CREATING SACRED SPACES

BY DANIELLE VENTICINQUE (SHE/HER)

As the days shorten, many of us shutter our windows and hunker down for the season. This can affect the energy within our space, making it stagnant, drab, or perhaps even uninspiring or negative. For this reason, it’s essential to practice cleansing ceremonies or rituals within our homes to keep the positive energy peacefully flowing, especially during dormant months.

Before starting any space cleansing or purifying, you may want to set an intention, focusing on how you want your home to feel. Fill your space with this intention, love, and light as you perform the chosen ritual.

Many cleansing practices improving the energy within the home consist of physical changes. For example, organizing, decluttering, space-clearing, or simply cleaning or rearranging furniture for better flow are excellent ways to change, rebalance, and harmonize the energy within a space. As a reminder, your home should only contain items you find beautiful or useful, and a well-organized, clean home will calm and clear the mind. The positive energy of this feeling will spread throughout the home.

Energy can also build up over time within our homes and cling to the nooks and crannies. A few options can cleanse this trapped energy. First, try to clap out the corners. Starting in one part of the room, walk to each corner, clapping along the wall seam from bottom to top. This will disperse the stagnant energy. Be sure to wash your hands when you’ve completed this ritual.

Another option to clear trapped energy involves smudging your space using white sage or a room smudging spray (see bio). This ritual’s ancient spiritual roots lie in the indigenous peoples of the Americas. For a smudging ritual, you will need a sage bundle, a fireproof container, matches, a feather, and an open heart and mind. Crack open a few windows so the negative energy has a place to escape. Light the bundle on the fireproof surface, allowing it to smolder and smoke, then blow out the flame. It should continue to smoke. Set an intention or meditate to complete the ritual with full awareness. While you focus your intentions into the smoke, use your hand or feather to direct the smoke around your body until you sense a shift in your personal energy and feel ready to smudge your home. Start at the threshold and move clockwise around each of your rooms, including your pantry and closets, wafting the smoke into the air focusing on the corners and other areas where energy could get trapped. Visualize the smoke clearing out the negative energy as you continue throughout the whole house. With many spiritual benefits, burning sage also changes the molecular structure of the air and energy by releasing negative ions, a natural antidepressant increasing the body’s production of serotonin.

Once your space is cleansed, you may want to bring in some earthly elements promoting positive energy, such as houseplants or crystals. Try rose quartz for loving energy or amethyst for serenity and relaxation. Perhaps diffuse some essential oils like lavender for well-being, sweet orange for an uplifting boost, or frankincense for inner peace; or use a Himalayan pink salt lamp to increase the negative ions in the air.

Ultimately, your space will continue to take on the energy you express, so practice daily rituals that uplift your soul, and fill your space with natural light and elements pleasing to your senses. Your home is your haven and should be a sacred retreat filled with positive energy where you feel calm and safe. Honoring your home means honoring yourself.

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