Reframing Energy Clearing to Claim Energetic Accountability

You know how this story goes: light up your herb of choice or grab your selenite, wave it around, and PRESTO, the energy is clear. While this narrative is standard in many spiritual and magical spaces, it lacks the nuance and know-how to do much and can even be harmful.

Like so much floating around in spiritual, wellness, and magical spaces, the art of energy clearing has suffered tremendously at the hands of capitalism and other harmful systems.

By commodifying such a sacred practice, we've also lost its magic and subtlety.

It's not hard to look around now and see that this plane is undergoing massive transformations. Yes, it's intense right now, but this is precisely why I want you to be aware of your energetic field and fully in your power.

Instead of stopping at "I need to clear my energy," let's mine down deeper to discover what's underneath—a call to take accountability for your energy and find the gold hidden within you.

So, What is Energy Clearing?

First, it's important to note that energy clearing varies culturally and from practice to practice. If what I share doesn't resonate with your practice, that's okay. As always, come with an open mind, take what you like, and leave the rest!

Energy clearing is a vague phrase that means different things to people based on their practice and ancestry, so it's hard to define concisely. Many folks think of energy clearing as a technique to remove unwanted energy.

I prefer the phrase energy tending or maintenance because energy clearing is nuanced and usually needs to go beyond removing energy.

Does Energy Clearing Work?

The art and practice of energy clearing is absolutely a real and powerful practice. However, the need for energy clearing is often misidentified and misused. Why?

Not every uncomfortable feeling can or should be removed from your energetic field.

Of course, this isn't always the case, but it points to the truth that the cause of our discomfort is often nuanced, layered, and personal.

Think of a time when you experienced a difficult situation only to discover it was exactly what needed to happen because it clarified something, opened a new pathway, or provided a valuable lesson.

Oftentimes, what you feel inclined to clear away is an invitation to pause and go deeper, especially if it’s a sensation you find yourself wanting to clear away regularly.

Here’s the reframe: most energetic tending is energy balancing, not clearing.

The good news: real, powerful, and transformative ways to shift, balance, transmute, and clear your energy do exist.

They're not all quick fixes, and some require training or permission, but there are many things you can do to take your energetic well-being into your own hands today.

Let's get into this.

Energy Clearing vs. Balancing

In most cases, it's not a person, place, or situation causing harm to your energy; it's your response or reaction to them.

Clearing your energy or cutting cords from your field will usually do little to nothing. A more pressing and helpful approach is addressing the imbalances in your energetic field caused by your response to other people and situations.

This doesn't mean that bad actors and harmful systems don't exist. They 100% exist and cause harm on all levels, but trying to clear them away will be a constant game of whack-a-mole.

What I'm inviting in here is energetic accountability rather than an energetic blame game.

Next time you think, "So-and-so's vibes were off, so I need to clear it away." What would it feel like to approach it like this, "Wow. I had a response to so-and-so's energy. Let me investigate that."

Maybe after investigating a response to another person, you discover a wound within yourself that doesn’t require energy clearing but requires the soothing aid of water, or the grounding safety of earth to bring you back into a place of balance. (side note: eternal perfect balance isn’t the goal either, it’s the awareness of when you’re off balance and knowing how to come back.)

This approach requires accountability, time, possibly outside support, boundaries, and honest introspection.

When you focus on taking accountability for your energy, you get to identify the parts of you that need tending, better understand your energy, and work with it in ways that allow you to claim your personal power, and not the gross power over kind, but power with.

When you prioritize being aware of your energy and balancing it, it keeps you in your power.

Any good magician or healer knows that facing their shadows is necessary for healing or transformation to occur. Attempting to clear away every uncomfortable feeling won't work and skips over potential gold within you.

When to Use Energy Clearing

You might be wondering if energy clearing has a place. It does, and it's a practice I utilize with myself and others.

Energy clearing works wonders for residual energy, the energy you pick up in busy places, or maybe an old house with a lot of sticky energy hanging around. It can also work for entity removals and exorcisms, but these are very involved practices requiring training and/or permission.

Energy clearing won't help with the habitual personal, ancestral, and societal patterns that may have deep grooves in your energetic field or the soul lessons you might need to walk through.

Keep reading to understand more about the 4 key energy maintenance concepts I lean on in my energy maintenance practice with myself and clients.

4 Key Energy Maintenance Concepts

The good news is that countless energy maintenance methods and techniques are available, and you don't have to do it alone. Maybe the tips I share here will be enough to get you started. Or, you decide to take my Reframing Energy Clearing class here or work with me or someone else one-on-one.

An energy worker or healer can bring light to these things and begin the energetic balancing process. However, experiencing long-lasting energy healing will require honest introspection, which can take time, and sometimes, multi-pronged support (this is why I stopped offering single energy work sessions). To receive lasting results from energy work (outside of the rare Mary Magdalene, Buddha, and Jesus situations) requires an in-depth and honest process.

I approach the practice of energy maintenance through the lens of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), which provides common ground for many practices and is the lens from which I work.

Here are four key concepts to help you understand the basics of performing regular energy tending.

1. Assess what types of energies are present, e.g., residual, collective, personal, ancestral, etc.

2. Identify how each energy present best corresponds with an element (earth, air, fire, water)

3. Determine what approach is needed, e.g., clearing, balancing, transmuting, protecting, etc.

4. Build or utilize reciprocal and ethical relationships with practices to carry out the needed approach(es)

Energy Clearing is One of Many Tools

Considering these four key energy maintenance concepts, it makes sense that a simple wave of a selenite wand might not always do the trick when tending to your energy body. (Side note: this is 100% not a dig at selenite. Selenite is AMAZING, especially regarding energy work, but there are helpful steps that can make working with it more reciprocal and effective.)

The next time you reach for the herbal wand or crystal for a quick energy cleanse, pause, take a breath, and see if anything else wants your attention or if a different approach would better support you.

You deserve better than playing the energetic blame games. It's time to take full accountability for your energy, and I want to see you fully in your power.

Thank you for being here! If you enjoyed this post, share it with someone else who might enjoy it, or get in touch and let me know your thoughts. Join the Reframing Energy Clearing class here, and I’d love to see you in the Craft Your Own Magic Membership, where you’ll find monthly classes and much more.

Deep care,

Cassie

Dreamwork 101 // What is Dreamwork and How to Get Started in 5 Steps

Dreamwork is the practice of tending to our relationship with our dreams. We’re dreaming every night, but many of us barely remember our dreams, or if we do, don’t spend much time thinking about them or working with them.

(How often have you dismissed a dream as, “oh, it was just a dream?”)

But dreams can have a lot to teach us and offer us when we enter into a deeper relationship with them. The dreamworld is rich with feelings, desires, needs, and possibilities. Our understanding of what the dreamworld evokes and presents can support our physical lives and our connections to ourselves. 

In this blog post, I’ll share a bit about how to start a dreamwork practice of your own.

Dreamwork Lineage

First, I’d like to share my dreamwork lineage. What I know about dreamwork comes from the work of these folks in particular, as well as my own intuition and my ancestors:

• Blanca Villalobos

• Toko-Pa

• Robert Moss

• Tara Burke

• Sanyu Estelle

These are wonderful people to go deeper into dreamwork with if you feel so called.

1. Support Dream Recall + Sleep 

The simplest of ways to begin supporting your dreaming is by supporting sleep and dream recall. It’s difficult to consciously work with our dreams if we’re not sleeping well or can’t remember our dreams when we wake up. Everyone is different, but here are some things you might like to explore to support your sleep:

• Set screen time boundaries for a certain amount of time before bed 

• Drink a tea to support your sleep, like chamomile (always do your own research and check with a professional before ingesting herbs) 

• Create your own sleep ritual that helps you shift into rest mode 

• Meditate and/or do a gentle, restorative yoga practice

• Take a few minutes to journal brain-dump style to help clear your mind. 

To support your dream recall, there are a few things I find helpful:

• Set an intention to dream and to remember your dream(s) before you go to sleep (you can write this down, say it out loud, or just tell it to yourself silently)

• Take a few minutes in bed in the morning before you get out of bed (or look at your phone) to give yourself space to remember your dream.

• Create a dream altar and meditate at it before bed to welcome your dreams to come 

• Pay attention to the dreams you do receive by tending them (more on that below!)

2. Start a Dream Journal 

This is probably the number one tip anyone you ask about dreamwork will give you, and with good reason! A dream journal creates a container for tending your dreams, helps solidify your intention to connect with your dreams, and helps you understand your dreams.

I recommend choosing a dedicated journal for your dreamwork and placing it on your dream altar when you’re not using it if you have one. As soon as you wake up (definitely before you look at any devices), put pen to paper and record your dream. Try recording your dreams in the present tense to honor its aliveness (for example, instead of "I was walking by a river,” try “I’m walking by a river). 

If it feels available to you, you might like to marinate in the dream in bed for a few minutes before actually getting up and reaching for your journal to record.

3. Explore Dream Feelings & Textures

After you record your dream, there are many ways to work with it more deeply and explore the messages it might have for you. 

I like to explore the dream textures: what are the textures, sights, smells, tastes, sounds of the dream? What do those senses mean for you and evoke for you? How do they make you feel? How does the dream, in general, make you feel?

4. Understand Dream Associations

As you work with the dream you’ve recorded, notice what stands out to you. Maybe your red dress feels particularly alive, or the hawk sparks something for you, or you feel curious about a figure in your dream. 

Whatever you feel curious about, do a bit of freewriting about it. List out: what does this thing make you think of? How does it make you feel? 

For example, some associations that come up with hawks for me:

• Hawk feather

• Maggie Smith’s poetry book Good Bones

• Mothers

• Protecting your children 

• Imagination

• Play 

Notice how I’m not so focused on the hawk itself, but I follow the threads of what each thing is associated with! Now I have something interesting to work with and can ask myself questions like, "what’s my relationship with play right now?" 

Some of the associations you make might really surprise you and can offer deeper insight into your dream. 

5. Assign Dream Correspondences 

As you continue to work with your dreams, you start to develop some personal symbols and correspondences. 

Like you saw above in my example with the hawk, I could make a section in my journal where I note that hawk led me to mothers and children and play. When I see a hawk again in my dream, I have that reference and can ask myself if/how it applies to this dream. 

Over time, you can deepen your understanding of your own personal dream symbols and correspondences. I love this practice so much because, to me, it’s not about what a certain symbol means but about what it means to you, how it feels in your body, how it resonates with your ancestry. That’s what feels potent and powerful!

Dreams Aren’t Your Personal Vending Machine 

It feels important to state that working with dreams isn’t just asking a question and receiving an answer. Generally, it’s not a simple or linear way of working. There isn’t one true or hidden meaning that we need to uncover. 

In my eyes, dreams and the dreamworld are alive. So it truly is a practice of engaging in relationship with, of exploring. You might like to ask yourself, "how can I be in equal exchange with my dreams?" How can I honor the dream world and not just extract from it?

Dreams have such potential to expand us out of binary thinking and into visionary possibilities, especially if we acknowledge that power and allow them to take us there!

Going Deeper with Your Dreams 

Another way to explore dream tending and go a bit deeper is by asking for a dream. I share how to do this in the dreamwork ritual I shared for Pisces season, which you can find here.

Feel free to contact us and share: how is your dream practice going? How is your relationship with your dreams evolving? 

Your spell's over, now what? 3 Ways to release or repurpose your ritual items

You waited for the perfect moon phase, gathered your supplies, and sent your magic out into the world. Now, you’re left with the remnants of your magical workings. What can be done with your leftover jars and bowls of notes, rocks, herbs, and candle wax?

Whether your magical workings have come to fruition or not, you have quite a few options when it comes to releasing or reusing your past spells. In this blog post, I’m going to share three different ways to honor and release your sacred spells and objects. 

It is the very act of your spell and ritual work that releases your desires out into the universe. The remnants left behind can serve as helpful reminders, but repurposing or releasing your spell will not break or reverse anything. There are certainly some practices that may require you to keep the components of your spell intact, however, if that’s the case, you’ll undoubtedly know. Trust your inner guidance system. 

As you read through these options, know that you can use one or all of these methods to repurpose or release your spell objects. Some objects may not work for certain methods outlined below, in that case, it’s okay to combine. You can also check out this quick video I created for our Instagram page. 

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1. Burning Ceremony

Fire is a transformative tool, so this method goes beyond simply making space for new spells. If your spell has ended it may be time to let it transform in new ways. This method can also be helpful to aid you in detaching from the outcome of your spellwork. Fire is powerful!

A burning ceremony is a great option for spells that include paper, herbs, candle wax, and other burnable objects. Most candle wax is paraffin, which means it’s not ideal for burying in the ground, and reusing it can be time-consuming. If your spell has leftover wax, burning it is one of the easiest and safest ways to release it. 

For this method, you’ll need a large cauldron, fireproof dish, or outdoor fire. Depending on what the contents of your spell were, you’ll likely want to do this outside to prevent a huge plume of smoke from inhabiting your house. As you release your items into the fire, trust that the energy will continue to transform and benefit yourself and others. 

2. Release to the Earth

A gentler option is to release your items back into the Earth. For this method, it’s imperative that you only release items that are natural and biodegradable. For example, most candles are made from paraffin wax and are not suitable for this method. I also do not recommend burying glass jars or bottles. Herbs, plants, biodegradable papers, and crystals are ideal for this method. If your spell was contained in a jar or vessel of some kind, I recommend reusing it, see the next section for tips on this. 

Items that should not be given back to the Earth:

• Salt: salt can harm or even kill plants

• Candle wax: most candles are made with paraffin wax which is not biodegradable

• Anything that is not 100% biodegradable

You can bury your items in a meaningful location or in your backyard, the location itself doesn’t need to be special. If you live near a natural body of water, releasing them into the water is a great option as well. This method can be transformative like the fire but in a gentler way. I find this method is great for inspiring a sense of gratitude and giving thanks to Mother Earth.

3. Cleanse and reuse

For all the objects you want to reuse like meaningful crystals and items that don’t burn or biodegrade, you’ll want to energetically cleanse them. Because spell and ritual work evokes such strong emotions, it’s important to energetically cleanse items before reusing them for another purpose. Unless, of course, the energy you imbued your items with is something you want to keep around. However, if you performed a spell for letting go of a past relationship, and then want to use the same jar or tools for helping you gain a new career, it’ll be best to cleanse your items.

There are a variety of ways to cleanse physical objects. Here are a few simple techniques. 

• Place your items in salt overnight.

• Hold your items in cleansing smoke like rosemary, cedar, lavender, or some other herb in line with your spiritual heritage. 

• For rocks or other items that are waterproof, hold them in running water.

• Hold your items in your hands and call on any guides, spirits, or energies you work with to cleanse your items. 

No need to let your sacred space fill up with spellwork from the past! I hope you enjoyed these tips to keep your spell and ritual practice open and flowing.

Understanding Residual Energy vs. Spirit

If you identify as an empath or highly sensitive person (HSP), you've probably experienced residual energy and encounters with Spirit. Here's the thing, though. Each of these is totally different; they present in different ways, have different purposes and should be dealt with in different ways. 

Empaths and HSP's are much more sensitive to extrasensory information. Check out this past post if you want to learn more about empaths.

One thing you need to know as an empath or HSP is how to differentiate and deal with different kinds of energy.

Once you understand some of the fundamental differences between residual energy vs. Spirits, you'll be able to approach them in a way that makes more sense too. 

What's Residual Energy

Residual energy is emotional energy that's been imprinted from a person (living or crossed over) onto clothes, furniture, objects, and places. Residual energy is often most potent when the person who left the imprinted energy experienced strong emotions or was around the object/place regularly. This is why homes will often have such a strong feeling, especially for empaths, because our living spaces collect and hold onto so much energy.

Jewelry, keys, wallets, and glasses are everyday items that can collect a lot of residual energy. Any place or object that a person frequently visits or uses is subject to collecting residual energy. Crystals are also a prime target for residual energy to hang out as they're so great at storing information, especially the quartz family. Learn more about caring for your crystals here.

Being an empath made so much more sense to me once I understood residual energy. I've never been a fan of thrifting and don't like to own secondhand furniture. It always felt overwhelming to me. Thrift stores are energetically "noisy," and being in one makes me feel like I'm being bombarded with information and feelings that aren't mine. When I learned that I was an empath, this made sense. Because antique stores are rife with residual energy, they are a strong pass for me. 

Watch more on this topic on our IGTV here.

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What, or who, are Spirits? 

Before I dive in here, I want to point out that I'm using the term "Spirit" very broadly. Breaking this word down could literally take up a book in and of itself! Spirits could be loved ones passed on, ancestors well before your time, angelic beings, animal spirits, guides, elemental spirits, or even malevolent spirits. A Spirit could be an entity that was once human (loved one passed on or an ancestor) or a being that was never in human form (angels, animal spirits, guides, etc.) For the purposes of this article, I'm grouping all of these into one and referring to them as "Spirits." 

The reason I'm doing this is that there's one big difference between residual energy and Spirits, and that's consciousness. All Spirits have consciousness, residual energy does not. Think of residual energy as the leftover imprint of someone's emotions. Whereas Spirits are aware of what they are doing and what they want. 

How to tell the difference between residual energy and Spirits?

Residual energy doesn't decide to let itself be known or try to contact you. It just is. On the other hand, Spirits usually have a goal or a desire to make contact with you or let themselves be known. This distinction is the easiest way to discern between residual energy vs. a Spirit. 

The way that you experience residual energy or Spirits will depend a lot on how you experience extra sensory information (clairsentient, clairalience, clairvoyant, etc.) If this is new to you, hop on over to this article to learn more about the different clairs and how they each present. 

Regardless of how you experience extrasensory information, a few things can be a clear sign of residual energy vs. a Spirit. 

Residual Energy: 

• Will cause you to notice emotions when you pick up an item or walk into a space. 

• If you ask the thing or space a question, you usually won't get an answer, or the answer will not be directed at you.

• The sensations you experience with the object or space usually lessen over time. 

• Though you may experience images and sounds connected to an item or space, they're not directed at you; they're just there. 

• They are usually easier to cleanse away (if desired), or you can simply distance yourself from the object to place. 

• Residual energy can be composed of both positive or negative emotions. 

Spirits: 

• Usually have a purpose or a goal in making themselves known to you. 

• Will continue to let themselves be known to you, even if you move locations. 

• Will be more forceful in letting themselves be known to you.

• May be contacting you to help you, request help, or could have maleficent intentions. You will need to determine this by communicating with the Spirit. 

• Similar to residual energy, Spirits can inhabit objects, people, and places. Use the above points to discern. 

• Though typical energy cleansing methods (herb cleansing, etc.) may work (if desired), a Spirit may require more in-depth techniques to communicate with or remove them.  

Why does it matter and how to work with these energies? 

If you identify as an empath or HSP, it's essential to understand outside energies affecting you. If you inadvertently surround yourself with objects with strong residual energy, it may be difficult to discern between your emotions and the emotions of the residual energy. Understanding when residual energy is present can cue you to take the necessary steps to either remove the object or energetically cleanse the object or space. 

Here are some general suggestions for clearing residual energy from objects, places, and your aura.

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There are some instances where you might like to keep residual energy. If you have a cherished object from a loved one that has their residual energy on it, you may very well want to keep it and that's totally fine!

It's equally important to be aware of a Spirit occupying your energetic field. Now, how you approach and handle connecting with a Spirit is much more in-depth than what I can cover here.

Generally speaking, you'll want to communicate with the Spirit to ascertain its intentions and then take action based on what you learn. Here are some suggestions for honing your ability to communicate with Spirit. 

• Hone your intuitive abilities by working with your third eye chakra. Learn more about this here. 

• Use a tool to help you communicate with the Spirit like a pendulum, oracle or tarot cards, or through meditation. 

• Be straightforward and ask the Spirit for clear communication. 

• If you think you're being contacted by an evil Spirit, don't hesitate to reach out to someone with more experience in this realm to help. 

As Spiritual beings in physical form, we must understand both physical and extrasensory information. This may seem like a small shift in understanding, but it's a powerful one. I hope this made you feel more empowered to discern and work with the different energies surrounding you. If you have a question or a comment, I encourage you to ask on our Instagram page here.

Crystal Cleansing & Charging 101 // 8 Ways to Care for Your Crystals

Perfectly structured lattices of molecules repeat and layer until a crystalline structure begins to emerge. Crystals are the magical and living offspring of earth, heat, and pressure. Viewing your crystals in this way can help you sense their aliveness, at least it does for me.

The perfect structures within crystals make them masters at storing and emitting energy. Because they’re so easily impressed upon, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they will require energy maintenance, just like you and me.

Aside from honoring your crystals as the entities that they are, charging and cleansing them will also make them more useful. Like all energy beings, your crystals may hold onto unintended frequencies or could be charged with energy that’s not in alignment with your desires. 

Before we dive into some actionable steps for crystal care, I’d like to pull apart the differences between cleansing and charging. Even though these terms are often used interchangeably, they are entirely different facets of crystal care.

Here's a breakdown of the differences between crystal cleansing and charging. 

Now that you understand the basic functions of cleansing vs. charging crystals, let’s dive into some steps you can take to care for your crystals. 

These suggestions are by no means an exhaustive list of ways to cleanse and charge your crystals! Learn more in my new book, The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Crystals. I also recommend you run everything through your intuitive filter and only practice what feels like a good fit to you. 

Crystal Cleansing 101

Here are a few reasons why you might want to cleanse your crystals: 

• It’s new

• You let someone else handle it  

• You no longer need to use it for a specific purpose 

Your cleansing schedule can be as regimented or as intuitive as you like. You might decide to cleanse your crystals every time you receive or purchase a new one, or you can wait until the crystal feels like it needs cleansing. I lean towards the more intuitive method, but both are valid. 

5 Ways to Cleanse Your Crystals

1. Direct sunlight for 10-20 minutes. This method works best with bright midday sunlight. Sun cleansing is one of the simplest and most effective cleansing methods. Caution: some crystals can fade in sunlight. Here are some of the most common ones: amethyst, citrine, celestite, and fluorite. Short periods in the sun, will be okay, but do not leave crystals susceptible to fading in the sun for more than ten minutes every few months. 

2. Hold in running water for 2-5 minutes. Fresh running water from nature is ideal, but tap water will do in a pinch. Water from nature will require less cleansing time. 

3. Bury in the earth for 1-5 days. The burying method is gentler, so it requires a bit more time. 

4. Hold your crystal in cleansing smoke of your choice. Frankincense, lavender, rosemary, or even a cleansing incense will work. 

5. Hold your crystal in your hand and call upon your guides, ancestors, and angels (or any other force you connect with) to cleanse your crystal. Visualize a white or rainbow light enveloping your crystals and cleansing away any unwanted energies. 

Crystal Charging 101 Here are a few reasons why you might want to charge your crystals. 

• You want to use it for a specific purpose. 

• You feel as though it has lost its effectiveness. 

• You feel intuitively nudged to charge the crystal or feel as though the crystal is requesting to charging in a specific way. 

You don’t have to charge your crystals to work with them, but it will undoubtedly enhance their effectiveness and increase your connection with your crystals. There are similarities between the techniques used for cleansing and charging; the most important distinction is that charging is adding specific energy to your crystal. There are a variety of ways to do this, but understanding your intention is critical. 

3 Ways to Charge Your Crystals

1. Place your crystal under the light of the moon phase of your choice for 1-2 nights. Working with the moon phases is one of my favorite ways to charge my crystals. Each moon phase has specific energy; you can learn more about that here. For example, if you’re working with a crystal to give you energy, you’ll want to charge it under the light of a waxing moon. The waxing moon is the growth phase of the moon and corresponds to action and energy. Alternatively, if you’d like to charge a crystal to help you rest, you’d want to charge it under the dark moon, which is a restorative moon phase. 

2. Place your crystal in the morning or evening sun for 20-30 minutes. Our life-giving sun can be used for both cleansing and charging. I do suggest being mindful of what time of day you use the sun for either charging or cleansing. This method works well if you feel like your crystal needs a little boost of energy. 

3. Charge your crystals with your hands. The heat and warmth of your hands alone are enough to charge up your crystals. Charging with your hands is an ideal method to use when you’re working with crystals for massage or bodywork. Hold or rub your crystal in your hands for 1-2 minutes for a quick charge. 

I hope you feel empowered to start connecting with your crystals using these tools! Your crystals will thank you, and the more you connect with them, the better they’ll work for you. 

You can dive much deeper into this topic in my new book, The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Crystals. In this new book, I share how crystal energy works, how to program a crystal, and how to use crystal grids. This book also contains a fully illustrated crystal guide!