I call it Cast Iron Pan Theory. Cast iron pans should not be washed with soap very often, and when they are, they need to be re-seasoned. The seasoning is what makes cast iron so special. I think witchcraft works the same way.

There are some people that do a lot of magical cleansing. They cleanse their spaces, they cleanse their objects, they cleanse themselves– and that is not how I operate. Things (and especially divination tools) have their own spirits and experiences, and I don’t want to get rid of or reset that unless it’s absolutely necessary.

Don’t get me wrong, cleansing has its place in my practice. It’s not like I NEVER cleanse anything– it can be an effective solution to a specific problem. I just think it’s often much too harsh, as well as unnecessary for what I am trying to achieve. It’s not my default.

I also feel this way about warding. Once again, it has its place– if an entity or spirit was being problematic, I would absolutely tell it to stop and put up protections. But I don’t see why it has to be the default. I don’t ward my house, and I don’t create magical protections when I do a working. If someone or something has a message for me, I absolutely want to hear it. That doesn’t mean I don’t have boundaries, but I think it’s wrong to assume that entities automatically wish you ill.

I think a lot of the culture surrounding cleansing and warding in modern witchcraft is a result of the West’s Christian history and its focus on purity. Of course there are other traditions that involve ritual cleansing, and if you want it to be part of your practice, you have my blessing.

But I often ask myself: why do we need our witchcraft items to be cleansed? What if instead they were broken-in, and well-loved, by ourselves or their creators or the earth?