Energy Clearing
Theory and Practice
This post was inspired by a question I had from a friend who told me his workplace was filled with a heavy and oppressive energy that made him tired when he was there. And while it is not uncommon to work in a heavy and oppressive workplace, my friend’s question took me aback because (without saying too much and compromising confidentiality) the place in question is a place I find very special and sacred, but upon thinking about it I really could see and feel what he was getting at. He asked if I could think of anything that could help him deal with the energies of this place, because he felt like he was fighting them in the performance of his work.
This question set me thinking and researching for over a week about spiritual presences as they relate to the concept of place, one manifestation of which is the feeling a place gives the people there. I compared many methods for cleansing space from many systems and cultures. Many don’t seem fitting to me because I am not connected to their symbols. There are many good books and practices out there that cover this topic, but rather than quote from them and refer you to them, I decided to write a semi-original ritual for space clearing and blessing utilizing symbolism and words from the Hermetic Kabbalist and Gnostic tradition, which is my home ground magically, as well as somehow being ecumenical enough to work for people of many spiritual paths. But first some background on the topic from a variety of sources.
The fantastic images of Demons from European and Arabic manuscripts are just for fun. They seem pretty silly until you think about running into them in a dark alley!
The reports from mystics and spirit workers from traditional cultures assure us we are living in a world saturated with spiritual creatures, that there is no place on this Earth which is devoid of presences and intelligences. These presences are not (usually) apparent to our physical senses and (mostly) cannot be measured by the apparatus of physical science, but they can be felt and sensed with our spiritual senses. These have been given various names, assigned roles and given mythological histories by the various religious systems of traditional cultures. Many of these ethnographic reports are similar in their depiction of the general structure of the invisible world, but differ in the particular details. Some of our invisible neighbors are seen to be dangerous and hostile to humankind, some helpful, and still others, neutral or indifferent. There seems to be a whole zoology of the invisible that arises from various cultural sources around the world, complete with competing taxonomies and theories which attempt to classify them according to their moral character and activity.
If we examine the literature that comes down to us from cultures around the world we arrive at several nearly universal axioms about the invisible realm upon which the most traditional cultures are in agreement. Because these creatures, whatever they may be, are not normally obvious to our five physical senses, many people disbelieve in them and demand evidence. It seems that the testimony of millennia of global human experience is not enough evidence for those whose grasp of the possible and the real doesn’t extend beyond the end of their nose. My own experience with the spiritual world is subtle, but definite. Skeptics could dismiss all of my experiences, and that of billions of others throughout all time, as subjective or delusional, based on wishful thinking or cognitive bias. I acknowledge that. But it is my experience, and personal experience as a phenomenon, tempered with a dash of discernment, is the only real evidence when approaching spiritual realities. When the invisible reveals itself to you, there is no arguing about its existence. And the invisible has been revealing itself to humanity through theophanies, visions, intuitions, apparitions and synchronicities from the very beginning.
Thus, I take it as axiomatic that invisible spiritual presences are ubiquitous. As the Talmud (which is a series of books comprised of learned commentaries on scripture, a scholarly debate recorded across time by generations of exegetes) puts it, describing the situation in the words of Jewish demonology, “If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them.” The next verse tells us that “They are more numerous than we are and they stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit.” So to the ancient authors of the Talmud, inheritors of the complicated Levantine demonology arising ultimately in the haunted cosmos of Babylon (where some of the Talmud was compiled), which we briefly discussed last time, the world was literally crawling with shedim, demons, at all times, many of which were looking for opportunities to cause mischief or harm to human beings.
In the view of the scholars who composed the Talmud, the demons were prone to dwell in wild and deserted places, to infest unattended food or drink, as well as to inhabit certain kinds of trees. This last snippet of lore, that demons are associated with trees, does not come as a shock to anyone familiar with the abundant lore of tree spirits from other cultures. According to the Spanish Kabbalists, the demons possessed subtle bodies composed of fire and air, reminding us of the Djinn of the Arab world, whose bodies are composed of smokeless fire and are likewise ubiquitous.
Other discarnate entities postulated by the spiritual and religious traditions around the world include, but are not limited to: ghosts, meaning the spiritual residues of the once living; nature spirits, fae, djinn, demons, daimons, daemons, (however you want to spell it), elementals, angels, archangels and gods, Some traditions postulate thoughtforms which are created by the mental energies of the living, or energetic residues of past events, and egregores, the spiritual consciousness of groups of humans, created either consciously or unconsciously by the mental activity of the group, and exerting a subtle influence on the affairs of that group as a sort of a group mind or presiding deity. These creatures, which we can lump together under the umbrella of spirits, are briefly, to borrow visionary biologist Rupert Sheldrake’s term, morphic fields without bodies, eddies of consciousness and information rippling through the mind space in which we all swim. The elemental imagery used by earlier conceptions of science, terms such as, ethereal, or being spirits of the air, or composed of smokeless fire, are poetic symbols for the subtle and fluid nature of the mind-field.
Without going into the very complicated subject of demonology, or maybe the zoology of the invisible is a better term for this science, because demon is such a loaded word, we can say simply that what we are really talking about here is simply the fact that we live in a universe of consciousness. From the space between the determined and the chaotic, in which events arise, somehow these subtle forces influence both the arising of events and our perception of them, in the form of both synchronicities and mishaps of fortune, good and bad, and as sudden whims, desires, fears, or creative impulses, as well as mystical visions and voices.
The creatures mentioned here share the between space which was termed by Henri Corbin, the imaginal realm, a space which mediates between the Celestial or Divine Realm, and the physical, in which the faculty of imagination serves, not as delusionary fantasy, but as an organ of subtle perception. The invisible creatures are real, because this realm, their native realm, is real to our minds and our spirits as the ground upon which we stand, even though they are only visible to the faculties of subtle perception. The imaginal realm is the home ground of the gods, heroes, and monsters of mythology and religion, they live there and affect us from beyond time and space from there. It is reached through states of dream and ecstasy, it is also the gateway to the reality we reach between lives. Sometimes, bidden or unbidden, the creatures from that realm erupt into our physical reality in a variety of ways.
This is not of great importance to the mundane and the once-born, to whom this is all fantasy which distracts from the business of running the material world. But to the wise, the Gnostic, the mystic, these are key concepts to unlocking the secrets of the subtle interactions between mind and matter, the way spiritual realities do actually affect our physical bodies and material lives.
The Buddhist scripture, the Dhammapada, imparts a teaching of the fundamental importance of mind in the creation of our reality in the very first lines:
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.”
There is both an exoteric sense and an esoteric sense of this teaching. The first is the importance of maintaining equanimity, and how having a good attitude leads to having a better life. The second is the sense that thoughts are things, and that the world, as the scripture says “is made from our thoughts”, is made of mind stuff. It is important to remember in this context the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, or no-self, that “we” as individual minds don’t exist apart from the continuum of other minds. So we live in a world of mind, in which thoughts are real objects, and whatever our self may be ontologically, it is able to create thoughts and turn them out into mind space, which is not just confined to the space between our ears, it is everywhere.
Which brings us to our next sage, the 4th century Egyptian Christian monk Evagrius of Pontus, who wrote treatises regarding the practice of monastic meditation and internal spiritual warfare. For St. Evagrius, the soul of the monk at prayer was the battleground in a spiritual battle between the demonic and angelic, and the distracting thoughts of monks at prayer were literally manifestations of the activity of demons which clustered around the praying ascetics seeking chinks in their armor in order to lead them away from God. In his own words:
“The demon is very jealous of the person at prayer and uses every trick to frustrate his purpose. Thus he does not cease setting in motion mental representations of objects through the memory and prising loose all the passions through the flesh, so that he can impede his excellent course and his setting out towards God.”
According to Evagrius’ stark dualistic worldview, which is roughly contemporary with the Talmud quote above, demons buzzed around the inexperienced monastic like flies on cattle on a hot day, only being repelled by the undistracted practice of particular prayers to repel them. Perhaps the sensitive minds of the desert anchorites of Evagrius’ day, fine tuned as they were by the long practice of solitary prayer were uniquely attuned to the spiritual ecosystem around them, experiencing the distracting influence of passing perturbations of the mind field, local spirits, ghosts, the thoughtforms arising from their own sensual appetites, as demonic distractions.
Combining Evagrius’ demons with the teaching of mental causation given in the Dhammapada, it becomes obvious that some of the thoughts one interacts with are not one's “own”, as experienced ascetics like Evagrius were far beyond identifying with the intrusive thoughts they experienced while at prayer. The boundaries between one’s mind and the mental field at large are illusory and thoughts, as well as entities composed of thought, travel through mind space like radio waves were thought to be propagated through the ether. In this space, which is the ground of all reality, thoughts and thought forms are very real and substantial, possessed of duration in time and even able to act with seeming volition. Evagrius tells us that demons are able to invade the thoughts of the monk at prayer, let’s take him literally for the sake of argument. Spiritual forces from without, which Evagrius calls demons in his Orthodox Christian way, but which zoologists of the invisible would refer to by many names, are able to enter into the minds of unsuspecting humans at will. It is a scary notion, indeed. But one that accords with our experience of intrusive thoughts and sudden changes of mood. In the Dhammapada the Buddha tells us the world as we experience it is a mental construct we build with our own thoughts. If the thoughts “we” build the world on are not “our own”, then what? Our experience of reality, indeed, reality itself, is thus shaped by the invisible creatures from the imaginal realm.
According to visionary biologist Rupert Sheldrake, times and places retain their memories and energies as a spiritual presence of place and thus are able to affect the feelings and impressions of people in those places. These memories and stored feelings of a place over time constitute the morphic field of a place, its “spirit”, in aggregate contributing to what we call the genius loci. When something either very good or very traumatic occurs at a place the life force and consciousness of that place become imprinted with those energies. Influences build up over time, becoming thought forms, morphic fields, spirits, demons, monsters, and ghosts, according to the mythology of a place and the culture prevalent there.
Thus, places too have consciousness, a genius loci, a concept we have discussed much in the past, formed from both the geomantic and geological properties of the place, but also the human memory. Somehow the memory of what has occurred in a place, for good or ill, enters into the rocks and trees, the stones and lumber, the very soil of a place, influencing the feelings and thoughts of those interacting with that site far into the future, perhaps even influencing future events in those places.
Even mundane resonances accumulate in a place, giving it its “vibes” as experienced by the unconscious moods and feelings evoked by being in a place. A place can be made sacred by generations of prayer, joyful by being a place of celebration, and conversely, a place can become dirty or soiled, energy wise, having accumulated a negative charge of life energy and consciousness, and can tend to give a feeling of being tired, ill at ease, and can cause misfortune and sickness in the inhabitants . In extreme cases places can even be haunted or cursed. The mind-field of a particular place saves influences from the events that have happened there in the past and transmits them across time to influence the mind-fields of residents and visitors in the future. Sometimes these mind fields become individualized as spirit entities. Some are more vague.
Consciously trying to shift the energy of a place with intention is possible and actually forms a major focus of energy work. It seems nearly every magical or religious tradition has practices intended to clear energy and bring positive energy to a place. The actual manner is dictated by the tradition and personal preference of the spiritual worker. It seems like finding a method one believes in which uses symbols and language, including ritual gestures and tools, that one finds meaningful is the most important factor. These practices are known variously as banishing and purification, and are often followed by consecration, or rededicating a place to a sacred purpose.
Banishing and purification often involve using smoke and water as well as invocations of superior supernatural powers. An example is the rite of Asperges in Roman Catholicism, in which blessed water, holy water, is sprinkled from a tool known as an aspergillium as a way of symbolically cleansing the space. Likewise, incense is used worldwide to purify and sanctify sacred spaces.
Another important element in many ceremonies of banishing and purification of space are the words and prayers that set a new intention for the space after the old energies and entities are cleared away. This is combined with visualization to create a new energetic pattern in the mental field of the space. Remember, the axiom of the Buddha mentioned above, “All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts”. With our thoughts and words we are using our will and intentions, as well as asking for assistance from higher powers, in order to create a new and more powerful impression in the mental field of the place.
As magical practitioners and energy workers these practices are an essential part of our stock-in -trade and every worker has a favorite way to energetically cleanse and rededicate a place. Practices which range from the ecclesiastical use of incense and holy water to rituals that involve literally sweeping and the use of magical floor wash preparations are found in folk magic and high magic worldwide. This kind of work is exorcistic in nature, that is, it attempts to drive out the unwanted energies with the power of a superior entity, such as a Name of God, a divinity or angel. If that word makes you think of something out of a Hollywood horror flick just remember it is derived from the Greek word meaning to bind by oath, sort of a divine subpoena, and our version is a much less dramatic set of prayers and gestures to make our space more energetically clean, sort of like opening a window to let out a bad smell.
One word of caution regarding spiritual ecology: in some cases the spiritual energies one seeks to dispel are part of the energetic fabric of the place, like land spirits, in which case your effort should be in getting them to back off a bit and respect boundaries. As I have mentioned often in this forum, a regular practice of making offerings of some kind to the spirits of place is recommended for forming a positive relationship with them and preventing problems. To some extent is it the energetic resonances of a place that give it its personality and altering those energies is something that shouldn’t be done lightly. Divination and the practice of discernment is essential to decide whether to proceed with a space clearing.
Magically clearing energy, also known as banishing, is in fact the first step in any magical ritual I do, and to that end I have adapted a simple ritual based on the First Degree opening Ritual of Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which I use as my basic ceremonial opening (which can be found on pages 156-158 of John Michael Greer’s Circles of Power). This ritual involves the uses of holy water and incense, Fire and Water. For the purposes of energetically clearing a space, I have added verses from the Psalms recommended for removing evil spirits in the Psalm grimoire, the Sepher Shimmush Tehillim, such as Psalms 51, 91, or 141, and a few others. In this case, ritually, we would go from room to room performing the ritual as if we were opening sacred space in each room and finally outside in the four directional quarters of the building. If time doesn’t allow for the performance of the rite in each room, just do it once and do it well, extending the energy field to encompass the whole space.
Ritual For Space Cleansing:
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