By Lady Saoirse
Bright Blessings,
No doubt, you are all enjoying your new year, and some of you will have set New Year’s Resolutions. I remember the days before I practiced magic when “I will lose x number of pounds” was my resolution every year. Now, I have lost the weight of societal expectations and I love my body. Pass the cake and wine, please! There is something that I do every year, multiple times per year, however this year, I did find myself doing it at the beginning of January.
I don’t know exactly when I started doing it but I purge my whole house. I do this as often as I like and I never feel bad about it. I was raised by somebody who never got rid of anything and I do mean ANYTHING. Mom had cancelled checks from decades prior when she crossed the veil and I spent many hours shredding them for her. My first husband saved every dry cleaner hanger he ever brought home and he even saved expired car wax. Some people just hold on to everything they ever owned,and they have no clue what all they own. Maybe they are why I purge often.
Why do I do it? I’m a witch and energy is bound in objects. I was trained by a Ceremonial Magician. Everything we do in Circle is very deliberate and what surrounds us is carefully chosen. I have never lived anyplace so large that I could have a separate temple area from my living space. Controlling the energy within my home is crucial to me as a magical practitioner. Sure, I forge a boundary when the Circle is cast but fighting off unnecessary energy is a waste of energy.
Energy in things directly affects your life in ways of which you are probably not even aware. The belongings of an abuser that sit in your closets attack you with its energy. The suit from your marriage that ended poorly tugs at you. Clothes you won’t wear again gather dust and mold and waste space. Books you never read eat up space where useful things could go. Useless chemicals emit poisons.
Besides this, why are you holding onto these things? Do you think you will lose weight and “fit back into” your jeans from 1985? If you lose weight, you won’t wear those clothes. Do you like the feeling of owning a lot but you can’t bring yourself to move out of your neighborhood because you don’t want to move all the endless things into a new place? Do you think what you have is useful? Why haven’t you used it in 15 years?
Most people hold onto things out of habit or out of wanting to feel wealthy but some things are garbage. I know this because I used to sort donations at a thrift store. About half of what was brought to us ended up in the trash. Nobody wants your grandma’s boxes of miscellaneous stuff that got sprayed by a skunk in her barn and nobody wants the clothes your kids wore that have pee stains on it.
They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Trash is trash.
What does this have to do with those of us who work magic? What you surround yourself with at home helps to create what sort of a life you have. If you are surrounded by trash, there is a lot of stale energy caught up in that and it helps to hold you back from moving forward in life. It poisons you with its energy and getting rid of these things is a form of magical cleansing. Walking a magical path means living deliberately. Setting some magical rules for what you own and sticking with those will help keep your home, your sanctuary, magically cleansed.
1) If you don’t use it, it must go. This includes jewelry, pictures, books, clothes, and even keepsakes. Is it useful? Does in contribute to your life? If not, get rid of it. You will have to decide how long without being used something can be kept. It’s about 1-2 years at our house.
2) Never keep things with bad memories attached to them. Go ahead and throw out the engagement ring your ex demanded you keep and throw out the clothes from your first marriage that you never wear anymore, if something reminds you of pain, it needs to go.
3) If you hate it, get rid of it. Even if other people say you ought to keep it and even if somebody thinks you ought to love it.
4) Don’t keep gifts you don’t want. Go ahead and piss the giver off. It’s your business, not theirs.
5) If there is not a use or a place for it, it’s got to go.
6) If it compromises you, your energy, or your home or does not contribute, let it go.
Throw it out or donate it. If it is a big object like furniture, it can be given to friends or neighbors free. If it can be sold, go for it. If it’s trash, just let the emotional attachments go and scrap it. Magically, letting go of things that do not serve you or benefit you in any way opens you up to bringing in the energy and things that do. Try this for a year, and I promise you, it will become a habit for life.
Blessed Be!
Lady Saoirse has studied magic and lore for most of her life but started walking her own Magical Path after being spiritually reborn in the desert. Today she is a High Priestess for The Temple of the Goddess, she is a psychic advisor and spiritual counselor, she is a member of the spiritual family at The Magical Druid in Ohio, and she shares her gifts as a Psychic and Content Writer for Spiritual Blossom. She has written for Mysticsense and PaganPagesOrg emag.