Cleansing Before Spellwork

Cleansing Before Spellwork

This post is part of a series of animistic, spirit-oriented spellcasting for beginners. Go to the masterpost to see them all.

I'm one of those people that likes to cleanse my spell components before spellwork - sometimes, depending on the circumstances.

Let's take a quick look (lmao, can you imagine if I could say a point quickly?) at cleansing before spells, when it's useful, and when it's not.

Once again friends, this post is about the specific ways I like to work practical magic, as part of a series attempting to teach a specific way of doing practical magic - this post is not "standard" on any level.

Cleanse to open doors and clear the way for magic and spirits to dwell in the materials.

Your friend is going to fly into town help you with an important project for the next week. You greet them, give them a snack, and show them to the guest bedroom.

The guest bedroom is cluttered full of old junk that ended up getting pushed in there. It's totally uncomfortable for your guest. They can't dwell in there while the room is in that state. So your friend spends all night pushing stuff out and cleaning it just to the point where they can comfortably reside in that space.

Now, they've spent a lot of energy that should have gone to helping you with your project. They leave early and the project was not completed.

Scene change: Now you're a gardener getting ready to seed a plot with wildflowers. The soil is full of large stones. You sprinkle the wildflower seeds everywhere. But the wildflowers have no ability to push away the stones. Instead, the stones reduce the capacity of the plot by 50%. Many wildflowers still sprout and grow, and live out their full and natural lives, but as the gardener you still got half the results you wanted.

Cleanse to restore the natural vessels of spirits before calling them back into it.

A stream has become polluted. It's clogged with garbage. A group of people want to honor and work with the stream spirit - but it's well known that this spirit has withdrawn. It pains the spirit to indwell in a polluted stream, and it is tired of how its body has been disrespected by humans, so it has "left" - perhaps it is hibernating, or withdrawn deep into the spirit world.

The group of people don't clean any of the garbage up. They perform a ritual to call the spirit back. They are surprised when the spirit barely arrives, and is frustrated with them to boot.

Commercially mined stones and farm-harvested plants are not automatically going to have awakened spirits actively dwelling inside of them. Commercial products almost always need to have the spirit called back into them, if their help is desired.

And doing so without gently cleansing their vessel and bringing respect to their doorstep sucks for the spirit.

No need to go scorched earth on your materials, though - that's probably going to make things worse.

I delight in a beautiful bath scented with flowers, luxurious oils resplendent on my skin.

I do not delight in being scrubbed with lye and sprayed down with a high-pressure hose. Such an act is liable to make me hibernate or withdraw (maybe absent spirits are just disassociating... random thought of the day).

It is sometimes said that cleansing spell objects strips them of their power - I find this to be true if you over-do it. This seems to be true in both animist and secular models: either the harsh cleansing is painful to the spirit and they withdraw, or you're wiping away all the energy you've charged into the item.

It's also a waste of time if you don't need to, you know what I'm saying?

Even in the animist model, objects can absolutely be charged with a lot of energy that doesn't come from the spirit within. So if you've found a very special stone or something and you want to use its energies in a spell, cleansing probably isn't necessary at all - the object is ALREADY filled with the kind of power you want, so cleansing it to prepare to call in more power is pointless.

But not every act of magic is about gathering a bunch of ingredients and chanting inside a magic circle. I'm not cleansing my morning coffee before I put a "please Holy Lord let me survive my work meeting" spell into it. The Horned Master himself could be like "windvexer, that's going to work better if you cleanse that coffee first," and I still wouldn't do it.

It's coffee. It'll be fine.

Also, in the interest of diversity: I'm pretty sure a minority of witches cleanse all their shit before spellcasting, and the ones who don't are doing just fine.

But if you're not already cleansing your stuff, and you're having trouble getting reliable manifestations, maybe give it a go and see if it helps!

What about cleansing yourself or your space?

I mean yeah. Both decent ideas for sure. But I find them to be less important than cleansing the material components.

I typically cleanse my space the same way I cleanse my materials - which is a very quick method I'll be posting as part of this series.

But I only really do so because turning on my psychic senses makes me more aware of the energies of my space, and I've already got the cleansing components activated and ready. So it's more of a "why not, I'm already here," thing. And it takes me about five seconds, it's not an in-depth thing.

If I were for some reason going out to do a spell in a really low vibes area, or if I was doing a really important and serious ritual, sure, I'd make a point of really cleansing that space. But I think most of us don't really need to.

As for cleansing myself - nope. I don't have the energy or inclination to do so. I only bother with such things when I'm doing a very serious, intense ritual, perhaps one I've prepared for over several weeks. I mean I wash my hands before I cook a meal, but the spaghetti isn't going to suffer if I don't take a shower first.

This post is part of a series of animistic, spirit-oriented spellcasting for beginners. Go to the masterpost to see them all.

Shadow Usul’s Night Invisibility Glamour Sachet (Neopets Inspired)

“… creeping slowly up the wall, the shadow usul did not make a sound.“ - Gallery of Evil Neopets

A shadow glamour to help the user go about unseen at night, especially for those who need to walk home or take public transportation during night time hours. Note: this is no replacement for self defense items and a cell phone. This is merely to be added to your nighttime arsenal. 

You Will Need:

🌒 A black Marker

🌒 A sachet preferably black (make sure its not porous - powdered herbs will be inside)

🌒 Ground Chicory (chicory coffee is a good substitute!)

🌒 Poppy Seeds (if possible)

🌒 Black Pepper

🌒 Sea Salt

🌒 Ash or Charcoal

🌒 Dried Bay Leaf

Set Up:

Make sure you have all of your ingredients gathered or as much of it as you can, some can be hard to come by. If needed search substitutions for those you need. Have a sigil in mind for the spell - it should be one of either invisibility or protection. Or one of each! Clear and cleanse your work space before you start your spellwork.

The Spell:

🌒 In your sachet add your chicory, poppy seeds, black pepper, sea salt and ash/charcoal. Make sure the sachet is not leaking or spilling, you want a durable fabric if possible.

🌒 On your bay leaf write your sigils using your black marker - if using two sigils write one on one side and the other upon the other side.

🌒 Take your bay leaf and hold it in your hands, careful not to crush it quite yet. Use your visualization skills and energy to put your intent into this sigil and the leaf itself. You want to go unnoticed and be protected while out at night so put that desire, visualization and energy into it.

🌒 Once satisfied place it into the sachet and pull/tie it shut. Once shut crush it a bit in your hand to get the energy ‘flowing’ in it to both activate the sigil and mix the contents inside, be careful not to rip the sachet open or spill any contents.

🌒 Carry sachet on your person while out at night 

Aftercare:

Be sure to cleanse your sachet regularly - moonlight is always a good option as well as personal energy cleansing techniques. If you ever fear that it is becoming weak - empty out its contents, cleanse the sachet and repeat the spell above. Sachet should be cleansed every few weeks and the contents replaced every six months or so. This is determined by the amount of use sachet gets.

**spell is from my personal grimoire. Like what I post? Want to support me or buy me a delicious coffee? Feel free to check out my Ko-Fi Page!

Wishing you abundant self-love, Valentine’s Day and every day! <3 <3 <3

My fifth cypher I’ve made for discreet writings or help with sigil craft!I love making and using these 💛

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You are an amazing person: you are loved, you are beautiful, you are strong, you are talented, and you are magical. Love yourself as you are loved. Take care of yourself.

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