The first thing we learned about energy clearing was from a woman in a small shop in New Orleans who told us to wash our hands in cold water after every tarot reading. “You pick up everything,” she said. “The water lets it go.” That simple gesture is the root of every personal cleansing practice we have encountered. Personal energy clearing is the deliberate removal of residual or foreign energy from your own subtle body, using water, smoke, sound, or breath. It is not a luxury. It is maintenance.
Learn how to cleanse yourself of unwanted energy with water, smoke, sound, and breath. A reference guide to personal energy clearing from Le Grand Grimoire.
What Is Personal Energy Clearing, Really?
The phrase sounds modern, but the act is ancient. Every culture has a version of washing something off that cannot be seen. The Greeks called it khernips — lustral water made by plunging a burning torch into a bowl, then sprinkling it on participants before a ritual. The Romans had lustratio, a purification procession around fields and homes. The goal was the same: to remove what clung but was not yours.
In occult terms, personal energy clearing addresses the subtle body — the layer of energy that surrounds and interpenetrates the physical. Practitioners of Theosophy in the late 19th century, especially C. W. Leadbeater, mapped this as the aura, a field of seven layers that absorb impressions from people, places, and emotions. When you walk through a crowded train station or sit through an argument, your energy field collects residue. Clearing is the equivalent of taking a shower for that field.
Where Do These Practices Come From? A Brief History
The oldest recorded cleansing method is water. In the Iliad (circa 8th century BCE), warriors washed their hands before prayer, not for hygiene but for ritual purity. The Greeks believed that bloodshed, death, and even bad dreams left a stain that required water to remove. Households kept a bowl of salt water by the door, not for cooking, but because travelers brought more than stories.
Smoke cleansing appears in the Hebrew Bible. In Leviticus 16, the high priest burns incense to create a cloud that covers the mercy seat, purifying the space before the Day of Atonement. The practice spread through Mediterranean and European folk magic. By the Middle Ages, European households burned juniper, rosemary, or thyme to clear sickness and bad luck — a practice documented in the 17th-century Clavis Artis manuscripts.
The modern term “psychic hygiene” comes from Dion Fortune, a British occultist who published Psychic Self-Defense in 1930. She described the subtle body as a “magnetic field” that could be drained or contaminated by contact with distressed people, haunted places, or magical attack. Her solution was practical: cold baths, salt, and visualization. Fortune’s work remains the most cited text on the subject in Western occultism.
In the 1970s, the New Age movement absorbed Native American smudging practices, particularly white sage (Salvia apiana), and spread them globally. We note with caution that this adoption has been controversial. Many Indigenous communities consider sage smudging a closed practice tied to specific ceremonies. We document it here as a historical fact, not an endorsement of its use outside its original context.
The symbolism of cleansing tools is not arbitrary. Water is the universal solvent. In alchemy, it represents the prima materia, the formless substance from which everything emerges and to which everything returns. Running water carries energy away. Still water absorbs it. That is why cold running water (a tap, a stream) is preferred for personal clearing.
Smoke is a carrier. When plant material burns, it releases volatile compounds that bind to particles in the air. The smoke rises, and as it does, it lifts stagnant energy with it. The smell itself triggers a psychological reset. Rosemary contains camphor, a compound that stimulates alertness. Sage contains thujone, which has a mild sedative effect. The body responds before the mind decides.
Sound works by vibration. A singing bowl, a bell, or even your own voice produces frequencies that break up clumps of stagnant energy. The principle is sympathetic resonance: the vibration of the sound forces the energy field to vibrate at the same frequency, shaking loose what is stuck. This is why Tibetan singing bowls are struck before meditation, and why church bells were rung during epidemics, not only to call worshippers but to “clear the air.”
We practice all four in our own work. None requires special tools. None requires belief. They work because the subtle body responds to intention and physical action.
1. Water Cleansing
The simplest method. Run cold water over your hands and forearms for thirty seconds. Visualize the water pulling away everything that is not yours. For a deeper cleanse, add a pinch of sea salt to a basin of cold water and splash your face, neck, and wrists. Salt is a conductor and a preservative. It draws out moisture and, by extension, energy.
We do this after every divination session and after any conversation that leaves us feeling heavy. The water does not need to be blessed. It needs to be cold and moving.
2. Smoke Cleansing
Light a dried bundle of rosemary, thyme, or lavender (or a stick of palo santo, which is sustainably harvested in South America). Let it catch, then blow out the flame so it smolders. Fan the smoke over your body, starting at your feet and moving upward. Pay attention to the crown of your head and the backs of your hands, places where energy enters and exits.
We light ours in a fireproof bowl on the balcony. The smoke drifts over our hands and face. The smell is sharp and green. It is not decoration. It is the altar.
3. Sound Cleansing
Use a bell, a singing bowl, or a set of chimes. Strike the object once near your head, then move it down the front of your body, striking at the throat, heart, and solar plexus. The sound should be clear and sustained. If you do not have a tool, clap your hands sharply three times above your head and once behind your back. The clap breaks the energy field and resets it.
4. Breath Cleansing
Sit upright. Inhale through your nose for four counts. Hold for four counts. Exhale through your mouth for eight counts, making a soft “ha” sound. Repeat seven times. The long exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system and releases tension from the diaphragm, where emotional residue often lodges. This is adapted from the pranayama practice known as dirgha or three-part breath, documented in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (circa 400 CE).
The terms overlap but are not identical. Psychic self-defense (Dion Fortune’s term) refers to protecting yourself from deliberate or accidental psychic attack, shielding, warding, banishing. It is reactive. Aura cleansing (from Theosophy) is a broader practice of clearing the entire energy field, often done by a healer on a client. Personal energy clearing is the self-administered version of aura cleansing. It is maintenance, not defense.
Reiki practitioners call it byosen, the clearing of stagnant energy before a treatment. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is part of qi gong: the “cleansing breath” that moves stuck qi out of the meridians. The methods differ, but the principle is universal: energy moves or it stagnates. Stagnation is the problem.
Common Misconceptions
“You need special tools.” You do not. Cold water and your own hands are enough. Tools can help focus intention, but they are not required.
“It is a religious practice.” It can be, but it does not have to be. Cleansing with water or breath requires no deity, no belief system. It is a physical act with a psychological and energetic effect.
“It only removes negative energy.” It also clears neutral residue, the dull static of a long day, the emotional echo of a crowded room, the leftover intensity of a strong emotion. Clearing is not about good versus bad. It is about resetting to your baseline.
“You do it once and you are done.” Energy clearing is routine, like brushing your teeth. We do it after every ritual, after every client session, and whenever we feel “sticky”, that vague sense of carrying something that does not belong to us.
FAQ
How often should I cleanse myself?
As often as you feel the need. Many practitioners do a quick hand wash after every social interaction or divination session, and a full smoke or sound cleanse weekly.
Can I do it without tools?
Yes. Cold water and breath are always available. Visualization alone, imagining a white light washing through your body, works for some people, though we find that physical action strengthens the effect.
Does it work for anxiety?
It can help with the physical symptoms of anxiety by resetting your nervous system, but it is not a substitute for medical care. The breath technique alone lowers heart rate and cortisol.
Is it cultural appropriation to use sage?
It can be. White sage (Salvia apiana) is sacred to several Native American tribes, and its commercial overharvesting threatens the plant. We recommend using rosemary, thyme, or lavender instead, plants with their own long European folk magic traditions.
The woman in New Orleans was right. The water lets it go. But the real lesson is that clearing is not a one-time fix. It is a habit, a small discipline that keeps the subtle body from becoming a dumping ground for everyone else’s energy. We do it because we have to, not because we are fragile. Because we are porous.
For a deeper look at the tools and techniques, explore our complete guide to energy cleansing. If you want to understand the subtle body itself, read about the aura and its layers. And for a step-by-step ritual using water and salt, see our salt bath cleansing guide.