Cleansing the Energy of Your Home

Imagine you’ve walked into the home of someone you’ve just met. There’s clutter everywhere, nothing is organized, and it’s physically hard to navigate between rooms because of furniture and stuff piled everywhere. How would you imagine the energy of that home feels? Unpleasant? Stagnant? Dense? The energy can’t move because we have a hard time moving in the house. It accumulates everywhere much like the stuff piled on every surface. The energy feels low and inhospitable. Worse, if household is prone to fights and outbursts, the emotional energy can get stuck in the house.

Now imagine you’ve walked into the same home, except the person has moved out. Once busting with clutter, the rooms are now clear of any physical trace of the previous inhabitants. How would the space feel to you? Would you want to move your stuff right in? This is the moment where you trust your gut. If the space doesn’t feel right intuitively — if it still feels low, dense, dark, stagnant, unwelcoming — it’s time to clear the energy, which lingers long after the physical stuff has moved.

Most people have heard of burning sage leaves or smudging a smoking sage bundle throughout the house. While burning sage is a great way to clear energy, it’s not my personal favorite. For one, sage produces a very strong smell. Also, it doesn’t burn clean. I instead prefer to burn Epsom salts, which is a trick I learned from Denise Linn in her book, Sacred Space. This is a great purification ceremony for someone who has not only just moved into a new home, but someone who wants to clear the energy of their current home.

Doing a salt burn is a powerful tool, but it also demands a level of great care that comes with working with fire. The instructions below paraphrase what I learned from Linn, but the warnings and cautions are very much my own. Safety first!

How To Do an Epsom Salt Burn

You will need:

• A heat safe bowl such as Pyrex or an old coffee mug
• Isopropyl rubbing alcohol (high percentage alcohol)
• Epsom salts
• A long stemmed match or taper
• A pot lid or something that can quickly extinguish the fire if it gets out of hand

Place 1/4 cup of Epsom salts into your heat safe vessel. If you’re using a bowl, make sure the surface beneath the bowl will not be damaged by heat. I personally use a Pyrex measuring cup that I can hold by the handle and carry through the rooms of my house.

Gently pour isopropyl rubbing alcohol onto the salts. You want your salts to be damp, not soaking. If you’ve poured too much alcohol, add a little more salt. If you try to light the salts and the flame burns weakly, you’ve added too little alcohol. The ratio is about 2:1 Epsom salts to alcohol. Take caution you’ve not accidentally poured alcohol on your hands or clothes.

Make sure everyone at home is part of this ceremony. There should be a firm intention to clear through any stagnant energy. Ask for assistance from your guides, angels, ancestors, or God.

Open windows to assist old energy in leaving the home.

When you’re ready to begin, light a long stemmed match or taper. Touch the flame to the salt/alcohol mixture. It will instantaneously ignite and burn blue with a little bit of yellow flame. If you’re getting too much yellow flame, you’ve put too much alcohol into the mixture. If you feel as if the flame is burning unsafely high, smother it with a pot lid, which will extinguish it. Add a little more salt to the mixture and try again. The good thing about the burn is that there’s no smells or smoke.

When you’ve successfully lit the salts, imagine the blue flame eating up all the dense, stagnant, and negative energy. Affirm that it’s leaving the home. The flame will burn as long as it has to and when it is done will simply sputter out. If your vessel can be carried safely through out the house, move through each room you want to clear, affirming again that dense energy is leaving the home.

Afterward, discard the cooled salt down the toilet to flush away negative energy. Say a prayer of thanks to your deity of choice or spirit protector for helping you clear the energy of your home. Ask that the energy be sent back to source with love and forgiveness.

The results of this cleansing ceremony are immediate and powerful. Sounds are sharper and clearer and the energy feels lighter.

Good luck and be safe!