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Dear Soul Arcanum:
Though I’m not totally convinced about the law of attraction, I do try to remain positive, grateful and optimistic. However, beginning in October 2008, a tornado has hit my existence; it’s taken everything up high in the air and let it all fall back in a jumble. My mom died a long, degrading death. I’m divorcing and leaving my beautiful house in the countryside for an apartment in the city. Money is tight. I’m in the process of moving to a small studio apartment over my father’s house. It’s where we brought my mom from the hospital to die; it was converted into a hospital room for two weeks so she would feel surrounded by our love and care. It offers a beautiful view of the city lights. I’m about to go live there, and even as a temporary solution, the idea of sleeping where my mom’s soul left her body makes me worry about bad vibes. Are they blessed vibrations, carrying her wishes, or are they echoes of suffering and her difficult end? Please reply: I desperately need healthy energy at this stage in my life. Be well always!
Dorothea
Dear Dorothea:
I see two main reasons a person may be concerned about moving into a space where someone recently died. The first is the possibility that the dead may not have crossed over and may therefore be a “ghost” haunting that locale. One big reason we tend to fear ghosts is because people of a highly developed spiritual nature don’t generally become them; instead, they enjoy a quick, smooth transition when they leave this world. Since it is dark and troubled souls who tend to get lost on their way to “heaven,” most ghosts are not the sort of spirits we would want to befriend.
When people of a kind, loving nature do linger in the place where they died, it’s almost always because they died so suddenly that they don’t realize they are no longer living. I very much doubt you have to worry about your mother’s spirit becoming a ghost, for in dying a slow death, she had a lot of time to make peace with the idea that she would soon be leaving this world. If your mother does remain nearby for some reason, you may be blessed to have more interaction with her by moving into this space, for you’ll spend a lot of time in a hypnagogic state as you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning. This could be a very positive experience for you. As long as you don’t begin to have health problems or feel drained or depressed, I wouldn’t worry about her spirit having a negative effect on you.
Of course, most of the time when people are concerned about inhabiting a space where someone died, it’s because of the energy that may be lingering in the psychic atmosphere. It is true that the events that take place in a space leave psychic impressions. This is why temples tend to feel peaceful and sacred, while places where bad things happened may feel frightening or creepy. Subtle energy is a lot of like germs: just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there and can’t affect you. Fortunately, this also means if you clean the space on a psychic level, you won’t have to worry about contamination by harmful energies. All cultures have practiced some form of ritual designed to protect and bless a dwelling and its inhabitants, for on a deep, intuitive level, we know that creating a healthy, positive psychic atmosphere will promote mental and emotional well-being just like creating a clean physical environment promotes physical health and well-being.
If your mother suffered a great deal when she was dying, then you are wise to pay attention to the vibes in your new apartment. Since it’s entirely possible that the main energy there is that of the love you surrounded her with as she was dying, the first thing to do is intuitively read the apartment’s energy. The next time you go there, pause outside the door, clear your mind, turn your psychic senses on and ask Spirit to help you sense the energy in the apartment. As you walk in the door, pause again and send your psychic feelers out. What does the space feel like to you? What feelings, impressions, images or thoughts come to you as you absorb the energy in the atmosphere? While we’ve all been in places that felt unusually good or bad to us, the energy in this space will probably be far more subtle, so you’ll have to pay careful attention and trust the intuitive impressions that come to you.
Next, keep in mind that what you do on a physical level will impact the psychic atmosphere. One of the simplest and most effective things you can do is thoroughly clean the space. In addition to dusting, polishing, sweeping and washing the floors, you might also wash the walls. I would add lavender to the water as a gentle purifier, and also smudge with lavender to cleanse the psychic atmosphere. While cleaning the space on a physical level, open all the doors and windows and play some uplifting music. This will get stale energy moving and bring fresh energy in.
If you’re Catholic, you can do the same thing with holy water. Get some from your priest and sprinkle it as you go or better yet, have your priest over to bless the house. If you like working with aromatherapy, you might follow this up by using lemon oil to purify the space of unwanted vibrations, or lemon verbena to create a high vibration, enhance your intuition, and infuse your new home with love. Lemon verbena is great for dispelling heavy energy and lightening the psychic atmosphere; it can also help you wipe the psychic slate clean to make a new beginning.
Once you’ve cleansed the space, you’ll want to bless it and begin to bring your own essence in. Just as pain and suffering can linger in the atmosphere, so can love and joy. This may be how the whole tradition of having a house warming party got started: it was one way to bring loving, happy vibes into a new dwelling. You might throw a party and invite lots of good friends and positive people, or just gather the people you know who have the best spiritual energy to help you bless the space.
When everyone gets there, it would be powerful to join together in some sort of conscious ritual to bless your home. You can go through a Wiccan ritual of sealing the doors and windows to unwanted influences and walking through the space, singing or chanting to fill it with positive energy, or you can simply join the people present in prayer. The more personal this ritual is to you, the more powerful it will tend to be. Here’s an example of a blessing to get you started:
Mother/Father/God, please bless this house and all who live here. Fill this dwelling with the energies of peace, health, happiness, harmony and love. Let this space shine with divine light and beauty and provide a warm, comfortable haven from the world. I envision this home supporting my well-being on every level and in every way, and have faith that it will be so.
As you perform the blessing, vividly imagine what you’re saying: See your home shining with light and supporting you in every way.
I also encourage you to recognize that, though your life has been turned upside down in many ways, you are in a great position to start manifesting a brighter future. Instead of lamenting what used to be, embrace this as a powerful time to begin a new chapter of your life, and expect wonderful new blessings to come your way.