Every so often, we get here something that changes our lives. I heard Orion Foxwood telling how his sometimes told clients “Honey, you done stepped in something.” It was humorous, but profound. After all, we’ve all done it- stepped in something, and had to clean up after. Spiritually, we can get some nasty energy attached to us, and sometimes it’s as unintentional and innocent as mistakenly stepping in dog doo. But we still need to get it off.
There are many methods for energetic cleansing: energy scraping, baths, smudging, music, asking help from spirit allies, but the method is not the point of this post; the point is that we are wasting time and energy if we try to assign blame to an innocent act. One of the simplest and most direct methods is to sweep or scrape the negative energy out of our aura. I’ll make a sort of rake (claw shape) of my hands, and picture as I run them over my body that the negative energy is being scraped off, and I send it down into the earth to ‘compost’, and be remade into something less damaging.
In the physical world, dirt is simply something out of place. For example macaroni on your plate is a delicious bit of dinner, but the bits that end up in the sink drain are ‘gross’, lipstick on your lips is a cosmetic, on your glass is dirt, soil in the garden is fine, but on the rug, is dirt… and so on. Things out of place should be removed, and put where they won’t be disturbing.

The thing is, often an energy we encounter during normal activity ‘sticks’ to us. Why do we have to clean it off? One thing experience has taught me is that a bit of dog doo, or paint, or whatever on your shoe can get tracked all over the place. Hot pepper can last on your hands a VERY long time, not hurting your fingers, but will cause agony to mucus membranes. Poison Ivy has taught me the valuable lesson that you can pick up the oil from more than just those “leaflet’s three”. You can lean on a tree in winter, or sit on a rock and not notice the little vines on them, but the “dead” stems will get the oil on your gloves or pants, and then suddenly you get a rash and won’t know where it came from. Just because we don’t see it, or know where it came from doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any impact, the poison ivy still makes a rash, the pepper oil burns, the poo stinks. We clean off to keep it from spreading to other innocent victims. It isn’t ‘evil’ or ‘wrong’, and we didn’t do anything wrong, but we still need to stop it from making other people itch or burn or stink.
The wonderful thing that Orion’s story taught me is that there’s no advantage to assigning guilt for having gotten exposed to what you don’t like. The world is full of cow patties, which by and large are a good thing, they are the result of eating grass, and provide nutrients for the soil. We simply don’t like the way they smell (and stick). So wash it off. Clean yourself. Use abrasion or solvent or whatever substance you know that will loosen it or neutralize it. There’s no sin, no fault, but getting it off makes your world more pleasant. That effort is worthwhile. We need to extend that to energetic “icky stuff.”

Too many people can detect problems in their energy field and jump to the conclusion that either they’ve done something wrong that the Universe or the Gods is punishing them for, or that they’ve been cursed. Blame themselves, or blame someone else. It’s really impossible to find an explanation for what you did to deserve this punishment, or who may be angry with you, when it’s as simple as something got stuck to you that doesn’t belong. Stop worrying about blame, clean it off and move on.
I will suggest that regular pattern of spiritual hygiene will help, just as regular exercise keeps your muscles stronger, and brushing your teeth reduces cavities, so daily spiritual practice will help you maintain stronger shields, be better with energy working, and noticing a problem when it’s still easy to deal with.

I find the contagion analogy useful. Sometimes we step in something sticky and have to wash our feet off. Other times we might touch our eyes or tongue and discover that the hot pepper or peppermint we were handling hours before is still there, and can still sting. If someone is carrying around a stain of old experiences, they may have forgotten (or even not noticed) when and where they picked it up, but it’s a bit more important to clean it off and avoid spreading the contaminant than to worry about where it came from. The world is an incredibly varied place, and we can encounter both physical and energetic things that may not be good for us. I’m not saying no one ever gets hexed, but you’re more likely to spill something on yourself than have someone shoot you with a paint ball gun. Deal with the problem, but don’t add to it by imagining intent when there wasn’t one. (If you like, use some sort of divination to check to see if there was intent.)

We are often exposed to invisible things that make us feel “icky” or unclean. Wash them off by clearing your energy. We all have our preferred methods. You can smudge, or ring bells, or when you watch news that is doing it’s best to ‘grab your attention by the adrenaline’, choose to watch or read something that reminds you that there are lots of good people and things out there afterwards. You might review the statistics to remind yourself how rare acts of violence really are, even though they dominate the headlines. Or you may simply look at pictures of kittens and puppies. Remind yourself firmly that while some other people might do mean things, you wouldn’t. You need to remember that. Focus your attention on the good things that make your life good. Another remedy is taking a bath or a shower; picture all the ick going down the drain and dissipating. Remember, often “dirt” is simply something out of place. What is nourishing to one person, may be irritating to another. What may be nasty here, may not be nasty where it belongs. If it feels bad, get it off you, and you’ll feel better. Daily energetic hygiene can be as natural and quick as your physical daily routines.
So the next time you notice something is off, don’t beat yourself up over it or freak out- just clean off and get on with your life.