Basic Magic Series: On Wearing White

I really don’t want to do this, but I’ve seen enough the past few weeks that I feel as though morally, I have an obligation to put information out on the basics of magic (1). For those who are not coming from polytheistic traditions, I want to first explain what place “magic” holds in our religious world. Most polytheists don’t practice magic. It’s an art reserved for specialists (and the occasional kitchen conjure woman). Why? Because most people have complicated lives full of a thousand different things and devotion to the Gods is a thousand times more important than any of the occult arts. That being said, for some of us, especially those who are called to be spiritual technicians of a sort, we are pushed into these arts as a means of serving our Gods. It’s the same with divination. These are ways to help people whose luck has been turned by the envy of others, those who are beset by evil, or a thousand other things. They are survival tools. No one has to practice magic to be a good polytheist. Just honor your Gods and ancestors. 

For those who do practice magic, this is one way to approach the Great Work, which as a theologian I rather find to be concordant with what an orthodox Christian might term “theosis.” I’m sure I’d get push back on that were one of my orthodox colleagues to read this, but at its best and highest iteration, this is how specialists use this: we serve our Gods. Through serving Them well, we grow closer to Them and learn to align ourselves more fully with Them, conquering as best we can our egotism and pride. We participate in the work of our Gods when They act as creators. As we do this, engage in this work, we are remade in the image of our Gods, changed – and if our devotion is sound (2), brought more fully into Their sacred orbit. The risk to our souls is great if we ignore the need for piety, and while many a Western occultist may disagree with me I stand by my statement above. 

These things we do have great consequence to both our souls and our characters. Never forget that. It all matters and it all shapes us, and it does so in ways we cannot anticipate. What we want, who we are, how we see the world, our values, all of it will change as the work changes us. For magical, spiritual, and devotional work, there is an old saying: the work will teach you how to do it.” This is true, but it will change you too, sometimes irrevocably. This is neither bad nor good, but a consequence of the work and something to be noted.

There is a series of exercises that I give to all my students (religious not academic) and apprentices. I give this same set whether they are coming to me to learn devotion, to learn to be a lineage carrier, to learn to be a priest, to learn spirit work or to learn magic (which to some degree all spirit workers end up engaging in, as a necessary part of their work. It doesn’t matter where one goes after the basic exercises are learned. These exercises, even if they’re not the most exciting exercises in the world, teach discernment, heighten the devotional senses, open up and exercise the psychic senses including one’s ability to use one’s will to move energy and work the threads of wyrd. They also help us to learn to do personal diagnostics: emotionally, psychically, energetically, spiritually, and maintain good psychic and energetic hygiene, which is part of soul and energy maintenance. In the end, it’ll all help devotion, even if one never wants to practice magic (and one of the most devout human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, a saint in at least four traditions, loathed the practice of magic. Seriously, there is no charge fair or foul to doing it. If you’re not called to it or interested in it, that’s fine. If you are, or have to delve because of your specialist calling, that’s good too. Don’t make it more than it is). These exercises are so important that I’m seriously thinking of putting out a series of chapbooks with one of my former students on them. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll just hit topics as they appeal to me. I should also note, I censor myself much less when writing about magic than spiritual topics so if rough language bothers you, you might want to skip this particular series. I’ll always note “basic magic series” in the header. Now, onto today’s topic. 

Today, I wanted to discuss wearing white because I saw this post on it. As a spirit worker and vitki, I don’t much worry about color. When I do setting of lights, I pay more attention to it, but in the end, if one’s will is honed, that sets the equation through which one’s energies are channeled and thus the outcome of the working. I’m very much a ‘just do it’ type of magus. Now, I’m also sensitive to color, so when I can, I will incorporate the proper correspondences, but I don’t worry if, for whatever reason, I can’t do so. What I do worry about are certain spiritual taboos I have about what colors I can wear. This is one of my most binding set of taboos: I wear Odin’s colors with few exceptions, and it is deeply disturbing to me when I don’t (every once in awhile I try to break this taboo and it never goes well). I didn’t choose this taboo, but it was given to me by Odin and I try to look upon it as an honor to carry, and a means to better reverence Him and also to grow closer in my devotion to Him. I can wear whatever color I want for accents like scarves or headwraps, etc. at least most of the time (3). Some people will receive taboos from their Gods and spirits as their work progresses. Please don’t seek them out. If you need them, they will come. They’re a pain in the ass but all taboos are about power. They help you remain healthy in the work and breaking them even accidentally can have consequences. Breaking them mindfully and with permission on the very rare occasion can also be quite powerful. Not everyone gets them and in the end, it doesn’t matter so long as sacred work gets done. Traditions may also have their own taboos that those within the tradition should follow.  

Before I digress too much, the blog I referred to in the previous paragraph (WordPress is being a pain in the ass about allowing me to post the link twice) has a brief post talking about how helpful wearing white has been and I wanted to comment on that. Magically, spiritually, white clothing (and head covering) is the equivalent of spiritual PPE. It is very protective, believed to repel negative energies, and helps to keep one spiritually very, very clean. There is nothing wrong with black clothing – I tend to wear it all the time. It’s very grounding; but for those sensitive to color, energetically it does something different than white clothing. This is why new initiates in Santeria usually wear white for a year. It’s incredibly, incredibly protective and the period after any initiation. especially making the saint, is a vulnerable one. Now, I hate wearing white but if I have to go into spiritually polluted space or am feeling particularly spiritually vulnerable I will. This includes a headwrap. I told one of my new house students recently that a good white headwrap was the single best piece of protective equipment in my arsenal. I wasn’t really exaggerating all that much. The thing with a white headwrap is that A) the color itself is protective and B) it covers all the key energy portals: crown, third eye, horsing port if you have one, ancestor ports if you have them – and by portals, I mean the psychic channel that allows for certain work to be done. Gods know the Holy Ones modify Their spirit workers a lot so even if you don’t start out with a particular skill, practice, practice practice and occasional modification can mean you end up with one (4).

Quite early on, I tell my House students (I’ll say it this way from here on out to differentiate between my academic students and the ones I teach within my tradition) to acquire at least two (preferably three) different sets of white clothing including head covering (cap, hat, bandanna, tichel, etc.). I try to avoid asking my students to buy anything, but this is a long term investment and doesn’t have to happen all at once. Also, most of them can already cobble something together on the fly if they have to do so and I have enough white fabric in my stash to hand out strips for headwraps probably to everyone reading this in triplicate! As one is learning to do magic, opening up and training psi gifts, or even delving deeply into spiritual work and becoming more aware of and sensitive to the Holy Ones, it’s important to stay clean spiritually. I would absolutely recommend wearing white as much as possible during one’s first few months of training and whenever else after that one feels the need. Definitely do it until you can shield and cleanse properly because evil spirits exist, bottom feeding spirits exist, miasma – neutral or sometimes bad exists, and also when one is first training, gift opening can be erratic and it’s easy to find external stimuli more overwhelming than will always be the case. 

It is true that in Chinese and/or Buddhist cultures, white tends to be associated with death. I don’t know why that is but in feng shui I believe white still represents purity so I’d STILL tell a budding magician to wear white under the circumstances outlined above. The essential nature of a thing doesn’t change from east to west. Dressing this way may mark one out (especially if one wears a headwrap) but frankly that’s not necessarily a bad thing though it can be an uncomfortable one. Eventually, to those who know you, it’ll become normal, so don’t stress overmuch about it. If you work in an environment where it would be seriously problematic, wear white shirt/pants/skirt and a colored jacket over it, or a sweater of some color. It’s a work around in extremis. You’re still wearing white, but you’ve just added a camo layer! Trust me, you’ll get to an age in the work where you just won’t give a shit about looking odd, especially if you are a spirit worker (5). 

In addition to wearing white, I agree with the poster above that natural fibers are best. Synthetics are essentially plastic and that’s not good for the environment or one’s skin. I have found that the deeper I go as a spirit worker, the more it feels right to limit the number of synthetics I wear. I stick as much as possible to leather, wools, silk, cotton, bamboo, and linen. Rayon is natural but because of how it’s turned into fabric, I’ve seen it referred to as ‘semi-synthetic’ so I keep that to a minimum. Cotton and linen are my two regular go-tos. I would say about 80% of my wardrobe and 99% of my religious clothing is natural fabric at this point. I’m working to get the regular clothing to 99% too. I picked up this awareness from a historical costumer I follow on youtube, several of my spirits, and also even more, from my assistant Tove, who gives excellent advice here for those for whom this is a concern. 

There is literally no area of one’s life that cannot and will not be affected by one’s spiritual and magical work. Now, I think this post is long enough. If there is a particular topic on magic you want me to cover, ping me in the comments. I highly suggest reading the two articles I link to here. They are very good. 

Notes

1.     I’ve seen tik-tokers and tumblrites talking about how grounding and centering – the basics of any good discernment and certainly the basics of learning to develop one’s gifts and devotional sensitivities—are old-fashioned and unnecessary. Yeah, sure, bitchki if you want to blow out your channels, get obsessed by something malignant, and make no progress anywhere, sure. Go ahead and ignore them, дебіли.

2. I have found that magic by itself produces arrogance, pride, delusion, and impiety. It *must* be balanced with devotion and prayer. It’s a hard road to balance because the magician is standing in the position of power working with cosmic energies and forces and that is an exciting and heady experience. Balancing that with humility and devotion can be challenging but it’s all part of the process, and understanding that ultimate telos, an essential part of the Great Work. 

3. Of late, I have started covering my head. While I fully support women and men who do so for modesty, in my case I do it for spiritual protection and avoidance of miasma. It also cuts down on psychic white noise. It’s helped to cut my migraines in half. Many polytheists choose to cover and in my tradition both men and women will cover their heads when they pray. Some women will cover when they marry though this is not widespread in our tradition. I once received a strong message from Freyr when I was contemplating why some of His women are often (not always but a fair amount) asked to head cover when they marry. He said, as best I can interpret, that it was the crown of their rank and office, a mark of honor, a sign that they were stepping into a sacred and honorable role, and a mark of respect.  I thought that was lovely. I’m digressing though. For those interested in covering check out this site. There are lots of tutorials and their products are quite nice. 

4. On the subject of psychic gifts, lest we see a sudden spate in tik-tokers going on about how they have psychic portals when they barely have the capacity to think, let me paraphrase Carl Jung: “Having a talent or gift doesn’t mean you have been given something; it means you have something to give.” In other words, having these things means WORK, hard, unrelenting work, responsibility, and obligation. That should do it. The ultimate repellent to the tik-tok (or tumblr) group: work ethic. 

5. One of my taboos is that I can’t wear skirts/dresses. I have to wear pants. I’m fine with that, but sometimes I like to wear a long ritual robe (right on the fence because it’s not a dress, but religious gear) or even a skirt – not often, but sometimes. If you ever see me doing so, I have leggings on underneath. That’s my work around: technically I’m still wearing pants. I respect my taboos but I also respect a good, thoughtful work around too.  

In some jobs headcoverings can be the most problematic, especially if it’s not a religious requirement that you have to do it every day. If it is religious, HR regulations should cover you. But if it’s something you only do occasionally, that’s more problematic, especially for men where courtesy demands hats be removed upon entering a building. For women, a large headband, perhaps with a ribbon or bow trailing down the crown can work. I know one spirit worker who stealths like this. With long hair, working a subtle chain with one or two protective charms on it into a braid and pinning that around one’s head works well too for women. I know a spirit worker who has this down. Why? Because she is tabooed from wearing a headcover! Our Gods want different things for us, use our skills in different ways, and certain taboos make others more problematic. There are always work arounds. Sometimes one has to look to one’s ancestral ways and see what they did that can be adapted, and sometimes we just have to get creative. 

I will note that if safety is an issue in your job, negotiate with your spirits for an exception on the headcovering. We can always ask and always negotiate. 

Bookversary: With Clean Minds and Cleans Hands

Affiliate Advertising Disclosure

Today is the anniversary of the publication of With Clean Minds and Cleans Hands.

“Miasma, or spiritual pollution, is a frequently misunderstood concept within contemporary polytheism. While recognized as vitally important to guard against and treat in most traditions, it is nonetheless often ignored or even dismissed as a concern today.

And yet, everything good and solid in our practices begins with purification. It is what prepares us for devotional engagement, for encountering the Holy, for developing discernment, for being a practicing and devout polytheist. We can never hope to properly approach our Gods without taking into account the need for cleanliness in our work.”

You can find it on amazon.

The Third Week of SunWait – Sunna in Thurisaz

Sunwait came hard this week. We’ve been shuttling between home, work, and physical therapy rehabilitation center where my husband is recovering from surgery (a place only a little less polluted spiritually than the hospital itself, and in some cases worse) and it’s a difficult thing to go daily into such a polluted place and then to return home without bringing pollution or worse along for the ride. Every time I leave, I hate leaving my husband in such a place, though he is strong and more than capable of handling the situations that arise – malignant bottom feeding spirits feed on pain ,confusion, and loss and they abound in this hellscape. I’m convinced that there are at least two demoniacs on the floor (got cornered by one of them the other day—I was rushing and not properly centered in my Gods and Their power. When I walk with the latter, such foulness cannot come near me. A blessing sufficed to drive it back but what must that be like for the poor soul at their mercy? I pray constantly as I walk through the ward, not for myself but for those who must live there, for those vulnerable to spiritual infestation and harm. I actually don’t know why there aren’t chaplains visiting frequently – It would help). 

The upshot of this is that we’ve all been doing many more spiritual cleansings. I usually cleanse myself daily in some way, both with prayer and meditation, but also perhaps with sacred smoke, or khernips, a cleansing bath, etc. We’ve tripled that. One of the things that I have found particularly helpful, that leaves me feeling absolutely spiritually clean and refreshed, is a salt scrub. Now, the one that I do is specifically dedicated to Odin but I’ll give a generic here that y’all can adapt. 

Nightly, I fill a tub of bathwater (and put Epsom salts, vinegar, sometimes Kolonia 1800, Florida water or some other scent used to cleanse people, places, and things; sometimes I make the bath khernips – the whole thing lol. Sometimes I add beer and/or milk. I pray to various Gods to bless it. Salt for instance, is sacred to the Roman Goddess Salis, Whose name means salt and who was honored along with Hygeia and Asklepius as a major healing Deity. I ask Freyr to bless the beer. I may ask Idunna to bless the whole thing. It varies based on my mood of the day). As the bath fills, I pray to Odin and read a set prayer to Him and usually make an offering. Once the bath fills, I stand in it and rub the salt all over, including top of my head (crown chakra) and all the way down. Then I sink into the bath and wash it off and get on with having a nice, relaxing bath as per the norm. 

I will share my basic Odin – oriented recipe below. Feel free to use different oils. If there are specific scents you associate with your main Deity, go ahead and substitute those oils and focus it on that Deity. Use this as a guide and just adapt it for your own Gods. I don’t worry about exact drop amounts. I just add and mix until I like the smell. 

Odin Salt Scrub

One pound of sea salt. 

One cup baking soda

¼ cup vanilla powder (found in the baking aisle of your local supermarket)

Liberally sprinkle (at least two tablespoons, more if you want) sweet almond oil and mix it throughout the salt mixture (this helps moisturize the skin because salt, for all its cleansing properties can be very abrasive). 

Ok. That’s your base. 

To that add the following oils (remember, it’s easier to add than to remove. So, start by adding maybe twenty drops and mix. Then check the scent. You can always add more). Use food grade oils. 

Rose otto, galangal, ylang-ylang, violet, anise (go lightly with this one), chamomile (a queen of flowers amongst the nine herbs), and Solomon seal oil (I like to buy it from Luckymojo shop. It’s the best I’ve found). 

After adding each one, mix thoroughly with your hands. When you’ve added them all, adjust for your preference in smell. Put it in a jar and set it on your shrine for a night. Then for nine nights do the salt scrub, bracketing the whole thing with prayer. 

I’ve been doing it every night after coming home from the rehabilitation center and it is one of the most cleansing practices I’ve found.

That is all for today. We are half way through Sunwait which means half way to Yule and that is a lovely thing. 

Bookversary: With Clean Minds and Cleans Hands

Affiliate Advertising Disclosure

Today is the fifth anniversary of the publication of With Clean Minds and Cleans Hands.

“Miasma, or spiritual pollution, is a frequently misunderstood concept within contemporary polytheism. While recognized as vitally important to guard against and treat in most traditions, it is nonetheless often ignored or even dismissed as a concern today.

And yet, everything good and solid in our practices begins with purification. It is what prepares us for devotional engagement, for encountering the Holy, for developing discernment, for being a practicing and devout polytheist. We can never hope to properly approach our Gods without taking into account the need for cleanliness in our work.”

You can find it on amazon.

More On Our Cleansing Protocols

I live in a small religious community. We are a small House of four devotees at various stages of training and experience and we are setting down the seeds of what we hope will grow into a proper, sustainable temple and religious House complex. It may take us years to realize this dream, but we are well on our way. As such, we’re always looking for ways to improve and, if possible, streamline our regular cleansing and purification protocols, just as we’re always trying to find ways to deepen our prayer practices. I’ll write about prayer at another time (though I think it’s the single most crucial thing anyone lay or specialist can do) and today I want to add more to what I’ve previously touched on with regard to cleansing. 

In addition to everything else we do, we have selected one night each week to do divination for the week, divination for other questions and issues that might arise, and more serious and more intense cleansing rituals. One important part of that is uncrossing. This is a conjure and hoodoo term (I got my start with conjure and I’ve studied and practiced it for years. I’d moved away from it for awhile, but lately I realize how foolish that was) for a cleansing that removes any curses, hexes, or other malefica thrown at one. So much of what rare fragments of conjure that I learned as a kid was about keeping the home free of negative spirits. Then as an adult when I really studied it (instead of just doing what my grandmother herself had done by rote – she hadn’t realized that her spiritualist aunt was also a conjure woman), I discovered how proactive in keeping spiritually clean and bringing luck and peace to a home some of these practices really allowed one to be. (Hoodoo itself is a blend of Afro-American, Native,  Scotch-Irish, English, German, practices all smooshed together – it’s eminently practical and what I learned from my grandma has a PA Deutsch feel to it as opposed to what I learned later from active practitioners). 

So, on that night, we take massive cleansing baths: varieties of salt, beer, milk, khernips, various herbs, flowers, honey powder, vinegars…in any combination thereof, depending what we feel needs to be cleansed and how we wish to fill the space that has been cleansed (nature abhors a vacuum. I always do a blessing after a cleansing). Usually I like beer, salt, and khernips OR milk, salt, and khernips. Those without tubs can pour the blend over their head and bodies while standing in the shower – this is actually a bit more traditional. 

Then, we do a cleansing with stalks of specific herbs, partly as an uncrossing and partly as blessing. I’ve been quite taken with this blend for some time now: hyssop, basil, rue, and marjoram. One might also add mint. We grow all of them in the herb garden. One of us will pick the largest stalks of each we can find and collect them together like a bouquet. Then, we take turns, sweeping it over each other’s [clothed] bodies, slapping the plants over them like a babushka cleaning herself in a Russian bath house. This is done in a downward motion. At the end, the plants are burnt (or taken out into the trash immediately and outside the house. Burning is better). 

Before the div, we make offerings and tend all the shrines, and then after all the cleansing work, we spend time in prayer. More and more, cultus to Askr and Embla has been growing as an essential part of recentering ourselves. Finally, at least once a week we have a full spectrum of protection, exorcism, purification, and blessing prayers that we do. The full rota takes about an hour, sometimes a little more. 

Our weak spot is that our home is cluttered but little by little we’re addressing that as we can (bookshelves are at a premium!). I wrote this mainly to give readers some sense of how seriously we take cleansing protocols and also a glimpse of how they can be integrated, relatively easily, into one’s devotional life. I’ll close by sharing one prayer in that rota that I note above. Feel free to use it, but please do attribute it me. 

Prayer of Purification  

Hail to You, Oh great good immortal Gods, Mighty Brothers Odin, Hoenir, and Loður,

Sovereign Powers over all the Worlds, Unyielding Conquerors in the face of evil, You Who made all creation, setting into place the orbits of moon and sun, crafting and honing the bones of Ymir into the beauty of Midgard, Who wrought the Nine worlds by will alone, and sacral vision, You Who ward and protect Your children, hear my prayer. 

Odin, Sig-Father, unafraid of sacrifice, Who blessed Ask and Embla, and every human after with breath and soul, Who brings healing when all other healers have failed, I beseech You now to stand as healer to my soul. 

Hoenir, Who infused Ask and Embla and every human after with sense and intellect, bless my mind that it may remain free of the fury of the Unmaker. Turn my mind to You and the works the Holy Ones have made. Always. 

Loður, Who blessed Ask and Embla and every human after with life and warmth and feeling, increase my love and devotion to the Gods a thousand-fold, until my prayers are a raging inferno burning away anything unholy. Fill me with the fire of devotion. Always. 

I beseech You, oh Great Good and Glorious Gods, render powerless, banish, and expel every diabolical power, presence, and machination; every evil influence, malefica, or evil eye, and all actions aimed against Your faithful servant (NAME). Where there is envy, jealousy, hatred, and malice, grant us instead an abundance of victory, benevolent blessings, endurance, and piety. Oh dear Gods, Makers of all the Worlds, Who love us faltering human beings as fathers love their children, I pray that You extend Your wills, that You reach out Your powerful hands, and come with mighty arms and focused power to our aid. 

Help us, weapons-wise Allfather, cunning and clever Skyfarer, and Mighty Marsh Lord, help us Whom You have so carefully crafted. Send angels and disir and good but fierce helping spirits to watch over us, and to protect us body and soul. 

Keep at bay and vanquish every evil power, every servant of the Enemy, every poison, malice, or malefica invoked against us by corrupt, envious, and bitter people. Free us from oppression that we may serve You in gratitude and joy. You are our shield and buckler, invocation to You the weapon in our hand, Your blessing our preservation and salvation from harm. Whom should we fear? Who is as powerful as You? Under Your gaze, I shall ready myself for battle. Under Your gaze, and in the solace of Your protection, I shall gird my spirit as I prepare to engage the foe. Let my hands, my will, my words, and my soul never falter and let my mind ever be turned to You, and the works You have so carefully wrought. ALU.

Cleansing Protocols

Distrust anyone who doesn’t take spiritual and ritual cleansing/purification seriously. That’s my general rule of thumb, largely because it shows that, for whatever reason, they either aren’t taking what they’re doing seriously, or they haven’t been fully or properly trained. I cannot emphasize the importance of cleansing too much. It is one of THE single most important things you can do, right up there with regularly honoring your dead. 

As I said recently on twitter, the only people I’ve ever had whine and bitch about cleansing, purification, and the need to avoid miasma are those too polluted to be able to stand to be in spiritually clean space with integrity. That’s actually a thing too. I think some people are so mired in the shit of this world, so miasmic, so polluted, so disconnected from the holy that clean, ordered, holy space feels bad to them. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve seen. 

There are a number of reasons to be concerned about spiritual pollution and it’s incredibly easy to wash it away. 

• Firstly, it can really cloud and clutter one’s spiritual discernment.
• It can affect one’s health and well-being.
• It can exacerbate depression and anxiety.
• It can damage one’s luck. 
• It can cause disharmony and arguments between friends, family, etc. 
• It slowly occludes the devotional connections that we share with our Holy Powers. 
• It can open one up to the influence of evil spirits and malefica. 
• It makes it more difficult to connect when in sacred space and actually pollutes that sacred space. 
• It is contagious and can affect others. 

I probably missed a few things but at the moment, these are the primary dangers that come to mind. Why, in the name of all that’s holy would you NOT want to deal with this? Miasma and spiritual pollution isn’t difficult to remove (there are exceptions to this but since most of us aren’t behaving like Pelops or Pentheus usually it’s not that hard!). 

Now, if you’re a spirit worker, priest, or other spiritual specialist, the requirements for cleansing might be a bit more intense, but still, it’s not rocket science. All it requires is a bit of mindfulness and consistency. 

Here are some things we do in my house to keep ourselves clean (this is not a comprehensive list). 

• We take regular cleansing baths. There are any number of things that can be added to a cleansing bath to remove miasma. I usually combine salt (I like pink Himalayan salt, but any salt will do. Black salt is particularly strong for cleansings), beer (beer baths are awesome), milk, and khernips. I make the entire bath khernips. I might also add other things like a scented oil, Epsom salts (not for removing miasma but to help my old and aching joints), bubble bath, etc. So I combine cleansing pollution with regular bathing. 
• I put a cup of khernips in every load of wash (yes, I also use detergent!).
• Every morning we cleanse our head, heart, and hands with khernips. 
• I wear protective charms and sometimes cover my head when I feel pollution is particularly bad. I also routinely cover my head when I pray. For the lay person, this can be as simple as wearing an evil eye charm or a Thor’s Hammer or other religious symbol. Cleanse it regularly and if you can, bless it. 
• I vacuum and clean my house weekly (though it is cluttered), and khernips the hell out of it. 
• We light candles, do fire blessings, and pray almost every night as a family. 
• I pray regularly throughout the day. 
• I khernips my bed whenever I make it. 
• If I have been in a potentially problematic situation, I’ll change my clothes and asperse with khernips when I come home immediately. 
• Then of course, before prayer and ritual, we again asperse with khernips or do some other cleansing. It’s simple and fairly easy. 
• I try, but often fail, to make sure there are no dirty dishes left before I go to bed. There’s an ATR tradition about warding off a particular type of evil spirit if the sink is completely devoid of dishes. 
• I bless the salt in the house and keep it in one large container in the kitchen and this is used for all our cooking and food. 
• We regularly bless our food and drink. 
• Before any divination or spiritwork, we do special prayers, offerings, and cleansings.

There are a few other things too that we do to protect our home. 

If we take our Gods seriously and understand that every time we step into ritual space we have the opportunity to reify Their creative process, then this isn’t too much. With the exception of what we do as specialists, which admittedly is more than the average lay person need worry about, cleansing away pollution and miasma is no more problematic than brushing our teeth, washing our face, and dressing in clean underwear every morning. Anyone who makes it more than that, who goes on and on about how problematic it is, how it’s a red flag, etc. etc., well, take a step back and look at why they’re saying that. Perhaps they themselves are so polluted that such cleansing rites are painful to them. Perhaps they have no desire to be truly clean before the Powers. Perhaps they have no respect for those Powers. Perhaps they are so mired in pollution and foulness that cleanliness seems aberrant to them. Or, perhaps they’re just assholes. 

On Pollution and Miasma in Heathenry

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Every so often this topic rears its head again, because you know, it goes against our modern sensibilities that our religion should be occasionally inconvenient. I’ve heard people opining that “miasma” and “pollution” are Greek terms and have no purchase in Heathenry, a pathetic piece of sophistry that ignores the concept in favor of pedantically parsing terms. These are usually the same people who feel that offering so much as a teaspoon of water is so inconvenient as to be oppressive (cue hand to brow and vaporous gasping) and triggering. I could say more on that, but I’ll digress. What I will emphasize is that pollution and purification are absolutely terms of play in Old Norse.

There are numerous terms that might be translated as ‘purification,’ ‘pollution,’ or ‘miasma’ in Old Norse. This is because like most traditions, our ancestors had a sense of what was correct and safe in holy places. Any time you have a sense of sacred space (which we know just from the Sagas that the Norse had), the corollary is – whether written or not—a sense of what constitutes proper behavior within those sacred areas. This implies not only an understanding of spiritual pollution but also of the contagion of the holy. So, I’m going to get right to the point. Pollution and miasma were far, far from alien concepts to pre-Christian Heathens and the language itself bears this out.

Since Heathen Field Guide is talking about his here, and mentioned that he was having difficulty finding appropriate ON terms, I thought I would repost the ones that I have collected (and much thanks to D. Loptson for helping to compile this list). Most of the terms are laid out in footnote one of my book on miasma: “With Clean Minds and Clean Hands.”

I’ve had push back from Heathens and other polytheists for using a term that is specific to Greek polytheism but miasma as a word exists in English and it is a perfectly serviceable word to express a concept of spiritual pollution that is common to nearly all polytheisms. If Heathenry did not have a concept of pollution and cleansing, it would be quite unusual amongst the family of Indo-European religious traditions to which it belongs. We know the Norse and Germanic tribes had clear ideas of the holy and where there is a sense of the holy there is likewise a sense of pollution as a matter of course. Norse words pertaining to holiness and pollution include Helgan (f): sanctity, Helga (v): to appropriate land by performing sacred rites, to hallow to a deity, to proclaim the sanctity of a meeting, saurr (m): mud, dirt, excrement (defilement?), saurga (v): to dirty, defile, pollute, saurgan (f): pollution, defilement, saur-lifi (n): lewdness, fornication, lechery. Its opposite is Hreinlifi, which means chastity. Hreinn is the opposite of saurr. It means clean, bright, clear, pure, sincere (as a noun the same word means reindeer, interestingly enough). Hrein-hjartaðr (a) means pure of heart, Hrein-látr (a): clean, chaste, Hrein-leikr (m): cleanliness, chastity, hrein-liga (adv) cleanly, with purity. We also have Hreinsa (v): to make clean, to cleanse, to purge, to clear and hreinsan (f): cleansing. Then there is the word vé, which means “holy place,” (shrine) and which is such a powerful and important concept that the three creator Gods (Odin, Hoenir, and Loður) may also be called Odin, Vili, and Vé. So when Heathens complain that this is not relevant to Heathen practice, I strongly suggest they think again. It’s not just in the lore, but in the very language our ancestors spoke.

footnote 1 from With Clean Minds and Clean Hands: Miasma – What it is and How to Treat it

 I’ll add a final note. When we talk about pollution in this sense, it’s not a commentary on anyone’s worth. It is not equivalent to “sin.” Even with miasma, in most cases it’s a matter of certain situations having natural consequences and that’s neutral. For instance, I may go to the cemetery to put flowers on my grandmother’s grave. It is, within our traditions a moral good to care for the dead and visit graves. It also puts me in a state of miasma because of the contact with the dead. The solution is to do a cleansing when I return home before I engage with any other sacred thing. Easy enough to manage. This is all about being aware that Gods and spirits are real and that engaging with them affects us in ways we may not be able to see, but ways that nonetheless matter. Likewise, in relation to the Holy Powers, our actions matter too and we should, if we are rightly ordered in our minds, hearts, and spirits, want to be spiritually and energetically clean when we approach Them, or just in general, particularly since miasma and spiritual pollution can attract more pollution, up to and including illness and calamity depending on how much accumulates. It can also block our spiritual discernment. So do a fucking cleansing once in awhile you filthy animals. And don’t forget to wash behind your ears.

“My Gods” – How We Refer to the Holy

Lately I’ve seen some egregiously bad advice percolating around tumblr (no surprise). The most recent is the idea, articulated as though it was historical fact, that to refer to the Gods as ‘my God’ or ‘my Goddess’ is hubris.(1) I’m not sure where this nonsense is coming from but it’s just that: utter, misguided bullshit.(2)

Each devotional relationship with a Deity is unique. To indicate ownership of that relationship by using the possessive acknowledges that reality. It articulates responsibility for one’s role in that relationship. It acknowledges that someone else may have a very different relationship with the same Deity, that the Gods are independent Beings, capable of relating to Their devotees as individuals, unrestricted by the narrow confines of anything written about Them.

To say “my God …” also articulates an essential difference between one’s own tradition and that of whatever interlocutor with whom one might be speaking. It expresses uniqueness, as each Deity is unique and each devotional relationship is unique, while at the same time giving voice to the tremendous power of such relationships. It is indeed possible to engage with the Gods in significant ways. One’s own engagement does not impinge upon someone else also having an equally significant devotional reality. Language is often problematic when it comes to discussing spiritual reality, the Gods, or indeed anything Holy but I do not believe that this is a situation that falls under that particular rubric.

If we rule out such intimate language than we are tacitly agreeing with the idea, promulgated so frequently in academic circles, that polytheists in the ancient world had no personal devotional relationships with their Gods. This is, of course, also nonsense. Use of the possessive acknowledges the unique nature of each devotional relationship and the rich complexity such relationships bring to one’s devotional and religious life. The only hubris lies in not acknowledging that.

1. Not only is it anything but hubris, in many indigenous religions, particularly certain ATR, it is common parlance to refer to “my [insert Deity name here]” precisely as a matter of respect, and a reference to certain initiatory realities. If using such language is “hubris” in one tradition, then the implication is that it is “hubris” in every tradition, which I’m sure was not the intent of the original tumblr post. Still, language is a precise instrument, a tool to foster clarity of expression and sentiments like this matter. Now the main focus of the tumblr in question is a rather narrow type of progressive politics, and I cannot help but wonder if the idea of articulating distinctions in one’s devotional and religious worlds bothers the poster because it is creating a border, distinguishing clearly between your tradition and mine, your Gods and mine, your praxis and mine. I don’t think such distinctions are bad things. I think, for the integrity of traditions, they’re necessary. It also brings clarity to any conversation about these topics; after all, one is not by such possessive usage speaking for the Gods, which would indeed be ethically problematic.
2. So is the same poster’s advice on miasma. Katharmos (cleansing) is NOT just for murder/killing. There are many, many reasons that some type of cleansing might be required. I would suggest R. Parker’s classic text “Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion” or “Inner Purity and Pollution in Greek Religion” by A. Petrovic and I. Petrovic. My Gods, I wish people would read and critically consider what they read. Also, maybe go beyond Homer, ffs.

A Really Good Question from a Reader

Owlet asks: “How do you make right after participating in a ritual or group that is disrespectful?”

This is a really good question and I’m glad you asked it here. It’s something that I’ve had to learn through a lot of trial and error, especially when I was much more open to participating in rituals outside my House, and when I was working in the interfaith world. My answer is two- fold.

Firstly, what you describe (which I quote further below) is the real danger of community involvement and I am so very sorry to learn that this happened to you. It hurts my heart to know that your own devotion was impacted by this. It can be very, very hard to come back from such a thing but I will say this: as we learn better, we do better. You’ve had a valuable experience about what is NOT proper community. That will serve as an incredibly useful lens through which to evaluate every other group with which you consider becoming involved in the future. That can be a great blessing. Hopefully, also, others can learn from your story as well.

Now, you ask what one can do. Firstly, ideally, don’t participate in those groups. It is far, far better to remain solitary than to pollute yourself. I think that the desperation to communicate and share with like-minded individuals sometimes pushes us into these situations and it’s so important, early on, to commit to not compromising where piety and respect for the Gods, ancestors, and land are concerned.  In this, compromise is nota virtue. Evaluate their theology, their politics, their values, their lifestyles, the choices they make large and small. Separate your personal feelings from these things, because a person can be nice and friendly but in the end, poison ideology leads to poisoning of the tradition and our lives. Do the choices they’re making serve the Gods and the tradition or do they seek to elevate the people and ego-stroking, etc. etc. Is it all about the human condition?

It is absolutely lovely to find like-minded polytheists, and to build communities – and in truth, I don’t think our restoration can endure intergenerationally without lived community. The thing is, it’s important that those communities prioritize the Gods qua Gods and if they don’t, shun them like poison.  I would add that we’re never really alone. We have our Gods, we have our ancestors and we can learn from Them and hopefully when we’re ready, They will guide us to working, solid traditions that will augment our relationships with the Gods, not shit on them. 

So first and foremost, I would say, avoid these senseless or impious groups. That means making conscious devotional choices about what to prioritize, and about your religious life, and with whom you share that. It means doing some research, asking uncomfortable questions before participating. It means being willing to walk away from groups and people that do not nourish  one’s piety. That means weighing everything and most of all being absolutely unwilling to compromise on the key fundamentals of polytheistic practice. I think with the influence of pseudo-progressivism in our communities, we’ve been indoctrinated to think of ‘compromise’ as a virtue across the board. It’s not. If I’m in a ship and the hull is compromised, that’s not a good thing. That is in fact, life threatening. It’s the same with the type of pollution that we can all too often find in certain places.

Owlet’s post continued: “I spent many years as a solitary pagan and polytheist, because I lived in an area where the culture was unusually hostile to such things. When I moved to a large urban center and university town, I immediately got involved in pagan events and groups. I was desperate to be a part of a community. To one group , in particular, I donated hundreds (or more) volunteer hours, a great deal of money, handcrafted ritual items…everything I could give. As I learned over the years, the people running and organizing these events and rituals often did not believe in the gods as anything more than thoughtforms or maybe archetypes, or were at the core monotheists or Christians with a thin overlay of pagan dress. Their disrespect spread from their relationship with the gods, to their relationship with the land, to the ancestors, and to other people, and I played along and became complicit. Now that I’ve left and can stand back, I feel heartsick at the compromises I made to please these groups. The service I gave to these communities distracted from and damaged my relationships with the holy powers instead of strengthening them.”

Again, it hurts to read this and my heart goes out to you, but look at it as a learning experience. It’s often difficult, especially when we’re all hungry for community and companionship, to recognize when something or someone is problematic. We learn, often from harsh experience. I would encourage you to not carry guilt over this. Go before your Gods and ask Their forgiveness if you feel the need, and do a ritual cleansing and then commit to doing better. Sometimes, it’s really, really important to have these bad experiences so we have a baseline from which to clearly and accurately evaluate practices. The most important thing in what you’ve sadly experienced is that now you can look on these things clearly and make better, informed choices. There’s no need for shame about any of that. You contributed to a community that you thought shared your piety. That’s a good thing to do. It’s not your fault that the community was not what you thought. Please don’t carry the guilt from this.  Sometimes we appreciate devotion and piety and right relationship all the more when we’ve had an experience of its opposite and the effects of that.

What I would suggest is prayer – we cannot pray too much—and regular cleansings. Whenever I find that I’ve been exposed or have inadvertently exposed myself (and sometimes my spiritual Work requires this) to pollution, I will pray and cleanse myself, sometimes using divination to figure out what type of cleansing is needed. I always suggest going to the Gods, going to the ancestors, going to the land and reconnecting. Ask Them for help and cleansing, ask Them for guidance and don’t be afraid to set boundaries with would-be communities.

Don’t Piss off Apollon

Once a month I do readings at a local shop. The owner is a friend of mine, it helps her out, and I usually enjoy doing it. Yesterday was one of those days. Now when I do this, I don’t take my entire kit. I choose two or three systems and yesterday, I decided to make offerings to Hermes, Apollon, and Dionysos with the intention of reading with a sortilege system owned by Apollon, and the Dionysian leaves. I had one client. It was a clusterfuck.

The client Mikey (yes, his actual name. after what happened, fuck it. I’m not using a pseudonym) came in asking with what decks I read. I carefully explained that I would not be reading with tarot, and explained the systems I use. He asked me and the young man behind the counter several times, a little confused that I didn’t use cards. I’ve found that tarot is so well known that people often have trouble understanding that there are other systems of divination out there, so I didn’t mind the questions but I had a feeling that he was going to be an unpleasant client. Still, people don’t generally come to us when things are going well (though they should! It’s best to get divination quarterly – I do for myself as a matter of course and was always counseled to do so by my elders because it is preventative) and it’s our job as diviners to sometimes deal with people in crisis. He was supposed to have a half hour reading. It lasted about an hour and a half and from the beginning it was ugly.

I began the reading with a system dedicated to Apollon and, of course, as always before seeing any clients, I did my opening prayers, which included a prayer to Apollon. Mikey was unhappy and irritated that I was using a sortilege system and not cards. He kept getting frustrated when he received answers he didn’t like. He kept asking the same question or series of questions in different ways because he didn’t like the answers. He outright refused to do any prescription given to him to better his situation and then he started getting rude and rather aggressive. At this point, I told him that if he was unwilling to do the prescription then he wasn’t going to get what he wanted. He started to argue, becoming both whiny and belligerent and …that’s the point when Apollon gave him a seizure.

I felt Apollon reach through the crown of my head and push out and at that point Mikey had a seizure ( just when his level of disrespect for the ordered space of the mat, the divination process, the diviner and by extension the Gods involved reached a certain level. It didn’t help that he sort of insulted Apollon’s mother). I sat through it, gave him some further advice when it was done (more counseling than divination) and finally got him to leave. He staggered out and it is my sincere wish that he never, ever returns to plague any future diviner who might happen to be on the premises.

I found out from the young man handling the counter that Mikey has a long history of becoming verbally abusive to diviners and has even made one particular diviner cry. When he’s not told what he wants, he verbally attacks them. It never got that far with me (probably good for Mikey’s sake, because I’d have bodily thrown him out. I don’t take shit like that from clients or anyone else). Apparently, several diviners who frequent the shop have refused to read for him. My question to the shop: why do you allow him to keep coming in? I don’t find that particularly ethical.

At any rate, the level of pollution was so intense that I felt the need to do divination to see if I could keep seeing clients or if I needed to go home and cleanse. Pollution is one thing, and Mikey was riddled with it, but being hit with pollution (as when a client moves from passive pollution to active offense against the Gods) when in an altered state is worse. Ironically the diviner is extremely vulnerable when in that open headspace. I initially asked “Do I need to leave?” And the answer was ‘no.’ Then I asked “Does Apollon want me to leave.” And I got a definite ‘yes.’ So I followed up by using Apollon’s oracle to ask for confirmation and received the following verse:

“Take the tripod and carry it from the temple…”

I immediately packed up and went home, texting my husband on the way to prepare a cleansing bath. As soon as I got home I went through intense cleansing and then did divination to see if I could continue to read in such a venue. (I can, but I now have new protocols for all in person clients).

Sannion also told me something that I didn’t know or had forgotten: there are accounts of Apollon doing exactly this in antiquity when his oracles were shown disrespect. Some Gods are more forgiving of such violations than others, but in the end, it’s not a game, it’s not a parlor trick, and it’s not for entertainment. Divination is sacred and when the diviner is at the mat he or she is serving in some cases as a direct mouthpiece for the Gods and ancestors. It is sacred work. It’s unfortunate that most clients no longer realize that and I think those of us who do this work in our communities have the added burden and obligation of teaching people anew how to position this as a sacral practice and how to approach the mat with reverence…because there are consequences when one doesn’t.

It’s not our job, as I was told yesterday, to make the client comfortable. It is our job to do the work. It is our job to be clean interpreters and transmitters of what the Gods and spirits provide. It is however, a reality that we will deal with clients – many quite well meaning—who do not know how to behave. I’m still a little stunned by yesterday and I have no answers for that. My protocols have been tightened to give them better warning and I do prepare most clients as well as I can but still…as the saying goes, shit happen. Sometimes, that’s going to backfire on those clients. Apollon especially is not a God with which to trifle. He protects those in His service.

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