Today Salon's advice column had a letter from a woman who really has some psychological issues with cleaning, to the point of anxiety attacks and depression.

One of the links in the response led to a forum discussion about spiritual housecleaning. The forum led me to look up a book on Amazon with that title, and I found more than one.

The second of the two was amusing, as it had a few reviews that warned against things like yoga and imported artifacts that were infused with worship of "hindu gods" which was from the devil. The book was apparently about how to make sure there were no malevolent influences in your home. (How about a good ritual cleansing?)

I wanted to burst out laughing as I read the reviews, even one reviewer was aghast at the other reviews. So if you need a good laugh, here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

The serious book that I suspect was the one being referred to in the forum can be found here.

I have long thought of housecleaning as a meditative discipline and there are books in Wiccan tradition that focus on the spiritual aspects of your home, such as one by Scott Cunningham.

A few other titles I found on the general subject of cleaning and making one's home a spiritual center are:

Home Sanctuary

Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks

The Zen of Organizing

Home Sanctuary

Each of these could lead you to many more on the subject, and highlights the desperation in modern life to infuse meaning into lives that are bursting with work to be done while being bombarded with information from media and internet sources. Surely the advice to turn off tv and get in touch with ourselves and our surroundings is a basic, commen sense message that doesn't require a book. Yet sometimes it takes a stranger to point out what we already know we should do, package it up and make it seem more attractive to us.

How do you feel about your home right now and the task of keeping it clean? Do you make a connection between spiritual life and these tasks that support your material needs?

Personally I have a life long struggle with clutter--I horde books and magazines and stray bits of information--and I've been on a decluttering kick these past couple of months. Aside from that I do Wiccan house cleansing/blessing ritual and generally try to infuse a spiritual presence into each room with images and shrines. I have used Scott Cunningham's book for years now as a reference. I'd like to continue to work on this area of my life until I am able to keep from cluttering up my home during my seasonal depression-ruled winter months.

The original article on Salon was:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/tenn/2005/09/...ning/index.html

Sorry I didn't think to link to it.

ugh, i DESPISE housework. it NEVER ENDS!!!!!!!!! especially with 3 males, dirt just accumulates. i've tried all kinds of different things, but i just hate it. dishes and laundry are the worst.

It seems to me the primary spiritual lesson in housecleaning is to be detached from the results, because as soon as you clean something, someone comes along and messes it up again. I find that incredibly frustrating too! It's like spending hours building a brick wall, only to have it knocked down and have to start from square one. Or pushing a boulder uphill, only to have it roll down.

What better opportunity to learn that the process is what counts? And that engaging in the same process with a changed consciousness really makes a difference?

Well, my solution to it is very materialistic. Things that I really need to have clean for my wellbeing every day -- like the kitchen or my desk -- I do keep clean. As for all the rest -- I wait until they get really, visibly dirty or messy. That way, when I am ready with my cleaning, there is a clear, visible result that I can meditate on before it disapepars. I am very fruitive...

Here is a poem for those who feel guilty over not being able to do practical tasks:

We sat together at one summer's end,
That beautiful mild woman, your close friend,
And you and I, and talked of poetry.
I said, 'A line will take us hours maybe;
Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,
Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.
Better go down upon your marrow-bones
And scrub a kitchen pavement, or break stones
Like an old pauper, in all kinds of weather;
For to articulate sweet sounds together
Is to work harder than all these, and yet
Be thought an idler by the noisy set
Of bankers, schoolmasters, and clergymen
The martyrs call the world.'

- Yeats