Why Do You Cleanse?

I'm not above changing my viewpoint, my practice, or my opinion when something makes me stop and think. Recently, someone asked me for different ways to cleanse. It wasn't the first time—I've been asked that question more times than I can count. Hell, I even have an entire chapter on cleansing in my book.

Answering the question wasn't the issue. The question it led me to was. Or should I say the series of questions it led me to was the issue. If you consider questioning an issue.

We spend a lot of time talking about how to cleanse, but almost no time talking about why we cleanse in the first place, or even where the notion that we need to spiritually cleanse everything came from. And I don't mean the stock answer of, "To remove negative energy." I mean, why do we believe that in the first place? The older I get, the more interested I become in asking where our beliefs come from rather than simply accepting they're true because everyone repeats them.

Think about it. We're told to cleanse new purchases, used purchases, crystals, tarot decks, jewelry, our homes, and ourselves after being around people, after rituals...sometimes it feels like we're expected to cleanse every damn thing.

Except mundane things—which I've talked about before.

You never hear witches or spiritual people talking about cleansing your groceries, your bottle of water, or that watermelon you're about to cut into. Nobody is telling you to spiritually cleanse your loaf of bread before making a sandwich.

But if it's a tarot deck, a crystal, some other occult item, or even your own person… "You better cleanse it, or the devil's going to get your ass."

So...Why?

What are we actually removing?

Where did this belief come from?

One of the comments that got me thinking was from someone who said they don't believe unwanted energy attaches to their aura. That wasn't the only thing that sparked this train of thought, but it definitely got the wheels turning. Keep in mind that in my practice, I don't believe the aura is some separate energy field floating around our meat suit. I believe it's part of our soul—part of our actual being.

So yeah, that comment really struck a nerve with me.

If I say I have boundaries...If I say your bad mood won't automatically affect me… Then why would I assume your energy is? And that's when I realized something. I don't think I'd ever really stopped to question one of the biggest assumptions behind energetic cleansing itself.

What's funny is that years ago I did the whole energetic cleansing thing. Energetic cleanse for this. Energetic cleanse for that. Cleanse the cards. Cleanse the fucking crystals. Cleanse everything.

Then one day I realized something.

Every time I cleansed my tools, I felt like I was erasing part of their story instead of helping them. It didn't feel like it was benefiting my items, my practice, or even me. So I stopped cleansing my tools; I stopped cleansing my crystals. Then, almost by accident, I stopped energetically cleansing myself all the time too. Not because I made some big declaration. I just didn't feel like I needed to. I never really questioned why. I simply stopped doing it often. It wasn't until recently that I realized I'd never stepped back and questioned the bigger picture.

At some point, many of us accepted the idea that energy sticks to people and objects. We talk about removing someone else's energy from an item or washing unwanted energy off ourselves after being in public.

But where did that idea come from? Is it something your tradition teaches? Something you've personally experienced? Or is it something we've all heard repeated so many times that we accepted it without ever asking questions? Before anyone misunderstands me, I'm not saying cleansing is bad. I obviously don't think that. I still cleanse when I feel it's necessary, and I've taught different methods of cleansing for years.

And yes, before someone points it out, I have posts about cleansing—including one on egg cleanses—and I'll still be sharing them. This isn't me saying cleansing isn't real or that it has no place in my practice.

What I'm questioning isn't how we use cleansing. It's why we believe it's necessary in the situations we do.

Those of you who've followed me for a while know I've talked before about not feeling the need to cleanse every object that comes into my home. Sometimes another person's energetic imprint isn't harmful. Sometimes it's neutral. Sometimes it can even be beneficial. I've spoken before about objects carrying memories, history, or serving as a connection to spirits.

But until recently, I hadn't turned that same line of questioning toward myself. More specifically, toward the idea of energetic cleansing of the person. Why do we believe?

As an intuitive medium who walks between worlds, you'd think this would be a hot topic in my household and practice. You'd probably assume that after every investigation, every spirit communication, every cemetery visit, or every haunted location, I'd be rushing home to smoke cleanse myself, ring bells, throw salt over my shoulder, or whatever else social media says I should be doing.

The funny thing is...I don't.

Even after paranormal investigations, I rarely feel the need to energetically cleanse myself. That's not because I don't believe spirits exist or because I don't believe energy exists. Obviously I do. My work would make very little sense otherwise.

Why do we believe unwanted energy attaches to us in the first place?

Does all energy linger? Or only certain kinds? If every interaction leaves energy behind, why doesn't most of it naturally fade away? What determines whether something stays or simply passes through? And if I truly believe I have healthy energetic boundaries, then why would I assume every stranger's mood, every haunted location, or every difficult experience automatically follows me home?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized we've started treating energy like it's a contagious fucking disease that needs to be lysoled cleaned. Buy a crystal? Cleanse it. Someone touches your tarot deck? Freak the fuck out...then cleanse it. Walk through a crowded store? Better cleanse yourself and remove the cooties! Someone gives you a gift? Better cleanse that too, just to be safe. It's almost as if we've started treating energy like it's some sticky substance like an unwelcome version of Venom that clings to everything it comes into contact with.

But does it? In my opinion...

No.

Energy moves. It's always moving.

Sure, sometimes a place can become stagnant and need a little help getting things flowing again, but stagnant doesn't automatically mean negative.

Everything around us exists in cycles of change. Water evaporates. Fire burns out. Wind shifts direction. Emotions come and go. Memories fade. Seasons change. So where did the assumption come from that energy is somehow different? That it sticks to us indefinitely until we perform some kind of cleansing ritual?

If every conversation, every stranger, every object, and every place permanently held onto every energetic interaction, we'd be surrounded by thousands of years of accumulated energetic residue that would be so thick and bogged down the world would look like fucking Silent Hill.

That doesn't seem to be how life works, though. Now, that's not to say residue energy isn't real. Do not mistake me. Yes, sometimes less-than-desirable energy can be on an item, in a place, or perhaps even your person and need a little nudge to get it moving.

As a paranormal investigator, residue hauntings are something I've spent years studying. We talk about objects like a grandmother's wedding band carrying memories or a location holding the imprint of repeated experiences.

Residue energy isn't the part I'm questioning.

Part of what I'm questioning is why we've started assuming that residue is automatically negative. That every energetic imprint somehow needs to be scrubbed away. That every energy you interact with needs to be cleansed away.

And this immediately opens other questions.

What actually causes some energy to linger while others simply keep moving? Is it intention? Repeated emotional investment? Trauma? Ritual? Significance? The truth is, we may not know. After all, even in paranormal investigation, we still don't fully understand why some people seem to leave behind a residual imprint while others don't. If we can't answer that question with certainty, how can we confidently claim every interaction leaves behind energy that needs to be cleansed?

And I'm okay admitting that; I don’t know.

What I'm not okay with is acting as though every uncomfortable feeling, every interaction with another person, or every trip to Walmart leaves us spiritually contaminated. That idea has gotten way out of hand, and this isn’t a new thought. The belief it has gotten out of hand is one I have shared for some time now.

Do I believe places where powerful emotions have been experienced repeatedly can feel different? Absolutely. Hell, if I didn't, there wouldn't be much point in me being a paranormal investigator. After all, we're not just looking for ghosts. Do I think objects connected to meaningful events can carry an energetic imprint? Absolutely. From a haunted doll to a cherished family heirloom. Do I think people can leave lasting impressions on us? Of course. But I don't necessarily think that's because their energy glued itself to my aura.

More often than not, those lasting impressions are psychological. Sometimes they're emotional. Sometimes they're spiritual. Sometimes they're all three. But I don't think every bad mood, awkward conversation, or stranger standing next to me in line is attaching itself to my soul.

Yes, I think we can encounter energies we'd rather not carry around. But I also think many of those experiences naturally pass by us if we simply let them. Sometimes you may need to shake it off. Sometimes you can ground yourself. Sometimes you can take a deep breath, acknowledge what happened, and move on without reaching for incense, smoke, salt, bells, Florida Water, or whatever the latest social media trend tells you to use.

What we call "cleansing" today wasn't historically understood the same way. When I started digging into the history of purification, I found something interesting.

Across many ancient cultures—including the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Hebrews, Celts, and countless others—acts of purification often took place before entering sacred space, before rituals, after contact with death, after childbirth, after illness, after contact with blood, or during important seasonal observances, and putting on clean clothing were all common practices.

These practices marked transitions. They prepared people to step from ordinary life into sacred activity. They weren't necessarily about removing someone else's lingering energy. Burning aromatic plants is also an incredibly old practice. Long before modern witchcraft discussions about "cleansing energy," people throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia burned plants like juniper, cedar, mugwort, pine, rosemary, frankincense, myrrh, and many others. Those plants served many different purposes. Some were offerings. Some symbolized purification. Some smelled pleasant. Some helped repel insects. Some had medicinal value.

Likewise, folk magic often blended practical household care with spiritual symbolism. People hung herbs over doorways. Sprinkled salt across thresholds. Swept their homes. Washed floors with herbal infusions. Burned juniper after illness had passed through a household. Looking back, it's often difficult to separate where practical sanitation ended and spiritual symbolism began. Cleaning a home after sickness and fumigating it with herbs could have practical benefits while also helping people feel spiritually renewed.

That historical context matters. Because it reminds us that purification has never had one single universal purpose. Sometimes it was about reverence. Sometimes preparation. Sometimes hygiene. Sometimes protection. Sometimes symbolism. Not simply removing "negative energy."

And that's where another question started nagging at me.

From what I've found, the idea that nearly everything needs to be energetically cleansed seems to be a fairly modern development. It appears to have spread through metaphysical books, internet forums, YouTube, and social media until it became one of those things people rarely question.

Historically, purification was usually connected to specific moments or transitions. People purified themselves before rituals, after contact with death, following childbirth or illness, after exposure to blood, before entering sacred places, or as part of seasonal and religious observances. These practices had a clear purpose rooted in the beliefs and customs of their culture.

What you don't see much evidence for is the expectation that every crystal, every thrift store purchase, every tarot deck, and every package arriving on your porch needs immediate energetic cleansing. That expectation feels much newer.

It also makes me wonder why we've become so uncomfortable with the idea that an object might carry someone else's energy without that automatically being a bad thing. Historically, that wasn't always how people viewed it. Family heirlooms were treasured because generations had touched them. Sacred relics were valued because of who they belonged to. Magical tools were often believed to become stronger through years of use. Sometimes an energetic imprint isn't something to erase. Sometimes it is the very thing that gave the object meaning.

That line of thinking led me to another question.

People constantly say, "Sage is for cleansing." Okay...Lately I've even been seeing people claim that sage doesn't just remove negative energy—it removes all energy. This is just another place where I think we need to start asking more questions instead of repeating things simply because we've heard them online.

Which text? Which culture? Which practitioner? There isn't one universal authority that decided sage is the cleansing herb or that it wipes away every bit of energy in a space.

And honestly, this question applies to more than just sage.

It applies to rosemary. Juniper. Cedar. Mugwort. Frankincense. Myrrh. Bay. And countless other herbs used in spiritual practices around the world.

Throughout history, cultures around the world have burned all kinds of herbs and resins in ritual. Rosemary, juniper, cedar, mugwort, frankincense, myrrh, bay, and many others have all been used for purification, blessing, protection, healing, or ceremonial purposes depending on the place, the people, and the tradition. Sometimes simply preparing a sacred space.

So what actually makes an herb "cleansing"? Is it an inherent spiritual property? Or is it because generations of people within a particular culture assigned that meaning through religion, folklore, symbolism, and tradition?

Those are two very different claims.

The idea that sage removes "all energy" is especially interesting because it raises even more questions. Where did that belief originate? Is there an older historical source that says this? Or is it simply a modern metaphysical teaching that has been repeated so often people now accept it as fact?

I'm not saying people can't use sage—or any other herb. If that's part of your tradition or your personal practice, that's your choice. What I am saying is that we should stop presenting these kinds of claims as universal truths without asking where they came from in the first place. Just like we've done with fucking color correspondences—we've taken something that's often cultural or traditional and started presenting it like it's a universal truth.

Sometimes the most important question in witchcraft isn't,

"What does this x item do?"

It's,

"According to whom?"

And honestly, I think that's the bigger conversation here. When I ask people why they cleanse, most of them can tell me what they do. Very few can tell me why they believe it's necessary. Even fewer can tell me where that belief came from. Who taught them? What tradition does it come from? What was the original context? Or was it simply repeated often enough that it became accepted as fact? I think people have a really hard time questioning their own belief systems.

And I get it.

Questioning deeply held beliefs can be uncomfortable. There's actually a psychological term for that discomfort—cognitive dissonance. When many people are presented with information that challenges something they believed for years, their first instinct is often to defend the belief rather than examine it.

But I think witchcraft asks us to do better than that.

We're supposed to be curious. We're supposed to explore. We're supposed to ask questions. Questioning your beliefs doesn't automatically mean abandoning them. Sometimes questioning them makes them stronger. Sometimes it changes them. Sometimes it reveals that you've been doing something simply because everyone else was doing it. And sometimes it helps you discover a deeper reason for the practice than you had before. Every one of those outcomes is valuable.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to stop cleansing. I'm certainly not throwing out my own practices. I still cleanse when I feel it's appropriate. I still teach different methods. I'll still post about egg cleanses and other cleansing techniques because they absolutely have a place.

What I'm questioning isn't cleansing itself. Not really. I'm questioning the assumptions surrounding it. Maybe some situations genuinely call for active cleansing. Maybe many of them don't. I don't pretend to have all the answers. And maybe I'm late to this conversation. Maybe practitioners have been asking these questions for years, and I'm only now catching up. But I think it's a conversation worth having. I have a lot more thoughts on this, but for now I'll leave you with the same questions I've been asking myself.