Decluttering and getting organised
First comes clearing out and only then organising, otherwise you are simply rearranging your clutter.
Smudging a home Space Clearing in Feng Shui
I use smoke to cleanse rooms energetically, for example of old energies. There is a reason we say you could “cut the atmosphere with a knife” after an argument. Space Clearing aims to free a room of this, so the people living there can begin again.
- Occasiona tense atmosphereafter an argument, for example
- Aimneutrala neutral roomfor new residents
- Incensefrankincensefrom Oman, for example
What is Space Clearing?
Space Clearing is an energetic cleansing of a room. In my experience, a room can hold old messages or concentrations of energy, sometimes across generations. These can certainly be positive and good too. When I carry out a Space Clearing, I wipe clean the room’s energetically inscribed slate. The new residents can then write their new story on it in a new way.
Feng Shui is not primarily a decorative discipline but an energetic one, although it can lead to decorative and architectural measures. I explain what energy means in the guide to Qi, life energy.
In spring 2024 I consulted on an old farmhouse in Umbria, dating from 1789, being converted into a meeting place with holiday flats, a seminar room and a historic domed room. In that domed room, destined to become a lounge, bar and meeting place, I carried out a Space Clearing before leaving.
Negative energy in a house: how it makes itself felt
From my perspective, there certainly are energetic and atmospheric burdens we can feel, which may have an unpleasant force.
- Everyone knows the feeling of entering a room with a tense atmosphere, perhaps after an argument.
- Many people have felt “I am being watched” in a building without knowing where the feeling came from.
- Some houses have the same problems across generations, whoever moves in. And nobody knows why.
A room where someone has been ill for a long time or has died should be cleansed with particular incense materials, so that it becomes “neutral” again.
Where do these burdens come from?
Over the Earth’s history, there is probably no place that has not experienced death, change, decay and resurrection in some form. Life continually emerges from death, whether grass clippings becoming compost or a mountain wearing down over millions of years to become fertile soil.
I see the burdens felt in rooms more as concentrations of energy made or left behind by people. These disturbances in Qi can be dissolved and settled through particular methods, namely Space Clearing. I do doubt, however, that such rituals can heal the Earth. The Earth heals itself very well if we leave it alone. Our house and garden would be completely overgrown after five years if we did not constantly intervene to keep things in order.
I describe how landscape and place affect a house under geomancy.
Burning incense, an old ritual
Burning incense has always formed part of rituals to open oneself to a higher consciousness. This points in the direction of shamanism. The incense ritual in churches still reflects that today.
The souks of Oman, famous for its frankincense trade, offer exquisite incense materials. Omani frankincense is regarded as the finest in the world.
How a Space Clearing unfolds
This is how I taught it in the seminar, and how we approached the house described further down.
Prepare the room
A Space Clearing takes preparation: deciding which instruments, tools and incense materials to use.
Prepare yourself
The person carrying it out also prepares and charges themselves energetically, so as not to take on energies from elsewhere.
Evening, night and morning
We cleansed the seminar house with smoke in the evening, at night and the following morning. The residents stayed with friends.
One house, one night
In November 2024 I spent two days in Ahrensburg working on energetic room cleansing with fourteen women: the history of burning incense, its shamanic dimension, experiencing the main incense materials and the process of Space Clearing. Then, “by chance”, we were offered a house in which to put what we had learnt into practice.
At my request, the residents stayed with friends overnight. This allowed us to carry out all aspects of the Space Clearing as a group, in the evening, at night and the next morning. The feedback from the two residents the following day was particularly moving.
Smudging with sage or frankincense at home
You can carry out a small smoke cleansing yourself, perhaps after an argument, a long illness, or before moving into a flat where others have lived.
- Tidy and clean. Smoke does not replace cleaning, and Qi stagnates in cluttered corners.
- Prepare the incense: place grains of frankincense or resin on glowing incense charcoal in a fireproof bowl containing sand. Sage comes in bundles which you light and then blow out, leaving them only smouldering. White sage comes from the traditions of Indigenous peoples of North America; local garden sage works too.
- Collect yourself. Whoever carries out the cleansing should be calm and know their purpose.
- Go from room to room, from the furthest corner to the front door, fanning smoke into corners, behind doors and into cupboards too.
- Afterwards, ventilate thoroughly, so that the smoke carries the old out with it.
Never leave embers unattended. Think of the smoke alarm and of everyone in the house who does not tolerate smoke well, including children and pets. If something heavy has hung over a house for years, a small smoke cleansing is rarely enough.
Further reading
Qi, the life energy
Qi follows form, with paths, entrances, water and architecture guiding it, speeding it up or allowing it to gather.
Geomancy and Feng Shui
Geomancy is the European counterpart of Feng Shui and concerns places of power and phenomena of the earth such as underground watercourses.
Feng Shui for your home
During an on-site consultation I show you how location, floor plan and compass directions affect your flat or house, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Read more about Feng Shui consultations for flats and houses.