On Dirt

We're not big fans of ritual purity here.*

Lots of magical paths imply the existence of a realm of pure light or pure goodness, a One Divinity, a pure sphere above the head, and so on. If anything, we are drawing our power directly from the earth beneath our feet instead. And it's not pure or good - it's messy, conflicted, grubby. Those paths imply it is also good for us to be ritually clean, rather than immersed in the energies of the world, because that cleanliness helps our spirits to rise and magic to work. That we can become pure, and like God.

So we avoid using ritual cleansings or purifying the space around us. These things are rather like putting a weedkiller on a garden - the toxin doesn't know the difference between good plants and bad weeds, between helpful bees and unhelpful slugs (and besides, slugs have value beyond the way they wreck our gardens). It's good for children to play in dirt, and pick up immunities to all sorts of things, and learn their own strength in the world - rather than remaining coddled indoors, wiping down surfaces wherever they go.

(We do, of course, have access to that kind of high magic pure light; and we can and do do cleansings. We just don't do them as a matter of routine. If we DO cleanse an area, it's in the knowledge we are essentially bleaching it empty, scaring everything off for a while, or in dire straits, like burning a book out of existence - not really all that different from a Christian group coming down and attempting to exorcise the place and fill it with Jesus. Sometimes, that's necessary.)

Our magic doesn't operate as a higher vibration frequency, as something made of a shard of godhead, pure and unsullied. We're dirty witches. We are of the land. The energies around us ARE our energies. We don't turn our eyes to the heavens or to power we cannot see and touch. Our powers come from the land, from under our feet, from history, from the mess and the chaos, from our palimpsest landscape. No, it is not clean. It is our way to welcome and work with whatever is around us. We don't gentrificraft the area clear, then fill it with our intent and our preferred deities. We wait to see who is already here, and introduce ourselves, and work together.

One way to remember this is to grow plants at your home. You will soon realise that what you want has nothing to do with it. Plants grow where they are supposed to grow - you can't grow cacti in rain, or camellias in acid-free soil, or hostas in sunlight, or an oak in a tiny window pot. It is easiest to grow in sympathy with nature - by picking plants of the appropriate size and climate and sun-needs to where you are. In this way, we also seek to work in sympathy with the natural spirits around us - and that includes not blasting their homes “clean”. When we do ritual, it is better to calm yourself and fumble around for the energies of the area, than to cleanse yourself and everything around you and then start summoning in new energies from the aether.

*(Additionally, your author is a depressed spoonie who can rarely bathe, and requirements of ritual bathings have been preventing him doing magic on a great many occasions)