Sacred Spaces: Creating, Vivifying, and Renewing - Commonly Practiced Limpias from Ancient and Modern Perspectives

Cleansing Rites of Curanderismo: Limpias Espirituales of Ancient Mesoamerican Shamans - Erika Buenaflor M.A. J.D. 2018

Sacred Spaces: Creating, Vivifying, and Renewing
Commonly Practiced Limpias from Ancient and Modern Perspectives

The spaces that are chosen to perform limpia rites are a critical consideration in assessing how effective the rites will be. Spaces have the potential in their own right to aid in healing, purification, and renewal. Spaces, especially living spaces, are not simply inanimate objects; they have a soul essence and can take care of us in many ways. If they are cleansed and fed regularly, they are more apt to provide a supportive energetic environment for sleeping, having company, or simply relaxing. Cleansing living spaces feeds their soul essence.

THE SPACE LIMPIAS OF THE MEXICA

The Mexica understood their sacred spaces, natural and constructed, as having an essence that had to be nourished and sustained. They performed limpias to periodically cleanse spaces; feed them (the limpia rite itself served as an offering); cyclically renew them; take possession of them; and prepare them for additional ceremonies. A space limpia ignited the soul essence of the house and connected it with its owners.

The Mexica believed that naturally occurring spaces, including mountains, caves, and various bodies of water, were sacred—spaces where the veils of realities were thin and other realms could be accessed. Mountains were entry points to a paradisal flower mountain; they were also the dwelling place of the solar deity, Tonatiuh. A sixteenth-century song from highland Central Mexico reflects this understanding: “There our lord’s flowering mountain lies visible, lies giving off warmth, lies dawning. Its fragrance, its emanation, its scent lies far reaching, lies spreading over the land.”1 The Mexica also set up elaborate altars in mountain caves for offerings to the altars and to the mountains.2

As mentioned in chapter 6, limpia rites often took place in or near bodies of water. They were typically adorned with sacred images, providing a space where deities could be accessed. The Mexica offered copal, paper, roses, and tobacco to these bodies of water and to the sacred images that now resided there.3

Constructed sacred spaces were also often designed in concert with constellations and planets and reflected principles of the Mexicas’ astronomical cosmology. They used the quincunx as a building design and adorned their buildings with it. They performed limpia ceremonies to honor the shape. The quincunx was also reflected in their patios, principal roads, houses, and temples. They adorned these spaces with their images and made offerings of copal, flowers, food, and incense to them.

Ethnohistorical records suggest that the Mexica quincunx depicts the primary solar movements as well as representing the four sectors of the cosmos corresponding to the cardinal spaces—east, west, north and south. We have already seen how during a war against the Huaxtecs the Mexica warriors’ wives swept their houses at midnight, noon, sunset, and midnight to honor the four corners of the sun’s path. Sweeping to honor the four corners of the sun’s paths was done as an offering to the sun god, Tonatiuh, as well as the spirits and wisdom of the cardinal spaces.4

The Mexica also performed house limpias to activate and vivify its essence so that they could take ownership of the home. The Huexotzinco and Tlaxcala peoples continued a house-limpia rite known as calmamalihua well into the late sixteenth century, whereby they consecrated a new home prior to taking ownership of it, or after a renovation. They would eat, drink, and pour pulque in all four corners of the rooms. They shared their meal and pulque with the essence of the house, honoring and feeding it and marking it with their own essence. The owner would then take a newly lit firebrand and point it at all four respective cardinal spaces. Lighting a New Fire signifying a new beginning in all cardinal spaces, centering the owners in their new home.5

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Figure 8.1. Basic outline of a quincunx with four corners and a center.

For the first day of Toxcatl (Dry thing), a feast honoring Tezcatlipoca, the shaman performed a sahumerio for every home, even the most humble. Early in the morning the shaman went from home to home with a brazier and would spread the smoke throughout every corner of the home, all the way from the threshold to the last corner. After smoking out the corners of the house, the shaman would smudge the furnishings, the hearth, the grinding stone, the tortilla griddle, pots, small vessels and jugs, plates, bowls, weaving instruments, agricultural implements, storage bins, and artisan’s tools. This would be done to cleanse and bless the home and its belongings.6

SPACE LIMPIAS OF THE YUCATEC MAYA

For the Yucatec Maya, limpia rites were always performed in spaces that were understood as being sacred, whether they were naturally occurring or constructed landscapes. Conversely, limpias could cleanse, activate, and vivify a space with its own designated essence and could imprint the space with the essence of the cosmic rebirth of a deity through a ruler or a deceased person.

Sacred spaces, natural or constructed, required periodic and ongoing care so that they could impeccably serve as portals to the divine and as ideal spaces for rituals. Here one could seek guidance from or embody an ancestor, deity, or way (animal coessence); facilitate the death or resurrection of someone or something; secure a change, such as a prosperous season; reach into the cosmos to welcome a new life into this world; see into the purposes of a sickness and heal; or facilitate a personal cleansing. Maya buildings and civic centers were laid out as microcosms, symbolically equating the architectural center of civic power with the center of the universe.7

The ancient Maya recognized many naturally occurring spaces as sacred—spaces where the veils of realities were thin, or where other realities could be accessed. Such spaces included mountains, caves, cenotes, water springs, and many others. Mountains, particularly the caves within them, for example, were believed to be places of birth and rebirth and were sources of fertility, riches, and portals to other worlds.8 The Maya oriented architecture toward these sacred landmarks, reflecting a larger landscape, in order to sanctify and legitimize the city and by extension its leaders, as well as to situate primordial powers more firmly in the realm of human action and control.9 In the Late Classic site at Dos Pilas in Guatemala, for example, architecture and caves at Dos Pilas were strongly linked at multiple levels of architectural elaboration, including royal courts and commoner compounds. The Dos Pilas rulers placed two of three largest public architectural complexes in direct relation to caves and springs. Just below the palace platform lies the Cueva de Murciélagos, identifying the palace with this dramatic water source and proclaiming the ruler’s control over water and presumably over rainmaking and fertility.10

The ancient Yucatec Maya designed spaces and constructed buildings that mirrored natural spaces and were understood as sacred in their own right. These constructed spaces were more than a metaphorical representation of sacred natural phenomena; once activated, vivified, and cared for, they were an embodiment of sacrality itself. As David Stuart points out, “Nearly all Maya architecture was, at one time or another, ritual space. This was true not only for conspicuous elite constructions but also probably for humble dwellings as well.”11

The illustrious Maya temples were symbols of sacred mountains, both dwelling places of the gods and models of the cosmos. Great masks with gaping jaws in stone or stucco, known as witz (mountain deities), were often found in front of Maya temples. Witz symbolized the caverns and caves on the flanks of mountains, which allowed access to the underworld of Xilbalbá, as well as to a paradisal flower realm, and also provided a means of communicating with deities, ancestors, and way (animal coessence).12 Witz masks would feature mountains as living, animated entities, often decorated with flowers, maize, and water elements; mountains were also sources of food and water.13 The mouth of the witz gave access to a parallel dimension, a sacred space.

The Maya also constructed buildings and ritual spaces to mirror solemn astrological phenomena, such as equinoxes, solstices, constellations, and planets, and to epitomize principles of astronomy and Maya cosmology.14 As with the Mexica, the quincunx was one of the most common geometrical designs that were reflected in the architectural layout of buildings and ritual spaces. The quincunx depicts the primary solar movements, the four paths that the sun takes on the seasonal solstices—two on the east and two on the west, with the central point representing the intersection of the paths on the solstices.15 The point at the upper right of the quincunx corresponds to the sun’s emergence on the summer solstice, and the point at the upper left represents the setting of the sun into the earth at the same time. The points at the lower right similarly reflect the emergence and setting of the sun on the winter solstice, closer to the southern horizon.16 The quincunx was a spatially defining point of the sacred, an elemental pattern of the operational principles of this world, and a space where cosmic purification and rebirth could be enacted.

A house, with its four corner posts and hearth in the middle, and a community plan with four entrances and a central square each expressed the quincunx. These spaces were often considered to be small-scale replicas of the cosmos, reflecting solar movement and structure.17 Even the most humble Maya home alluded to the cosmos and the creation of the world in both the plan and process of creation.18 The quincunx mirrored the four-part symmetry of humans and animals, with two arms and two legs and a heart in the middle; these ritual spaces, including houses, were also understood as having bodies and an essence.19 Architectural terminologies in Mayan languages reflect this notion by referring to parts of buildings as parts of bodies. In Tzotzil, for example, a door is ti’ na or “house mouth;” a thatch roof is holol or “head of hair.”20 The conception of the world as a house is fundamental to both ancient and modern Maya cosmology.21

Space limpias were acts of cosmic renewal either within public ritual spaces or within intimate family settings. Sweeping, fire, and water limpias cleansed, fed, and nourished the space and prepared it for a renewal limpia with cosmic significance. De Landa’s description of the caput-sihil rite provides insight into how the Maya cleansed spaces and prepared them for ceremonies of cosmic significance. At the beginning, after the boys and girls had been cleansed in the courtyard, the house, the space where the rebirthing ceremony would continue, was purified. The ah-kin would bring out a brazier, ground maize, and incense for the children to toss into the brazier. The shaman would light a New Fire. The children would then throw the maize and incense into it and further cleansed the space through a sahumerio.22 Sahumerios, as I will explain in greater detail below, involve lighting a charcoal and placing offerings, such as resins and plants, on it; every space of the room is filled with this sacred smoke and is thereby cleansed and fed.

In the caput-sihil, four benches were placed in the four corners of the patio, on which the four honorary chacs would sit with a long cord tying one to the other. This rectilinear ritual stage was likely intended to serve as a reflection of the cosmos. The children were placed in the center; another bench would be placed in the center for the ah-kin. The four chacs sitting in the four world directions, with the ah-kin and children in the middle, visually defined the space of the cosmos. The ah-kin was a mediator between the levels of the cosmos, as well as a bridge between the divine and profane, while the chacs granted a mythical and historical aspect to the spatial scheme. Each chac held the space for a specific direction of the cosmos and its related colors, as noted by the Ritual of the Bacabs: chac, east and red; kan, south and yellow; ek, west and black; and zac, north and white. This ritual space and the performance of this limpia fused cosmic space and time with that of the living community.23 The ceremony purified and revitalized the adolescents and introduced them into a different period of life.

INTEGRATING ANCIENT MESOAMERICAN WISDOM

Connecting with the ancient Mesoamerican methods of conducting space limpias added significantly more dimensions to my own limpias. I had witnessed how my mentors spoke to their sacred tools and spaces, but appreciating that these items had their own particular soul essence did not hit home until I delved deeply into these records.

I now cleanse my living and working spaces not only to clear them from other people’s energies or my own, but also to ritually feed and take care of the space’s soul essence. Like my ancient predecessors, I vivify my working and living spaces with certain energy signatures. Before I discuss how to do this, I will briefly describe how I have performed these rites without formal preparation and outside my working space.

I generally only perform limpias in spaces that have been cleansed and at times when I am consciously expecting to do so. On the rare occasions when I conduct these rites impromptu, I humbly recognize that I am sacred space, embodying and serving as a conduit of sacrality. On one occasion, my beloved and I ventured out for a day hike to a quiet campground to sing icaros (medicine songs) and to enjoy and connect with nature. Although we thought it was just going to be the two of us, I was strongly guided to bring Florida water, a rattle, my drum, and a couple of my oil blends. When we got to the campsite, twenty minutes into singing our icaros, a few very sweet campers came over to our area and began to hang out with us. The next thing I knew, I was facilitating a platica with a woman. After the platica, I requested that she lie down, further cleansed her with Florida water, and moved stuck energy with the aid of the rattle. She opened up to me and told me about a horrific situation of domestic violence she had recently left. I did not stop to formally recognize the cardinal spaces or smudge the place where I asked her to lie down; rather, I accepted that the space, nature, and I were and are sacred. Nature would work with me to help facilitate the limpia and aid her in releasing the trauma. I instinctively acknowledged both nature and myself as embodiments of sacred space, so sacred space made itself known and felt.

The room in which I typically conduct limpias is a room full of sacred expression, with a violet dodecahedron hanging from the ceiling. A dodecahedron is a geometrical solid with twelve faces. It is often associated with the basic pattern of pure life energy, the fifth element of ether, and the element of intention and has many other sacred connotations. This sacred installation piece, which I created, is made of wood and encompasses the entire ceiling. To give it a slight three-dimensional effect, I have placed a lowered glass pentagon with a quincunx crystal grid in the middle. It is a physical and metaphorical portal to all that is Divine.

The room also features strategically placed mirrors, various types of altars, displays of hundreds of crystals and other minerals, and photos and images of various teachers, masters, saints, and angels from various traditions with whom I resonate. I have always loved sacred art and sacred expressions of the Divine, so I turned a traditional large entertainment center with various levels and glass showcases into a Xicana artwork of altarity that honors, creates, and manifests a sacred space. This room is my sanctuary, which I share with my clients and students.

Whether a physical space is adorned with one very simple altar or many elaborate ones, the most important thing is cleansing and feeding the soul essence of the space. I feed and cleanse this room, as well as my house, with white fire and sahumerios on a regular basis. Inspired by the traditions of the ancient Yucatec Maya, Mexica, and my mentors, I also conduct periodic and annual renewal ceremonies for this room and the sacred tools that are inside of it.

HOW TO DO HOUSE AND SPACE LIMPIAS

Whenever I am doing any kind of space-limpia rite, I always open the doors of the house. Opening up the windows is helpful, but really it is the doors that must be kept open, because they are the main gateway through which energies enter and leave. As I am doing the limpias, I also feed and clear the space with a prayer or medicine song, as well as invoking the wisdom and help of the five directional chel (rainbow) spaces. This is one of the songs I usually sing.

Tene tin na’atik (I understand)

Ak t’aan ich (I speak)

Ku bo’otik (sacred gratitude)

[First three lines to be repeated at each cardinal point]

Chac chel (red rainbow)

To the East

Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Moon, Sun

I understand. I speak with sacred gratitude.

Ku bo’otik (sacred gratitude)

Kan chel (yellow rainbow)

To the South

Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Moon, Sun

I understand. I speak with sacred gratitude.

Ku bo’otik (Sacred gratitude)

Ek chel (black rainbow)

To the West

Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Moon, Sun

I understand. I speak with sacred gratitude.

Ku Bo’otik (Sacred gratitude)

Zac chel (white rainbow)

To the North

Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Moon, Sun

I understand. I speak with sacred gratitude.

Ku bo’otik (Sacred gratitude)

Yax Chel (green rainbow)

To the center, I am that I am

Great-Grandmother, Great-Grandfather, Moon, Sun

I understand. I speak with sacred gratitude.

Ku bo’otik (Sacred gratitude)*27

I learned the Yucatec Maya words from my mentors. As I learned, the elements that are most important in recognizing sacred space are to honor the cardinal spaces, the sun, and the moon and to recognize that the spoken word is sacred. While I learned the core of this medicine chant from my mentors, I included English in the chant and had it reflect a clockwise movement.

Sahumerios

Sahumerios involve smoking out all spaces of a room or house. The following items will be needed:

· Charcoal tablets (get larger tablets to place the blends on).

· A steel brazier (in which to place the charcoal tablet).

· Wooden matches.

· Rose, basil, rosemary, or sage essential oil (optional).

· The items that are identified in the listed blends below.

If it is not possible to obtain all the items in the identified blends, listen to the space, your intuition, and the plants or resins you will be working with to see if you can substitute something else. All of these blends are excellent to clear dense energies, feed the essence of spaces, and invigorate them with refreshing peaceful energies. Keep in mind that all the plants identified in the blends should be dried before using them for the sahumerio.

Blend 1. Copal, storax, bay leaves, rosemary, rose hips, ground cinnamon sticks, ground coffee, brown sugar, and tobacco.

Blend 2. Flowers: rose petals, lavender, lantana, chamomile, calendula, rose geranium, and lemon thyme.

Blend 3. Herbs: sage, rosemary, basil, rue, mint, lavender, chamomile, comfrey, lemongrass, mugwort, parsley, and yarrow.

Blend 4. Benzoin, frankincense, myrrh, cayenne pepper powder, wormwood, gum arabic, fennel seeds, dill, tobacco, and ground coffee.

Light the charcoal on the brazier and place the blend of items on it. I occasionally place a dab of one of my oil blends (rose, basil, rosemary, or sage essential oil work nicely, too) to create more smoke and thoroughly smoke out spaces. For every room, begin by smoking out the four corners, and then continue to clear it out by moving in a clockwise spiral direction, as much as possible. This motion is said to encircle and clear out any types of dense energies.

White Fire Limpia

For a white fire limpia, the following items will be needed:

· A pot with a handle, preferably a stainless steel or cast-iron pot. (Again, always remember that the tools you use for limpias should never be used for actual cooking, eating, or drinking. They are your sacred magical items and should be placed in a separate space, out of reach, so they are not mistakenly used.)

· A couple of handfuls of plain Epsom salts.

· Approximately 8 to 10 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol.

· Dry plants. Any one or a combination of them is excellent to clear, feed, and revitalize spaces: rosemary, lemongrass, sage, parsley, lavender, chamomile, tobacco, lantana flowers. You can also use any of the above blends.

Place all of the items in the pot. Then carefully throw a lit wooden match into the pot. White fire limpias clear very large spaces instantaneously. Unlike with sahumerios, it is not necessary to go to every corner of the room, as the intensity of this fire clears out all corners and spaces of a room. If possible, clear out all rooms and common areas within a home.

Water-Crystal Cleansing

For a water-crystal cleansing, the following items are needed:

· A few medium-size nuggets of ulexite crystals.

· Dry rosemary.

· Dry rue.

· 32 ounces of distilled water.

· A 32-ounce spray bottle.

Boil the crystals, rosemary, and rue together until the crystals melt into the water. Let it cool down. Then strain out the rosemary and rue, and pour the solution into the spray bottle. Spray every corner of a room and space, and remember to always offer a prayer, song, or spoken word to the space.

Plants That Cleanse Spaces

To keep the energy of a house high and revitalized, keep the following plants anywhere in the house, in front of the house, or outside in the yard.

· Aloe vera

· Feverfew

· Rosemary

· Bergamot

· Sage

· Spider plants

· Lemongrass

· Peppermint

· Rose geranium

· Snapdragon

· Lavender

· Passionflower

· Rose

CLOSING SPACE LIMPIAS

If I am performing a sahumerio and/or a white fire limpia for a client’s house, after I am done with this part of the rite, I hang rosemary with a white-colored yarn at every doorway and place dry rosemary powder underneath the beds and at the four corners of the rooms. Honoring the four corners seals the intention and prolongs the revitalized clean and clear energy that the house has been infused with. After the rosemary bundles have dried out, I instruct my clients to burn them outside or toss them into a trash bin a few miles away from their house. The dry rosemary can be vacuumed up in a month or can simply remain where it is, with the understanding that the house should still be periodically cleansed and fed. People have told me that they feel the dramatic shift in the energy of the house, there are fewer family squabbles, and they are able to sleep much better.

If I am doing the limpia rite for my space, I close it either by lighting a smaller charcoal tablet and leaving copal on it or by lighting some palo santo. I also usually end the space limpia by leaving a bowl of charged water (chapter 6, see here, discusses how to charge water with a specific intention) at the entrance of my house with an obsidian arrowhead or a piece of pyrite inside the bowl. I may also light a seven-day white candle in a common area and once again welcome in my guardian angels and divine spirit guides. The bowl of water should be left at the entrance for a week and then thrown outside of the house where something is growing.

Rosa’s Insomnia and Anxiety Become Things of the Past

Rosa was suffering from severe anxiety attacks and insomnia when she first came to see me. Her very demanding corporate marketing job had her working fifty to sixty hours a week and included a high-strung boss. After our platica and sweep limpia, I taught her to do white fire limpias for her house and told her that she needed to do them for at least seven days straight. I also encouraged her to get to know the soul essence of her house, take care of it, and allow it to take care of her.

Rosa came to see me again two weeks later. She informed me that she loved doing the white fire limpias. She felt the significant difference in her house, and most importantly, she was actually sleeping six to seven hours straight. The anxiety attacks had also lessened. She felt that her house was supporting her when she got home and providing her with a space in which to truly unwind. A couple of months later, she had the clarity and focus to begin looking for another job and landed a much better one, with a much healthier work environment.

CREATING, ACTIVATING, AND VIVIFYING SACRED SPACE

When I teach classes on creating sacred spaces, I always start the first class by having students work with the quincunx; then, in subsequent classes, I have them work with other sacred geometrical shapes that were also common in ancient Mesoamerica. In this context, a quincunx creates a concentrated vortex and container of energy that has an identified intention or energy signature. The four corners seal the intention, and the center of the quincunx acts as a portal.

The step-by-step instructions for activating and vivifying spaces in this manner are:

1. Determine the purpose of the space, and write it down to recite it later.

2. Select and prepare the tools and offerings.

3. Align the tools that will be used as a gateway.

4. State the intention of the space, and activate it.

5. Vivify the space by feeding it with sacred items.

6. Reaffirm the intention of the space.

7. Leave the tools and offerings in this manner for at least seven days.

In these seven days, every time you enter the center, leave a sacred offering, and reaffirm the intention.

Tools That Serve as Gateways or Portals (steps 2 and 3)

Place five of the sacred tools that were traditionally understood as gateways or realms to other realms in the shape of the quincunx. Use the spoken word (step 1) to activate and frame the energy signature with which you are encoding the space. More than one type of sacred item can be used, moving the items inward to the center, but five of the same ones should be used to create the frame of the quincunx (see figures 8.2 through 8.5, below).

Mirrors: Use preferably small circle mirrors. As you may recall, mirrors were often used by the ancient Mexica and Yucatec Maya to divine into circumstances, conjure deities and ancestors, and act as gateways to other spaces. Using mirrors to create a quincunx in a space inspires self-awareness and clarity and promotes divinatory gifts.

Earth: Place some earth or tlazolli (dirt) onto a small ritual platter. Earth is grounding, and from earth there is creation and fertility; it is a life-giving force. Using earth to create a quincunx in a space grounds, centers, and energizes creativity.

Fire: Create a fire with wood, candle, or a white fire limpia. The ancient Mexica and Yucatec Maya used fire limpias to cleanse, activate, and vivify. Fire activated and renewed the soul essence energy within buildings: homes, temples, political spaces, sweat baths, and ritual spaces. Using fire to create a quincunx in a space clears, transforms, and breathes lighter life-force energy into a space that may have had stagnant energy.

Water: Place charged water into a bowl (refer to chapter 6, see here, to learn different ways to charge water). For the ancient Mexica and Yucatec Maya, water, like fire and mirrors, could serve as a gateway to other worlds to reenact and concretize creation, renewal, transformation, and/or rebirth. Using water to create a quincunx can renew the essence of the space with a new and different energy signature and also promotes divinatory gifts and emotional resilience.

Sacred Offerings That Vivify Spaces (step 5)

After the quincunx has been activated with the spoken word and tools that act as a vortex, place offerings inside the quincunx to vivify and feed the space. Again, more than one type of sacred item to feed the space can be used, depending on the type of attributes that are desired for the spaces (see figures 8.2 through 8.5, below).

· Corn: reaffirms creativity, growth, and fertility.

· Flowers: welcome in abundance, joy, and great fortune.

· Tobacco: grounds wisdom, healing, and purification.

· Maguey: brings in merriment and playfulness, tempered with self-restraint.

· Cacao: welcomes in grandness, vision, abundance, and great fortune.

· Feathers: promote divinatory and intuitive work.

· Spoken Word: garners divine aid and seals the intention for the space.

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Figure 8.2. Example of a quincunx design with three gateway tools: water, mirrors, and earth, and four different kinds of offerings: feathers, tobacco, corn, and cacao.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

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Figure 8.3. Example of a quincunx design with two gateway tools: fire and mirrors, and two different kinds of offerings: corn and cacao.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

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Figure 8.4. Example of a quincunx design with one gateway tool, earth, and one kind of offering, corn.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

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Figure 8.5. Example of a quincunx design with one gateway tool, a mirror, and various kinds of offerings: flowers, tobacco, corn, cacao, and feathers.

Illustration by Carolina Gutierrez.

Once activated and vivified, the same tools that were used to create and serve as bridges can be used as offerings.

After seven days, the space will have been vivified with the set intention. Please remember to periodically cleanse the space with white fire limpias, sahumerios, incense sticks, and/or palo santo. The more you feed, cleanse, and take care of the space, the more it will take care of you, providing an ideal situation for living and/or working.

I have had many clients of many different professions, circumstances, and backgrounds benefit from this space limpia. They have told me that it has helped them to clear blocks—creative, emotional, or mental—to bring in intense clarity and focus, mixed with immense creativity, and to uplift the space’s overall energy.