Four ways to cleanse & protect your energy
When you do energy work, it's like a light on the astral plane that attracts all kinds of energetic attention, like moths to a flame. Some of the attention comes from random energetic "dust bunnies" that don't have a form or consciousness, but some comes from entities. In my experience, they are mostly harmless, but it can become really annoying when all that debris or detritus gets in the way of the work you are doing.
Spiritual hygiene is incredibly important, from cleaning your energy to creating boundaries, armor or other energetic defenses.
Here are four ways to cleanse and protect your energy.
1.Energetic Cleansing
You take regular showers or baths, right? I'm pretty sure you do — at least every other day or so, if not daily. We need to do the same with our energetic bodies. As we go throughout our day, our energetic bodies get gunky, like our physical bodies do. Energetic germs, so to speak, or dirt under our fingernails. Then we end up carrying someone else's dirt with us, when we don't need to.
I highly recommend regular energetic cleansing of both your self and your home. Using herbs, sacred smoke, sound or crystals, you can tap into any of the four elements to cleanse your energy.
How to clean your personal energy
To energetically cleanse yourself, try any of these witchy techniques:
Use sacred smoke: Instead of using white sage or palo santo (often overharvested or used in appropriative ways), try juniper for healing, protection and cleansing; eucalyptus for cleansing with an energetic boost; rosemary for energetic disinfectant; or bay leaves for cleansing, calming and mood boosting.
Put your mundane shower to energetic use: When you shower, turn it into double-duty and visualize the water washing and cleansing your energy. Release everything that is not yours to be washed down the drain. Boost your cleansing by using a sugar scrub (for added sweetness) or a salt scrub (for extra clean).
Try sound: Tapping a bell, using a shaker or even simply singing can break down gunky energy and help you reclaim your energetic body.
Sleep with selenite: An amazing crystal for cleansing, you can place a rod of selenite under your pillow to help cleanse your energy as you sleep. Bonus! It may also help your dreams be a little sweeter.
How to energetically clean your home
You can use the same techniques for your home as you use for your body, even the shower! To adapt these for your home:
Walk the sacred smoke throughout your house.
Create a form of holy water by extinguishing a lit herb in it (thyme, juniper, bay laurel), or by adding salt. Walk through your house, sprinkling the holy water throughout.
Tap your bell or shaker, or sing or speak, as you move through your house, declaring your house as your space. All that is not yours shall leave.
Place selenite towers or sticks in various rooms throughout your house.
Use a salt bowl: Fill a bowl with salt, activated charcoal, rosemary, bay laurel and any other herbs or crystals for cleansing or defense. Keep it by your door to absorb any energies you may bring home with you. Replace the contents when it feels energetically stale.
2. Energetic Boundaries
In the same way that we have physical boundaries and protection, such as our skin, our clothing or the walls of our house, we have energetic boundaries. Often, especially for those of us conditioned to prioritize other peoples' feelings, emotions and needs, we don't have very strong energetic boundaries. We don't always know where we end, and another person begins—or where our emotions end, and someone else's begins.
We cannot begin to defend ourselves if we don't even know where "ourself" begins and ends, right?
Use the Grounding & Centering technique to create your personal boundary each morning.
3. Energetic Armor
A more robust form of energetic boundaries, you can program your those boundaries to be as powerful as needed. While you may not want to wear armor everywhere you go, there are times, such as a family gathering with folks you don't care for, when it can be highly desirable.
While you can use the protection visualization for this, and program it to be incredibly strong, you can also create an armor talisman. This involves charging a talisman with the intent of protection, and each time you wear it, tap into its stored energy for your armor.
To create a defensive energy armor talisman
Choose a stone, pendent or other trinket that you will be able to place on a cord to go around your neck. You may want to use black tourmaline or obsidian (protection), smoky quartz (detoxification and dispersing fear), tiger's eye (strength), shungite (to protect against outside forces), a sword or shield amulet, or anything else that speaks to you of armor.
Charge it with the intention of armoring yourself. One way might be to gather a number of protective correspondences into a bowl, such as the herbs or crystals listed throughout this article plus salt to amplify and purify, place the stone or amulet with them and visualize all the correspondences charging and imbuing your amulet or stone with armor characteristics. You could keep this bowl and refresh the amulet each day by placing it back in the bowl overnight. You'll want to change out the ingredients in the bowl regularly to keep the energy fresh.
Wear it. Each time you put on your talisman, take a moment to let its energy lock into place around you. Visualize the armor as it forms. You can strengthen it throughout the day by thinking on it, feeling it and reinforcing it with your thoughts.
Remember, the armor is only going to be a strong as you let it be. If you have amazing armor in place, but zero boundaries, negative people and energies are likely going to seep in. Practice keeping your boundaries in place.
Also, remember: "No." is a complete sentence.
4. Energetic Home Defense
Making your home a safe space for you and your is incredibly important, especially if you find yourself doing a lot of energy work. This is where energetic defense for your home comes in. As a complement to your armor, your boundaries and your regular home cleansing, you need defenses.
Simple forms of defense
Placing small chunks of black tourmaline at all four corners of your house. As you place them, envision them as a grid of protection. Sometimes, you may find you want to further grid a particular room or space — go for it! Remember, black tourmaline will need to be cleansed and recharged regularly to stay active. You can do this by placing your stones out at a full moon, letting them spend a night in some salt, or passing them through sacred smoke. If your tourmaline has shattered, dispense of it — it did its job and protected you! Time to replace.
Creating a sigil. A sigil of protection can be a powerful form of defense. Once you create your sigil, use horehound oil to draw it on your doors and windows or wherever you want protection (note: If you are renting or don't want to see oil on your paint, use holy water instead!).
Weaving a web of protection. One of my favorite forms of spellcasting involves astral weaving of energy. After grounding, centering and anchoring, I'll slip into the astral realm and begin noticing the energy around me. Given that I live above an incredibly busy street, there is a TON of energy just being sent up all around me. I like to gather that up and use it! I'll ask if there is any energy that would like to join my defenses, and I will weave it into a protective barrier around the walls, roof and floors of my house. Generally, each night as I fall asleep, I check in on my web. I may spend some time repairing or bolstering sections as needed.
Written by Kee Hawthorne Reiter, a witch, tarot reader and psychic medium focused on helping clients live empowered lives.
Curious about witchcraft or Tarot? Uncertain about energetic boundaries or protection? Seeking guidance for a spell? Book this session to chat through anything you’d like more information on.
I’ll help you build an effective spell and plan the timing for it to work most potently, provide ritual or spell suggestions for a specific desire in your life, walk you through setting up energetic boundaries or warding of your self and/or your home, or anything else you might be curious about learning.