Mix the salt and asafoetida and sprinkle enough baby powder over to completely cover it. Stir while reciting Psalm 31:15–17 three times:

15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies' sake.

17 Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

While sprinkling repeat it again three times, telling the spirit to depart in the three highest names. Then take a horseshoe and wrap it in red cloth. Pass through the home after sprinkling, from back to front, with the horseshoe in one hand with points down while telling the spirit to depart and praying the psalm another three times for a total of nine times. Begin by saying “Our Father” and then reciting Psalm 31:15–17.

Washing

Much as the body is the home of the soul and the head and feet are washed, so too is the home spiritually cleaned and washed. This often occurred by prayer and using household products containing botanicals such as pine, orange, mint, or lemon. To these washes salt, baking soda, borax, church dirt, and other things may be added to the bucket with the diluted product. Spiritual washing is done when you feel it's needed or every two to three months. Washing is done for cleansing, protection, or drawing luck, love, or money to the home by washing the doors, windows, counters, cabinets, walls, and floors.

GENERAL CLEANSING WASH

1 oz citrus-type soap

2 oz Pine-Sol

3 tablespoons salt

1 capful ammonia

Splash of white distilled vinegar

Make up a bucket of warm soapy water with Pine-Sol. Then add the salt, ammonia, and vinegar and stir while praying or singing a hymn such as “Great High Mountain” or “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” If you're worried about the wash adversely affecting painted walls or floors, replace the ammonia with 1 capful castor oil.

Wash the walls, doors, and windows from top to bottom. (I recommend sweeping the floors and wiping the walls and windows with a cleaning product first—otherwise you'll just be wiping dust around.) For the floors, begin at the back of the home and move to the front.

After washing, we used sandalwood and cherry incense for blessing the home. Then, following the example of Mamaw Seagle, we would burn asafoetida on the stove. Mama always burned some Indian House Blessing incense too. When lighting the incense, we pray either the Thanksgiving Psalm (150):

1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

or Psalm 141:1–2:

1 Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

SWEEPING THE BODY

The body and spirit are just like the home: it gets cluttered from time to time with general negativity, and “bad wind” can get caught in the spirit from arguing and family feuds, stress, worrisome thoughts, witchcraft, and so on. Sweeping the body agitates these, much like brushing your teeth agitates the bacteria in your mouth. When done on a regular basis, it changes the environment and makes it inhospitable for these spiritual germs. Sweeping can also act in not only a purgative manner, but a protective one as well by removing haint attachments, tricks, and crossings. It chases them away.

Sweeping the body for cleansing should be done weekly. Sweeping doesn't have the same precautions as a cleansing bath, because you're essentially dusting your spirit, and if done regularly, a simple dusting will help in most cases.

Egg Sweeping

One of the first examples of sweeping I ever heard of or saw was done with an egg by Papaw Trivett. He would use an egg to take out illness and even a fever; with the latter, the egg was sometimes hard-boiled by the time he finished.

Through a large influx of Latinx populations into Appalachia between 1950 and 1990, there has been an interchange in recipes and remedies for health and wellness, both physically and spiritually. This likely also contributed to the strong beliefs behind the use of common Catholic saints here, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe and Saint Jude, both patrons of the poor and those in dire situations.

In Mexico, an egg cleansing is one of many methods known altogether as a limpia, which literally means “cleaning” or “cleansing.” The egg acts like a vacuum, sucking up everything bad from the body and spirit such as disease, heartbreak, grief, fear, curses, and so on. I never learned where Papaw had learned of using the egg, but he did own his own contracting company and employed a lot of Mexican folks, so I suspect he may have heard of it from one of them. Aside from this, there are plenty of records showing that eggs have been used in magico-medical means for healing a variety of things, whether it was taking an egg laid on Good Friday and rubbing it on a boil for a cure, placing the white of an egg on sore eyes, or laying an egg on the chest or beneath the Adam's apple to prevent vomiting. These remedies hold a spiritual element still, one that is uniquely Appalachian, at least going back a few generations.

EGG CLEANSING

You will need:

White taper candle

3 eggs at room temperature (preferably local and/or organic)

“Holy” water (creek or spring) over which Psalm 23 has been prayed three times daily for seven days (see page 66)

A clear glass of spring water (not tap water)

Egg cleansings are generally performed on other people, but they may be done solo as well. If you are performing the cleansing on someone else, have the person lay down on the floor, or on a bed or couch. Light your candle while praying Psalm 86:

1 Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.

2 Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.

3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.

4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

6 Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

11 Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.