Spiritual Cleansing: A Handbook of Psychic Protection
Brand: Weiser Books
Categories: Books, Religion & Spirituality, New Age & Spirituality



Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-13: 978-1578635207
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1578635209
Publisher: Weiser Books
Print length: 128 pages
Publication date: May 1, 2012
subtitle: Paperback – May 1, 2012
author: Visit Amazon's Draja Mickaharic Page search results Draja Mickaharic
review: Editorial Reviews Review “Every time I open this book, I am reminded just what a supreme treasure trove of spiritual tactics it contains. Practitioners of all levels will find much usefulness here. Spiritual Cleansing is a book that will help you restore that delicate balance in yourself and your surroundings.” -- Lilith Dorsey, author of Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens About the Author Draja Mickaharic was born in Bosnia and has been practicing magic in the U.S. for more than 45 years. He is the author of A Century of Spells and The Practice of Magic . He lives in Philadelphia. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Spiritual Cleansing A Handbook of Psychic Self-Protection By Draja Mickaharic Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Copyright © 2012 Draja Mickaharic All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-57863-520-7 Contents IntroductionA Word of Caution1. The Spiritual Man2. Malochia, or "The Evil Eye"3. Protection while Asleep4. Cleansing with Baths5. Cleansing with Water6. Cleansing with Eggs7. Cleansing with Incense8. Quieting a House9. Quieting the Mind10. Selecting a Spiritual PractitionerRecommended System of Treatment for General TherapyIndex of Bible Verses CitedIndex CHAPTER 1 The Spiritual Man That man has a body is never in question; our five physical senses give us constanttestimony concerning the bodies of those around us as well as our own. We usually dealwith other people in our daily lives as though we were dealing with their clothed bodies.We make an assessment of new acquaintances, customers, clients, and strangers basedupon the way we view a body with our senses; the manner in which we perceive how theydress and care for their bodies is the basis for our "first impression." The non-corporal part of man, that which is of man , but is not the body of man, is what isalways in question. It is in dealing with this part of the species that religions are founded,spiritual practices engaged in, and scientific doubt expressed. The reason is simple: thesame physical senses which give continuous testimony to the physical part of the humanbeing give no evidence whatsoever of the non-physical part of the human being. Science,being based on the measurable, that is to say those things which are sensed by thephysical senses, must deny the existence of that which cannot be measured if it is tomaintain its integrity. For our purposes we can divide the incarnate human being into these two parts, thesensory proved physical part, and the non-sensory provable spiritual part. The physicalpart is the province of the physical practitioner, the physician, surgeon, biologist, and soforth. His scientific training has qualified him to deal with those parts of the human beingwhich can be measured and classified using the realm of the senses. The spiritual part isthe province of the spiritual practitioner, the priest, witch, shaman, and so forth. His nonscientifictraining has qualified him to deal with those parts of the human being which canbe explored through a measurement and classification system using the non-sensuousrealms of being. The two realms of being only come together when the practitioner of one admitspuzzlement over something which seems to go out of his area of competence into theother. Yet in every human being these two realms are blended together in such a way thatthey work hand in hand to enable individuals to go through life in the way they do. Peopleuse both parts of their nature (physical and spiritual) in harmony in every action on thisearth! It may be said that every living thing on the earth has its own quality. This quality is the"feeling" which is often referred to as a "vibration," or an emanation, by those who aresensitive to the qualities of different things and people. The "vibration" or quality is not aphysical thing, in that it cannot be measured with the human physical senses nor throughthe extensions of the human physical senses that are the instruments of scientificmethodology. Yet the sensitive human being who has been trained to do so can usedeveloped "spiritual senses" to identify the quality or "vibrations" of different people, placesor things. It has often been said that everything on this earth is surrounded by a spiritual energyfield, but this is not to be confused with the field of magnetic flux which surrounds amagnet. The spiritual energy field, like the quality or vibration of people, places and things,is not detectable through the physical senses. Once we can make a distinction betweenthe physical and the spiritual parts of the human constitution, it becomes easy tounderstand just how spiritual cleansing works. If we can agree that every living thing carries within it its own vibration, and that thevibration results from the field of invisible energy which surrounds it, we can understandhow we can use the energy of one part of the created universe to work with the humanenergy field and remove unwanted detritus from it. In a way, it is just like using acombination of fat and lye (that we call soap) to scrub the human physical body to removedirt. In both cases one part of the created universe is used to remove unwanted materialfrom the body, physical or spiritual, of an incarnate human being. Every inanimate object—every home, building, piece of furniture, and article of clothing—carriestraces of the "energy" of the animate beings to which it has been exposed. The"energies" of those who made the object, who sold it, and those who previously owned itare impregnated into the spiritual fabric (spiritual body) of everything that exists. Thespiritual body of the incarnate human being interacts with the spiritual energy field of itssurroundings, both in terms of people and places. A physical analogy takes place inhypnosis, for an individual can recall subtle points of his surroundings in great detailalthough he may not be consciously aware that he even saw the details. Our eyes interactwith the physical environment in such a way that we are actually able to remember thedetails of the wallpaper pattern in the waiting room at the doctor's office we visited at agethree. We could also recall the smells and textures of that office while hypnotized, but it ismore difficult to communicate these observations to others because we lack a commonstandard of comparison. No matter how much time we spend in any given physical location, our spiritual natures,as discreet observers, will recall the entire surroundings in detail. By the same token, wecan look at the area and determine just what "spiritual vibrations" or traces of spiritualenergy are present. We interact with our surroundings in this way, both on a physical andon a non-physical level. Obviously, if we are to spend too much time around someone (or something) that has astrong negative vibration, we may accept it into ourselves and be affected by it. Once thisoccurs, our own spiritual vibration may suffer. Spiritual cleansing will remove this negativevibration and restore our own, just as washing our hands removes the dirt acquired fromnecessary household chores. Years ago, this kind of information was common knowledge. It passed from one family toanother, one generation to another. Today we regard some of this information as "oldwives' tales" or "superstition." But it isn't. Our world has changed a great deal in the lasthundred years, and even more rapidly in the last fifty. While we have gained from thescientific material progress we have made, these gains came to us at a price—the loss ofsome of the knowledge of our spiritual natures. We have lost a part of our "oldknowledge." We can fly from New York to Los Angeles in a matter of hours, but we also mingle ourenergy fields with hundreds or even thousands of people who are strangers to us. Ourphysical senses report the airplane flight to us in all its details, but we receive no suchreport of the consequences of intermingling our energy fields with so many people. Onlythose few people with finely attuned spiritual senses are aware of the difficulty that suchmingling may bring. In the old days we lived a quiet life. We seldom saw anyone outside the family structure.Many people lived an entire lifetime on a farm or in a small town. In 1900 many thought itwas a great event to travel twice a year to a town twenty or fifty miles away in order to dothe seasonal shopping. People were intimately familiar with their personal surroundings,and they kept them clean. There were few strangers among us. When strangers arrived,we knew how to cope with the energy field they brought with them. Every home had itsprotective charms, and every family had its household rituals. When I was a boy growing up in a rural setting in central Europe, well over fifty years ago,it would have been unthinkable for us to go to bed until my grandmother had swept apinch of salt out of the front door, and my grandfather had barred the doorway with theheavy bar that closed it for the night. We then said our prayers, asking God's protection onus as we slept. Only then did we retire to bed, feeling as protected and secure as if wehad lived in the greatest castle in Hungary. Protection keeps us from harm, and spiritual cleansing removes harm once it hasoccurred. Most families no longer have household rituals to keep them from harm, but inmany ethnic groups the use of charms and talismans is still practiced. I see people fromMediterranean countries wearing the golden "horn" charm to ward off the evil eye. ManyChristians wear the cross around their neck as a charm; all religions have their own formof the protective amulet. The concept of spiritual cleansing is an integral part of religious ritual. The ritual appeals toour emotions, and we feel better after we have participated in one. We attend a LatinMass, and come out feeling lighter and cleaner, something the vernacular mass fails to dofor most of us. We may go to an Easter sunrise service, and come away feeling "like adifferent person." We may attend temple for Yom Kippur and feel renewed strength insideus. The cleansing we feel comes from our having accepted the religious ritual somewhereinside of us. Several days later we may begin to feel "grubby" again. We tend to forget the significance of our religious rituals, for we participate in them in agroup, and no one tells us why we do what we do. Years ago a person's religion signifiedhis way of life. Today, all too often our stated religion is a "name only" philosophy. Weforget about it all week and go to church or temple only for social reasons, because theritual holds no meaning for us. Some people may know the outer meaning of the ritual oftheir inherited religion, but seldom know what the ritual means symbolically. Rarely dopeople understand the rituals connected with a religious creed other than their own. Allreligions have one thing in common—a ritual designed to keep the believer spirituallyclean. Most people still yearn for rituals that appeal to the forces of nature, or the forces of God,because in the old days we could worship that way. These rituals appeal to somethingdeep inside us, and we feel better after we have participated in them. These rituals havethe greatest spiritual cleansing effect on us, because they touch and stir those nonphysicalparts of our being of which we are not ordinarily aware. This is a book of instruction for people who want to keep themselves clean, whether theygo to church or not. Using the information supplied in this book will not interfere with anyreligious practice—it will enhance it. For those readers who are not involved in any groupreligion, these remedies will help center you in your own beliefs. Many readers may be unfamiliar with different religious rituals. For this reason we need toconsider the concept of cleansing from a religious point of view. Religious ritual is the setof practices engaged in by a specific religion. Rituals include not only the annual cycle ofreligious worship, but such life-event services as weddings, funerals, ordination, andothers. Bar-Mitzvah, circumcision, baptism, and confirmation, which are life-eventceremonies that bring a person into the congregation of the religion are also rituals. The general concept behind rituals is that they are actions which result in bringingsomeone closer to his Creator. Rituals are repetitive actions, in that the more they arerepeated, the more power they acquire, and the more effective they become. For a ritualto have the effect that is desired, it must be effective on the non-physical level as well ason the physical level. If a person is brought closer to his Creator both physically andspiritually, he is, in the process, cleansed of any accumulated negativity he may bring tothe ritual. Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, and Jewish Orthodox rituals are more complete,because these religions have a different view of the nature of God and the communion ofman and God than do many of the Protestant Christian churches. Communion andBaptism are the major Protestant rituals, while the Catholic and Jewish religions haverituals for almost every possible event in the life. Yet whatever the religion or the ritual,cleansing of the spiritual nature is a part of every religious experience, even though wedon't understand it any more. One religious group native to the United States has developed a complete set of workingrituals. That is the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, the Mormons. Theyhave a set of rituals specifically designed for spiritual cleansing, a "Sealing" ritual forprotection against negative forces, and a training program which is second to none forspiritual practitioners in their religion. Every Mormon temple and every Mormoncongregation has direct access to the services of a spiritual practitioner through aninternal hierarchy. A Mormon need only ask the president of the congregation or any ofthe priests or elders for help and it will be made available. This is the only Christianreligion in which the line of spiritual practice is so direct and open. So-called primitive cultures have such a close tie to the concept of ritual, and the idea ofthe priest as spiritual practitioner, that conversion to the Christian faith is usually quiteacceptable to them. This is the real reason why Christianity made such great headwayamong the "pagans," both in ancient and modern times. The "pagans" felt that theChristian God must be more powerful than their own, and chose to adopt it. As people from less materialistic and less sophisticated areas of the world emigrated tothe United States they brought their rituals for magic and spiritual cleansing with them.The American ethnic melting pot has resulted in an occult melting pot as well. The UnitedStates blends every ethnic practice in the world. It blends every religious practice that onecould think of. The effect of these blendings often causes a dilution of cultural cleansingpractices, as younger family members become involved with television, little league, andother more mundane affairs. Children of first generation emigrants usually repudiate theirancestral heritage, and the first things lost are the "hidden" family practices, including thefamily rituals and the process of spiritual cleansing. While we are losing knowledge of our family and religious practices of spiritual cleansing,we are in contact with more people today than ever before. A trip to a suburban shoppingcenter or a ride on a city subway will bring us into contact with more people who arestrangers to us than our great grandparents probably ever met. In addition, the stresses ofour aspiration-centered society, with its demands for material achievement, cause manypeople to become and remain uncentered. We need to re-learn how to handle the manifestations of spiritual energy which come to usas we go about our daily affairs. True psychic attack is not a common occurrence, as fewpeople are important enough to be the recipient of a psychic attack, and fewer still are wellenough trained to launch one. Psychic negativity may be transmitted on a much lowerlevel, however, and it is this negative spiritual energy which can be removed through theprocess of spiritual cleansing. There are several forms of spiritual negativity that you can easily remove from yourself.One is the psychic dirt that is carried about by someone who lives life in a sea ofnegativity. A client of mine had a sister who had been in business out of the country foryears. Her business failed and she returned to the area where her family lived. Sheimmediately arranged a schedule of visiting in turn all of the members of her family. Withher she brought her tale of woe, and made gloomy forecasts for every member of herfamily. My client and his wife both felt very tired after her first visit, and had an unusuallytroubled sleep that night. I gave him some suggestions, which he implemented, includingbaths and the burning of incenses mentioned later in this book. The result was that notonly was her next visit less tiring, but within a few weeks the sister decided to curtail hervisits to once a month rather than coming by on a weekly basis. It is also fairly easy to rid yourself of the negative energy acquired by buying used furnitureor moving into an apartment or house with "bad vibes." Another client of mine purchasedan old bureau from a house which must have been full of evil vibrations. She placed thebureau in a guest room. Within a short time the room became very "dark." Suspectingsomething amiss, she had the bureau and the guest room cleaned spiritually. As soon asthe cleansing was done, people asked if she had painted the room, it looked so bright andcheery. You may wonder how to separate spiritual negativity coming from others and that whichmay be coming from yourself. This is particularly important to do if you are feelingdepressed. Most mature people can look within themselves and find out why they aredepressed and feeling bad. "Why am I feeling lousy?" they say—and the inner self says,"Because you just goofed up." And you know that your inner voice is right. You can back itup because you know what you've done. But what happens when you wake up feelingwonderful, and by 10 a.m. you feel lousy and can't think of one good reason why you feelthat way? Your personal relationships are fine, you like your job at the moment, and youare enjoying your life. Yet you have just been overwhelmed by a feeling of depression.Perhaps you just can't stop thinking about someone, and no matter what you do, a certainperson keeps coming back into your mind. Maybe it's a coworker—maybe it's a friend.This phenomena might be caused by one or both of you. A spiritual cleansing can remove alot of depressing negative energy. (Continues...) Excerpted from Spiritual Cleansing by Draja Mickaharic . Copyright © 2012 Draja Mickaharic. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. Read more