A Home Blessing

Read in its entirety before doing.

You’ll need the following: sage, sweet grass, matches, charcoal, fireproof vessel to burn herbs in, red candle, consecrated salt water and a noise maker of some sort- bells, drums, rattles, etc..

This is best done before moving into a new home. Otherwise, I like to do my cleansings and blessings on or just after the New Moon. The object is to eliminate all unwanted harmful or negative energies residing in your home and to replace those energies with or invite more peaceful energy in. You’ll want to make sure to do this all at once in one day. If you need to, you can have others help you.

The first thing you’ll want to do is clean house. I don’t mean burn nice smelling herbs I mean sweeping, mopping, dusting, sweating, etc. To do a proper home blessing, you need to have a clean space. So get out the detergents and scrub. You need to move furniture when you do this and don’t forget to clean the corners. Negative energy just loves to build up in the corners and behind couches where there isn’t a lot of movement to stir it up, Once your house is lemony fresh you can move onto the next step.

Now we smudge. For this you’ll need sage and sweet grass. Sage cleanses and removes all unwanted energies, etc. and sweet grass is used to call spirits of a more positive energy into your home. Nature doesn’t like a vacuum so when you cleanse the house you have to replace the bad with the good so everyone’s happy.
From what I understand, there are different ways to do this. I’m going to write about the way I do it. It’s always worked for me and whatever home I’ve lived in.

I start in the top floor of the house in the Eastern corner and work through each room counter-clockwise. I usually have copious amounts of sage billowing through and around the house when I’m done. As you walk through each room make sure you are speaking out loud, these or similar words:

BE GONE FROM THIS PLACE ALL NEGATIVE ENERGY AND SPIRITS, LEAVE THIS HOME NEVER TO RETURN. I ADMONISH YOU TO DEPART NOW AND LEAVE ITS INHABITANTS IN PEACE. BE GONE AT ONCE!

Make sure you’re getting the sage smoke in every nook and cranny in the room. I have a fan I made of feathers to help direct the smoke where I want it to go. Make sure you’re doing each room, counter-clockwise and top to bottom. By working top to bottom you’re pushing all the negative energy down into the earth where our Earth Mother can neutralize it.

Now repeat with the red candle. Make sure you’re shining the flame in all the nooks and crannies from top to bottom again. Next do the salt water, sprinkling it everywhere. So that’s sage for the Element of Air, the red candle for the Element of Fire and the salt water for the Elements of Water and Earth. By doing this you have cleansed your home with all 4 Elements.

Make sure you are speaking out loud in each room while carrying the sage, candle and salt water. Sound is an important aspect of ritual. After you’ve gone though the Elements, take up your rattle, drum or bell and make some noise. Even a set of wind chimes will work nicely. Go through the whole house again, counterclockwise, and make all the noise you can. Sing out, yell, chant, rattle, hum and scare any negative spirits that are left lingering. Repeat the above words, or something similar, in each room over and again.

After you’ve got it cleaned and cleansed you can now call the positive energy into your home. This is done with sweet grass. You’ll be walking clockwise this time to fill the void you’ve left. I’ve seen it done with bundled sweet grass and braided sweet grass. I think it works fine either way and is a personal preference.
Once you’ve finished sweet grassing the house, go to a central location and speak the following blessing.

Blessing my New Home

TOUCH THE LINTEL AND TOUCH THE WALL,
NOTHING BUT BLESSINGS HERE BEFALL!
BLESS THE CANDLE THAT STANDS BY ITSELF,
BLESS THE BOOK ON THE MANTLE SHELF,
BLESS THE PILLOW FOR THE TIRED HEAD,
BLESS THE HEARTH AND THE LIGHT SHED.
FRIENDS WHO TARRY HERE, LET THEM KNOW
A THREE FOLD BLESSING BEFORE THEY GO.
SLEEP FOR WEARINESS - PEACE FOR SORROW
FAITH IN YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW.
FRIENDS WHO GO FROM HERE, LET THEM BEAR
THE BLESSING OF HOPE, WHEREVER THEY FARE.
LINTEL AND WINDOWS, SILL AND WALL,
NOTHING BUT GOOD, THIS PLACE BEFALL.

Adapted from the song ‘Bless the House’ by Helen Taylor

This cleansing and blessing usually lasts me about a year. Unless something awful has happened, then I will do it again to get rid of any negative energy that has re-entered.

Blessed Be.