Saturday, February 5, 2011

Disposing of Sacred Objects

One of my best customers on Egyptian Marketplace asked me something the other day that got me thinking - which of course means I had to write about it :-) He had accidentally broken one of the statues in his temple - a statue of Osiris he had knocked over and unfortunately the head broke off. He called me to get a replacement for it, but then asked what to do with the broken one. He didn't feel comfortable just throwing away something that had been used for some time in his temple, so what should he do.

This is a very good question. A piece you have used for a while in your spiritual practice picks up your energies as well as the energies of the Gods or any spells you have used it with. So if that piece is no longer needed or becomes damaged, should you just throw it away?

After some discussion with my customer, he decided the best thing to do was to bury it (appropriate too since this particular case was Osiris, Lord of the Underworld). Wrap it in clean linen or other natural fibers and bury it with reverence.

At the very least I think you should cleanse the piece of any residual energies - something you should also do if you give away or sell a piece you have used. You can do this by several methods such as burying it using the Earth to ground it. You could also hold it under running water (a natural source such as a stream would be best, but a faucet would do too) visualizing the water washing away all energies.

You could also get a little more formal and do a cleansing ritual - many spell books have rituals on cleansing and consecrating a piece before you use it on your altar. You could do the same ritual stopping after the cleansing part.

The other question is of course, if it is a broken piece, can you repair it and continue to use it? This is another tricky issue - many people feel that anything dedicated to the Gods should be perfect and once broken, it loses any power or significance it had. You could certainly repair it and use it after as just an art object instead of in ritual, but can you use a repaired piece in ritual - especially if it was an expensive piece, one you cannot replace, or you just don't have the budget to replace?

After having had my cats knock over more than one of my statues, I thought a lot about it and personally came to the conclusion that I would still use them. My personal path is Egyptian based and I feel that even the fragments of ancient Egyptian artifacts and temples have power - the chips and cracks and wearing they have experienced do not destroy their power, so why should a bit of super glue destroy the power of my pieces?

In the end, you must decide what feels right to you. Meditation, intuition, prayer and asking your spiritual guides is always a great way to determine the best path in any situation - this one included.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please note comments are moderated and spam or other inappropriate comments will not be approved.