The Magickal Cottage

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

Traditional Scottish Prayer

Next week  I will be doing a space clearing on a family member’s home. It seems there has been some paranormal activity there, and the house owners would like it to stop. It’s scary. I suspect there is some energy attached to an old Victorian chair they brought into the house a few months ago. I’ll be able to tell better when I get there and monitor the energy on the house.

Monitoring the energy around ourselves and in our environment is so important. We can start feeling unmotivated, fearful, angry and even ill when our environmental energy is out of whack. We all know people who drain us, the so-called “energy vampires”; but astral energies can attach themselves to us and tax our energy fields as well. What I am saying is not meant to strike terror in anyone’s heart. It happens all the time in various degrees. Usually these astral entities are lower energies, meaning low vibrational as opposed to “evil”. More common ones aren’t demons or ghosts. Some may be elementals – the more mischievous ones- but I suspect elementals prefer to be left alone most of the time.

So let’s talk about how to recognize when one of these entities is affecting you and what to do about it if you decide you have picked up an astral hitchhiker. It’s apparently not that hard for those on the astral plan to figure out how to enter or interface with our 3D plane. The elementals in charge of making the plant kingdom grow do it all the time. Sometimes spirits or entities just pass through for a time. Around Samhain and Beltaine the veil between our planes is much thinner. Playful imps like to join in the fun and can be seen a lot more in digital photos as orbs. The following pictures of me were taken at Halloween time at two different times in consecutive years in the same place. On the right side of me in both pics you can see a large orb in the picture. It was a fun and playful occasion, and the seasonal spirits were joining in on our fun! I felt no negative effects from the orb friends and they soon moved on.  They may have been “feeding” off our fun or simply attracted to it.

If you feel that something is affecting you that is not in your best interests, then there are steps you can take. How do you know if there is something undesirable around you? Go by your gut feelings – your intuition. Everybody has it! If you feel you are constantly being watched in your house, how does it make you feel? Do you feel threatened? When I was a youngster I felt people in spirit around me quite a lot. Because I didn’t understand that there could be people in spirit who might be watching over me, I got the creeps. In fact, I was terrified. It was a long time before I was able to acknowledge my friends and family on the other side and be open to their messages.

So if you have ruled out the presence of helpful spirits, then ask yourself a few more questions. Could there be other explanations for your bad luck, ill health or depressed outlook? Sometimes bad stuff just happens, but we have control over how we react to those bad things. Do some meditating and self examination and be honest with yourself. Your own emotions can be very powerful indeed for good or bad! Poltergeist activity is an example of how live people can cause paranormal activity in a location. In studies of homes where poltergeist activity (things moving, doors and cupboards opening and slamming shut) has been experienced, there have been observations that this activity is actually tied to someone living in the household. Frequently this someone is an adolescent with some really repressed, heavy duty ANGER. Often no one suspects that these kids were going through such hell, but their anger has to come out somehow. Things can go flying, and break, and make lots of noise, sort of like what happens when someone throws a temper tantrum.

If you can rule out a human cause to the entity attachment, then there are steps to be taken. These steps are a good idea to follow periodically even when everything seems ducky. Just consider this procedure to be a form of magickal housekeeping. Follow the steps below in the order given and you should be good to go. Do this space clearing once or twice a year, or more often if you feel the need.

1. Clean up your stuff! Clear clutter, throw things away and air the place out. Scrub each room from top to bottom being careful to avoid harsh chemicals. Vinegar and baking soda as well  as lemon juice and tea tree oil mixed with water will clean things both physically and energetically. DON”T SKIP THIS STEP! I know cleaning can be boring, but low energies are attracted to staleness and grime. A messy place can bring your energy down without you realizing it, and you will be more attractive to those astral low lifes. When you are done cleaning your place, go jump in the tub or the shower. Wash yourself, including your hair and scrub under your nails. Put on clean clothes, which you should have plenty of because you did the laundry when you were cleaning, right?

2. Open the doors and windows. Find something for making NOISE, like cymbals, gongs, rattles or even a pot and a wooden spoon to hit the pot. Go to each corner of each room and to all the tight little spaces and cubby holes and make a racket with your noise maker. You are breaking up energy so it can leave your home. Cats are wonderful at breaking up stale energy. Ever notice how they like to crawl into small spaces and just park themselves there for awhile? A cat’s purr actually vibrates at a healing frequency. Cats are feng shuy experts, so allow them to chill in any out of the way safe place. Your home’s energy will benefit from a feline’s presence!

3. Next you will want to smudge. It helps to have another person help you with this part. You can use white sage, sweetgrass or even incense, but you will  be taking the smoke from the smudge and walking through the house. Be sure to have a heat proof container with you to catch any falling embers. You don’t want to start a fire. Expose all the spaces with this cleansing smudge smoke repeating the following out loud: ” All that is not for the highest good and well being of me and my family must leave now! Only the good remains!” Say it like you mean it.

4. Step outside and have your friend smudge you with the smoke. Have them do the front and back of you, under your arms, all over. As they smudge you say: “What’s mine is mine! No other energies are invited into my energy field without my permission! I ask for clearing,  blessings and protection from all my spiritual guardians. As above so below. It is done! Thank you”

5. The last step is to bring beneficial energies into your space. You have created a sort of vacuum by clearing out your home, and a vacuum by nature wants to fill itself up again. Call in high energy to take the place of the low energy. Burn a white candle that you have dressed with a blessing oil. Frankincense, myrrh and sandalwood incense also attract higher energies. I love using palo santo, which is a type of fragrant wood that comes in little sticks and burned to attract good energy. I love the way it smells when it is burning!

By now you should be feeling much better, and your space should look and feel amazing! The key word now is MONITOR. Monitor your energy and the energies around you to discern when you might need to do another space clearing. And keep your vibration high! Emotions like anger, fear, guilt and hatred make you a magnet for lower energies who love to “feed” off your negative emotional banquet. It’s best to nip these feelings in the bud before you send out a beacon to invite these unwanted guests into your personal space. Shield yourself from negative people, places and situations.  And remember: for good or bad, your thoughts are things! You create your life.

Blessings,

Sarina