New Year’s house blessing
The new year is an ideal time to invite abundance, protection and happiness into your home with a house blessing.
A blessing — not to be confused with housekeeping, or a spiritual house cleansing — is often performed by a spiritual leader, according to Ellen Whitehurst, author of “Make This Your Lucky Day: Fun and Easy Feng Shui Secrets to Success, Romance, Health, and Harmony” (Ballantine, $13.95).
But anyone who deems himself or herself to be a spiritual person can hold a house blessing.
“Blessing your house on the anniversary of important events and then cleansing on a repetitive basis will do more to bring health, happiness, protection and prosperity than almost any other thing we can do to achieve those same states in our living space,” says Whitehurst.
She draws on such practices as holistic healing, aromatherapy, ayurveda, astrology and feng shui. Whitehurst offers advice and keeps a blog at . Sheba R. Wheeler
What you’ll need
• Gather sea salt, pure spring or distilled water, white candles, a bell and a prayer or blessing that appeals to your traditions and sensibilities.
• Add two cups of sea salt to the water, then walk around the inside of the house, in a clockwise direction beginning and ending at the front door.
• Flick the salted water in the corners of every room as you walk.
Ring the bell during the ritual.
• Recite your prayer and light a white candle — representing purity and light — in each room of the house.
• Return to the front door, turn and face the inside of the house and say one last invocation or prayer to close the ritual.
• Ring the bell three times to conclude the service.
• Pour any leftover salted water down all the drains of the house.
• Seek out a spiritual leader to bless your home, in addition to this do-it-yourself blessing, if you wish.
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