Circle Casting for Home Cleansing & Blessing

[Lemiwinks]

First off, hello everyone! I have been a lurker of this forum for a while, but just recently joined. Very happy to be here as there is a lot of great information we can learn from each other!

I plan to do a house cleansing & blessing (which I've never done before) as part of my new moon ritual. I plan to use a slightly modified version of the cleansing ritual found here: http://www.wicca-spirituality.com/house ... itual.html

My question is about casting the circle. How (and why) would you cast a circle, and then walk from room to room and outside your home for the smudging? I know the procedure for leaving and re-entering the circle, but then what is the point of having it? I guess I don't understand the point of casting the circle and then leaving it (if that's what is normally done in a house cleansing). I feel like that would defeat the purpose as the circle is there to protect you. Am I supposed to create a giant circle around the entire house and property? That doesn't sound right, lol! I know that I will need/want to cast one because I plan to call upon the aide of Bes & Hestia for their divine protection and consecration of home & hearth.

Any information on this would be so appreciated. The above website makes no mention of leaving the circle properly, basically jumping from casting the circle to cleansing the home. BB!

[Shub Niggurath]

This is a great question, Lemiwinks.
I've noticed that in many wiccan rituals and practices it's okay for them to leave a circle and re-enter it whenever. My personal opinion is same as yours - to me it defeats the purpose of the circle. But then again I'm not specifically a wiccan, I learned from old, traditional methods. In ceremonial magick and other older traditions once you start drawing a circle you must stay inside it (or outside if you're invoking) and crossing the line basically makes the circle "leak" and thus can let something nasty in. It was always fascinating to me how some wiccans don't seem to care about that and just go yolo with their circles, haha (Probably not all of them, of course.)

If you ask me, go with whatever feels right and safe for you. There are other kinds of home cleansings and blessings out there, maybe you just need to find the right one for you. Don't do something that doesn't feel okay. (I wouldn't do this one either, it could potentially do more mess than cleansing.)

[Siona]

That doesn't sound right, lol! I know that I will need/want to cast one because I plan to call upon the aide of Bes & Hestia for their divine protection and consecration of home & hearth.

So I'm not sure how helpful this is, because I'm not a Wiccan and never actually cast circles, but for whatever it's worth you can definitely call on deities without a circle in place. (After all, it's not as if the cultures these deities came from practiced casting circles, so they're probably used to the idea. ) You could simply set up a little altar to the both of them wherever you plan to begin your cleansing at, and ask for their assistance before you begin. I suppose you could also do the cleansing first, then do a smaller ritual inside a circle asking for their blessings.

On a side note, I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a cleansing that suggest you begin in a circle, even from Wiccan sources, so like Levitating Cat said, there are a lot of options out there to choose from, if you don't understand why something is done in a particular ritual, it might be better to find (or create!) one that makes more sense to you.

[Xiao Rong]

Merry meet, Lemmiwinks! It's possible also to widen your circle from the traditional 9" diameter to include your whole house. For example, you could call the quarters by placing candles on the east, south, west, and north walls of your house, or even outside the house on your property. That way, you can perform all your magical work without ever having to leave the circle.

[Lemiwinks]

Thank you Levitating Cat, Siona and Xiao for your replies! Can you suggest a few good house cleansing ritual sources? I'm (kind of) surprised that I'm having such a difficult time finding one. Since I've never done a cleansing before, I really want to find something with good structure as a starting point. After reading your comments I do plan to create my own cleansing ritual, I'm just having trouble getting it started. Thanks again!

[Seraphin]

Hiya Lemiwinks!

Here are some Cleansing techniques you may try:

Cleansing Spells

[LiebeUndLicht]

Hiya! It is a really good website for asking people's opinions, I've never seen anything like it before, and I really enjoy being on here.

Strangely enough, my mum and I were going to do a house cleansing sometime soon, I'm actually really looking forward to it.

Anyways, when we do it, I don't think we are going to cast a circle. Sometimes I don't cast circles, but mostly I try to. I guess you could cast a circle around the whole house... if that makes any sense lol. It might not seem right, but I suppose you... could...? Are you doing anything other than the home cleansing and blessing, like any other ritual or spell or magick of any kind? If so, maybe you could cast the circle, then cut it, then go back to it? To be honest, there are other posts on here probably more helpful than mine. I was going to read them after I made my post. I know some people don't like to do anything without casting a circle, but it could be a possibility...? Anyway, good luck! I would love to hear how it goes!

Blessed be, hope you do manage to find a way around it eventually lol, and yeah... ok I'm just rambling now, bye!