Reframing Energy Clearing to Claim Energetic Accountability
You know how this story goes: light up your herb of choice or grab your selenite, wave it around, and PRESTO, the energy is clear. While this narrative is standard in many spiritual and magical spaces, it lacks the nuance and know-how to do much and can even be harmful.
Like so much floating around in spiritual, wellness, and magical spaces, the art of energy clearing has suffered tremendously at the hands of capitalism and other harmful systems.
By commodifying such a sacred practice, we've also lost its magic and subtlety.
It's not hard to look around now and see that this plane is undergoing massive transformations. Yes, it's intense right now, but this is precisely why I want you to be aware of your energetic field and fully in your power.
Instead of stopping at "I need to clear my energy," let's mine down deeper to discover what's underneath—a call to take accountability for your energy and find the gold hidden within you.
So, What is Energy Clearing?
First, it's important to note that energy clearing varies culturally and from practice to practice. If what I share doesn't resonate with your practice, that's okay. As always, come with an open mind, take what you like, and leave the rest!
Energy clearing is a vague phrase that means different things to people based on their practice and ancestry, so it's hard to define concisely. Many folks think of energy clearing as a technique to remove unwanted energy.
I prefer the phrase energy tending or maintenance because energy clearing is nuanced and usually needs to go beyond removing energy.
Does Energy Clearing Work?
The art and practice of energy clearing is absolutely a real and powerful practice. However, the need for energy clearing is often misidentified and misused. Why?
Not every uncomfortable feeling can or should be removed from your energetic field.
Of course, this isn't always the case, but it points to the truth that the cause of our discomfort is often nuanced, layered, and personal.
Think of a time when you experienced a difficult situation only to discover it was exactly what needed to happen because it clarified something, opened a new pathway, or provided a valuable lesson.
Oftentimes, what you feel inclined to clear away is an invitation to pause and go deeper, especially if it’s a sensation you find yourself wanting to clear away regularly.
Here’s the reframe: most energetic tending is energy balancing, not clearing.
The good news: real, powerful, and transformative ways to shift, balance, transmute, and clear your energy do exist.
They're not all quick fixes, and some require training or permission, but there are many things you can do to take your energetic well-being into your own hands today.
Let's get into this.
Energy Clearing vs. Balancing
In most cases, it's not a person, place, or situation causing harm to your energy; it's your response or reaction to them.
Clearing your energy or cutting cords from your field will usually do little to nothing. A more pressing and helpful approach is addressing the imbalances in your energetic field caused by your response to other people and situations.
This doesn't mean that bad actors and harmful systems don't exist. They 100% exist and cause harm on all levels, but trying to clear them away will be a constant game of whack-a-mole.
What I'm inviting in here is energetic accountability rather than an energetic blame game.
Next time you think, "So-and-so's vibes were off, so I need to clear it away." What would it feel like to approach it like this, "Wow. I had a response to so-and-so's energy. Let me investigate that."
Maybe after investigating a response to another person, you discover a wound within yourself that doesn’t require energy clearing but requires the soothing aid of water, or the grounding safety of earth to bring you back into a place of balance. (side note: eternal perfect balance isn’t the goal either, it’s the awareness of when you’re off balance and knowing how to come back.)
This approach requires accountability, time, possibly outside support, boundaries, and honest introspection.
When you focus on taking accountability for your energy, you get to identify the parts of you that need tending, better understand your energy, and work with it in ways that allow you to claim your personal power, and not the gross power over kind, but power with.
When you prioritize being aware of your energy and balancing it, it keeps you in your power.
Any good magician or healer knows that facing their shadows is necessary for healing or transformation to occur. Attempting to clear away every uncomfortable feeling won't work and skips over potential gold within you.
When to Use Energy Clearing
You might be wondering if energy clearing has a place. It does, and it's a practice I utilize with myself and others.
Energy clearing works wonders for residual energy, the energy you pick up in busy places, or maybe an old house with a lot of sticky energy hanging around. It can also work for entity removals and exorcisms, but these are very involved practices requiring training and/or permission.
Energy clearing won't help with the habitual personal, ancestral, and societal patterns that may have deep grooves in your energetic field or the soul lessons you might need to walk through.
Keep reading to understand more about the 4 key energy maintenance concepts I lean on in my energy maintenance practice with myself and clients.
4 Key Energy Maintenance Concepts
The good news is that countless energy maintenance methods and techniques are available, and you don't have to do it alone. Maybe the tips I share here will be enough to get you started. Or, you decide to take my Reframing Energy Clearing class here or work with me or someone else one-on-one.
An energy worker or healer can bring light to these things and begin the energetic balancing process. However, experiencing long-lasting energy healing will require honest introspection, which can take time, and sometimes, multi-pronged support (this is why I stopped offering single energy work sessions). To receive lasting results from energy work (outside of the rare Mary Magdalene, Buddha, and Jesus situations) requires an in-depth and honest process.
I approach the practice of energy maintenance through the lens of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), which provides common ground for many practices and is the lens from which I work.
Here are four key concepts to help you understand the basics of performing regular energy tending.
Assess what types of energies are present, e.g., residual, collective, personal, ancestral, etc.
Identify how each energy present best corresponds with an element (earth, air, fire, water)
Determine what approach is needed, e.g., clearing, balancing, transmuting, protecting, etc.
Build or utilize reciprocal and ethical relationships with practices to carry out the needed approach(es)
Energy Clearing is One of Many Tools
Considering these four key energy maintenance concepts, it makes sense that a simple wave of a selenite wand might not always do the trick when tending to your energy body. (Side note: this is 100% not a dig at selenite. Selenite is AMAZING, especially regarding energy work, but there are helpful steps that can make working with it more reciprocal and effective.)
The next time you reach for the herbal wand or crystal for a quick energy cleanse, pause, take a breath, and see if anything else wants your attention or if a different approach would better support you.
You deserve better than playing the energetic blame games. It's time to take full accountability for your energy, and I want to see you fully in your power.
Thank you for being here! If you enjoyed this post, share it with someone else who might enjoy it, or get in touch and let me know your thoughts. Join the Reframing Energy Clearing class here, and I’d love to see you in the Craft Your Own Magic Membership, where you’ll find monthly classes and much more.
Deep care,
Cassie
