Cleansing and Consecrating Ritual Tools and Items

After awhile, sacred tools and items can become impure and full of negative energy that will severely hinder their magickal effects and may not work the way they're supposed to. So to relieve them of their negativity, we cleanse and consecrate them. So how do we go about doing this? Well, there are several ways. In this post, I'll explain how to cleanse and consecrate sacred items.

Some people associate cleansing and consecrating as the same thing. However, I separate them because cleansing, to me, means to purify and wash away negativity. In a literal sense, consecration means to "associate with the sacred". Therefore, I associate consecration as blessing and charging the tool for its intended purpose.

First, we will start with cleansing:

I'll first start by talking about the simplest way to do this, at least to me it is. Gather together some crushed sage (not powdered), or you can buy whole leaf sage and crush it with a mortar and pestle. Sage has cleansing properties that rid spaces, people, and items of negativity. Place the sage into a bowl and make sure you have enough so that it will burn and smoke properly throughout the ritual. Crushed sage will produce more smoke.

Take the item you wish to cleanse and pass it through the smoke and make sure to flip the item over to completely submerge it. As you do this you may want to say something like this, "I cleanse thee of impurities, and I rid thee of negativity. By the God and Goddess, so mote it be." Say this 3 times.

Another way to cleanse a tool or item, is to take a bowl of water and a bowl of sea salt and sprinkle both over it. Water supplies the purifying quality while sea salt absorbs the negativity. I would not suggest this method for metal tools/items, or those that you do not want to get wet in general. If you choose to do it this way, then take 3 pinches of sea salt to sprinkle and say something similar to what was previously stated. Then dip your fingers 3 times into the water to sprinkle over the item and say that you cleanse and purify the item once more.

Your tool/item should be thoroughly cleansed and rid of its negativity now.

Now, we will look into how to consecrate tools/items:

Consecrating tools takes a little more effort than cleansing. Before consecrating a tool/item you may want to cast a Circle according to your tradition. Once you have decided on that, you will need to have things that represent the four elements. What I like to use to represent the elements are incense for Air, a bowl of sea salt for Earth, a red candle for Fire, and a bowl of water for, of course, Water. Once you have these things to represent the elements, take your tool/item that you wish to consecrate and pass them over each element.

Pass over Earth and say: "By fire, water, earth, and air..."
Pass over Fire and say: "Baneful spirits need beware..."
Pass over Water and say: "Art thou made pure oh treasure trove..."
Pass over Air and say: "Here within this sacred grove."

Then say: "So mote it be."

You could also say the whole saying over each element individually if you wish.

Note: Once you've consecrated your athame, you can use this tool to help you in consecrating other items as well.

Source:
The Way by Rhuddlwn Gawr.