Witch & Popcorn

Bright Blessings film lovers!

I’m reviewing a new show instead of a movie this time.

This show has made quite a stir on Netflix this week, and people are either celebrating it, or upset by the hosts suggestions. There seems to be no happy medium response. People either love this or hate it.

I watched a few Episodes of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

Let me begin by saying I freaking LOVE this!

Smart business lady Marie Kondo hails from beautiful Japan, where she single-handedly started an organizing business based on clean, minimal living, only owning things you get a lot of use out of, and teaching a lifestyle of keeping things neat, in their place, and clean.

While I’m not going to have 30 books or less, as she recommends, nor will I fold every article of clothing I own into tidy origami-like parcels, as a witch, I appreciate her attitude, and approach.

The first thing Marie does when she walks into a house, after meeting the homeowners, is ask permission to “get acquainted with” the house. She then kneels, and looks to be meditating, and soaking in the home’s vibes.

If that isn’t magical practice, I don’t know what is.

The next thing she has the homeowners do is take stock of every item they own, and purge as much as possible. There is a lot of tears, a bit of tantruming at times, and a lot of resistance from some homeowners. They want an immaculately clean home, but they want it stocked full of junk, and things they squirreled away for years they forgot all about. In the end, the clients always say their whole lives are changed by the purge, reorganizing, and change to a lifestyle of cleanliness and simplification.

It’s just throwing things out, and reorganizing, right?

Well, it’s more than that.

Getting rid of things that are not useful, and are eating up space that could be better used otherwise frees up not only the space itself, but the energy. Every item we use, touch, and keep retains energy and memories. While some of us are consciously aware of all that, some people are not, but they still are not immune to the effects.

Some call clutter visual noise, but have you ever had a toxic roommate or live in lover and once they and all their junk was gone, you felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from your home and heart? Things hold energy.

The thing I saw in common of all the clients in the episodes I watched was they grumbled their house was not big enough- and stated they needed more storage space, but Marie knew better. She knew they had too much stuff!

She made them pile their clothes on top of the bed, and thin out as many clothes as possible before they did anything else. I think she gave them a week to do all of that. People had entirely forgotten about all of the clothes they owned. They said they never even liked certain articles of clothing, and seeing the mountain of clothes horrified them. One client remarked she was ashamed of herself for being so greedy about clothing when there are people who don’t have hardly any clothes.

Marie, in magical fashion, had people hold each belonging and only keep what “sparked joy”. She expected them to feel the vibes off things and keep only the things that had good vibes. Basic energy 101! She then told them to thank the object for allowing them to use it before discarding.

The process took forever with some people, but she taught them energy and appreciation for objects.

Magic!

Marie might not identify as a witch, but she knows about moving energy and all about psychology. The initial shock of the mountain of clothes was all she needed to get people’s attention and wake them up.

I’m not saying there was no pissing and moaning from some clients after the realization. I’m saying it was the stab in the rear end they all needed to see they had done this, and they needed to dig their way out. One client aggravated me with her whining so much, I had to watch that episode over the course of two days, but in the end she did a great job and got with the program.

Our homes are supposed to be our sanctuaries, not places that exhaust us. When we junk up our homes, we are constantly swamped in the sea of trash, and it soaks into our bodies, minds, and spirits.

Purging helps us focus on what we want and need in our homes so we can control the focus of energy and the feel of the home.

I always wonder why so many people cannot understand this.

I am reminded of my first marriage. My ex husband collected junk- or just shoved everything in drawers and never bothered to take care of, or clean anything. He owned empty cardboard boxes from things he no longer owned, and even empty plastic bags that had been in the boxes he no longer had from things he also no longer had. He owned expired turtle wax and tried to fight to keep it. He had hundreds of empty wire hangers from dry cleaners in the trunk of his car which he refused to part with, and he cried when I threw them out. He owned broken golf tees he stated had no sentimental value, and he even had undeveloped photo film he said he had no plans to ever develop, but wanted to keep- because it was HIS. He had a three bedroom, two bath house with a full basement, and it was not large enough to house all of his junk and collection of thousands of books, CD’s, Cassette Tapes, eight track tapes, VCR tapes, and DVDs- a collection that was steadily growing. He did not understand that libraries are good places to nab media and books, and less is more. He owned books that were molded, having been rotting in the damp basement for over a decade, and had books he had never read, but continued to buy more.

His was an extreme case, and his inability to change his compulsive shopping and accumulating damaged our relationship. We were not married long enough for me to find out what his psychiatric issues were. I do not miss living with him. He found somebody who was okay with his lifestyle, and I am thankful he moved me out of the mess.

Getting out of that trash heap was a breath of fresh air for me. I can only imagine how awful people who have done this to themselves felt before Marie helped them.

On the show, Marie takes people who don’t show psychiatric problems. These just have a lot of unnecessary crap. They make excuses, and Marie does not buy it. She goes in every week for about a month, and teaches them how to clean out the whole house. By the time it is all done, the homeowners have done all she says, and my OCD is appeased.

I will say this show gives me appreciation for The Queer Eye. Somehow, the Fab Five manage to guide the people they are making over to NOT descend into self-pity, but they prod them to organization. I respect Marie’s philosophy that they homeowners will do their own organizing, and it serves to ensure they know how to keep it that way. There is just so much whining and complaining from some of the clients, you might want to slap them. They made the mess, they clean the mess, and Marie makes sure they do.

I am also appreciating the Hoarders shows, as the clients often are very open about their psychiatric issues that lead them to let their homes go to seed. The home is an outward manifestation of what is on the inside. And these organizing shows take the outside, use it to illustrate what is going wrong, and set the outside right first as a way to start inner work.

As magical practitioners, we know all too well that what we surround ourselves with influences us. If we are surrounded by repressed memories and buried pain, or even good memories, manifested by things we chose to keep although it is useless- we are working bad juju on ourselves.

Get rid of it.

Now.

Marie Kondo’s show might be viral right now, and she might be all the rage currently, but her approach, her attitude, and her techniques are old magical practice every witch can do without any spellwork.

Let’s just refer to this as space clearing on the mundane level, and it’s just as important as ritual banishing, and mundane house cleaning.

A good watch.

Happy Viewing.

Blessed Be!

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About the Author:

Saoirse is a recovered Catholic.  I was called to the Old Ways at age 11, but I thought I was just fascinated with folklore. At age 19, I was called again, but I thought I was just a history buff, and could not explain the soul yearnings I got when I saw images of the Standing Stones in the Motherland. At age 29, I crossed over into New Age studies, and finally Wicca a couple years later. My name is Saoirse, pronounced like (Sare) and (Shah) Gaelic for freedom. The gods I serve are Odin and Nerthus. I speak with Freyja , Norder, and Thunor as well. The Bawon has been with me since I was a small child, and Rangda has been with me since the days I was still Catholic. I received my 0 and 1 Degree in an Eclectic Wiccan tradition, and my Elder is Lord Shadow. We practice in Columbus, Ohio. I am currently focusing more on my personal growth, and working towards a Second and Third Degree with Shadow. I received a writing degree from Otterbein University back in 2000. I have written arts columns for the s Council in Westerville. I give private tarot readings and can be reached through my Facebook page Tarot with Saoirse. You can, also, join me on my Youtube Channel.