joy

During secular New Years I was incapacitated due to a minor case of the plague, so I never got around to my New Years House Cleaning. While I may do a major House Cleaning throughout the year, whenever I feel that stuffs needs to be cleared out, I always do one at New Years, so I know it’s done. I didn’t, and it took me a while to recover, and by the time I did it had slipped my mind. When I started having uncharacteristically bad dreams near the end of January a friend asked about my Wards, and I realized that I had missed this year. I decided to wait until Losar (Tibetan New Years, today) to perform the rituals, it’s customary in Losar to house clean, do some banishing rituals, and celebrate. While I have issues about adopting Tibetan customs (over Vajrayana ones) I figured it would be an appropriate time to work.
Now I’ve spoken about the type of house clearing rituals I perform before and this one follows much the same pattern. Though the details change it is always the same four steps: Warning/Dismissal, Shakeup the Energy, Igne Interficiatur, and Blessings.
Now before I began I cleaned the house; not the complete house for various reasons, but the dining room, the kitchen, and my room were properly cleaned, and everything else tidied up. I reupholstered the chairs in my dining room, and cleaned off the table for the first time in ages. I was amazed at how much it improved the energetic flow of the room. All of this is more relevant for another post, but in general, clean up, and improve before you majorly clear a place.
Warning/Dismissal: I don’t banish right away. Spirits wander by, spirits get trapped, not everything unwanted is malicious, so to start off they get a warning, a push, and a way out. I start in the farthest darkest corner of my basement. I’ve meditated and assumed a Wrathful aspect, a terrifying astral form, right now it’s more about strength and intimidation. In Vajrayana (and Mahayana) figures have a Wrathful and a Peaceful aspect. I call to everything in the house that it is time to go, I’m giving them plenty of warning, but it’s time to leave my house. If they’re friend/family/Family/ally they can retreat to my altars, but if not it is time for them to GTFO. I then dropped several drops of Quadrivium’s Banishing Oil in my furnace’s humidifier. I find airducts and furnaces are somewhat like veins and hearts, so by placing some of the Banishing Oil (which smells wonderful to me) into the furnace as the water is spread through the house it is “breathing” out the oil and the effect. Then from that dark far corner I start burning my incense of sulphur, tobacco, and dragon’s blood. In my Wrathful aspect with a strong Voice I continue to proclaim a warning and to announce the upcoming eviction of the spirits. I walk from room to room, all the doors in the house are open, all the lights are on, and I spread this smoke and command through the house. I end up at the front door where I leave the rest of the incense to burn, and I return to the far dark corner.
Shakeup the Energy: I refocus myself and take on a Peaceful aspect, one that is more placid and friendly, but still filled with strength, if a different type. Using my singing bowl, in what I’m sure is a very untraditional manner, I begin making it sing. There is something about the hum of the bowl that I can connect to, it’s like the hum is an extension of my energy and responds to me in much the same way. I fill the room with the sonic energy and then I rattle it, I shake it, I make the bowl chatter, and the energy in the room flakes a bit, it comes loose. What is trapped in the dark stagnant areas is shaken free and pulled away from the hidden places. What is really loose I cast forward, using the sound as a force to move it ahead of me, until it’s been cast out the front door, and if anything can’t be pushed out it will be dealt with in the next step. Again, it’s room to room, every place, all the closets, no place is spared.
Igne Interficiatur: I have the bottle of Banishing Oil in my pocket, and I’m wearing my domta, a Tibetan ritual hat which among other things increases my energetic perception. Back in that dark far corner I resume the Wrathful aspect, and begin. Rainbow fire streams from the hands in this form, burning whatever it touches, or clawing forward the few most stubborn parts that can’t be burnt so easily. In every room, more than once in large rooms, or rooms with a noticeable division point, once the area has been burnt I cry out “Phat,” a complex and powerful syllable in Tibetan, with it appears a flash of fire which gets most of what remains, and I leave a glowing crystal Phat in the place where I cried it. I continue from room to room, leaving a collection of crystal Phats dangling in the air, reflecting rainbow light from clear light. When I’ve completed the entire house I sit down in the Heart of the Home, it is literally the centre of my house on the ground level, right beside a Grandfather clock (so it even has a heart beat) and with a slow and shallow Phat I connect myself to each of these centres. I call forth a Clear Wisdom Fire, a purifying energy, and I radiate it out from each of these points, scouring every room at once of whatever has left, stubborn or hidden. I put some Banishing oil on my finger, and go to the back door, I draw in oil and flame sigils of protection on the door frame, and do the same at the front door casting the charcoal and incense out into the snow.
Blessing: Taking the Peaceful aspect again I have a mix of incense that includes copal, red sanders, Green Tara incense, Abramelin incense, and mastic (and others, but that’s the bulk of it). From that dark far corner I start my rounds again, this time filling the air with pleasant evocative incense smoke (enough to suffocate a small child). In the Peaceful form I radiate out Clear Light and blue-crystal light, while I’m also calling to my spirits, coaxing them back out of the altars to walk my house freely, to take the smoke and energy and transform them into beneficial forms.

Because it is also Losar, once I completed this, I put the incense on my Losar altar, lit all the candles, filled the offering bowls, lit the incense, and began my rituals and my feast.
The house feels calm, still, quiet and beautiful. Like that still silence in a power out, when you realize that you’re surrounded by a dozen background noises (fridge, lights, fans, computers) and suddenly they’re gone. That’s what it feels like now. Still, silent, and beautiful. Clean and fresh for the New Year.