Purification – cleansing our thoughts

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”  ~ Buddha

“Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.” ~Buddha

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Lammas Day here in Ohio was really hot and humid.  The celebration I attended had an outdoors fire going.  This managed to create enough heat to perhaps bake bread.  A quick sniff test – I was relieved to learn that my deodorant was still managing to give off its “spring fresh” scent throughout the ceremony.     

A couple of weeks later my leader sent out a quick post evaluation of the event. The lack of purification came up quite a few times in his observation.  The noted lack of purification seemed odd to me, because it seems like common knowledge that you should do this before going to any ceremonial event: keeping Sabot, wedding ceremonies, visiting a new baby, going out to dinner at a nice restaurant for someone's birthday…..

Purification or ritual cleansing before any ceremonies is an ancient tradition.  It’s done in order to prepare the physical body to act as a liaison between the spiritual and physical plane.  A cleansing before a ritual or ceremony is done to wash away residual energy both seen and unseen.

I can see some of you doing the hand flip of “yea right” on the unseen stuff.

Think about this - have you ever been in an office that causes your neck hairs to rise?  Or perhaps you’re at a person’s house and as you move room to room it feels like cobwebs are sticking to your arm.  Have you ever sat through a meeting where everyone is arguing and you end up with one whopping headache?

That “stuff” you are feeling is sticking to your body’s energy field until you remove it. 

Think of that “stuff” as a piece of dust you find in your sofa.  Look at it closely, there’s a lot of stuff there: hair, cookie crumbs, lint and that button you’ve been looking for since….Get the picture?  This is what surrounds your energy field and ultimately effects how you think and feel. 

I’ve found there seems to be a lot written about how to cleanse the physical body and the physical environment (i.e., purification bathes, aura cleansing, appropriate ritual clothing, listing of cleansing herbs, smudging and salt containers to pull out negative energy), but not so much on how to purify the mind/thoughts and heart. 

Spending time on Navajo Nation, my preceptor told me that thoughts are silent messages out to the universe. Negative thoughts have a way of putting a kink into the universe.  I think of them as the sludge that gunks up the magic in the world.  In car terms, it is the very reason why you need to change your oil – if you don’t your engine might halt, that red light might turn on which leads to a sizable mechanics fee.  The red light under magical conditions can mean that intended love spell has now been directed to another or has been transformed into lust.  Examples of my gunk include:  focusing on what the heck I’m going to do with all those tomatoes; stressed out on how I’m going to get all those tasks done at work, or anxious about my son’s grades. 

I’ve brought the importance of mental cleansing up before a ceremony before.  I feel people seem to brush me off saying: “Oh.  Did that.” or “Good thoughts, check.”  When people tell me this, I feel mental cleansing has been reduced to an easy and quick process like lathering up your hands with lavender soap.  When I have this type of attitude, I’ve found that I tend to be distracted or show a lack of concentration in my work.  To me, purifying the mind goes beyond ticking off “positive thoughts.”  It requires a time and space devoted to introspection, personal change and self-control.

Much of the written work done regarding how to purify the mind has been completed by both the Buddhist and Yoga communities.  The common key is looking at how we react to patterns.  This is done through meditation by doing a mental check in about noticing what is going on in your mind without judgments and accepting it. 

Activity:

Meditation - there are a lot of great meditations out there on Youtube.  

Clearing out mental goo

Sacred Space 2 - naioth.com

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”  A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh.

“You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought.”  Peter McWilliams


“Our thoughts are where everything begins.” Mike Dooley

The supervisors ordered the big blue trash and recycling bins to be rolled into our office area under the auspice of “Spring Cleaning.”   Reality, the director is making a “hello” sweep the third week of February.  My cubicle has already had the once over with demerit looks.  I’m the first to admit that it isn’t tidy with the piles stacked around my cubical.  Each equates to six different projects I’m simultaneously working on. 

From a Feng Shui perspective, I should happily be cleaning and tossing to bring in fresh possibilities and allowing space for new growth.  And, from my experience at home I love that refreshing and good feeling when the chi moves freely.   But, honestly I don’t need any more new work projects roosting in my office yet, or at least until my co-worker comes back from her educational leave. 

My gripe is about the who is in charge and how people are told how their offices should look - the supervisor who’s a minimalist and known for delegating all his work and manages to get the glory.  His approach isn’t like Mary Poppins singing a song to move the job along.  It’s more like the ‘office police.’  His technique makes me feel like a teenager with no choice as to how I organize my space.  It’s my way or the highway approach.  

As the day wore on, I could feel myself becoming more worked up about being told to clean my office.  It was draining my focus from my tasks at hand. 

~#~

I was talking to my good friend C Thursday night.  I told her I was writing about clearing out the clutter.  She said downsizing, selling the majority of her things and her house and then moving away was very traumatic decluttering.  But, every day she is amazed how new things come into her life.  She wishes she’d done it sooner.  C found a furnished condo and has strawberries for breakfast daily.  C says every day she wakes up thankful and waiting for the next thing to pop into her life.  She firmly believes having all that stuff back in Ohio was stressful and interfered with her life.

I told her I was thinking about writing about mental clutter.  “You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought; I know someone wrote a book on that.” C says.  We both agreed that mental clutter can manifest all kinds of negative consequences. 

Basic magic 101: thoughts manifest into reality – both negative and positive.  “Our thoughts are where everything begins,” says Mike Pooley in Infinite Possibilities.  If your mind is clogged up with thoughts and feelings over previous bad relationships, anger about that bad grade from 4^th grade or guilt that you didn’t tell a deceased relative goodbye it will sabotage the intent of your magic.  It could take away your focus.

Magical living starts with intent.  You have to be able to see your goals, dreams wishes and the great things happening around you.  However, if you have mental clutter things will run amuck.  Personally, I’ve found the stuff that's floating around in my brain interferes with my concentration, focus and visualization.  These are the primary fundamentals needed for a path of possibilities.  When I don’t address my clutter immediately: I’m daydreaming, stuck in a rut, ticked off, obsessed about some injustice and not seeing the yellow brick road ahead.

~#~

Activities:

Cleaning my physical environment is easy.  I just need to watch an episode of Hoarders.  It sends me to the bathrooms, nooks and corners.  Personally, I empathize with those people.  Their stuff has been attached to emotional baggage and feelings of self-worth.  It’s easy for me to say – okay let’s get out the white trash bags and cleaning supplies.  However, you can’t clean the brain with a SOS pad. 

Activities that have worked for me to break up my messy mental clutter:

• I’ve made a list of all my complaints, gripes, fears, anxieties and bury it with a penny next to a tree.  The tree spirits have always helped me out.  They seem to change that negative energy and make it something good.
• I’m a firm believer of the Julian Cameron “brain dump.”  She calls it “Morning Pages.”  Basically it is 3 pages worth of how you are feeling, what is on your mind – physically, mentally and spiritually. You’re writing in longhand and it doesn’t matter how you hand writing looks, if the words are spelled correctly or if you’re are using Mrs. Boomer’s 8^th grade English grammar rules – your hand is moving putting down what is going on in your brain.  At the end of three pages, you close the book.
• Mediation, Yoga and walking
• Have lunch or tea with a friend – get another perspective. 
• Using the Rules of Disengagement by Gail Blanke from her book Throw out 50 Things.
• One. If it – the thing, the belief or conviction, the memory, the job, even the person – weighs you down, clogs you up, or just plain makes you feel bad about yourself, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on.
• Two. If it (see above!) just sits there, taking up room and contributing nothing positive to your life, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Throwing out what’s negative helps you rediscover what’s positive.
• Three. Don’t make the decision – whether to toss it or keep it – a hard one. If you have to weigh the pros and cons for too long or agonize about the right thing to do, throw it out.
• Four. Don’t be afraid. This is your life we’re talking about. The only one you’ve got for sure. You don’t have the time, energy, or room for physical or psychic waste.

Finally, my activities don’t take the place of seeking or replacing a licensed professional.  Nor do they replace taking prescribed medication.  I’m a firm believer in calling in someone who has been trained in the field of mental health.  I went to a licensed social worker to understand why I kept attracting and dating alcoholics so I could move on.  If you find that you can’t get rid or cope with your mental goo seek a professional.  A witchy wise woman/man leads by example in their community.  She/He gives equal importance to mental health issues as vocalizing social injustices or getting a mammography or prostate exam.  A healthy witchy wise woman/man practices the magical life more effectively.

Other Inspired Readings

Note:  I've linked my books up with Amazon - however - please please please - go to your local independent book store first.  If you have the ISBN they can order the book for you.  My link to Amazon can get you that number. 

Ariana. House Magic. Berkley, California: Conari Press. 2001.

Budapest, Z.  Goddess in the Office. New York: HarpersCollins. 1993.

Kingston, Karen. Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui.  New York: Broadway Books. 1997.