The Grimoire Day 11

Legs hurt too much from bounding in the snow to run today, so there won't be any of that.  I hope to get out for a walk and then home before dark, however.

Anyway, yesterday we talked about how to Clean, now, we should probably talk about why.

With things coming into your possession, it's easy.  You don't know who had them before you, what happened to them or what shape they are in.  You don't know if they have anything attached to them that you don't want or need.  Pretty simple stuff.

Things get a little funnier when it's something you're leaving behind, because the usual warning I always got was that, if you leave something that is yours and still has a connection to you just lying around, witches will get it and use it to get you :D

Okay, that really does deserve a little bit of unpacking, and probably doesn't deserve the flip little emoticon I used to punctuate that.  If you have witchy enemies, yep, they may try to grab something of yours to use to hurt you.  It's not beyond the realm of possibility, but I've never had it happen to me, and I'm pretty good at annoying people.  Only pretty good, but I have managed more than once.  I am ambivalent about witchy fighting.  I grew up on Saturday Spine Tinglers, so the law of Sympathy (if something is connected to you, it pretty much *is* you to someone who has a mind to do things for or to you) is a Thing of my Childhood, and I am fascinated by stories of curses actually working (the rumor that Jayne Mansfield died as a result of a curse directed at her boyfriend by Anton Lavey is fascinating in particular).  Basically, I believe, even though I really have never seen evidence stronger than the accuracy of a horoscope ex-post-facto. 

Also, sympathy works both ways.  If an enemy has a bit of you and uses it to connect their will to your life and times, that connection works both ways, and you're always in a stronger position when you defend yourself from an aggressor.  I find, and I suppose this is going to require more discussion later, attempting to attack someone with witchy powers to be pointless.  Otherwise Dick Cheney would be... erm... hi!

But there are two cases that make ascending practical sense in terms of cleaning items, places and yourself (witchy-clean, in terms of yourself, the benefits of regular mundane bathing, I hope, are readily apparent to everyone reading this from elsewhere).

First, a sympathetic link between you and a thing or a place, or even another person or event is a trail that badness or potential extrinsic beings can follow.  Again, I'm not telling you what these things are, or even that these things are, but in case they are, giving them your address is like giving /b/ your address.  They may not bother you.  They probably won't. But if they do...

Actually, no, it's nowhere near as bad as giving /b/ your address unless the thing that follows you home makes the TV eat your daughter, the walls bleed, or your dinette set launch itself at your skull. 

Anyway, the more practical reason is to sever psychological ties with a thing.  To put it in your past.  Ghosts may haunt you, but memories are far more likely, and if you've experiences you want to keep in your past where they belong, cutting the things that connect them to your present is a Very Good Idea.  Likewise, cleansing yourself after a particularly harrowing experience will help you continue to function, and may help keep the experience from bleeding into your present.

Might be a thing to consider before you head out (or not) tonight for the second of the three new years that are relevant to me.  Cheers, and be safe.