Episode 16: Energetic Hygiene: Clearing and Shielding Your Energy Fields (Part 1)

Energetic Hygiene: Clearing, Shielding, and Balancing Your Energy Fields

Jennifer Taylor and Tava Baird discuss the concept of energetic hygiene, emphasizing the importance of maintaining clean energy fields for personal well-being. Throughout their conversation, they explore various methods for clearing, shielding, and balancing energy such as invocations, visualization techniques, smoke bathing, sprays, and utilizing crystals. They emphasize intention as the most crucial element in these practices. The episode also touches on the significance of releasing unhealed energies and the benefits of seeking support from skilled energy practitioners. Samael, the Angel of Death, is also mentioned, offering insights on the importance of tending to the 'deaths' of old patterns and energies for spiritual growth and healing.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings
01:04 Setting the Stage: Invocation and Archangel Michael
04:55 Unusual Song and Samuel's Message
08:44 Understanding Energetic Hygiene
11:26 Personal Experiences and Reflections
16:43 Practical Techniques for Energetic Hygiene
23:43 Daily Routines and Visualization Techniques
30:18 Smoke Bathing and Alternative Methods
37:22 Creating a Protective Potion
39:12 Using and Storing the Potion
39:53 Alternative Methods for Potion Making
41:00 Crystal Safety Tips
43:11 The Power of Intention and Energy
49:05 Simplifying Your Spiritual Practice
57:27 Releasing Energetic Burdens
01:07:13 Seeking Help from Practitioners

Thank you joining us today, remember to LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to keep up to date with your tribe.

Connect with your Hosts!

Tava Baird: tavabaird.com or https://darkflowerbooks.etsy.com.

Jennifer Taylor: Willow Ridge Reiki and Healing Arts https://www.willowridgereiki.com/

Transcript

​[00:00:00] 

Tava Baird: Good morning, Jennifer Taylor. 

Jennifer Taylor: Good morning, Tava Baird. How are you today? I am well. I am ready to talk about energetic hygiene. And it's been great just preparing because I've been reminded of all kinds of practices that I'd forgotten. So I've gotten much more energetically cleaned up in the last several hours.

Tava Baird: Well, I did zero preparation. So, I'm going to be, I think, much more of a student today. And, of course, I have my new notebook. here in case Samuel wants to pop in and comment as he often does. Um, I know very little, if anything, about this topic, so I'm looking forward to some new techniques and insights today.

Tava Baird: And [00:01:00] yeah, I'm just excited to do it. 

Jennifer Taylor: All right. So I guess we will start as usual. I will, sing us an invocation and I will invite Archangel Michael to come and sing through me and help to create this sacred space and clear and clean the space that we are all in at this moment here together, as well as our energy fields. I realized, I was like, I probably should have invited him, but I was like, I don't know. I was like, he hasn't necessarily shown up yet. So maybe, I'll have him sing later with me. 

Tava Baird: As soon as you said, I'm inviting Michael, he said, I will sing too. 

Jennifer Taylor: Okay. Well, that's great. I remember him saying he was more of a soloist.

Jennifer Taylor: And I was like, yeah, I should have, probably chosen one or the other, but I think it's really awesome that he's willing to share. 

Tava Baird: He says, [00:02:00] I will add my own way. 

Tava Baird: [00:03:00] [00:04:00] Oh So this may be the most I've ever gotten while you were singing, and it's very [00:05:00] descriptive. That was a really unusual song. 

Jennifer Taylor: It was. 

Tava Baird: It was, it was very unusual. It was, at least on my end, there's a lot of the songs and invocations that you at the beginning of these podcasts. are very settling, sort of like you're a little kid and you're being picked up by somebody you trust.

Tava Baird: This just sort of, okay, we're coming back to center. This one almost had like a call in it and there was a strange element. Sort of around its borders, Samael, instead of singing with you, actually just spoke, which I wasn't expecting. And here's what he said. He said," It echoes across the canyon from the retreat, call, a lament, a shaking off of the [00:06:00] strange, a soul searching to settle, touching feet to soil.

Tava Baird: And After a trembling flight, the cry of the sun as the seasons fall away, come inside the cave, pass the singer who wards what would follow you, step into the pool of dark warmth and be blessed." 

Jennifer Taylor: Wow. What 

Tava Baird: the heck? 

Jennifer Taylor: Wow. 

Tava Baird: So it's almost like it's, he's, narrating. Someone or something returning to this retreat that's in this cave, in this canyon, and the singer.

Tava Baird: What I'm guessing is an allusion to you is standing at the mouth of the cave using song to ward off the things that aren't supposed [00:07:00] to follow you anymore. I was also just interested in the description of a trembling flight. Like almost like you're just trying to make it across the finish line that it's not graceful that it's but that almost like you're being pursued by something, but that the singing is a is helping to create the safe space inside the retreat and warding off the unwanted that are trying to follow you there.

Tava Baird: I don't know, man. 

Jennifer Taylor: Wow. Well, thank you, Samuel, and Tava for bringing that through, yeah, it felt so different, I had to keep fighting against the need to make it more melodic in the way that it usually is, and it, but it was very clear, I realized I was adding some of my own elements just to make [00:08:00] myself more comfortable with what I was having people have to hear because I was thinking, this, this seems a little bit jarring, and I think if, Michael had had his way, it probably would have been pretty much that one.

Jennifer Taylor: really high, strong note just over and over. But I was trying to follow that and bring in something that felt a little bit, more soothing. It's 

Tava Baird: really interesting. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah. And, you know, I mean, really very much what I asked for. I mean, it's like I'd asked to clear away and create this sacred space.

Jennifer Taylor: And so it makes sense to, I mean, I think, you know, right now, and probably, I don't know, the words right now could probably work for most any time that, and that people are listening, that there seems to always be this sense of, you know, So much happening [00:09:00] and so much that people are trying to clear to get through to get to that, that cave and that place of just sacred safety and healing that, I think it was probably really needed and goes along with, you know, energetic hygiene of that clearing away so that you can get to that space.

Tava Baird: So when you say energetic hygiene, you're not talking about brushing our teeth today. 

Jennifer Taylor: No, this is not the deodorant 

Tava Baird: episode. 

Jennifer Taylor: You know, it kind of is, but with our, for our energy body. So, you know, we talk about physical personal hygiene and, hygiene and sanitation for our spaces, but 

Jennifer Taylor: most people, I think, have not been taught to care for their energetic bodies and care energetically for their spaces. So, you know, every little kid is told, you know, brush your teeth, comb your hair, take a shower [00:10:00] and bathe. And, 

Jennifer Taylor: inside our houses while we still may, have a mess and piles of laundry. It's. It's clean and healthy to be in. and so the energetic hygiene there is, it's essentially like the care and keeping of our energy fields, our energy body, and then also the energy in the spaces that we inhabit.

Jennifer Taylor: So, just like you probably wouldn't come home, dripping with mud and then just traipse all through your house and sit down on the couch and put your feet up. We kind of do that energetically. we come in energetically covered in the energetic mud, the dross and stuff.

Jennifer Taylor: And then we spread it around our spaces and we keep it on there. And it's like, we just kind of continue to accumulate that unless we really consciously clear it and remove it from ourselves and from our spaces. So what I wanted to talk about today [00:11:00] was how do we do that? Yeah, we're all. Very well versed in how we, care for our physical bodies and our spaces, but not so much in lots of different tools and techniques to care for our energy bodies.

Jennifer Taylor: And it's really important that we do this on a regular basis in order to keep ourselves healthy. And well in every sense of the word, 

Tava Baird: I'm so glad you were talking about this because when you first brought up energetic hygiene, I didn't think about its application to spaces and I've had an overwhelmingly busy couple of months.

Tava Baird: it's my own fault, but, now several things that are on my plate. I have been able to let go to create some more space and I am realizing that my house doesn't have enough storage and that there are piles of things. On every surface that were, [00:12:00] well, I'll get to that later and now later has arrived and there is no space to work.

Tava Baird: for those of you who are listening, we're recording this a few days before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving week is a lovely time to reflect. And there's also a lot of things that fell off my schedule because people are traveling and going out of town.

Tava Baird: Uh, and so I'm trying to spend part of this week saying, okay, all of this old energy of notebooks full of things from four months ago and correspondence in my email that I said, Oh, I'll answer that. The week of Thanksgiving and all of these half done projects. They're everywhere. And, I'm needing to find a space of peace amidst the chaos to and trying to figure out where to [00:13:00] start, and I'm realizing the first thing I have to do is get me centered, or I'm not going to be able to look at any of these projects with any energy whatsoever.

Tava Baird: So I'm really, really excited for you to expand on this. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. And there's definitely a connection between the physical in our spaces, like having lots of clutter. That does affect our energetic. sense of clutter and at one point, and Sam, I might want to comment on this as well.

Jennifer Taylor: I remember. Someone saying that it was like unhealed kinds of energies and things tend to collect in areas of lots of clutter, like, you know, where you have like just tons of old stuff stuffed up under your bed or you open the closet and things want to all fall out that those are kind of types of spaces that tend to collect not only, a bunch of stuff that [00:14:00] we don't really know what to do with and clutter, but also that tend to collect.

Jennifer Taylor: These more kind of unhealed, imbalanced, types of energies that are not the kinds of energies that are beneficial for us to have in our spaces.

Jennifer Taylor: one of the words that I tend to use when I talk about clearing away things from our energy field is the word dross. And when I first encountered that word, I really, I had no idea what that meant. And it was in an. energetic, sense in a class with a Zakiah Blackburn, and, he was leading these incredible sound healing experiences and kept talking about, clearing away the dross and I looked up the definition.

Jennifer Taylor: Um, the definition is like worthless, rubbish, foreign matter, dregs, scum formed on the surface of metal. so when I think about that, like the dross is just all of the gunk that is, has [00:15:00] accumulated on us that is not beneficial. it's just, worthless stuff that just Doesn't need to be there and is covering up and hindering our energy fields and our ability to function the way that we need to function.

Jennifer Taylor: And then when I was looking that up, I found a reference to the, to dross being used in the Bible, actually. A lot. And so there's a, a quote, it's in Proverbs, 25, four and five that says, take away the dross from the silver and the Smith has material for a vessel. Take away the wicked from the presence of the King and his throne will be established in righteousness.

Jennifer Taylor: And I thought that really went very well with our idea of energetic hygiene. You know, it's like when we have these. other kinds of energies around and on us, we can't really be clear and form the vessel, be the vessel that [00:16:00] we are meant to be. And in the quote about, removing the wicked from the king and the throne, it's like when we remove all of these other influences, because sometimes that dross is also, you Things with that have a consciousness or energies that could influence our Ability to be clear our ability to be Autonomous and sovereign and when we have all of these, competing sorts of Perspectives and all of these things trying to influence us away from our authentic knowing and our authentic selves, then it's much harder to be who it is that we're meant to be and follow our path.

Jennifer Taylor: So the things that I'm going to be talking about today fall into three main areas. One is the cleansing and clearing away. So we want to, cleanse all of that stuff away. We want to, shield and heal. Our energy fields and [00:17:00] claim the space that we're in and intentionally set the vibration of that space that we want to inhabit.

Jennifer Taylor: So most of the time we're inhabiting a space both in our personal energy fields and in our,environments that we're doing it by default. we're just walking into the room, however it is, and we're walking around just however we are. And it may, we may be carrying around years and years worth of dross.

Jennifer Taylor: And so we want to clear it away and then choose consciously, what do I want in my energy field? What do I want in the space of my home, my car, my work space and when we can choose that consciously, we have a lot more influence on that. And then we are able to create that space where we can operate from our [00:18:00] authentic self and our divinity.

Jennifer Taylor: And then there's also the balancing and centering and grounding. And this is also really important because once we get everything cleared out, all of the influences of all the stuff that we've been carrying around and our spaces tend to have us kind of off kilter. So we need to be able to make sure that we come back to our center, that we're good and grounded and that our energies are balanced.

Jennifer Taylor: And so those are the main. three areas that I want to address today so that we can have a sense of kind of the complete care and keeping of ourselves as energetic beings. 

Tava Baird: One of the things that, uh, this may be just like a little mental thing that I've done before. A lot of times it feels like there is a flow of energies into my house and self.

Tava Baird: And that other times there's a flow and these are [00:19:00] natural rhythms that happen, but sometimes they're unbalanced. So what I mean is there are times when I feel like I'm always going to the store and I can't find anything, or I'm holding onto a lot of stuff for other people.

Tava Baird: And my house starts being used for storage and I'm Oh, here comes this thing in the mail and oh, here comes this package delivery. Here comes this thing I'm supposed to hold onto for someone, and I can feel the energy not only getting more crowded in my house, getting more crowded inside myself in terms of starting to be overwhelmed by all of these things and all of these obligations.

Tava Baird: And then I get to a point where I have to sit down and say, all right, Something has to give or everything internally, me and in my home, is going to become [00:20:00] buried alive. I need to flip the switch and start thinking. Is there anything on my plate that there's someone who wants to volunteer or has asked me for help that I can say, Hey, Yes, please.

Tava Baird: And spend a short time with them. And then they can help shoulder some of the burden. Do I really want my home and my brain to be used as a warehouse for storing other people's items? How can I graciously give some of this energy or some of these physical things? back to them. What are the things that were already crowding my space that don't need to be there anymore, but that I simply didn't want to have to face in the moment?

Tava Baird: I actually, about four or five days ago, He even pulled my husband over to the side and I said, I need you to flip the switch. And he said, what are you talking about? And I stuck out my arm like it was a light [00:21:00] switch. And I said, everything's been coming in. I now need to mark a time period where I consciously choose to let things blow back out and get me back down to a comfortable waterline.

Tava Baird: And so he was very kind and he went. And I went, all right, here we go. And then in all of my interactions, I was becoming more conscious of if someone would say, do you want me to do that for you? I would say yes. If someone would say, are you ready for me to take that back? Yes. And now things are starting to settle down to a place where I'm a lot more comfortable.

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah. And there's definitely, the mental component of what we're thinking. And this sense of overload in our brains and the physical overload of stuff in our spaces. And some of it is definitely mental, but with this, it's [00:22:00] really, our energetic bodies.

Jennifer Taylor: It's a, it will help with shifting our mindset, but these are things that will literally take it from our energy field. And when we can take the things from our energy field, we'll be able to have the mental clarity to do a lot more of those things too. So it will help in those things. So for me, one of the first things that I do is do some kind of energy clearing to help be able to recognize 

Jennifer Taylor: is this mental clutter? And sometimes that mental clutter is actually an energetic clutter, it's really, it creates an overwhelm. And you've definitely had lots of things. all at once where, there would be an overwhelm, I think anyway, but a lot of times I'll find that.

Jennifer Taylor: I will suddenly hit a point in the day when all of a sudden I feel like I'm carrying the weight of the world and I'm really [00:23:00] overwhelmed. And yet if I look at my schedule and the things that are coming up, logically, if I were to look at what was happening, there's no real reason for me to feel that level of overwhelm.

Jennifer Taylor: and I start having these more repetitive thoughts of I need to get this done or there's so much to do and I can't and often in those situations, it's an energetic overwhelm. It's an energetic accumulation of dross and, spirits and energies And when I can clear that, all of a sudden my day goes back.

Jennifer Taylor: It's like the sun comes back out and I'm like, huh. You know, actually, I don't have that much to do. It's not that big of a deal and things kind of clear. So one of the, so I, and actually, so I'm going to cover a number of, of things that we can do, and they're, they're kind of in a way, two different categories of ways that we can address this.

Jennifer Taylor: There are the things that take a little longer. Take a little [00:24:00] bit more intention and focus that are good things to do. And maybe it would be once a day or once a week more practice kinds of things. And then there's stuff that we can do. build into our daily routines, just like brushing our teeth, taking a shower, you know, coming into the house and taking off our, your hat and gloves and coats and stuff.

Jennifer Taylor: And this is a really good time of year, if you're living in a place where it is colder and you are wearing coats and stuff. So when you come into the house, as you're taking off these layers, envisioning taking off all of the dross, like taking off sort of this shell of all the stuff that is accumulated on you during the day.

Jennifer Taylor: And you're hanging it up and brushing it away. And so I'll first start with things like that, like things that we can just build into [00:25:00] our regular thing, because it is so important that we build these in and they become a habit, just like brushing our teeth, just like taking off our shoes, you know, all those kinds of things.

Jennifer Taylor: as much as you can tie these two routines that you already have, it will make it so much simpler. And it does bring a sense of mindfulness to little things that we don't really even think about. Like, just coming in, hanging up my purse, taking off my coat, putting my keys away, those kinds of things.

Jennifer Taylor: It turns these little things into little rituals that have more, more meaning as well. one of the things, like I just mentioned, walking into your home you can envision this like screen or force field or shield kind of thing Completely stretched across the threshold of your home.

Jennifer Taylor: and filling the entire door. And when you walk through it, that it is this whole screen of light that [00:26:00] you walk through. And as you walk through it, it's like it just clears all of the things off of you. Oh, I love that. And it's, it's easy and it's really so many of these things, intention is the most important part and the more you can also just visualize and know that it is done.

Jennifer Taylor: So, you know, I am walking through this, you know, field of light as I walk into my home and only love may come with me and just, step through that with a sense of intention. you can imagine multiple layers that you walk through, you know, sometimes it helps to have a sense of, I'm walking through three different layers and that's cleansing my mind, body, and spirit as I walk through is another nice.

Jennifer Taylor: thing and you can say, I cleanse my mind, body and spirit and only love may enter as you walk into your home. Um, you [00:27:00] can do that with anywhere. You can do that with walking into your place of work. If you're going, you know, in somewhere and imagine that, you know, as I go in, I'm leaving everything else behind.

Jennifer Taylor: You can do that again with. walking into, your office or any threshold that you're going through can become a really quick cleansing experience. And it's amazing how much that helps. And the more times you do it, throughout the day, the better. There is a way that you can dry bathe with your hands.

Jennifer Taylor: So you just intend, you can breathe in light. And you can imagine light pouring in through the top of your head. And as you're breathing out, the light starts pouring through your hands. And then take your hands, and just as though you had just walked in and just all this dust had gotten blown all over you, and you would start, you know, taking your hands and [00:28:00] brushing down your arms and down your body and stuff, trying to brush off all of the dust.

Jennifer Taylor: You do the same thing. But with the intention that this divine light is going to clear away all of the dross. And you can do it against your physical body and then also several inches away from your physical body and just sort of wiping your aura, wiping your energy field, and I tend to work like from the top down and just clear and wipe and wipe and wipe and move through your energy field.

Jennifer Taylor: And that's a really lovely thing to do. You know, after leaving the grocery store, any sort of crowded place, you know, anytime you're in a group of people or you're in an area where you just feel like the energy just feels gross and you don't want to take that with you. And so you can even, you know, just kind of get in your car and do a quick brush off of everything.

Jennifer Taylor: But it's really helpful The more we can keep things from [00:29:00] accumulating, the easier it is. You know, if we haven't scrubbed our floors for two years, when we go to mop it. it's going to be a lot more work and a lot more elbow grease than if, we're just generally keeping things clean.

Jennifer Taylor: and these are things that we can do without the of anything. and after you wipe down your body with your hands, you want to shake them off.

Jennifer Taylor: The idea is like anything that you've, you don't want it on your hands then. So just sort of shake it off. You can also run your hands under running water, like in a sink and just see everything running down and off and down the drain and into the sink. 

Jennifer Taylor: If you're not able to, wipe down your whole body without drawing a lot of attention to yourself, wherever you are, and people are like, Oh my gosh, what's wrong with her? What's happening? You know, you can even just do it with your hands, like just wiping the top of your hands, but with the intention to that you are wiping away everything that you have accumulated.

Jennifer Taylor: All of the dross is coming [00:30:00] off. So you can just do kind of a quick wiping off the tops of your hands, underneath bottoms of your hands, and you know, then just sort of shake them off. Adding again the, under running water is really nice. And that's something that you can do in most places without, any big deal.

Jennifer Taylor: There's also things like smoke bathing, where you're burning sage or rosemary or mugwort or other energy clearing kinds of herbs where you have a bundle. um, sage or other sorts of herbs. and binding them together, a twine, something that is going to burn without any sort of toxins.

Jennifer Taylor: So, you know, make sure that it's a pure string and it's 

Tava Baird: not poisonous. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yes. And not poisonous. And you can find smudge sticks just about everywhere. Say white sage is typically used and yet. It is really endangered and it's something that it doesn't have to be white sage.

Jennifer Taylor: Um, you know, rosemary [00:31:00] works well. Mugwort works really well. And the intention again is the most important thing. So something that is native, but definitely look up and make sure that it's not something that is when burned is going to release some sort of volatile chemicals that are going to cause allergic reaction or anything like that.

Jennifer Taylor: I 

Tava Baird: also want, uh, just two other things on that topic that might be interesting to people listening. so first off, doing smoke bath of any sort. if you've got people around who have asthma, just look into that to make sure you're not causing, a medical thing with anyone. And the other thing I wanted to let, people know about is smudging is the technique that I think most people hear of.

Tava Baird: You know, you, you see all the memes about smudging and all of that, but there are a lot of people out there who, say, well, that's a native American practice. And There's a lot of debate and discussion about open and closed practices, I know, within the Pagan community. So if you are not Native [00:32:00] American but you are looking for something like smudging, may I introduce you to Seining, which is essentially the same thing.

Tava Baird: Seining is spelled S A I N I N G, is a Scottish practice, and essentially it's taking herbs, Bundling them and, then burning them and using them in a smoke bath. The term sane is an old term, meaning to bless. And this practice is not only found in the Pagan community, also has some of its roots where it was adopted by.

Tava Baird: by early Christianity in the British Isles. and the other thing too is since Jen's talking about white sage, they obviously didn't have white sage in the British Isles quite as much. So there's lots of things on websites and stuff about seining that give you ideas for combinations of plants that grow in colder climates.

Tava Baird: Um, so yeah, [00:33:00] smudging slash seining. I'm always excited when I see somebody selling seining supplies, because most people don't know what that is. So you might want to take a look up and, Google that as well. I know a lot of times like Rosemary ends up in those, And there are whole little lovely, sainting rituals, for you to try as well.

Jennifer Taylor: Yes. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that And respiratory wise, ideally really do it outside and obviously be really careful not to, uh, set anything else on fire. And when, you know, when you're working with fire, it's, things, things happen quickly.

Jennifer Taylor: So, you know, smoke breathing is one way of doing that. Saning is one way of doing it. You can also get sprays that are, like based in water and alcohol that are infused with, with sage or other types of herbs. And with the intention of it, you spray that like just sort of spritzing it around, your space with the same sort of [00:34:00] intention.

Jennifer Taylor: You can spritz your energy field that way. You can, spritz all around, your space. And it has the same kind of effect. There's both the energetic. and vibrational qualities of the herb that's used, but it's the intention also that you're using. So as you're doing that, if you are Saying something or holding the intention that this is going to clear the space of all the dross, all unhealed energies, and that only love may remain, that is going to be really effective.

Jennifer Taylor: And we used to carry a hydrosol, I believe it was called with us. So like when we went to hotels and we knew we couldn't be using smoke or candles or anything like that. We would take it in. The first thing we would do is pull that out and spritz all around the room to help to clear the space.

Jennifer Taylor: There are also, 

Jennifer Taylor: Crystal elixir sprays. So there are, crystal elixirs that have maybe black tourmaline and [00:35:00] smoky quartz and, and various kinds of crystals that holdLike the energetic imprint. 

Jennifer Taylor: the energetic signature of the crystal and its properties. And so you get the same, energetic properties of the crystal, but in this elixir, and then you can use the elixir to, spritz around, places or your own energy field.

Tava Baird: for people who think, yes, but how do I know what herb and what stone mean? What, I know there's about a million sites online that, that want to say exactly what everything corresponds to. There's actually a book that came out, I want to say it's about two years ago now, and I believe it's Llewellyn's Book of Magical Correspondences.

Tava Baird: It is a massive book that has all of the traditional uses for everything from symbols to herbs to colors to. Stones and what they are [00:36:00] energetically are used for in energy work. And so if you're looking for a good book to have on your bookshelf, that would be one that I would recommend along the lines of doing the water.

Tava Baird: I think a lot of people who read tarot or do divination might be familiar with Florida water. I mean, you can get it online. You can get it in a ton of different. You know, stores and basically it's a perfume. A perfume company owns it and it's a perfume that was, it's a cologne that was originally used down in New Orleans and it's got this lovely spicy citrusy scent and people use it for clearing spaces between readings if they're doing readings for more than one person or for putting it on their hands and kind of running their hands down their body for a quick energetic cleansing.

Tava Baird: If you don't want to, give your money to big perfume, there is a way to make your own. And I make [00:37:00] jars and jars and jars of it. what you do is you go to the grocery store. Well, actually you'd have to go to the ABC store and you get the cheapest vodka or gin you can find. And trust me, they sell it in really big bottles.

Tava Baird: and it will fill several mason jars for you. You get a clean mason jar and what you're going to do is all the things that Jen's just been talking about. I like to make mine protective. 

Tava Baird: I put in rosemary, I put in pepper, I put in any plant. Any herb that I have lying around that is protective and clearing and grounding.

Tava Baird: Cinnamon is a wonderful one to put in. And then I peel, some orange and lemon and I use the insides for cooking, but I dry the peels out a little bit and then I pop them in too. If you put the things in ride, [00:38:00] your potion becomes much more potent, much faster because the water that is sort of fighting to get out doesn't mix with the alcohol.

Tava Baird: Your herbs are already dried and I make a big, big jar of it. And then some people, put it out in on full moon. I like to leave my, I like mine super strong. So I put these jars under my altar. I have a little dark area with cabinet doors under my altar, and I leave them there for three months.

Tava Baird: Now, quite honestly, that's probably way overkill. You'd have this in a couple of days and it will be just fine. But I like the symbolism of the three because it is a goddess number and also I do pop them outside under the moon. And then I strain out all of the herbs and the, peels. I take the stone back out.

Tava Baird: I clear it out, add it back to my altar. This stuff I use on daily. Everything. You can put it on as a cologne if you need a little bit of clearing and protecting. I use it if I'm doing readings for [00:39:00] people to clear the space. I wash my door and window frames with it so that any unhealed energies that want to get into my house are going to encounter that field of protection and grounding that I have right there.

Tava Baird: Um, I use it when I'm cleaning my altars. Or cleaning tables, anywhere that a lot of people have been. I can put a splash of it into a bucket if I'm mopping my floors. And that way I'm getting into all of the corners. if you are not of drinking age, and I have had people that I mentor who aren't, and they go, well, I can't go buy cheap gin.

Tava Baird: You know what? You can make a tea and do the same thing with it. You can take water, put the stones in, put the herbs in, let it sit in steep, and then use that tea. if you go to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, which isn't that far from where Jen and I reside, this town is absolutely fantastic.

Tava Baird: And there are [00:40:00] these underground hot springs that people have been visiting for healing for hundreds of years. And a couple of the local stores take the spring water and put charged crystals in it and then sell it. And I keep a jar of that in my refrigerator. And, uh, when it's a hot day and I need a little energetic pick me up, I spritz myself down with the refrigerated, crystal water.

Tava Baird: And, um, there I go. I'm ready to roll again. 

Jennifer Taylor: Thank you. Yeah, that's, I used to make similar things like that with the crystals and, herbs and various kinds of things. One thing I will mention, and I was going to mention this later when it comes to bathing in crystals, but do be aware that some crystals are, will dissolve in water.

Jennifer Taylor: And then also there are some crystals that have things like lead in them, like black tourmaline. So I wouldn't put maybe tourmaline in water, but you can put it [00:41:00] next to a jar. So anything that you put next to the glass jar, That is going to be infused into it as well.

Jennifer Taylor: So if you have something that you really want to infuse it with that energy, but for whatever reason, it would react with the stuff in it. You can also just put it all around the jar and that will work too, but definitely You know, when it comes to drinking anything, sometimes it's like, Hey, I'll spritz it on me.

Jennifer Taylor: I'll drink it too. Or I'm putting it in vodka and that looks like it might be good. Be really careful. Yeah. Be really careful about whatever, crystals that you put in there, because some of them. Can leach really, really toxic things into water or into, any other sort of liquid substance.

Jennifer Taylor: So just be really careful about that. And it's, it's simple to look up, you know, a quick Google search will show you, which crystals you can use in water. which ones are safe. My, my understanding is that it's pretty much quartz are the ones that are kind of safe to put in water and [00:42:00] without having sort of anything, um, much to worry about, but even things that we, you buy at the store, sometimes the, uh, the courts, you know, they may have lining or things that they've put on them to make them more shiny, or they may have picked up stuff.

Jennifer Taylor: So just be aware of that. 

Tava Baird: Um, I think selenite's one of the ones you, yeah, 

Jennifer Taylor: selenite, will dissolve in water. fluorite does not like being in water and will start to, dissolve. So yeah, just, a quick Google will pretty much tell you what things you, you can and can't put in water.

Jennifer Taylor: Um, but I know that crystal waters and people drinking waters and putting crystals in their water bottles and stuff, it's like kind of a big thing, but you have to be very, very, very certain of what crystal you have and, How it was processed to be able to do that safely, but it just needs to be near it.

Jennifer Taylor: It doesn't have to be in it. Like, you know, flower essences are super potent and the, the flower never touches. the [00:43:00] water and alcohol that it's in. It absorbs the essence of it and it's energetic signature and it never even necessarily touches the water. So it, you know, don't underestimate the potency of having something in proximity and using your intention to infuse it into whatever you're making.

Tava Baird: If you think about it, we put things out to charge in moonlight. We don't actually take them to the moon and the moon is very far away. 

Jennifer Taylor: Exactly. I was thinking about that, putting it in the window, you know, for the moonlight. Yeah. It doesn't have to touch the moon. It doesn't have to touch the crystal. In fact, with your intention, you know, we know there's no such thing as time and space.

Jennifer Taylor: Really? You know, you could call in the energy from a sacred place around the world, you know, or call in the energy of a sacred mountain. and invite it to infuse this water, this, elixir with its healing properties. And I have no doubt that it would [00:44:00] work, you know, I mean, it's, it's all about making that energetic connection.

Jennifer Taylor: inviting and asking it to work with you. Um, you know, I wouldn't call it, I wouldn't tell something to do something that you don't have a relationship with, but, you know, talking to the mountain or the stone or the, the river or whatever it is and asking, you know, would you lend your, your healing to this?

Jennifer Taylor: And, It's amazing, you know, so, and you don't even have to have the crystal, but you know, if you're like, I don't, I don't have the money right now to buy another crystal or I can't find this particular crystal, but I really want to infuse something with it. You can sit and, and just intend that you be connected with the spirit of black tourmaline and you ask to connect with the energy of black tourmaline and ask it to please infuse, this, elixir or whatever it is with that element.

Jennifer Taylor: [00:45:00] And you can work with that even if you don't have a black tourmaline anywhere in your vicinity. I've been in Reiki sessions where I knew that I needed a certain crystal that I had. But I hadn't brought it in to the session and I've just intended and I swear I could feel the energy of that crystal working.

Jennifer Taylor: And so it's, you know, we're, we're dealing in energy, which is wonderful because it doesn't require having to have physically all of these different things. 

Tava Baird: I mean, having. bunch of things from your local metaphysical shop is beautiful. But if you think about it, practices that we are talking about here were done for a very long time when people couldn't roll down to their local metaphysical store.

Tava Baird: You know, a black stone you find in your yard that came from your environment has been just as much power as something that you went and [00:46:00] purchased at a market. You know, if your intention is there, the fancy, fancy, beautiful wand that you're so in love with on Etsy is really nice, but you can go out and find a stick from your yard, from the tree that watches over your house, and it's going to be just as potent.

Tava Baird: So there's definitely something to be said for. Having beautiful things in your practice, but having natural things from your environment are the way that our ancestors did this, since the beginning of time, it's actually something I'm going through right now, especially because I know.

Tava Baird: A lot of metaphysical shop owners. So whenever I go visit, I end up coming home with things, you know, I want to support local business, which is great. But that's, I got to the point where I had four altars that were literally groaning under the weight of every, every, every, incense burner statue, [00:47:00] you know, and I didn't even have places to put the, to charge the puppets that I was making or the bones that I had, which were the things that were really, really sacred to me.

Tava Baird: So, recently I started doing old witch fire sale basically at, a lot of the markets I was at where I went through my altars and I took all of the things that weren't really part of my practice but were nice and sold them at a discount to people because there's always people looking for things to start up their practice.

Tava Baird: And sent them on to new homes and other ones I gifted to people, or if someone buys, something through my Etsy shop or through my website, sometimes I'll tuck some extra stones or what have you into the package. So just sort of flipping the switch and sending these things back out into the world.

Tava Baird: And what I'm finding is I am much happier making my own ritual tools from things that I find in my yard. They tend to have a lot of meaning for me, or ritual tools that I [00:48:00] found while I was traveling where I wanted to remember a place, or ones that were a gift from someone. my altar that I have in the other room, if you could see, uh, Jennifer made me the most beautiful gift that I got last holiday.

Tava Baird: There's this gorgeous piece of driftwood with this glass bowl and I could go on into it for a long time, but I won't. Um, but like it is the centerpiece of the top of my altar because it has so much meaning to me. That it was something that Jen created and made and put her energy into. And all of the other little things that came from the store need to find their way on to somewhere else in the world.

Jennifer Taylor: I'm so glad that you mentioned that about all of the things because I think sometimes it's easy to get distracted by the idea of all the things. and get overwhelmed by it. It's like, Oh, well, I need to buy florida water and I need to grow crystals and I need to figure out which crystal to [00:49:00] do this.

Jennifer Taylor: I need to find the store and a lot of times That becomes an overwhelm in itself and then everything falls apart and the actual practices fall away. And the most important thing is not the things. It's the intention that we place into them and the sacredness that we create by connecting with them for a specific intention.

Jennifer Taylor: And Because we are talking about energy, our most powerful tool is our intention and our consciousness and us placing our consciousness in or on something and asking it to do something. Our connection with the divine and whatever, that means for you , bringing through this healing energy, calling in the new divine light or divine darkness or calling in the divinity of whatever it is and working with that, [00:50:00] it doesn't require anything.

Jennifer Taylor: And this is my one little pitch for Reiki and that one of the things I love about that is that every single step of energetic hygiene from our bodies, our minds, our spirits, our spaces, everything can be done with Reiki, which involves needing absolutely nothing. Um, you know, you're, you're using your hands, you're using your eyes, your breath, your, your heart center, whatever it is, it is, in you and you have the ability to access this, this energy and draw it through.

Jennifer Taylor: And absolutely every aspect of the energetic hygiene can be done with Reiki and it doesn't need anything. There is absolutely not a single prop or a single thing that you need in order to bring that through. And that is really one of the things that I primarily use. And I find it to be extremely effective because you're really [00:51:00] channeling this spiritually guided life force energy into whatever it is that you're adding your intention to.

Jennifer Taylor: And it is incredibly powerful. So, Just my little, my little Reiki plug because I, I absolutely love it. And it is my go to for absolutely everything. And when you add it to these other practices, the other practices are just that much more potent. 

Tava Baird: We'll have a little chime in from a seraphim here.

Tava Baird: Yay! I was wondering where he was. He's been sitting and just listening very carefully today. He says, Your body is your greatest instrument and tool. It is the sacred site where your soul resides. I have no material possessions on this plane, yet observe my effect. 

Jennifer Taylor: Amen to that. 

Tava Baird: Yeah, angels don't bring baggage when they come to visit us, 

Jennifer Taylor: you know, and the things [00:52:00] that you can do with your intention, with placing your consciousness on it, with visualization, and with your voice, are all things that, don't require anything else, 

Jennifer Taylor: And you know, I know we've talked so much about singing, but you can sing and intend that as you're singing, you are bringing through divine energy that is purifying your whole body as it comes through and out. And that it is filling the whole space around you.

Jennifer Taylor: And in effect, it really actually is. when we bring through song, when we bring through these vibrations, especially intentionally. through cymatics you could actually be able to see that it is creating these sacred geometries all around you. And it is shifting them from,disorganized kinds of, geometries around you into sacred geometries, things that are [00:53:00] balanced.

Jennifer Taylor: so just. singing with intention to clear and release or to fill a space, is really, really powerful. 

Tava Baird: When we talk about material things as well, I mean, if you look at spiritual traditions all over the world, when people go to become, they don't acquire more stuff. whether you go become a Christian monk or a Zen Buddhist monk, what is the first step?

Tava Baird: It's getting rid of all of your stuff, right? It's putting down all of those material burdens. Obviously, Most of us in our daily life, we can't do that. I mean, I couldn't podcast if I didn't have some material equipment in front of me right now. We forget a lot of times because we get so used to it.

Tava Baird: How much of our energy and time is spent just dealing with stuff, just transporting stuff and purchasing stuff and cleaning stuff. I know there was that big, uh, trend. No, it was a good book. I read it. [00:54:00] Um, the Marie Kondo organizing book that came out several years ago where they said, if it doesn't spark joy, you know, you're supposed to get rid of it.

Tava Baird: Well, I don't know that my dishwasher sparks joy, but I still need it. But what I liked is actually something I saw on the internet more recently. And they said, forget sparking joy. What some people are using now is this, if it had mud or blood on it, Would you take the time to clean it or simply throw it out?

Tava Baird: If it's something that is a gooey ooey mess and you would still take the time to clean it. Because it had relevance to you because it was a useful tool because it was, expensive, like a dishwasher, then it's probably something you should have around. But if it's something that gives you that thought of, should I just throw this out?

Tava Baird: If you have that idea, it's probably time for it to move [00:55:00] on. I once had when I was, teaching, we had this wonderful woman. He used to come do first aid certification with us every, I think it was every year. And she once said, if you ever have the thought, should I call an ambulance? The answer is yes.

Tava Baird: Ever crosses your mind. It's time for an ambulance. The answer is always yes. I'm going to say apply the same thing to, do I, should I really get rid of this? Do I like this? You're, you're probably leaning towards, yes, it might be time for that thing to move on. And I always find there are some people who are not affected as much by their environment.

Tava Baird: My husband doesn't seem to see a lot of clutter around him. He just continues on as though it's not there. I am the polar opposite. If things get cluttered around me, I can't think straight. So you may have [00:56:00] a difference of opinion even within the other people that you're residing with in terms of how much internal energetic chaos and how much material energetic chaos they can handle.

Tava Baird: In today's day and age, you can pretty much acquire The majority of things you're thinking of getting rid of again, and most of them from thrift stores. I'll give you an example also. Tons and tons and tons of books and comics and things like that are available online now.

Tava Baird: There are always going to be books that someone dedicated to us, or that we like to hold in our hands, or that have a special place in our heart. But if it's a book you haven't opened in 20 years, do you need to be dusting the shelf that it's on anymore? So, the changing of the seasons are a really great time to just look around and think, does this really need to be here or is it causing me to carry an energetic burden that I don't [00:57:00] need?

Jennifer Taylor: Absolutely. And, some of that can be energetic kinds of work too of, I've carried around this guilt. Or this sense of shame or this sense of unworthiness or whatever it is. And I'm just tired of carrying it around and I'm ready to let it go. And you can, you can do any number of energetic practices to release that.

Jennifer Taylor: I always highly recommend calling in Archangel Michael, to help you to release it. And when you're really ready to let go of things. Um, it's. It's amazing how much lighter we are when we can let go of those things. But when we, you have to sometimes reach that part where you're really ready to let it go.

Jennifer Taylor: And that's also where finding a really skilled, energy practitioner. it's helpful because oftentimes [00:58:00] it's really hard for us to let go on our own of these things or transmute it. And we need someone kind of outside of ourselves to be able to have a more clear view and to help to release things as well.

Jennifer Taylor: So if you realize that there's some energetic, cleaning that needs to be done. that's beyond that, seek someone who is skilled and experienced in helping to release that. And it can be really life changing. 

Tava Baird: Having that outside perspective is wonderful because we often get lost in our own perceptions of things.

Tava Baird: I will give you an example. 18 or 19 years ago, I was in a situation where I parted ways with some people and for almost 20 years, I have kept myself utterly convinced that whenever we ran into each other again, which we probably were going to at some point because we ran in [00:59:00] sort of the same larger circles.

Tava Baird: That it was going to be awkward, that it was going to be awful, and I had utterly convinced myself that they actively disliked me, right, for twenty Years. I encountered those people just a few days ago. And when I saw them, I went, Oh, this is going to be bad and awkward. And it's good. All of these, this fear, this apprehension of running into them that I had carried for two decades.

Tava Baird: You know what happened? They saw me. They said, Oh my God, it's so great to see you. They embraced me. They said, Oh, Wonderful, fantastic things. They told me how excited they were to have run into me. They moved on. I moved on. And I thought, Oh, my goodness. I was worried about that for 20 [01:00:00] years. And I didn't have to be.

Tava Baird: Now, if I told somebody that concern. At any point in those 20 years, they probably would have said to me, I don't really think that's how it's going to go down. I don't. It sounds like a lot of that concern and worry might be living in your head. It was something unhealed in me that I needed to process. I needed to let that idea die because the reality was it never existed.

Tava Baird: They were never upset with me. They were never angry with me. And they have actually thought of me favorably for the last two decades. Right. So, and just before I was telling that story, Samael, as you know, is often referred to as the poison of God and the archangel of death. And he said, call me in for support.

Tava Baird: Let me [01:01:00] tend to the death of it. So he is another one that you can say, I don't want this anymore. Can you take it for me? And, he just wanted to let you know that you can call him in for support and that he is a professional tender of death, so. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah, and you need not be afraid of what will happen to what you release when you release this into, the hands of Samael or, some other aspect of the divine.

Jennifer Taylor: depending on what it is that I'm releasing, sometimes there was a fear of doing harm to something and you're handing something over to Samuel, the death of something, or the idea of taking that from you, it will only be dealt with 

Jennifer Taylor: for the highest good of all, including, whatever needs to happen to that, which you turn over. 

Tava Baird: The other thing to keep in mind is that we [01:02:00] often have this idea that time is a line and that if we move on from something, that we're leaving somebody or something behind us. But my experience has been that when, when you're Energy tends to move in circles, in spirals.

Tava Baird: we revisit things again and again and again. And we see them from slightly different perspectives and learn something different from them each time we encounter it. So a lot of times moving forward is terrifying to us because we don't want to leave certain things behind.

Tava Baird: We feel like we've abandoned them. But in fact What we may be doing in being able to move forward is start a circle that eventually leads us where we can then see that person or that event or that thing. From a slightly different perspective as we approach it, [01:03:00] we have given energy time to play out there while we were walking and change into something slightly different.

Tava Baird: And then we may actually be discovering those people and things again from a much healthier place as well as proving to ourselves that it is good to keep moving. If we kind of get rid of the idea that we're only going in one direction, that time is only flowing in one way, Jen said before, this idea of time and space, these are constructs that humans have put on our environment so that we can process things, because how hard is it to process that there is no time and that basically all the spaces are one, it's, it's a lot for our brains, but just though, I'm going to take those steps forward.

Tava Baird: And it may lead me right in a [01:04:00] little while to, but this time I'm walking towards it with a new perspective, new experiences and the opportunity to do this from a more healed place. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yeah, absolutely. And energetically, what I have learned is that what happens when we are holding on to this old wound, this thing that tells us, that this is going to be really bad or that you've done something terrible or whatever it is.

Jennifer Taylor: It's as though, and we're, we will definitely have an episode on chakras to go into this and help to explain it for it. But just for the sake of brevity, it will just sort of, go with the idea that we have these energetic centers. in our bodies and they're this vortex of energy that goes, that starts in the very center of us where our central channel is and goes both forward and backwards.

Jennifer Taylor: So it goes, through us from back to front. And when something happens and we [01:05:00] are holding onto it and is not healed. It often is in our chakra behind us. And what it does is it pulls back and it holds back the energy that would naturally be fueling us and helping us to move, and access all of the capacity of that chakra.

Jennifer Taylor: And each chakra has a different set of Like skillsand things that it does for us. And so if there is something. That is holding all of that energy back that it's like kind of like having a rock in a slingshot where you're pulling it back and back and back and you cannot access that. It's just everything is pulled back and you're not your full complete self.

Jennifer Taylor: You don't have access to all of your capacity that you're meant to have. When you release that, It's like you just take the rock out that was in the slingshot. And then you let that rubber band, you know, kind of go back to [01:06:00] center and it releases and let's go of all of these energies that have been in there that have been held back and were tied to that.

Jennifer Taylor: And when that happens, the fact that you were carrying around, that, that unhealed thing was not. maintaining a relationship. It wasn't helping anything positive to happen. What it was doing was holding back your full potential, your capacity for health and healing and your ability to bring that forward into the world.

Jennifer Taylor: So the more of those things that you can let go of and release and heal, the more of your own energy and capacity, you're going to have access to and the more good you can do even for the same relationship that caused that. and it, there's so many self help skills and there's so many things that we're taught on how to energetically release and heal these things [01:07:00] ourselves that sometimes we get stuck in the idea that we have to do it all ourselves.

Jennifer Taylor: And I am really, really guilty of that, where I tend to think, all right, I have all these levels of Reiki. I have all these different energetic skills. I work with all these, divine beings. I should be able to do this. And that it's some sort of maybe test for me to be able to do it myself. And, The reality is it's a community we're supposed to be reaching out.

Jennifer Taylor: And there are some things that we can't necessarily release as fully on our own and reaching out to a practitioner that resonates with you and whatever type of thing, you know, it may be traditional talk therapy. It may be, any number of, energetic kinds of practitioners You know, when you get that thing where you feel like you've just been so stuck, reach out to someone and, allow yourself to have that help and it can really catapult things forward.

Jennifer Taylor: I 

Tava Baird: mean, if you think about it, surgeons don't do their surgery on themselves. [01:08:00] They have the know how to do it. Yep. Or their families. Yes. You just need someone else at times. the best practitioners that I know all have other practitioners that work on them. the massage therapists that I know all have their own massage therapists.

Tava Baird: The spiritual healers all have their own spiritual mentors and healers. It's, it really is a community because that you can't be expected to always stitch yourself up. You don't have the perspective. or sometimes simply the hands to do it. 

Jennifer Taylor: Yes. It's, it's so important. 

Thank you so much for joining us today. You are a valued member of this community.  We look forward to continuing this conversation with you next week.  Until then may you be clear, balanced and blessed.