The Quiet Talisman

4.

Don't forget wardrobes, the pantry, the bathroom, the toilet, and the space beneath the bed.

5.

Once you've completed the circuit, return to the front door. Imagine guiding the smoke and everything it has gathered out through the threshold and the open windows.

6.

Extinguish the herbs. Leave the windows open for another fifteen minutes.

Words. In every room, say:

With bitter smoke, with cleansing smoke,

I sweep away, I drive away.

What has stagnated, I release;

What is not mine, I set free.

Notes. A note about white sage: it is often sold as the essential herb for smoke cleansing. It is a sacred plant for several Indigenous peoples of North America, and wild populations have been subject to unsustainable harvesting. Many cultural custodians ask outsiders not to use it. We have our own plants that serve the same purpose: mugwort, juniper, and thyme. They grow nearby, cost very little, and work just as well.

Sound Cleansing

Easy. Ten minutes.

This is the best method for homes where burning herbs isn't possible. Take a bell, a small drum, two spoons, or a pot and ladle. Follow the same route, moving counterclockwise, and ring or tap as you go, paying particular attention to corners, the ceiling, and the floor. Make the sound confident. There's no need to ring timidly as though apologizing to the neighbors: three minutes of ringing during the day won't hurt anyone.

Clapping works just as well. Clap in a corner: in a clear space, the sound is bright and resonant; in a stagnant one, it sounds muffled, as though you're clapping into cotton wool. Keep clapping until the sound rings out clearly.

After sound cleansing, it's a good idea to settle the house with gentle music you enjoy—or simply with silence.

Salt Cleansing

Easy. Five minutes, plus twenty-four hours of waiting.

Place a saucer containing one tablespoon of coarse salt in each corner of the rooms. Say: “Salt, take away what doesn't belong here.” Leave the saucers for twenty-four hours, or for three days after a particularly difficult event. Then collect the salt without touching it with your hands—tip the saucers into a bag—and flush it down the toilet. Wash the saucers.

If you have pets or small children, place the saucers somewhere high, such as on top of wardrobes, on shelves, or on windowsills.

For urgent situations, sprinkle a pinch of salt across the floor of a room, leave it for an hour, and vacuum it up. Empty the vacuum cleaner's bag or canister immediately afterward.

Fire Cleansing

Intermediate. Twenty minutes.

Walk through your home with a lit white candle. Pause at every corner and doorway, tracing a small circle with the flame. If the candle crackles or produces soot in a particular place, pause there a little longer. Usually, this can be explained by a draft or the quality of the wick. Tradition, however, sees the crackling as the work of the fire itself, and there's no harm in lingering where it seems to call for your attention.

Walk slowly, shielding the flame from drafts with your hand, and hold a saucer beneath the candle to catch dripping wax. Keep at least a meter away from curtains.

Living fire, sacred flame,

Walk through my home with me.

Where there is darkness, bring the light;

Where there is heaviness, burn it away.

Water Cleansing

Easy. Ten minutes.

Add three pinches of salt and a sprig of rosemary or another herb to a cup of water. Walk through the home, dipping your fingers or the sprig into the water and sprinkling a little into corners, over thresholds, and onto windowsills. Only a few drops are needed. This is the gentlest method and is suitable for children's rooms and bedrooms.

Clean water, clear water,

Wash my home as rain washes the garden.

Step Four: Replenish

This step is skipped more often than any other, and that's a mistake. A cleansed space is empty, and emptiness doesn't last. If you don't fill your home with what you want to see in it, it will fill with whatever comes first.

There are many ways to do this. Choose what feels right to you.

•

Light. Light a candle in the center of your home and let it burn for an hour while you remain nearby. Say what you want your home to be filled with: peace, warmth, laughter, or prosperity.

•

Scent. Brew coffee, bake something, or place a small pot of water with cinnamon and orange peel on the stove. The smell of food is one of the oldest signs of an inhabited, welcoming home.

•

Sound. Play music you love or sing yourself. A home understands the voice of the person who cares for it better than anything else.

•

Living things. Arrange fresh flowers or branches. Water your houseplants.

•

Words. Walk through the rooms clockwise, saying aloud what each one is for: “Here we sleep and rest. Here we eat and talk. Here our child grows in joy.”

My home is clean, my home is bright.

I fill it with peace, I fill it with warmth,

I fill it with bread and laughter.

All that is good, come in and stay.

The Complete Home-Cleansing Ritual

Thorough. Half a day.

Use this when you want to do a complete cleansing: after a difficult period, when moving into a new home, or once a year.

1.

The day before. Clear away clutter, take out the rubbish, and prepare everything you'll need.

2.

Morning. Open the windows. Perform the ritual cleaning using salt water.

3.

Cleanse yourself. Take an intentional shower (Chapter 7) and put on clean clothes.

4.

Ground yourself by the front door. State aloud what you're doing: “I am cleansing my home.”

5.

Sound. Make the first counterclockwise circuit with a bell, awakening and stirring up stagnant energy.

6.

Smoke or fire. Make a second counterclockwise circuit to clear away what has been stirred up.

7.

Water. Make a third circuit, this time clockwise, sprinkling water to refresh and calm the space.

8.

Salt. Place saucers of salt in the corners and leave them for twenty-four hours.

9.

Replenishment. Light a candle in the center of the home, speak your words of replenishment, and prepare some food.

10.

Closing. Close the windows. Say, “It is done.” Share a meal with your family.

Remove the salt the following day. Wait another day or two for the home to settle before establishing protective wards.

Difficult Areas

The entrance hall. Everything you bring in from outside passes through this space. Keep it clear. Put shoes away in a cupboard, and wash or shake out the doormat every week. Once a week, wipe the threshold with salt water.

The bedroom. Avoid cleansing it with heavy smoke. Water, sound, and fresh bedding are better choices. Remove everything from under the bed: suitcases, boxes, old shoes. Sleeping above a storage unit is like sleeping in a train station.

The kitchen. The heart of the home. Clean the stove and sink with the same intention you use when washing the floors. Once a month, sort through grains and spices. Anything old, infested with bugs, or lacking its usual scent should go.

The bathroom and toilet. This is where water and everything washed away leave the home. Keep drains clean, the toilet lid closed, and the door shut. After cleansing rituals, flush the drains with hot water and salt.

Mirrors. Wipe them with salt water, then dry them with a clean cloth. Mirrors are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 22.

A room after illness or an argument. Air it out, change the bedding, wash the floor, ring a bell, and light a candle. If someone was ill there for a long time, wash the curtains and bedspreads as well.

How to Maintain Cleanliness Between Rituals

•

Air out your home every day.

•

Don't leave dirty dishes or a full rubbish bin overnight.

•

Take off your shoes at the threshold and wash your hands when you come home.

•

Avoid arguing in the bedroom or kitchen. If you lose your temper, open a window afterward.

•

Once a week, light a candle and thank your home.

A home where these small habits are practiced regularly rarely needs the “heavy artillery.” Cleanliness, like protection, is maintained not through heroic efforts but through habits.

Chapter 9. Cleansing Objects, Gifts, and Found Items

An object that enters your home from someone else's hands is worth cleansing and introducing to your home. This can take anywhere from a minute to a day, and it helps ease most concerns surrounding gifts, inheritances, and secondhand purchases. This chapter explains what to cleanse, which methods to use, and what to do with objects that make you feel uneasy.

Why Cleanse Objects at All?

Every object carries a history. A ring worn for twenty years by a woman in an unhappy marriage feels different from an identical ring in a shop window, even though they're made of the same metal. You can explain this through the idea of an object's memory or simply through your own awareness of its past. The result is the same: some objects make you feel at ease, while others don't.

Cleansing makes an object your own. You release its previous history and give it a new one. The same gesture is useful even with brand-new items: you don't know how many hands and warehouses they've passed through.

What Should Be Cleansed?

•

Anything bought secondhand: clothing, furniture, dishes, jewelry, and books.

•

Antiques and vintage items.

•

Inherited possessions, especially personal belongings such as watches, rings, mirrors, and bedding.

•

Gifts from people with whom you have a complicated relationship.

•

Items left behind by former partners.

•

Objects associated with a difficult period in your life: a hospital stay, a divorce, or a job you hated.

•

Items found outdoors, if you decide to take them.

•

New objects intended for your practice (see Chapter 5).

Ordinary purchases from shops, food, and household appliances don't need ritual cleansing. Simply wash or wipe them down, as you would normally.

Five Methods

Method

How to Use It

Suitable For

Not Suitable For

Water

Hold under running water or wipe with a damp cloth

Metal, glass, ceramic, most stones

Wood, paper, leather, electronics, porous stones

Salt

Leave in salt overnight or surround with small bags of salt

Small glass or ceramic objects

Metal (which may rust), pearls, opal, turquoise, amber

Smoke

Pass through herbal smoke three times

Wood, fabric, paper, leather, books

Items that absorb odors, if you don't want them to smell

Sound

Ring a bell over or around the object

Everything, including electronics and furniture

—

Light

Leave on a windowsill for a day

Almost anything

Fabrics and stones that fade in sunlight, such as amethyst and rose quartz

If you're unsure, choose sound. It won't damage anything.

A Simple Object-Cleansing Ritual

Easy. Five minutes.

Steps.

1.

Wash your hands.

2.

Pick up the object and examine it. Silently thank its previous owner or the craftsperson who made it.

3.

Cleanse it using your chosen method.

4.

Hold it between your palms and breathe onto it three times.

5.

Speak the following words.

Words.

Whatever came before me is now released.

Whoever owned you before is no longer here.

Now you are in my home, under my care.

Serve me well.

Clothing and Fabrics

Simply wash secondhand clothing, thrift-store finds, and garments received from relatives. Add a pinch of salt to the rinse water. A small amount of salt won't damage the fabric. While the item dries, preferably outdoors, say:

The wind dries, the Sun warms;

What is not mine departs, what is mine remains.

For items that cannot be washed, such as coats, fur garments, or suits, air them on a balcony for twenty-four hours and cleanse them by ringing a bell around them or using juniper smoke.

I recommend avoiding secondhand bedding, towels, pillows, and blankets altogether. This isn't about magic. These are items we use in our most vulnerable moments and that come into closest physical contact with us. If you've inherited them and they hold sentimental value, wash them at a high temperature and dry them in the Sun.

Jewelry

Jewelry is worn against the body for years, so it can accumulate a particularly strong association with its history. This is especially true of rings, crosses worn close to the body, medallions, and earrings.

Intermediate. Twenty-four hours.

1.

Wash the jewelry under cold running water with a drop of mild soap. Check first whether the stone is water-sensitive (see Chapter 12).

2.

Place it on a saucer on the windowsill overnight. If the metal and stone can tolerate it, place the saucer beside a cup of salt, rather than directly in the salt.

3.

In the morning, ring a bell over the jewelry three times.

4.

Put it on and repeat the words from the simple cleansing ritual.

Jewelry associated with a painful history—such as a wedding ring after a divorce or a gift from someone who hurt you—is best left unworn, even after cleansing. You can sell it, have it melted down and made into something new, or give it away. Spend the money from the sale on something good for yourself.

Furniture and Large Objects

1.

Wash or wipe the entire surface, including the back, the bottoms of drawers, and the legs. With old furniture, remove all the drawers and shake them out.

2.

Check whether anything has been left inside. Old dressers sometimes contain letters, pins, or coins. Decide what to do based on the item: letters can be kept or burned, while pins and needles should be discarded.

3.

Walk around the object three times counterclockwise, using a bell or smoke.

4.

Place your palm on the object and say: “You are home.”

An old mirror requires separate consideration; see Chapter 22.

Books, Letters, and Photographs

Paper doesn't tolerate water or salt. Air out secondhand books by turning their pages near an open window, then ring a bell over them. Books about magic purchased from a used bookstore should always be cleansed: you don't know who worked with them or for what purpose.

Old photographs and letters aren't so much “cleansed” as sorted through. Keep the things you treasure in a box rather than scattered about. You don't have to keep at home what causes you pain. Photographs of former partners or people who have hurt you can be given to someone who wants them, stored in an archive outside the bedroom, or burned with gratitude for what the experience taught you. There's no need to tear or stab them: that stops being cleansing and becomes an attack on the image, reinforcing the connection instead of releasing it.

Gifts

Most gifts are given sincerely and don't need to be cleansed. But sometimes a gift leaves an unpleasant feeling: it may come from someone who dislikes you, carry an ambiguous message, or come with an expectation that you'll return the favor.

Folk tradition regarded certain gifts as questionable in themselves: knives, needles, empty wallets, handkerchiefs, clocks, and mirrors. For a sharp object, custom called for giving the giver a coin so the gift became a purchase. It's a harmless, even elegant tradition: hand the giver a small coin and say, “I'm buying this from you.”

What to Do with a Gift That Makes You Uneasy

1.

Don't rush. Leave it in the entrance hall for twenty-four hours without bringing it farther into the house.

2.

Ask yourself: is the problem the object itself, or your relationship with the giver? More often, it's the latter.

3.

If you need the object and like it, cleanse it with sound and smoke, then say:

I accept the gift; I return the intention.

Whatever came with kindness may remain;

Whatever came with ill will falls away at my threshold.

4. If you don't need the object, pass it on without feeling guilty. Once a gift has been given to you, it belongs to you, and you're entitled to decide what to do with it. Don't pass on an item that makes you anxious to someone close to you; donate it to a charity shop instead.

If someone you don't trust gives you food or drink, simply don't consume it. Not because of magic, but as a matter of ordinary caution.

Found Objects

An old rule says not to pick things up from the road, especially at crossroads, and particularly money, jewelry, pins, or little bundles. This rule grew out of the custom of transferring illness or misfortune onto an object and leaving it at a crossroads. Few people do this today, but the common sense behind the rule remains: someone else's lost property isn't yours.

Here's what to do:

•

Wallets, phones, documents, and keys: Try to return them to their owner. Take them to the police or a lost-property office, or post a notice. This is a good deed, and there's no need to fear doing it.

•

Small amounts of money: You can pick them up and give them to someone in need or place them in a donation box.

•

Jewelry: Take it to the police or a lost-property office. If the owner cannot be found and you decide to keep it, cleanse it using one of the methods described above.

•

Unusual objects such as tied bundles, needles, or wrapped packages: don't touch them with your bare hands or take them home.

A Strange Object Left at Your Door: What to Do Without Panicking

Sometimes people find something inexplicable by their front door, beneath the doormat, or inside their home: scattered salt or soil, a needle in a doorframe, a small bundle, feathers, or an unfamiliar coin. They may call it a podklad—an object deliberately placed to cause harm—and become so frightened they can't sleep.

Let me say this clearly: in nine cases out of ten, it's rubbish, someone else's carelessness, a child's prank, or a coincidence. Soil by the door may have spilled from someone's flowerpot. A needle in upholstered furniture may have been left behind by the person who made or repaired it. But even if an object was placed there deliberately, its power over you lies in your fear. An object calmly removed and disposed of cannot harm you.

Easy. Ten minutes.

What you'll need. A sheet of paper or a bag; a broom and dustpan or gloves; salt; and water.

Steps.

1.

Don't pick up the object with bare hands. Sweep it onto the paper or into a bag, or use a gloved hand.

2.

Take it outside. Dispose of it in an outdoor rubbish bin. If it can be safely burned, such as thread, feathers, or paper, and you have a suitable place to do so, you can burn it.

3.

Say calmly, without anger:

What is not mine, I do not take.

Where you came from, go back there.

My home has no business with you.

4.

Wash the place where the object lay with salt water. Rinse the broom and dustpan. Discard the gloves and bag.

5.

Wash your hands up to your elbows. Wash your face.

6.

Light a candle and perform the grounding exercise from Chapter 4.

Afterward. Don't try to find out who did it. Don't discuss it with your neighbors. Don't carry the object around to show people who claim to have special knowledge. The less attention you give it, the better. If you'd like to reinforce your threshold, renew your doorway protection using the ritual in Chapter 21.

Notes. If these objects keep appearing alongside threatening notes, property damage, or surveillance, this is no longer a magical matter but harassment or stalking. Photograph everything, preserve the evidence, and contact the police (see Chapter 38).

Belongings of the Deceased

This is a delicate subject, and there are fewer universal rules here than there are traditions. I'll share what many traditions have in common and what experience suggests.

Don't rush to sort through the belongings. There is no magical requirement to give everything away by a particular date. Sort through things when you're ready, and preferably not alone.

Gently cleanse personal items you want to keep and wear, such as a watch, ring, or handkerchief: air them out, leave them in the Sun, or ring a bell over them. Here, you're not removing something “bad.” You're releasing the traces of illness and passing while preserving the memory of the person who lived. Say:

I keep the memory of you and release the pain.

You wore it; now I will wear it, with love and peace.

Clothing and shoes are traditionally given away. This makes sense: the items continue to serve a purpose, and you don't have to live in a museum of the past. Bedding used by someone who was ill for a long time and died is generally not kept.

If an item belonging to the deceased makes you feel afraid or burdened, you are not obligated to keep it out of a sense of duty. Memories live on in more than objects.

Belongings After a Breakup

After a divorce or a painful separation, the home can be full of objects associated with the person who has left. Each one tugs at a thread.

1.

Gather everything that belongs to your former partner and return it, or arrange for a third party to pass it along. Don't keep it “just in case.”

2.

Divide gifts into three piles: useful and emotionally neutral; beautiful but painful; and things you don't want to see at all. Cleanse and keep the first pile. Put the second in a box for six months and decide what to do with it later. Give away or sell the third.

3.

Refresh the shared bed: get new bedding and, if possible, new pillows.

4.

Cleanse your home using the ritual in Chapter 8.

Chapter 36 discusses severing ties that persist not because of objects, but because of feelings.

When It's Better to Let an Object Go

Sometimes, even after cleansing, you still feel uncomfortable around an object. That doesn't mean it's “cursed.” Perhaps it reminds you of something you'd rather not remember, or perhaps it simply doesn't suit you. Don't fight it. You can: