Sweep the House to Silver is a cleansing ritual spell that empties a home of the residue left behind by argument, grief, and the ordinary wear of daily life. When the moon is thinning, the house grows crowded with what the weeks have left behind — and this working uses broom, bell, incense, and salt to turn the wheel backward until the rooms ring clean and silver as a struck bell. This is not tidying; it is asking the house to let go.
Correspondences for This Spell
- Colours: white with light blue
- Herbs: sage, rosemary, hyssop
- Crystal: selenite, clear quartz, black tourmaline
- Day: Monday
- Planet: the Moon
- Element: Water
- Moon phase: waning moon, to clear away
For more on why these pairings work together, see the correspondences guide.
What You Will Need
- A broom, ideally one kept for ritual use rather than everyday chores
- A bell with a clear, carrying tone
- A single white or pale-blue candle
- A stick of cleansing incense — sage, rosemary, or hyssop suit this working
- A handful of salt, laid ready in a small dish
The Best Time to Cast
Cast this during the waning moon, in the nights after the full moon when the light is visibly shrinking. A waning moon draws things away, mirroring the outward sweep of the broom — you are working with the tide rather than against it. If you can, choose a Monday, the day ruled by the Moon and long given to cleansing and the quiet matters of the home. Wait until after dusk, once the day’s traffic has settled and the house has gone still.
The Working
- On a waning moon after dusk, light a single candle and a stick of incense, and carry both to the innermost room of the house.
- Ring a bell once in the center of that room, and listen until the sound has fully died.
- Take up a broom and sweep widdershins — against the sun’s turning — working from the heart of the home toward the outer door.
- At each threshold you cross, ring the bell again and let the incense smoke drift through the doorway before you.
- Sweep all you have gathered into a line of salt laid across the final threshold.
- Speak the incantation, then sweep the salt and everything it holds out over the doorstep and into the night.
- Snuff the candle at the open door, and shut it gently on a quiet house.
The Incantation
Backward turns the paling moon,
backward sweeps this borrowed room.
Out the sorrow, out the sound,
out the grey that gathered round.
Bell and smoke and salt agree:
what is spent, I set thee free.
Silver-clean the house shall keep,
till the wheel turns round to sleep.
Variations & Substitutions
- No bell? Clap three times in the centre of each room, or use a singing bowl or wind chime — any clear tone you can hear die away will mark the space.
- No broom to spare? Trace the widdershins path with a smoking bundle of dried rosemary or sage, drawing the air toward the door. The gesture matters more than the bristles.
- Sensitive to smoke? Carry a selenite or clear-quartz wand through each doorway instead, or mist the thresholds with salt water in place of the incense.
A Word on Intent
Cleansing follows the Wiccan Rede — “an it harm none, do what ye will.” This spell clears stagnant energy from your own home; it never targets a person. If you share the house, cleanse only the common ground and your own rooms, and leave others their space as they wish it. Sweep with the intention of release rather than blame — you are setting down what is spent, not casting anyone out. What you send over the doorstep, you give freely to the wind.
Related Cleansing Spells
Find more rites like this one in the Grimoire, and keep a record of your own castings in your Book of Shadows.