“Someone told me it’s unlucky to buy a broom on Saturday.
I already bought one – did I just mess up my energy?”
This is just one of many questions I receive. Other times, it is “Is it bad luck if a crow made a nest in my balcony?”, or “I saw a dead bird twice this week, is this a bad omen?”
And it is very relevant to be asking – how much do these things matter? Some ‘superstitions’ are rooted in a deep understanding of subtle energies. For example, many women in India have grown up with grandmothers chiding them for leaving their hair down. Especially women with a spiritual practice are strictly told to keep their hair in a bun or a braid. When I first heard this, I was dubious, but tests with the pendulum soon revealed that when we leave our hair down with their ends exposed, the energy leaks heavily. That changes drastically when the hair is tied up.
Over time, I realised that female clients who had the habit of keeping their hair tied up rarely complained of picking up negative energy.
Another powerful ‘superstitious practice’ I found credence to through experience was the native practice of removing the ‘evil eye’ or negative energy in several cultures. While some use wicks to cleanse this negative energy, others use salt, or red chilies, or lemons, or eggs, or even footwear and mop-cloths! They each have different potencies, but I’ve seen multiple clients recover miraculously from their fevers and headaches in 10 or 15 minutes after having their energy cleansed.
Not every superstition is the same, however. Some are rooted in local traditions or circumstances and are no longer relevant. Others are downright rooted in fear and foolishness. How do we know where to draw the line?
Is Your Practice a Bicycle or a Freight Truck?
Think of your spiritual practice like… a vehicle.
The question is, are you riding a bicycle or a freight truck? Meaning, are your wheels 2cm or 5ft wide? Note that by spiritual practice, I am also referring here to karma yoga, which means the sincerity with which you bring your service to the world. There are several ‘unspiritual’ people who never light a lamp or a candle and yet are highly spiritually evolved because of their sincerity and integrity.
If your spiritual practice is only 2cm wide – if your sadhna is a bicycle every little pebble is capable of derailing it. So cutting your hair or nails or buying a broom or sitting or standing or sleeping at the wrong times can affect you adversely. If your sadhna is a freight truck with 18 wheels, all these little things get crushed as you charge ahead.
What’s more, a strong spiritual practice comes with a built-in GPS: it gives you intuitive powers which help you discern which ‘superstitions’ are valid practices and which ones are not right for you.
Be awesome.
Be an 18 wheeled truck.
Do your 20-20 every day.
Let the broom take care of itself.
The Power of 20-20
As a Vedic astrologer, I am trained in identifying good and bad time periods (muhurtam). However, over time I realised that much of this is irrelevant if we have a strong Reiki practice. If we are healing all chakras in a quick 20-minute hands-on practice twice a day, I have found the strongest protection. Some prefer to do it all at once in a longer practice, and others prefer to do a mental practice but when I have compared all of these options, I find the 20-20 the most potent.
Find a Bigger Purpose
One of the most common questions I receive is “Ashwita, what is the purpose of my life?” and this is such a wrong question, because the real question we should be asking is “What purpose can I create given the experience and resources available to me right now?” Purpose is something we create – we are not born as ‘chosen ones’ for something grand.
When our lives are mundane with not much purpose, little superstitions become important because they add meaning to the day. Can we, however, imagine a person running a million-dollar company worrying about seeing a dead bird, or the right day to buy a broom? When our purpose grows, so do our responsibilities, and the little things fade out to make space for bigger challenges.
So if little things still bother you, just expand your horizons.
Have you noticed Reiki shifting your relationship with old taboos? Share your experience in the comments.
Article by Ashwita Goel, Reiki Master
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Having learned Meditation as a child, Ashwita incorporated Reiki into her life during her early teens. After a decade of witnessing the magic Reiki, she felt compelled to take up Reiki professionally, and ended her corporate career in 2007, taking up Reiki full-time. She eventually incorporated EFT, hypnotherapy and past life therapy into her work. Apart from her healing work, she teaches Reiki and meditation, and her book ‘Healing Through Reiki’ is available on Amazon. She holds regular full moon and new moon meditations at @AshwitaGoel. Her website is www.reiki-bangalore.com and her blog www.ashwita.com
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