The Balanced Home by Chad Stambaugh

You know you don't have to be in the paranormal to want to have your house being the happy and safe refuge from all the chaos that life brings us. When we come home, we want to be able to relax and enjoy our sanctuary we call home. But sometimes even our sanctuary becomes out of balance, due to bringing home unwanted negative energy from others that we had to deal with during the days and weeks and also from the negative energy from people coming into your house to visit. After a while your home just out of balance. So how do you get it back in balance so that you have that peaceful feeling back in your sanctuary again?

Well this past weekend I was honored to be able to go to a class from a great organization called Casa Del Curandero (House of the Healer) and they taught a great class of how to do just that. So let me share with you what they showed me. They had a nice little saying that I want to share, and that is Physical clutter means mental clutter which leads to spiritual clutter. If you think about this, it's so true. It's like a snow ball effect.

World Wide Views

There are 3 common steps that cross most cultures that people do to cleanse, purify and bless their home. Let’s take a look at these.

Cleanse: Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Almost all cultures worldwide agree that to have a spiritual clean home you must start with a physically clean home. That means de-cluttering, mopping, and washing those curtains! The common idea behind this is that energy can become stagnant. Dust won't settle in used spaces and neither will energy! The same corners that you battle dust bunnies will be the same places you need to focus while doing a spiritual cleansing. Just like the stagnant air, the energy becomes stagnant too.

Purify: the burning of sacred woods or herbs. Using sacred waters or oils to anoint the space. Using light or sounds to move energy. Sounds can be anything from using a sacred drum, tuning forks, to clapping.

Bless: The burning of sacred woods or herbs. Using light and stating prayers or affirmations with the intent to bring back the peace and tranquility that you’re trying to bring back into your house. You know this is the biggest step that is not done properly or done at all. You have to remember, you just cleansed and purified these areas, and so now that space is void of anything, you now have to re-fill that space with something. When you do your blessing with the proper intent, you know have re-filled that space with positive energy. This to me is the most important part!

Common Practices

Again, there are some common practices that people worldwide do to cleanse their homes of the unwanted energy, so let’s go over some of them.

Smudging: Smudging with sage has become the most common in many houses lately. White California sage is the most commonly used these days but there are other types of sage gaining popularity. The most important thing to remember is to rebalance after smudging with an energizing scent like Lavender or Cedar.

When doing your smudging, remember to start in the eastern part of your home and then go in a clockwise manner, making sure you smudge in the corners and closets and around doors and your windows. You may say prayers or affirmations as you do this and even incorporate any other oils, waters, or symbols, (such as reiki) that are sacred to you.

Common herbs and resins use for smudging include: Sage, Frankincense, Myrrh, Copal, Cedar, Sweat Grass, and Palo Santo. You can also combine these different incenses and herbs for your own unique smudge.

Candles: A simple yet effective way to cleanse a house is to gather several small white candles (or whatever color resonates with you) and set an affirmation of a cleansed and purified home filled with love and light. Concentrate on your affirmation while holding the candle filling them with your energetic intention. When you feel satisfied with you work, light one candle for each room and let it burn completely. As the candle burns it will burn away the negative energy while filling the room with light. (Tea lights are perfect if you don't have time to wait for the candles to burn.)

Toning: Everything is energy and everything has a vibration. Sounds create high vibrations that are able to cut through the lower vibrations or stale and stagnant energy. This can be done using vocal toning, Om, singing bowls, tingshaws, drumming, or even clapping. Go to each doorway and corner and produce a sound to clear the energy.

Sacred Oil and Water: A very traditional Christian/Catholic practice. Every window and doorway is consecrated with the spiritual liquid by dabbing a small amount on the top of the sill, while saying your prayer or affirmation. When using water, make sure it's blessed and for oils, be sure to use pure oils. Common oils that can be used are olive and vegetable in a pinch. You want to use oils such as Frankincense, myrrh, lavender and spikenard.

Sacred Symbols: Physically drawing symbols on your walls with Holy water or oil and then simply envisioning them embedded into your space will help to purify your space. You can use Reiki symbols, the cross, sacred geometric symbols or anything else that is significant to you. These can also be drawn in the soil outside your house as well. You can also use actual objects as well, such as a hanging cross on the wall or placing a saintly statue in a room.

Crystal Grids: A simple grid can be done by placing an absorbing and clearing crystal at each corner of the house and even for extra protection, each corner of a room. You can even go smaller, such as the four corners of a table with a shrine or worship area. The absorbing stone/s takes in all the negative energy that comes to it while the clearing stone recharges the absorbing stone allowing it to work indefinitely. The absorbing crystals include pyrite which is a powerful protection stone which shields and protects against all forms of negative vibrations. Other stones that you can use include selenite or rose quartz.

Schedule: While it is best to give your house a good smudging once a week, this will depend on your sense of the energy in the room. Traditionally, the smudging is done on Fridays. Also you would want to do it on a full moon and any significant dates that you observe, which could be based around holidays, astrological events and even during tough family situations.

I hope you enjoyed these ideas that I would like to thank Casa Del Curandero for. On Thursday we'll go over Colors and the importance of them to getting rid of negative energies and how they help create peace and tranquility in your home.