Category:Cleansing
From Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers
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Spiritual cleansing may also improve physical comfort, and may provide protection and increased well-being. Whether self-administered, as in a bathing rite, or administered by a practitioner, as in a spiritual foot-washing or other ritual of cleansing, hands-on spiritual bathing has strongly positive affects upon the body, mind, and soul.
An additional, and very common, reason to perform a spiritual cleansing is to prepare oneself for a ritual or spiritual rite of some kind. Just as you would take a mundane bath and dress in clean clothes when about to go to church, so do conjure doctors, rootworkers, and spiritual practitioners perform spiritual baths and dress in clean clothes before undertaking work for clients -- and they often ask that a client likewise bathe before any service is to be undertaken on the client's behalf. For this reason, when a root doctor is going to cast a spell for you, he or she may send you a packet of bath crystals or a liquid wash with instructions for bathing before the work is begun.
Spiritual cleansing methods used by hoodoo rootworkers include bathing, foot washing, sprinkling, spraying, suffumigation with herbs or resins, egg cleansing, and performing a thorough and prayerful house scrubbing with spiritual products.
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In-Person Spiritual Cleansing
In-person cleansing may be done by assisting a person with a spiritual bath, by use of an egg, or by smoking the client with cleansing incense or herbs. When smoking a person, black hen feathers may be used to waft the smoke all around the person.
In-Person Spiritual Baths
Spiritual baths may be self-administered or given as hands-on work by a spiritual practitioner to a client. Hands-on Bathing is conducted for a variety of reasons, among them to take off crossed conditions, to bring money or love into the client's life, or to free a client from the emotions of a broken relationship.
When a hoodoo rootworker persons hands-on bathing for an in-person client, the client is usually standing or seated rather than being submerged into a tub, and generally remains clothed, though very tight or binding clothing, as well as shoes and socks, are removed. Workers may wash a client's hands and feet only, or they may wash or rub liquid onto most of the torso and limbs through the clothing, having freshly prepared the proper bath ingredients in a basin. Hands-on or in-person spiritual baths are often combined with candle burning and suffumigation with incense. The bath water is ritually disposed of according to the condition for which the bath was prescribed.
Because in-home tubs and commercially prepared spiritual bathing supplies are widely available, the hands-on spiritual bath administered by a hoodoo rootworker is less common than it once was, though many a mother still Crystals and prepares and administers spiritual baths for her child! Should you be seeking this spiritual service, take time to discuss your case and the bath rite's details with your spiritual worker beforehand, and be sure to include any chaperone needs as well as any information about physical limitations in the conversation prior to your appointment.
If you cannot travel to meet with an experienced hoodoo practitioner who will bathe you in person, you may perform the rite yourself. The ingredients or mixtures of herbs and bath salts will be prescribed for you by your root doctor, so that you can to perform the ritual at home in your own shower, tub, or wash basin. If you want personal instructions and guidance in how to do the work, you may schedule a spiritual telephone consultation or magical coaching session with a hoodoo root doctor who can instruct you.
In-Person Spiritual Foot Washing
Hands-on foot washing has its roots in the Last Supper as depicted in the Christian Bible, when Jesus washed the feet of his apostles. It is conducted in much the same manner today, both in churches, during Holy Week, and as part of a hands-on spiritual service offered by root doctors to clients at any time of the year.
The spiritual benefits of foot washing include release of tensions, a lightening of one's spiritual load, and strong cleansing from messes that have been thrown in one's path by enemies. During the act of physically washing the feet, anointing them with Holy Oil, and gently drying them, practitioners may be Spirit-led to pray for the removal of curses and poisoning through the feet.
Not every root doctor performs hands-on work of this sort, but those who do will typically arrange an appointment for the client and, if issues of age or gender necessitate it, will also plan for a chaperone to be present during the foot washing service.
If you have physical disabilities or other medical issues connected with mobility or circulation to the extremities, please let your practitioner know before the foot washing service commences. Your root doctor will then be able to examine your feet for problems and will tell you whether they think you should see a doctor or podiatrist.
In-Person Cleansing with an Egg
In Egg Cleansing, a raw egg in its shell is rolled over the body of the patient or client to remove negativity, often from the top of the body down over the limbs toward the feet. Often the egg will be prayed over before use. Egg cleansings are often combined with suffumigation or incense-smoking.
Some workers favor using special eggs to do egg cleansings. Although any kind or colour of egg may be used, hoodoo rootworkers who keep their own flocks of chickens often state a preference for the eggs of black hens, the eggs of frizzled fowl of any colour, or the eggs of black frizzly hens, which are thought by many to be extra-strong for removing crossed conditions. Other spiritual workers ask that the client or patient bring his or her own egg to the cleansing session.
Depending on a root doctor's traditions or training, an egg that has been used for spiritual cleansing may be ritually disposed of or it may be used for divination related to the client's condition. This type of egg divination is also called oomancy.
Most hoodoo rootworkers dispose of the egg by throwing it at a strong old tree or into a crossroads to break it. A good old tree is used because trees thrive on our waste products; the crossroads is used in order to symbolize the harmless dissipation of the negative energy into the world.
Practitioners who live in heavily urbanized areas and have neither a crossroads nor a tree nearby may throw the egg into the toilet so forcefully that it breaks, but this results in their having to undertake a secondary rite of cleansing the toilet with an ammonia rinse and flushing it clean to protect their home.
When the egg is used in oomancy, it is traditional to break it open into a bowl of water and to examine it for marks, signs, or patterns that can be read to provide interpretations of the cause of the problem, as well as an indication of how the cleansing work is progressing.
Some root doctors also perform egg cleansing at long distance, using a photograph or a doll baby of the client.
In-Person Suffumigation or Censing
Suffumigation of a client, more generally called smoking the client, makes use of cleansing incense or herbs to take off crossed conditions, remove messes, and open the client's road for blessings and better times.
The root doctor may use a self-lighting incense powder, such as Uncrossing, Healing, Road Opener, Van Van, or Blessing, or one of the traditional resin and herb incenses that are burned on charcoal, such as Frankincense, Pine Resin, Sandalwood, Rue, or Aspand.
The rootworker's incense burner or brazier may be stationary, or it may be a censer that is provided with hanging chains, in which case it is called a thurbile.
If a stationary incense brazier is used, it may be placed on the floor and the client will be instructed to stand over it, or the client may sit and the root worker will direct the smoke over and around the client's body, particularly the head, while praying.
If a hanging thurbile is used, the rootworker may direct the client to stand or sit and may then circumambulate or walk around the client, directing the smoke flow by gently swinging the thurbile, praying out loud while walking.
Additionally, while the spiritual worker is smoking a client, a fan or whisk made of black hen feathers or black buzzard feathers may be used to waft the smoke around, to brush away negative energies from the client or to direct cleansing incense smoke into the corners of the room.
Spiritually Cleansing a Location in Person
Spiritually cleaning a house or place of business to remove curses, take off messes, send away haunting spirits, and draw in health, wealth, love, and peaceful spirits is a service performed by root doctors who will travel to your location to conduct the work.
When such a work is performed, spiritual cleansing supplies such as Chinese Wash, Uncrossing crystal salts, Holy Water, Florida Water, or 13 Herb Bath are used in the scrub water, which is prepared with prayers, often at dawn. The premises are cleaned from top to bottom, back to front, often with the recital of appropriate Psalms, and every drop of cleansing water is carried out the front door instead of being let to go down the drains. Once outside it may be thrown toward the rising sun, carried to a crossroads, or otherwise disposed of as seems fit and is convenient to the practitioner.
As each room is cleansed and cleared of messes, a white candle is lit and prayers are said. Incense may also be burned, and if there is an ongoing threat of enemy work is felt, all doors and windows that open to the exterior may be sealed with x-marks or crosses drawn with Protection Oil.
If there has been much bad energy in the building, then in addition to a cleansing, a spraying with Peace Water may also be performed to calm down negativity. In cases where extremely unfortunate events have occurred to the inhabitants, special offerings may be placed at the four corners of a room or the four corners of an entire building to ward off future incursions of evil and to protect all those who dwell within.
Once all the rooms have been cleansed, blessed, and sealed with protection, the root doctor re-opens the building from the sidewalk to the front door, sweeping or washing inward with fresh water that contains herb-based oils that have been prepared to draw in whatever good effects the client requests, such as rent money, store customers, a new lover, peaceful family life, neighborhood safety, or improved health. Common additives to the spiritual scrub used to draw in good conditions include Attraction Oil, Money Drawing Oil, cinnamon and sugar, Peace Water, and some personal concerns, to "mark" the place as the client's territory.
In-Person Sprinkling or Spraying
A spiritual worker may sprinkle or spray preparations onto clients' bodies, or in and around clients' homes or businesses for the purposes of cleansing. The work is often accompanied by prayers or the recitation of Psalms that are traditionally used for healing, cleansing, purification, removal of sin, or renewal of spiritual grace.
Workers may use special tools for sprinkling, such as an aspergillum or a laundry sprinkler, though they may also use their fingertips, or use bundles of herbs or certain leafy branches. Spraying may also be done via the mouth or with a spray bottle that creates a fine mist.
Herbal waters, colognes, or specially prepared bath ingredients may all be sprinkled onto the client or around a living or working area.
Spiritual Cleansing Techniques for a Distant Client
Cleansing at a distance may be done by prescribing baths or suffumigations and mailing them to the client, generally while simultaneously working hands-on with the personal concerns or a photograph of the client or location to be cleansed.
It is quite common to also prescribe a specific Psalm or portion of scripture for the client to recite or meditate upon while performing the at-home portion of the work.
Spiritual Bathing for a Client at a Distance
Long-distance spiritual bathing may include jobs in which herbal or mineral bath preparations are prescribed by the root doctor and mailed to the client, who then follows instructions in bathing with them. The instructions may include information about the time of day to bathe, prayers to be said, and how to dispose of the left-over bath-water. During this type of work, the root doctor may be simultaneously burning a vigil candle or oil lamp for the client's successful accomplishment of the cleansing bath, smoking the client's picture with spiritual incense, or praying for the client at the altar.
Another type of spiritual bathing at a distance involves making a doll-baby or poppet to represent the person who is to be bathed, usually with some of their own clothes and hair as personal link. The doll may be made of cloth, porcelain, ceramic, plastic, wood, wax, or clay doll-baby, or it may be a figural candle that has been loaded with personal concerns. If possible, the doll loaded with personal concerns and dressed in clothing sewn from a fragment of the target-person's own clothes. Once it has been prepared, it is first baptized in the name of the person to be bathed, and is then bathed in an herbal or mineral bath preparations.
Spiritual Cleansing with an Egg from a Distance
Some hoodoo rootworkers practice the rite of egg cleansing on distant clients. This is called a proxy rite, and in order for it to be effective, a proxy figure or stand-in must be employed to symbolize the client.
Experienced root doctors may make and baptize a doll-baby or poppet to represent the distant client. Such a doll may be made with the person's own clothes and hair and kept on hand for repeated use. The proxy may also be a photograph, a model layout, or other trace or token of the person. In some cases a relative or friend of the client may sit in as the proxy, especially if the client is physically unable to attend the rite due to illness, incarceration, or inability to travel. The worker may also call upon a child to act as the proxy in a rite of this type, under the theory that children are receptive to the spirits of others.
Once the proxy has been ritually connected to the client through spiritual linkage and prayer, the root doctor will spiritually cleanse or purify the proxy by the same methods of egg-rolling and disposal that would have been used had the client been present in person. The rite of cleaning may be followed by a divination with the egg in order to determine how effective the ritual has been.
Though less common than in-person cleansing with an egg, this type of work can be very effective.
Suffumigation or Censing from a Distance
Smoking or censing at a distance may be accomplished by wafting smoke around an object which strongly represents the client for whom the job is being done, for instance by use of a doll or by employing the client's name written on paper, a piece of jewelry that belongs to the person, or an article of their clothing.
The object to be cleansed by smoke may be placed in a stationary position on an altar or elsewhere and the incense smoke moved about by means of a thurible or censer, or by wafting it with a bird-wing or feather whisk -- or the incense brazier may remain stationary and the object may be turned about in the smoke, so that all sides and crevices are censed.
Alternatively, a gifted worker may effectively burn herbs, resins, or condition incenses marketed for such purposes, while concentrating on the person in question and calling their name. Distance is not particularly a hindrance to this type of work, which may be performed out of doors, or by an open door or window, in order to allow the smoke to travel toward the person's physical location.
Spiritually Cleansing a Location from a Distance
When spiritually cleansing a location from a distance, your hoodoo rootworker may use a similar tactic to performing proxy-cleansing a person from a distance.
A photograph of the location, a drawn-to-scale image, or a scale model can successfully represent the physical location that needs to be cleansed. However, just as with doll-babies that only symbolically represent a person, so can an effective model of a location bear only a superficial or courtesy resemblance to the actual premises being cleansed.
A doll-house may represent every client's home to an experienced rootworker, as long as it is prayed over and named for each job of work being done. Attaching a piece of fabric or wood from the client's actual location to the dollhouse, or sprinkling dirt from the building's four corners at the dollhouse's four corners helps cement the spiritual link between the home and the proxy-home.
If the location to be cleansed is a business, then a model storefront or mercantile establishment can be employed in the same way, and linked to the client's business through the use of fabric, wood, and corner-dirt. An image of the company's signage or store logo will strengthen the link.
If the client's need is to be cleansed of negative effects due to travelling, a scale model railroad or toy train layout, or a model ship or airplane might be employed.
Once a satisfactory representation of the location has been arranged, the hoodoo rootworker will go about cleansing the space with incense smoke or spiritual washes and waters, as he or she sees fit. As with any regular cleansing of a location, the practitioner may finish up the work by laying down symbolic protections on the space to keep it clean and safe.
Credits
This page is brought to you by the AIRR Tech Team:
- Authors: catherine yronwode, nagasiva yronwode
- Contributor: Mother Mystic
- Images: Deacon Millett, catherine yronwode, Karma Zain, Prof. C. D. Porterfield, Unknown Photographers; sourced and photo-edited by catherine yronwode
See Also
Spell-Casting
- How Hoodoo Root Doctors Cast Spells with Rites of Spiritual Cleansing and Bathing
Learn About Cleansing from AIRR
 "Uncross Yourself" with Deacon Millett, Mama E., Mama Vergi, and Evan Lionhart |
See All Online Workshops from AIRR
AIRR Readers & Rootworkers Who Perform This Work for Clients
Pages in category "Cleansing"
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