Clean Sweep (Banishing Everything You Don't Need to Make Room for What You Want)

As a culture we are driven to acquire, amass, get, use, devour, taste, and try. And of course it is never enough. Until we figure out that enough is enough, we will never lead a fulfilling life. Unless we let go of possessions, attitudes, emotions, old lovers, or old ideas, we'll never be able to make true changes in our lives. We are very good at taking, consuming, hoarding, devouring, overworking, and inputting more and more and more . . . but we have forgotten how to let go, how to eliminate. We need to remember the basic concept of releasing and renewing that is imprinted in every cell of our bodies.

We need to relearn what our ancestors knew: how to banish.

"Banishing," Denny Sargent writes, "is the identification and naming of people, things, forces, feelings, thoughts, or ideas that are negative or harmful in one's life and, through the strength of will and positive power, i.e. love, taking command over these negatives and tossing them OUT!"

Sargent, an eclectic ritualist, interweaves his personal testimonial with the theory of banishing harmful factors from our physical environment and from our bodies, our hearts and emotional lives, our minds, and our spirits--through the elements of air, fire, water, earth, and spirit. In the second part of the book he provides more than 100 banishing exercises and rituals based on traditional practices performed throughout time and around the world.