Protect your Peace: Spiritual Cleansing & Protection in Astrology
As an astrologer and magical practitioner, I’m regularly asked what my most frequent rituals are, and how I manage to create potent magic. The answer to both of these questions is: a strong spiritual hygiene & protection routine!
When the topic of spiritual protection is evoked, powerful and spectacular curses coming straight out of a movie can come to mind; while this is possible, most of us have dealt with spiritual attacks that are more akin to nuisance. Voluntary or not, the envy of other people, someone in your life feeling spited or some hostile energy in the home can all contribute to weakening our spiritual defences. This can result in psychic and physical symptoms: fatigue, frequent migraines, nightmares, low motivation, melancholy… Although less spectacular (and sometimes less noticeable), these intrusions in our spiritual sphere can lead to recurring irritations that, on the long run, can make us as vulnerable as the aforementioned “big” attacks.
Fortunately, a wide array of solutions is at our disposal, and doesn’t require enormous amounts of resources! Rather, it should be treated like regular hygiene, such as cleaning your home our showering — actions that can be conducted everyday, and that are most efficient not in their magnitude but in their regularity!
The topic of energetic cleansing and protection can sometimes awaken feelings of stress or guilt: “what if I don’t do it regularly enough?”, “is something bad going to happen to me if I do something wrong?”, and so on. This guide is not intended to chastise or scare you, but instead to offer some resources and support for those who are curious about spiritual protection and how to integrate energetic hygiene into their daily life. As long as your attitude is respectful, you’re good! Let’s dive in.
Introduction
Spiritual cleansing and protection rituals have been practiced across cultures and civilizations for millennia, serving as a means to maintain harmony, balance, and inner peace while shielding an individual and their home from unwanted energies. These practices not only clear away negative energies but also fortify our spiritual boundaries, allowing us to navigate the world with clarity and strength. Although a lot of astrological texts and practices are not necessarily focused on theurgy and therefore do not explicitly mention protective (or any kind) of magic, it is absolutely possible to use astrological magic to build a protection and cleansing regimen! What follows is a combination of my astrological studies and personal experience with protective astrological magic — take this as an introduction, as I will write more on this topic in the future!
Decluttering & Banishing
Before implementing any protective measures (shields, spells…), clearing your “working space” — your body, mind and environment — of negative energy is primordial. This will allow you to get rid of stagnant or unwanted spirits, things that are tied to your person, conscious or not (envy, negativity, ill wishes or simply things that do not belong to you). The step-by-step “spiritual decluttering” I describe below is best applied daily if you can as a start. After a couple of weeks, you will notice improved clarity and strength.
Note that a variety of rituals and occult practices exist across time and cultures. For me, these steps have been the most effective.
Meditation
Ah, yes. You didn’t think it would be this simple, did ya? Meditation means many things to many people — in our case, we are using a simple technique: focusing on something (usually your breath) in order to train your awareness. As someone who has struggled heavily with this and, at a point in my life, came to see meditation as something impossible for me to do, trust me, it used to be a tough one! But there is a good reason why this one is first in the list.
Meditation is the best way to familiarise yourself with your internal state and increase mindfulness. Awareness of your body & mind (and what they’re normally up to) is key in a spiritual practice as it increases your ability to spot your different states, including when something intrudes in your psyche. Meditation allows you to develop a sense of what belongs to you vs what doesn’t: if you’re feeling irritated, sad or stressed, mindfulness allows you to “get back into yourself” and see whether these emotions are caused by something external. In turn, your ability to meditate (which increases over time and practice) will allow to to regain a state of peace and implement boundaries around it.
If you’re just starting out, I recommend doing 10 minutes of meditation per day, either right after sunrise or before sunset. Sit upright, and take three deep breathes to start off with. You can keep your eyes open or closed, but the point is to focus on a single thing (you can focus on your breath, but an image or object is also fine). Every time you feel your attention drifting away, focus back on your breath. It is normal for your attention to constantly drift away — don’t judge yourself for it! Just gently pull your attention back and continue. This is likely all you will be doing for a while — catch yourself drifting, focus back on your breath and repeat! When you do this, you are meditating! Think of it as strength training: getting started is the hardest part, but with practice you will become increasingly less frustrated and increasing your mindfulness.
As I do planetary devotion every day, sitting at my planetary altar for the day is usually when I meditate (on a given planet). You can also use the planetary hour of the Sun to meditate!
2. Banishing
Once you have gained a clearer state of mind with meditation and decluttered your mind, it is time to declutter your space. Banishing is a magical practice which consists in actively removing unwanted influence through a ritual. There are many banishing rituals out there — performed with objects such as candles and powders or not, complex or not — but here we are interested in a simple, daily one that will not require any object in particular.
I use the banishing ritual outlined by Jason Miller in his book Protection & Reversal Magick which I recommend — but for starters, you can also use the staple Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram as created by the Golden Dawn order.
I also recommend doing this during Sun hour if you can. The Sun is the planet of light, truth, clarity and clairvoyance — it chases darkness away. Asking for the help of the Sun in this matter can be of great help to assist you with getting rid of parasitic and/or draining energy.
Protection & Defences
Once you have cleared the space of unfriendly and draining energies, you are ready to implement protective measures for yourself and your space. Bear in mind that the repetition of these actions is what makes them most potent, akin to strengthening a fortification over time, stone by stone, defence by defence. The cycles of the Moon are of precious help for this purpose: for monthly rituals, I recommend doing them when the moon is waning (decreasing in light): while a waxing Moon attracts and increases opportunities, a waning Moon leaves behind what no longer serves.
In order to build protection and defences, this is what I recommend:
Clean Up!
A protected spiritual space starts with a clean physical space. The home is your sanctuary, and the place when psychic attacks are more likely to target you. In order for your defences to be efficient, regularly cleaning your home is a must. You can use witchy staples such as Florida water or bluing, but good old regular cleaning is more than enough! This gives you a fresh canva to build protections on.
Venus is the planet associated with cleanliness. Doing daily cleaning on Venus hour, and weekly chores on Venus day (Friday) is a good way to ensure that your home remains free of cluttering and stagnant energy — in addition to being an excellent devotional practice to Venus! You can also burn sweet-smelling incense as an offering to the friendly spirits that watch over you and your home. Venusian incenses such as jasmine, rose or benzoin are excellent candidates. If you need to do activities that are more explicitly geared towards “purging” and purifying, doing these weekly chores on Sundays is also appropriate. My great-grandmother — who lived on Reunion islans — used to burn eucalyptus leaves to purify the home, so a (safe to burn) eucalyptus incense can also work!
2. Offerings
Once your home is clean, you will want to pay homage to the spirits that protect you and your home. For some people, this will look like ancestral devotion — like leaving some food and drinks on your ancestral altars. For others, it will be all about acquainting yourself with the friendly guardians that inhabit your living space. Many cultures burn offerings such as incense, wood or even drinks as it is believed that spirits consume the smoke and smell of these things, not their physical form.
Paying your respect to your house and personal spirits is a good way to build up your spiritual defences. Not only are you building deeper bonds with those friendly beings that can help you connect in a meaningful way with the spaces you are a custodian of, but it also serves a protective purpose — intrusive energy and spiritual attacks will have a harder time trying to bypass the fierce defences you have collaboratively put in place.
I recommend building a dedicated altar place where you can leave food and drink offerings. This may be left to the discretion to your dedicated deities, but in general I recommend leaving weekly offerings on Mondays (the day of the Moon, responsible for food, drinks and the transmission of energy between realms). You can leave fruits, parts of what you cook (that doesn’t go bad quickly), sweets, and drinks. I like to leave a glass of fresh water I replace every day. As you do this, thank the spirits for watching over you and asked for their renewed protection and benevolence.
3. Ritual Cleansing Bath
In many traditions, baths and the spraying of water act both as a rite of passage, symbolising the entry into and exit from liminal spaces (ex: baptisms), but also as a protective, purifying moment (washing away Evil Eye intentions, asking to be freed from “sin” or negative influences). Taking a monthly cleansing bath can help you get rid of negative or unwanted energies, as well as build up protection
Note that a cleansing bath is not something to clean yourself — make sure yo have showered or bathed/used shampoo prior to the cleansing bath. My eclipse & lunar Nodes guidebook and course both contain a detailed cleansing ritual to do around the time of an eclipse — which can be adapted into a simple monthly ritual. A ritual bath generally entails a smoke bath (using incense), a cord-cutting tool, any protective herb of your choice (I use bay leaves), reciting protective incantations and/or prayers (psalm 23 is a staple) and any protective talismans and/or materia of your choice. Here is an excerpt from the cleansing protocol I wrote:
“Bring some water to a boil or high heat, and put your bay leaves in this water to infuse. I recommend waiting at least 10-15 minutes for the leaves to fully infuse, and you are welcome to wait longer. Once this is done, strain the water over a big bowl or pitcher, and recite a prayer (I recite psalms 23 and 51) over the water as it cools down. This pitcher will be used later during the ritual when you’re in the bath to clear up unwanted energy […] When you are ready to undertake the ritual, remove your clothes and draw a bath. Light up some incense (frankincence or dragon’s blood), and carefully move it around your body to initiate the ritual…” — Read the full ritual in my guidebook.
As highlighted before, this ritual is best conducted on Sundays — to use the solar significance of chasing away darkness, purification and protection. After a cleansing bath, I like to use the Apollo Exalted Sun materia I made, which was specifically consecrated under the spirit of Apollo Apotropaios (“Averter of Evil”), known to repeal evil eye and spiritual attacks. Alkaid is one of my other favourites and a fixed star I regularly work with, perfect to protect the wearer from theft and spiritual attacks. Which leads me to my next part…
4. Amulets, Talismans, Materia & Co.
Finally, you can equip yourself with amulets, talismans and magical ensouled objects. Throughout history, talismans crafted under specific astrological alignments are believed to harness the planetary energies for a wide range of purposes: attracting luck, warding off the evil eye... These talismans serve as potent tools for warding off negative influences and building protection.
Some talismans do not necessitate a specific alignment or configurations: amulets such as the Evil eye/malocchio, the hand of Fatima and other charms are simply potent by way of their construction, and are placed in homes or objects to chase away bad energies and intentions. Other objects are crafted with specific ingredients, rituals or under certain specific conditions for this purpose (read my “What is a talisman?” article here). These objects, coupled with an ongoing ritual practice can help strengthen the help and protection you receive as you cultivate with these rituals!
For a stronger, more potent and “in your face” kind of protection, I recommend the Mars cazimi in Scorpio talismanic series I created back in October 2023, which focuses on repelling attacks and building strong defences (warning: potent). For a warmer, gentler preventive and ongoing support, I recommend Apollo’s Exalted Sun series I created in April 2023 — for attracting solar qualities and people while keeping jealousy and spiritual attacks at bay.
I hope you enjoyed this article, thank you for reading through! Once again, remember that the best protection is regular protection, and that there is an infinity of ways to take care of your emotional and spiritual well-being! Stay safe and protected 🧿
