How to cleanse your house of negative energies

I get asked this question quite often -- how to cleanse a house of negative energies. There are many ways to do it but below is the method that I use. I included my video and directions. 

CLEANSING A HOUSE

Things You'll Need

• Charged water and salt mixture (separate bowls with a small amount of water in one and plain salt in the other)
• Sage bundle to burn (you can use Sage incense...)
• Optional – Rattle or other noise maker (even wooden spoon and heavy pot to bang on will work)
• Optional but recommended – Crystal chips (Amethyst is really good)
• Small nightlights or white candles (enough for every room)
• Incense – I like to use Nag Champa but Patchouli is also good and Sandalwood too

1. Physically clean your house getting rid of all junk and clutter. if there is something you have brought into your home from somewhere else, consider whether it could be an item that has a spirit or bad energy attached. Remove it from your house to test -- if the problem goes away, permanently get rid of the item(s)
2. Create *Holy Water* - Gently pour the water into the salt, adding a prayer or invocation. Example: "May blending the elements of pure salt to preserve the sanctity and pure water cleanse this space, be blessed in the Name of ........." (here add your own prayer or finish the invocation to whichever deity you have belief in). Do this in a sacred and meaningful way, in the knowledge that you are creating a powerful medicine to cleanse and heal your home. (You can also purify and energize your water under the Full Moon before using if you have time)
3. Doing one room at a time – take the water and either using your fingers or a little brush, sprinkle the holy water around the walls, every door and every window. Don't forget corners, behind large furniture, closets or high shelves within a closet. Make sure that everywhere has been treated.
4. After using the salt/holy water in the room, take your rattle/noise maker and go everywhere in the room, high and low, corners, etc. This breaks up stagnant energy.
5. Take your Sage bundle now and pass the smoke all around the room, high and low, in the corners, behind things etc. – this drives out bad energies.
6. If you are using crystal/amethyst chips, you would now place them in the window sills and over doorways.
7. Pour the remaining salt/water mixture in a line in front of any doors leading in and out of the building. As you do so be sure to recite the names of all who live in the house and all those whom you wish to pass freely in and out, including all pets that need to go in and out. This allows them to move with ease across the boundaries that you are setting up.
8. Go back into the house, and in each room light a small white candle and some incense. Leave both to burn out to the end.

Bright Blessings,

Rayven Michaels

Samhain and Halloween -- There is a Difference

(photo credit: Huffing Post)

I would like to start off by saying that Halloween is NOT the "Witches Holiday". Halloween is a holiday for little children to get candy, and for Adults to decorate their houses with scary witch and ghost figures. The true Witches Holiday is Samhain, pronounced "Sow-en" by most people of the Craft in modern day. Samhain literally means "Summer's End", and it marks the end of the harvest. A time when our ancestors would harvest their crops one last time to prepare for the long winter ahead. 

Samhain is a Celtic holiday. The Celts divided the year into two seasons, the light half and the dark half. Samhain is a celebration of the Beginning of the Dark half of the year, and was actually considered to be more important than its counterpart, Beltane for its magickal potentials.

Samhain is considered a "cross-quarter" Sabbat, even though it always falls on the 31st, and the cross-quarter doesn't officially occur until the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Scorpio, sometime in the 1st week in November. 

Samhain also symbolizes the death of the God, the final turn of the wheel. The days become shorter, the nights longer. Also, Samhain falls between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, a time when the "veil between the worlds" becomes very thin. It is a time to pay homage to our elders and ancestors that have passed from this world to the next.

This time is a time much like Thanksgiving, a celebratory feast in which we celebrate the year's bounty, and remember those who have passed. Many people of the Craft hold traditional "Dumb Suppers", called a Feast of the Dead, in which a large meal is prepared and eaten in silence, with an extra place set in remembrance of our ancestors. Many also light a candle to bring in the "New Year", lighting their way through the darkness of the upcoming months until Yule.

(NOTE: this same article is quoted heavily around the internet so I am uncertain of the original source or its author, however, the source from which I copied is: http://hearthsidecuups.tripod.com/wheeloftheyear.htm)