Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

Purity Control

Boy in a Suitcase

01:51 / 18.06.06

Getting yourself purged of bad karma, bad spirits, bad luck, negative shit. Preferred methods?

And, do you consider such practices to simply leave *room* for bad stuff, possibly create such bad stuff in the first place, and be inappropriate if striving to view the world from a non-dual lens?

20:18 / 18.06.06

I’m not sure how I view the world in relation to duality... but I usually purge myself through induced vomiting into a toilet.

I actually have a ritual for it, I take 10 Hawaiian baby Woodrose seeds and as I’m coming up on the LSA I usually think about all the things I hate at the moment, then the nausea sets in and I end up forcefully spewing this symbolic shit from my guts into the black grail.

If I’m somewhere were induced vomiting isn't exactly kosher, I chant "Hare krishna, Hare kirshna, kirshna kirshna, hare hare, hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare".

23:25 / 18.06.06

Gee that sounds lovely...

In my book, cleansing is of great importance, and has very little to do with a dualistic world view, or any related philosophies. It's simply good housekeeping. What happens if you neglect to tidy your apartment for a few weeks? It gets dirty. Or if you go too long without a bath? Ditto.

A good spiritual cleansing is refreshing and restorative. It will clear away psychic debris , stress, toxic emotions and thought patterns, and general negativity on all levels. How often one should perform cleansing work should generally be determined by the amount of toxicity one feels exposed to; either from external sources or demons of the more personal variety.

As I work intensively with botanicals, various formulae and home concoctions form the building blocks for the cleansing work that I do. For space clearing, I generally prefer fumigations, sometimes followed with asperging or floorwashes. For cleansings of a more personal variety…well I generally prefer the bath! In fact, just posted a nice little basic hyssop bath in the potions 101 thread.

I’m always amazed at the powerful and immediate effects of cleansing magic upon not only space, but also the body and the psyche…and I certainly don’t think that such work encourages the accumulation of negativity in any way shape or form. Perhaps if one was getting paranoid or obsessive about such matters, then yeah, maybe. But just as a general practice? No way.

Unconditional Love

12:01 / 19.06.06

I have done something recently, its not my recipe, and i am not going to name whose it is, but it follows here.

White carnation petals
one table spoon sugar
quater bottle of florida water
small pack of goats milk
half a tea cup of lager
bowl of cold water

mix it all up well

put dinner plate ontop of mixture and light small candle on plate. let the candle burn out and then have a shower or bath.

pour one third of the mixture across the body, COLD! and dress in white bed clothes if possible, do this before going to sleep over a period of three days.

I have had some of the most cleansing dreams, experiences in daily life and revelations while undertaking this process.

Wether these ingredients were designed just for me or are a generic recipe i cannot tell as i neglected to ask, but thus far the results have been truely astounding.

If i was to hazard a guess and it is just a guess i would guess this recipe is related to the orisha obatala.

Unconditional Love

12:09 / 19.06.06

Also Tai chi, Bagua, hsing yi, yi quan will gently cleanse the body over a period of time, for faster more fiery results kung fu. The one essential ingredient in all of these above is a compotent teacher who can demonstrate an internal knowledge of how these arts work and doesnt just teach external forms.

Chi kung is good as well as is yoga and reiki, again it needs to be a teacher who understands internal as well as external forms, and preferably somebody who considers themselves a healer and is able to heal and show that.

12:09 / 19.06.06

It wouldn't be Obatala if there is lager involved. No alcohol near Obatala. Actually, wouldn't be done under Obatala or any other Orisga unless you directly called on him for it and involved Him in it . Does sounds like a standard Santeria cleansing recipe though, the lager is a notably odd ingredient, but different people and different lines have their own idiosyncrasies.

Unconditional Love

12:19 / 19.06.06

Thanks for the clarification, i was going on mainly colour symbolism, it was given to me by somebody who practices ATR's.

12:41 / 19.06.06

Well... according to some ATR viewpoints of the world and perspectives on how magic works, the Orisha move through all of the ingredients that they own. So according to that model, white stuff like coconut milk, cascarilla chalk, sugar, white flower petals, and so on are items of Obatala and He moves through them giving them their nature and powers - which are His, regardless of whether you are calling on him directly or not. The concept is that ALL magic takes place through the medium of the Orisha, because ALL nature is of the Orisha. But there is a difference between that, and someone actually calling on an Orisha directly to get involved, which should only really be done if you have an existing relationship with that Orisha and are on good enough terms to ask them to step in. A Santero, or equivalent, will generally give a non-initiate a cleansing to do that might utilise some of the ingredients associated with an Orisha but probably wouldnt encourage them to call on them directly, as that is their job.

21:28 / 19.06.06

I use breathing techniques... breathing in "light" and breathing out crap. Occasionally, if I want a heavier duty cleansing, I use visualising light in the shower, kind of a light shower as well as a water one.
I normally use this for cleansing and follow cleansing with recharging myself, either using visualisation or breathing, or both, and if its been heavy duty I might do some self-love stuff, if I feel the need. The "recharging" is more of a sealing and balancing of my systems than a method of actually raising energy.
I've often felt that cleansing yourself without filling in the gaps is leaving yourself open to anything floating about, unless the cleansing is more of a wiping down the crap that sticks to the surface than a clearing out of old rubbish, like emptying the attic.
I agree with rosie x on the cleansing being important and less to do with dualities than keeping yourself whole and well kept.

Gypsy Lantern - I'm also curious about the Orisha's and the system they are from (brain temporarily drawing a blank on the name, sorry) would you mind pointing me in the direction of some decent information on the subject, please? There seem to have been a fair number of mentions of them, is there a thread on this subject yet? And would you consider starting one, or posting on one that someone else starts?

Nietzsch E. Coyote

09:23 / 20.06.06

I tend to think that the *sigh* "Karmic" body has an immune system much like the physical one. Generally I just need to let my mind out of the way and it will take care of itself.

If that doesn't seem to be working on its own it is usually because I am holding on to something. I set down and put whatever I am holding/fighting out where I can see it. Usually I free write it out or paint or draw it. Tonight I sat down with a mirror and had a discussion with myself. Laid down my worries and fears and angers. Once I had acknowledged them I let them go and meditated. It felt really cleansing.

The lesson can be learned from the great sage Homer. If you want your arm to be free, you must let go of the can.

11:16 / 20.06.06

I like sn00p's vomiting idea--I'll go try that when the need arises. It conjures images of bulimic movie stars walking guiltlessly across the party floor, no pain or doubt in mind. It could work.

Me, I just clean my room up, throw out useless packrat detritus, organize my files, take a crap, take a shower--psychic cleansing. Oh and good sex really rejuvenates a worn-out body. I believe Iron Man once mentioned these and for all the bullshit he's recently been caught up in, I still trust Tony Stark as a handsome, accomplished thoughtform who's successful, stable and popular among the ladies.

For deeper dirt I go back to what seems to be the most valuable cleansing mechanism that most creatives have--write it out, draw it out, sing it out, whatever. Lace that spiritual shit with beauty and unleash it in a piece of art. I think that's why a lot of angsty teenagers gravitate towards the Great Invisibly Body of High School Poems--there's a psychic switchboard embedded in language that, when you imbue it with your emotional baggage, allows you to exorcise any unwanted demons and work your way back to a clean slate. Works for me so far.

11:31 / 20.06.06

I sometimes use a variant of the rite Haloquin mentions, which I learnt from a Buddhist teacher. After you’ve taken in a lot of “White light” breaths yourself, and are established in your good feelings, you imagine taking on everyone’s shit as well, sucking in lots of nasty, sulphuric, smoky shit – all that tension and crap that everyone is carrying around with them all the time. You suck it up, and make the willed effort to transform it. Turn it back into light and project out back for everyone else. You become a kind of battery or transformer. This is a physical collorary of the bodhicitta practices that are so important in Buddhism, the generation of compassion through one’s actions and attitudes, and I think it should be followed with some kind of action, rather than left on the level of a pretty visualisation. It’s a nice way of snapping oneself out of the habitual self-justification, anger and mild pissedoffness that many of us carry around all the time.

Spare’s neither-neither practice is a bit similar to this but his thinking doesn’t have compassion at its core.

08:51 / 25.06.06

When my energy is feeling "brittle", I find that it's a good time to work on that. To me the greatest cleanser is awareness that brings on a soft, mellow stillness. I make a conscious "non-effort" to just let go of what is angering me, with full knowledge that I can pick up the mantle of anger again,(it's too useful an energy, but it tends to make one "brittle" if over-indulged). I do that as long as I feel a need to, and when I no longer feel a need, I let that focus go. It's just a focus anyway. Whenever I'm cleansing, I find it's necessary to take a break from results oriented magick. I shift to a more effortless/non-resistance mode. That way, if crap hits the fan, I can take the body hit that sometimes results with dealing with such things.

In terms of karmic cleansing, I think that that would depend on what one's view of karma is. I've come to a view of karma as simple cause and effect originating partially within oneself, as well as outside oneself in relation to one's actions. Over time, I've moved away from seeing it as a "cosmic ledger" that brings about experiences based upon one's actions,(usually based on the violation of precepts). If I'm manifesting poo, then I'm manifesting poo. Time to do something about it. I find that most of what I consider karma is not mystical at all but is actually straight forward. If I behave like a jerk, people will NOT be happy. For me, that is karma in action. I find that cultivating mental stillness and non-resistance cleans that up as well,but I'm always trying to be mindful that resistance has it's place.