Full Frontal Magic: Washing The Dishes – Awareness, and the Hidden Opportunities for Magic in Modern Life

I am writing an entire occult-y blog post about washing dishes. Yes, washing dishes. By the end of this blog post, I promise you may even want to wash dishes. I think most of us would agree that washing the dishes, taking out the trash, doing the laundry, etc. are some of the more loathsome tasks of the modern world. Most of us would rather kick back with a good cup of coffee, use that time to pursue a hobby we enjoy, read a book, text and chat on our phones or really do almost anything else. We have so many other things to do, and the list of things we have to do seems to grow exponentially. In a way, do we really do any of these tasks? What if we used these repetitive tasks as an opportunity for mindfulness and shifting of our awareness?

The act of washing dishes is symbolic act. Most people loathe washing dishes.  If you read Gurdjieff ‘s Fourth Way material, you already know how important washing the dishes can be.  Gurdjieff himself was a fairly controversial figure who was accused of all sorts of wrong doings who built a fairly robust cult of personality around himself. Those concerns do not mean that the man did not have some very interesting and useful points. If you attend a Gurdjieff study group even now, most people start with washing dishes until the higher adepts believe you get it.

Of course, the context and meaning of the dish washing is not at all clear. As a practicing magician, I do not agree with everything Gurdjieff said and by no means do I believe myself an absolute expert on Gurdjieff philosophy, but I do think he had a powerful insight about repetitive tasks, mindfulness, and sensing. Gurdjieff himself had an epiphany while washing dishes. When you remove much of the difficult language, he found that if he could stay in the moment and pay attention to sensations of washing dishes instead of letting his worries/concerns of the world, to-do list, and “more important thoughts”, that the focus on his own sensations and the moment would bring him closer to what he considered divine. By moving away from the constant barrage of thought, one could move closer to ‘knowing’. By ‘knowing’, he meant a very gnostic idea of direct divine knowledge.

We can boil down the idea to different levels of sensing. If you have been following my Shapeshifting Course (which will re-open in September), I take these exercises much further.  Washing dishes comes with a tremendous amount of cultural values attached. In modern western society, we tend to view washing dishes as if it was wasted time. While we wash the dishes, our mind goes in all sorts of directions. If your mind wanders to your to-do lists, worries, or “more important things”, the opportunity for an increase in awareness is lost. We would like to believe that we do not wander while engaged in things that we perceive to be “more important”.  We let the thoughts wander, and the worries infect, even when the moments are some of the most life changing.

How to Wash the Dishes for Spiritual Awareness

1. Breathe deeply and continuously.
2. Let yourself feel the warm water, and soap. Feel the texture of the wash rag and the unique feeling of the washing the dishes with the soap rag.
3. Focus on your breathing and the act of washing the dishes. If other thoughts pop into your mind, acknowledge them, but tell yourself you are giving yourself time to wash the dishes.
4. Pay close attention to each movement of your hands, the weight of the dish (become aware of it), and other details of the experience.
5. Keep breathing and allow yourself to dive deep into the act of washing the dishes.

Although, it is probable that Gurdjieff got this technique from Sufi sources, we know this is a type of Nidra Yoga that promotes borderline awareness (staying in the moment, no psychic experiences). We can see a similar idea coming from Buddhism as well.

“To my mind, the idea that doing dishes is unpleasant can occur only when you aren’t doing them. Once you are standing in front of the sink with your sleeves rolled up and your hands in the warm water, it is really quite pleasant. I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to eat dessert sooner, the time of washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle. The dishes themselves and that fact that I am here washing them are miracles!”

–Thich Nhat Hanh

Master Hanh really describes the focus and joy that can come from engaging the dishes in a more aware state. For me personally, I know from psychology that we can create meaning out of any experience, including washing the dishes. Master Hanh is just giving us a context to experience the washing of dishes in a different way. To me these experiences are important subjective experiences, but how do they fit into a results driving magical paradigm?

The first thing I have learned from my inner city Chicago conjure teachers was a very simple prayer that involved washing your hands, which is very close to washing the dishes.  The purpose of this trick was to remove spiritual negativity, but the methods were very close to what Gurdjieff suggests. It was taught to me in a slightly different manner then I am presenting.  I have learned and evolved, what can I say.

Removing Negativity by Washing your Hands

1. Before washing your hands, pick a bar soap that you like the smell of.
2. Breathe Deeply and continuously.
3. Focus on each movement of washing your hands. Become aware of the bar of soap.
4. Start to pray deeply to God (this was taught to me by a person from New Orleans. Conjure work is often done to God).
5. Keep breathing and praying as you wash your hands clean.
6. Really get into the praying. Feel the water. Feel the soap. Feel your moments. Hear your prayer asking for Grace and protection. Ask for peace. You could use Psalm 26:6 “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, O LORD.” (Psalm 26:6)
7. As you wash your hands, allow the “holy spirit” to wash away any spiritual negativity. Keep going until the “holy spirit” washes everything clean.

Optional points:  I know the language of Christianity may be difficult for some of you as this is not your frame of reference so I will add some additional points to make this work more comfortably. I would additionally use all of my five senses to feel the water sucking out all the negative energy from my hands. For this exercise, I tend to interpret a brilliant and wonderful light rushing down into my crown chakra and into my body. You can go further and let the “holy spirit” take over, but this technique is beyond the scope of this blog. Keep going, till you feel like the hand washing has really washed out all of the negativity. This interpretation is solely my own.

I would argue that connecting to your own spirit or the “holy spirit” in the grace of the moment is very similar to what Master Hanh is expressing. Although the cultural cues are very different, the impact on the energy system would be very similar. Master Hanh is expressing gratitude and a deep understanding of the miracle of washing the dishes at that moment.  Although the metaphor is different, a root worker can connect to the miracle of spirit at any time.  If you can really get into the absolute joy of the moment of washing dishes, it is very similar to the grace you would experience connecting with the “holy spirit.”

If washing your hands can be used for spiritual cleansing, and washing the dishes can be used to increase awareness, why can’t we use washing the dishes as a type of simple alchemy for the greater world? We still have to get past the to-do list, worries and negativity, but we can certainly conceive the dirt on the dishes as things we wish to remove from our personal universe. Giving the dirt a context allows us to have the joy of releasing those vibrations. The technique is exactly the same as the dish washing technique except that we are allowing the dishes, sink and process to be our personal universe, which further connects the actions to a greater purpose. To get to the right place for this cleansing to work, you must be fully present and aware of the dishes. Understand how miraculous it is that you are there washing dishes and then realize that these dishes are a metaphor for the greater universe. Allow whatever is troubling you in that universe to BE the dirt you are washing away from the dish. It goes without saying that you must do each dish with the utmost care and that cleaning the dish should feel absolutely miraculous.    As you wash each dish, you should feel a burden lift.

I find it helpful to allow my mind to attach each thing bothering me to the dirt on the dish while allowing my crown chakra to fully open. You can then allow the light of spirit to wash over and through you as you wash the dishes. This exercise is one that you can easily do with the Psalm method above, if you prefer. You have to be present enough with the dish washing that you lose track of time and focus only on the dishes, the lifting burdens, and the lightening of burdens that is happening. Once you start thinking about the to-do lists, worries, or other things, you are in the wrong place of mind. If this happens, just re-focus and alter your mental course back to the task at hand. Doing this sort of mindfulness exercise with the dishes is a great first step before doing more active acts of practical magic. I usually say everything out loud (that the dishes are my personal universe, that the dirt is what troubles me, that I am taking joy in transforming those issues) and allow myself to go as far into the breathing and meditation as doing the dishes will allow.

These kinds of techniques can be used with any physical cleaning really. Once you get the mindfulness down, you can apply other metaphors and the right state of mind to project the energy behind the simple spellwork.

I bet at least some of you, want to wash the dishes now don’t you?  We could all use the moment of mindfulness to shake ourselves out of the societal (and often self-imposed) pressure to GO! GO! GO!

[Author’s Note:  If you like putting together these types of simple metaphors into magical spells, check out my first book, Hands On Chaos Magic.    I’m available for divination work as well, and I’m not only an initiated Houngan, but a very experienced sorcerer and diviner.  I combine Obi, Tarot, mediumship, and life-coaching to create the best outcomes for you usinghypnosis, magic, psychology and straight business knowledge.   Invest in your new life with a session today.]

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