Spiritual Cleanliness
SPIRITUAL CLEANLINESS
What is spiritual cleanliness? The way we keep our physical body clean comes in an array of practices. It looks different for each person. For some it is taking a shower, for others a bath. Some cut their nails, others file them. Some condition their hair, others shave it off. Some apply fragrances and make up, others exfoliate. We need different things at different times and cleanliness alters depending on what we need at different times.
This extends to our environment, like keeping our kitchens clean where we prepare and eat our food, to our laundries clean where we prepare our clothes.
While cleanliness has to do with upkeep, it is also about avoiding situations where we get dirty. For example, avoiding muddy puddles.
Spiritual hygiene is much the same. A good deal of it is upkeep, whilst so much of what we do is to avoid ‘contamination’ to begin with.
When we are embodied - we are at place within our physical body, or as I would like to call it – at ‘peace’ with our physical body. We are taking up space and residing within it’s structure. We are filling it. Therefore, there is no available space for anything to reside within us or to attach itself to us.
The best way to remain spiritually clean is to remain embodied. This means not running into our head, where we leave our body unattended and available to psychic attack.
This included altered conscious states, where we are some degree removed from our bodies. This includes taking substances, drinking alcohol, doing things that induce disassociation, or sometimes when we are involved in experiences such as near-death experiences or in a coma, where our body becomes unattended for a period of time leaving us open to attack.
By remaining present, we stay balanced and fully available to respond to our changing environment in a healthy way. We can discern good from bad, and right from wrong. We can ask for help and can support ourselves in our endeavours - leading to a balanced energy system.
I feel particularly permeable to other people’s energies when I am in environments where there are lots of people in a hurry (shopping centres, airports), when I am menstruating, when I am not at baseline (i.e tired, stressed or anxious) or when I am involved in deep personal or group healing. This is not always a bad thing, and why we meet in a group to undertake healing work, or to work towards a common goal (i.e rallies and marches) we can feel the collective energy of the group coming together. During other times, it can be important to know how we can minimise taking on other energies and minimise the exposure to harmful or problematic energies.
Notice what environments you are able to feel energy’s more. How does it make you feel? Is it when meditating in a group? Is it at a festival? What makes you feel better? What makes you feel worse?
Removing yourself from environments where you cannot stay embodied and that are harmful for you is the most important thing you can do for yourself, and is essential for spiritual cleanliness. Any environment where you are attacked – physically, emotionally or spiritually, you have to shrink or hide your light, hold yourself back, that you do not speak your truth, or that you are becoming depleted in any way – is somewhere you should not be.
This is very different to learning a lesson or completing soul work. Sometimes we need to overcome limitations and beliefs to move through blockages. But continually exposing yourself to threatening environments will lead you to feel drained at best, and depressed, anxious, and suicidal at worst.
It is like standing in the rain. For five minutes it may be okay, but after an hour you will inevitably get drenched and catch a cold. After a day you will become hypothermic and risk death.
We want to avoid and minimise exposure to harmful environments so that we can build and strengthen our energy.
To provide some context, while having a shower will remove some dirt, we need to maintain an array of practices to help keep us healthy and strong. We cannot take a shower and continue to live in the same filthy environment. We need to employ a holistic approach to maintain cleanliness. Likewise, tending to ourselves in a small way, continuously can provide drastic changes over long periods of time. Start small with a strong intention to continue regardless of what comes on to your path and you will be amazed at what you accomplish in retrospect.
Arch Angel Michael
Arch angel Michael is a powerful angel specialising in protection and offering an array of practices to help us to connect to him and his grounding and protective power. Begin by tuning in to how he shows up for you. For me, most of the time I feel his energy slightly in front of me and to the left. See how he shows up for you. You can attempt to connect with him directly by speaking with him out loud and responding, or attempting to ask him questions through channelled writing. Allow him to speak to you through the page.
Blue shield of protection
Arch Angel Michael offers his blue shield of protection to guard our energy. I often say a silent prayer, invoking this blue shield over my energy field, and locking it tightly into the ground below. Remember that your energy field can often be quite large, so envision this shield taking up the correct amount of space. Visualising this field and allowing yourself to feel it, helps to invoke its strength. I like to imagine turning this light up, first by 10, then 100, then by 1000 – allowing it to shimmer so that nothing can permeate through it.
I use this technique when guiding groups – first by envisioning it around the group and then individually to shield each individual.
Scanning through your field
Another technique is asking Arch Angel Michael (or any of your team) to remove any energies from your field that are not yours. Begin by invoking his presence, asking him to scan from the top of your energetic field to the base of your field, removing any energies as he scans through. Make sure to discharge these energies to the earth so they are not floating around. As you do this you can use your hand to scan through and comb out any energy.
Calling on help from the spirits of the land, your team and the ancestors
Another protective tool I use is calling on the spirits of the land, my team of light beings, and well and healed ancestry to surround me, asking them to begin to fill the room, envelop and surround me, above and below. Make sure you give ample time to call in these energies – you will be surprised at how many light beings are here to support you!
Cord cutting
Arch angel Michael has a sword that is perfect for swift movements, difficult energies and cord cutting. Often, we have energetic cords connecting us to energies, people and places. Whilst these are necessary and unavoidable, they can drain us of our energy. There are many alterations to this exercise, follow your intuition. Begin to visualise yourself o ntop of your mountain. Call in your team of light beings to surround you. Imagine yourself and the person, place or thing, that is connected to you. If this feels too overwhelming, imagine that there is a sacred fire between you. Begin to visualise the cords between you. You may not be able to see them, and that is okay. You may just know that they are there. Witness them for a moment. When you are ready, ask Arch angel Michael to cut these cords with his sword. Some of them may be easier to remove than other. Once they are cut, place them on the fire to burn. Be sure to remove any roots from the cords that are still located within your energy field. You may also not be able to visualise this, but trust your intuition to know when this practice is complete and all the cords and roots have been removed. Be sure to do the back and sides of the body. Once this is complete, place the person, place or thing into the sacred fire to burn. Witness them burning, and when this is complete, place yourself into the fire to burn completely. Remember that you are not burning away the energy of this person, place or thing – aiming or leading to destruction – you are simply transforming the energy surrounding it to allow it to be rebirthed.
Enveloping yourself in golden white light
Imagine a small round light hovering 10cm from the top of your head. Allow it grow and envelope you. Flowing in through your crown, down your third eye, throat, heart, solar plexus, sacral and root. Allow it to continue to flow, down into your roots in the ground. As it does this, allow it to coat the rest of your body too. White light is protective in nature, and healing and energising too! When you are finished, place your hands over the part of your body that needs healing and consolidate the energy here.
Working with crystals
Crystals are a powerful conduit to amplify the work we do. Whilst like anything, they will not do the work for you, they act as a physical manifestation and symbol for the energies we work with. During my time as a paramedic, a small tourmaline crystal in my pocket helped anchor me when dealing with often problematic and erratic energies. It reminded me I was grounded, protected and well and truly supported in the work I was undertaking. These days my stones are much bigger, representing the medicine I have embodied during my time walking my spiritual path. They also represent the Dark Mother, an embodiment of the Divine Feminine, one who offers protection and sanctuary in the darkness. The stones help me remember where I am going, and where I have come from.
Crystals absorb energy, so like us it is important to cleanse them. I once left crystals at an ex boyfriend’s house – and when he returned them they had split in half! Remember that when a crystal breaks, it has fulfilled its intention. Express gratitude and bury it, remembering that it has fulfilled its role to support you.
Leaving crystals out to cleanse and charge up in the moonlight or sunlight is beneficial (certain crystals respond differently in altering conditions). Smudging them with herbs or letting them soak in salt water will also cleanse them. Charging crystals around the cycles of the moon and seasons will help super charge your process!
Working with water
Taking salt baths and charging with crystals
Taking warm baths with Himalayan and Epsom salts are very refreshing for your energy field. Be generous with the amount of salt you use, using anywhere from 3tbsp upwards. I like to use an array of essential oils, flowers and crystals in my bath. This helps to cleanse the crystals but also charge up the bath water so that you are being infused with this energy. Be sure to patch test the essential oils on your skin to ensure that you don’t react to them.
Before allowing the water to drain, give thanks and bless the water, asking the waterways, rivers and oceans be infused with power, nourishment and love, returning to source and oneness.
Bathing
Bathing in large bodies of water helps connect us with our own sense of fluidity and ability to move with the current. Water helps purify and cleanse us, and for me - evokes a sense of child like play and curiosity. Water is also connected to tears, grief and can help us release stagnant or blocked emotions, allowing us to move with more ease and grace. Water is connected to pleasure! Allow yourself to fully sink into your skin – feeling the water against your skin and plunging in! Allowing yourself to be fully held. Ideally spend time near the ocean or a body of water, but sometimes taking a sip of water is all we need to call on additional support. Showering with an intent to release, or spraying ourself with a spray can help invoke this element and offer release.
Discharging through your roots
When grounding myself, I visualise roots coming out of my feet and plunging into the earth. These days I am more like a tree – anchoring me to the centre of the earth.
Spend a few minutes visualising you’re roots, and when you are fully anchored, use the breath to let go of anything you are holding onto, allowing the earth to use it as fertiliser – as a beautiful gift.
Walking bare foot
Walking bare foot is a quick and easy way to bring you back into your body and out of your head, connecting you with the earth. A few minutes per day can bring a huge sense of relief. Ideally doing so on grass or the earth, but even walking bare foot on concrete will bring a strong and secure sense of grounding and connection with the earth.
Laying on the earth
Lay on the earth with your arms outstretched, allowing the outside of your body to begin to blur that so that your energy field begins to synchronise with the earth. Imagining an umbilical cord connecting you from the centre of the earth to your sacral chakra (umbilical region) that will help you balance your energy field and release any stagnancy. Now imagine absorbing the nutrients you need. Allow your heart beat and breath to synchronise with the earth. Practice this for a few minutes each day.
If you like, head to www.sunrisemeditations.com/meditations and listen to my mother earth grounding meditation to be guided in this practice.
Smudging with plants and resins
This is a beautiful practice allowing us to develop relationships with the plants around us. Ideally this practice can be done by establishing a relationship with a plant that you can talk with and treat like a dear friend by spending time both talking and listening. Be mindful of how you show up in your human relationships – as this usually transfer to the plants. Are you more likely to talk or listen? How can you allow for more of both?
Once you have determined that you have permission to use this plant, you can take from the plant a small amount to smudge with. I like to offer the plants gratitude, often in the form of prayers, song, dance or offerings (think biodegradable).
I hold the plant to my heart offering gratitude and reverence asking them to guide me in how to release the problem I am working with. This would be my intention. If I am using the plant to smudge a room or another, I change my intention to ‘Show we how to Smudge ___’.
I then thank the fire for it’s role and power in this cleansing. Then through whole body listening I begin to burn it. This can be done over a flame, or by lighting a charcoal disk in a burner.
The plant then shows me how to smudge, by running the smoke over my energy field. This involves using the breath and sound to release. This is the fun part – use your intuition and do as you feel! Let the plant speak.
Each plant has its own properties - some used for meditation, cleansing, protection and to induce higher conscious states. Use your intuition, be mindful that you are interacting with another living being and have fun!