Products Mentioned:

Backpack/Diaper Bag (similar) - https://amzn.to/47ZeEj0
Dongle Holder - https://amzn.to/3K3R1xN
Keychain - https://shop.getbullish.com/products/...
Doterra PastTense (bottle, not roller) - https://amzn.to/483INhh
Doterra On Guard Roller - https://amzn.to/4o0P6rZ
Trader Joe’s Hand Sanitizer Spray - https://amzn.to/47WKZXB
Treat Frosted Donut Lip Balm - https://amzn.to/47IEkBM
GoMacro Everlasting Joy Bars - https://amzn.to/47Zew35
Retractable Charging Cord - https://amzn.to/3X0PXxE
Water Bottle - https://amzn.to/3XwRyeI
The Secret History - https://amzn.to/4oDUz91

*Some links help to support this blog through affiliations.

Time Stamps:

0:00 Intro
0:35 A Magical Disclaimer
1:12 Tips for Clearing the Energy of Your Home
1:35 SIGHT/Visualization
2:34 Shout Out to ‪@chriscorsinitarot‬
2:50 SMOKE/Smudging
3:33 Ethical Harvesting
6:01 SCENT
7:21 SOUND
9:00 SALT
10:30 More Magical Resources

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In our first episode of the Home Half Full Energy Shift Makeover series, we meet at a fresh chapter in her career and with a fresh space to decorate.

SUBMIT YOUR SPACE FOR AN ENERGY SHIFT

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT AMANDA'S WORK

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Products Mentioned:

• Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl (Sweat & Vanilla Perfume Vinyl)

• Litterbox

• Tofu Litter

• Delomo Pet Hair Roller

• Rug Scraper

• Carrie Bradshaw’s Cat Tree

• My Current Cat Tree

• Cactus Cat Tree

• Cloud Cat Tree

Wardrobe:

• Taylor album cover choker by Aura & Artifact

• Top, belt, & Levi’s 501 jeans bought resale

• TLOAS friendship bracelet by my bestie & Substack subscriber, Holly :)

Wish List: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/APKZNHZOFDM?ref_=wl_share

*Amazon links are affiliate…because if you can’t shop small, you might as well support small creators.

It’s a time for reflection, purging, and sometimes discomfort, but it’s also the catalyst for monumental change. Eclipses challenge us to push forward, bring new things to light, and to start before we are ready.

Perhaps you bravely started a new and challenging endeavor between the Pisces Full Moon on September 7th and today’s Virgo New Moon, or maybe this email is your sign to ACT NOW.

My personal eclipse hurdle came in the form of starting a new YouTube channel. I’ve been creating videos online since 2013 for what has now become my astrology and tarot channel, but had been craving a more creative and personal outlet as well.

Enter: Home Half Full

Dedicated to my home life, love of decor, and fondness to ‘90s references, this new channel has already challenged my creative soul in new and exciting ways.

But it almost suffocated under the weight of my excuses.

I didn’t have the right camera. My microphone needed an upgrade. I wanted to learn a new editing software. My apartment wasn’t ready enough.

But instead of letting all of those excuses stop me, I just started. I made the best of my current surroundings, filmed on my iPhone, fixed the audio in post, edited on clunky old iMovie…and fell in love with the perfectly imperfect results.

I’ll still slowly be making all of those desired upgrades over time (become a paid subscriber if you’d like to help with that!), but for now, I’m working with what I’ve got and feeling more and more inspired every step of the way.

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Let this be your sign: start today, you’ll figure it out along the way.

Currently, I’m in the process of furnishing my new apartment. It’s the first time I’ve found myself in a one-bedroom solo living space since 2008, and there’s quite a bit of space to fill. Since moving across the country twice in less than three years and selling all but a few suitcases’ worth of my belongings each time, I’m happy to finally feel like I’m putting down roots and acquiring items that will (hopefully) be with me for the long term.

One of my most recent acquisitions was a dining room table—my very first. As a city dweller living alone, I’ve spent the past decade and a half dining at coffee tables, kitchen counters, or my desk. However, upon finding myself with the extra space, I became surprisingly excited to have a space to gather around with friends and other visitors.

Like most children of the ‘90s, I still believe that a round dining table is all it takes to get my social circle to suddenly abandon their phones and become drawn to my apartment like a magnet alá FRIENDS.

Since acquiring said dining table, I have yet to have friends gravitate to my space (I’m still awaiting the delivery of more than one chair anyway), but I have found that my own orbit around the apartment has changed to center around this newly grounded space. It’s where I eat, where I work, and sometimes even where I succumb to my raging YouTube addiction over tea.

In fact, I’ve felt such a shift in my lifestyle since acquiring this table that I’ve come up with a theory: every space needs an anchor.

While many magical practices involve creating an altar or a meditation space for your home, an anchor is slightly different. Altars are for communing with your guides, paying tribute to your ancestors, and displaying your various magical tools, talismans, and trinkets. An anchor, on the other hand, doesn’t involve any of these things. Unlike the sacredness of an altar, your home’s anchor is the space you gravitate towards for the secular activities that ground you in the real world.

Your anchor doesn’t have to be a dining table; in fact, it can change from location to location, given how grounded you currently feel in certain areas of your home. Sofas, work desks, and even outdoor spaces can all make well-suited anchors during different seasons and moods of your life. What matters is that you have mentally designated said space as your grounding location.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you select your home’s anchor:

1. Is it in a (relatively) central location?

   While the physical location of your anchor does not need to be directly at the center of your home, it helps if the space feels energetically central, in that you pass through it often while at home. You might find it hard to get grounded if your anchor is in the creepy basement that no one enters or the shed at the back of your property.

2. Is it made of or surrounded by wood?

   Wood is associated with the earth element and, therefore, naturally grounding. Metal, plastic, and glass can feel more activating. Choosing an anchor piece that’s made of or at least surrounded by wood will assist in your desire to feel rooted and calm. Bonus points if it also comes with a view of the natural elements like plants and trees.

3. Is it a color that feels grounding and/or soothing?

   When I first purchased my table at a local second-hand shop, the wood had been painted a bright, Pepto-Bismol pink. Granted, I love pink, but this color was offensive. So I sanded it down and painted it a smokey black satin, and immediately, the space felt calmer and the piece more grounded. Colors you might consider for your own anchor include black, brown, green, gray, tan, deep maroon, or dark blue.

4. Is it a space where you can both relax and get things done?

   Unlike an altar, your anchor needs to be utilitarian. It needs to function as a part of your secular life more than your spiritual one. However, it also should feel flexible since grounding ourselves in the real world happens both actively and passively. Having a space that invites you to nourish your body, organize your life, and connect to your chosen family allows for more balance than creating a space to constantly be on your grind.

5. Does it include an element of pleasure?

   If you’re meant to gravitate toward your anchor daily, it helps to incorporate an item you thoroughly enjoy interacting with. For my anchor, I purchased a lazy Susan for the table’s center where I always keep my favorite teapot on display. This integrates a bit of dopamine decor + a cozy invitation to relax with a grounding beverage when I’m in the space.

Tell Me: What’s your home’s current anchor?

I’ve changed apartments 5 times in the last 27 months.

Yes, you read that correctly. That means I’ve packed up, physically moved my entire life from one place to the next, made myself at home, and then repeated the process an average of every 5 1/2 months for almost two and a half years. Granted, the actual amount of time in each apartment varied.

I moved back to Chicago from Los Angeles and signed on a sublet in a building I’d lived in a decade earlier and loved; that lease was 3 months.

Then I got the inside scoop that an even better unit was opening up across the courtyard as my first lease expired, so I jumped at the chance to transfer. The only catch was that, after decades under the same management, the building had just transferred owners, and I was only being offered a 9-month lease “to stagger the lease endings.”

Whatever, I’ll sign a year lease after that and cozy up to my new long-term home, right? Wrong.

The real reason for “staggering” the lease endings: management had plans to renovate the entire building. Syncing up the lease expirations by stairwell ensured tenants in all reno-ready units would be required to vacate on the same date.

What? Vacate? But I like the apartment as it is and want to stay here forever! Too bad.

So I started looking for another apartment, but with only 60 days notice and my heart still set on staying in the building, I instead hopped over to a unit further down the renovation schedule…and then I did the same thing again 9 months later.

Which brings us to the fifth and final move that happened just this weekend. I finally ran out of unrenovated units in the building, which pushed me to look for something more, something closer to work, something that I could make a home for at least 12 months, but ideally longer. And I found it. The perfect home…but more on that to come in future posts.

My point, dear reader, is this: after all of that moving, I’m an expert at making myself at home QUICK. Plus, I’m a Cancer sun sign, so doing so is imperative to my ability to function in the world. And while furniture and decor are a big part of that home-making process, I always start by aligning any new place with my own energy, by clearing out the old and inviting in the new.

Whether you’ve recently moved or just want to reset the energy of your current space, here are 7 of my favorite ways to clear the air:

1. Smudging*

This one’s a classic for a reason. Smoke cleansing is not just about the metaphysical benefits, studies have shown that burning medicinal herbs can have an anti-microbial effect on the air, thus preventing the spread of bacteria (an enticing bonus for those of us who are witchy, yet germaphobic).

Not sure which herb to use? Here are a few of my personal favorites:

• White Sage - Good for overall cleansing and a fresh start, smells amazing IMHO. This one’s known in the witchy community as “spiritual bleach,” so while you may not wish to use it after building up your own good vibes in the space, it’s great for the reset needed between residents.

• Palo Santo - Cleanses only the negative energy, good for spiritual environments, smells of a fall walk in the woods IMHO. This one’s great if you want your next chapter to be open to divine messages or if you’ve already built up a collection of fond memories in the space that you want to keep around.

• Cedar - Cozy and purifying, hard to burn, but smells of a Grandmother’s hope chest. My personal favorite for housewarmings, cedar feels like a gentle hug for your space, but doesn’t seem to cut it if there’s a specific icky, sticky energy you want to cleanse.

• Yerba Santa - Hyper-spiritual and best for ritual work, but not my favorite for new home clearing. Use if you’re REALLY looking to make the space exclusively a conversation pit for you and your spirit guides.

*Always source your herbs from ethical and responsible suppliers, please!

2. Music

An often overlooked spiritual tool is music. Not just Gregorian chants or crystal bowls, but literally any music you enjoy can be used to cleanse the space and build up good vibrations. Just be sure your favorite tune of choice is one that makes you feel the way you hope to feel most often in the space. I love a good sing-along and cry it out as much as the next Pisces moon placement, but this is not the time. That said, don’t pick something just because someone else tells you it’s the best mood music; trust your own instincts.

3. Clapping

So simple, yet so satisfying. Clapping is super old school and akin to old wives’ tale traditions like banging pots and pans on New Year’s Day. The concept stems from many intentions. Some think the noise scares bad spirits away, some say the vibration of hitting your hands together activates lesser-known chakras in your palms, and still others say it’s the sound vibrations clearing the space just like crystal bowls or gongs would do in a sound bath setting.

The mindset is that negative or heavy energy affects the resonance of sound, so as you wander about your new space, clap a few times in each room. If the clap sounds clear and strong, the energy is clear. If it sounds muffled, the energy is heavy, but clapping a few more times should clear it up.

Could this just be an exercise in clapping with strength and confidence to create the desired audio effect? Sure. But isn’t strength and confidence energy worth cultivating as you enter into your new space?

4. Visualization

If you’ve taken my Become Your Own Healer energy protection class, you know I’m big on cleansing practices that require no tools or tasks. If you’re short on funds or just exhausted from moving boxes all day, you can sit in meditation and visualize a clearing of your new home.

The sky’s the limit on how to do this, but since UV light disinfectants started trending a few years ago, I’ve gone high-tech with my energy-clearing imagery:

Sit in stillness and picture your home in your mind, then visualize a strip of UV light shining down from above and scanning through the space, “disinfecting” all of the bad vibes, negative energy, or anything that isn’t yours. Once you’ve pictured the UV light scanning every inch of your environment like a super thorough security system, close out your meditation and enjoy your spiritually “germ-free” home.

5. Fresh Air

Open the windows! It’s that simple. Sometimes all a space needs to feel better is to air out a bit. Bonus points if you let in a hearty dose of sunlight in the process, as it’s a natural physical and energetic disinfectant.

6. Reiki/Energy Healing

If you are a healer or know a healer, you can use energy healing to cleanse the energy of a space just as it would cleanse a person. Not into the healing arts personally? Invite some friends over for a house witching party and hire a healer to guide you through a cleansing ceremony that may involve anything from special symbols to sigils to a guided meditation to help raise and clear the vibes.

7. Cleaning

Honestly, I saved the best for last because you’re likely doing this already during your move-in. It baffles me to no end that every apartment I’ve ever lived in has asked that you leave things spotless at your departure, yet every apartment I’ve ever moved into has had at least 3 areas that seem to have been left untouched by any cleaning product for at least a decade. Physically cleaning your space can be a spiritual cleansing as well, you are literally clearing out the remnants of another person’s life. If you’d like to make this standard practice more powerful, state to yourself before starting the process that you are ready to rid the environment of all lingering energy and invite in clear, clean vibes for your new beginning there.

Happy homemaking!