing into a huge cloud. Since it’s magic smoke, it expands outward without you even having to move and swirls in a counterclockwise direction (to clear and disperse) into all the corners and crevices, clearing and raising the vibration of your home to a very clear degree. As the smoke continues to fill and fumigate your home of all challenging energies, call on archangel Michael to escort any and all stuck energies and earthbound entities to the light. Finally, see the smoke dissipate and envision a very bright sphere of golden-white light completely filling and surrounding the space, moving in a slight clockwise direction (to seal in the energy). Ask angels to surround your home in a circle, preserving this positive energy and protecting the space from all negativity.
home cleanse: Elements
With your eyes open or closed, say or think:
I call on the element of air to cleanse this space.
Visualize and imagine gales of wind blowing through every room and area of your home, dislodging negativity and blowing it out your windows and doors.
Then say or think:
I call on the element of fire to cleanse this space.
Visualize the roof of your house disappearing and hot desert sun searing down into every crevice of your home, powerfully disinfecting it and breaking apart any heaviness or darkness. Replace the roof.
Then say or think:
I call on the element of water to cleanse this space.
Visualize clear, gentle waves of saltwater rushing through your home, cleansing it, refreshing it, and renewing it.
Then say or think:
I call on the element of earth to cleanse this space.
Visualize the floor of your house disappearing and soft, cool, receptive clay earth absorbing and neutralizing any and all negativity. See it pulling out impurities like a healing mud mask. Replace the floor.
Then say or think:
I call on the element of spirit to bless this space.
Visualize a large swirl of clear light with rainbow sparkles spiraling in a clockwise direction completely around and through your entire home, fine-tuning it and blessing it with abundance, luck, love, and all good things.
Say or think:
Air, I thank you.
Fire, I thank you.
Water, I thank you.
Earth, I thank you.
Spirit, I thank you.
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