Clearing Old Energy Before the Year Turns

A New Year Week Teaching from Dr. Peter Sousa and the Church of New Enchantment

Overview

New Year’s week is often treated as a clean reset, but many people report the opposite experience: the body feels heavy, sleep can feel irregular, attention drifts backward, and certain memories or relationship dynamics return to awareness. In spiritual traditions, this is commonly understood as residual energy that remains active when an experience has ended externally but has not fully released internally. This teaching offers a grounded way to understand that residue and clear it before stepping into the year ahead.

This blog post expands the video teaching with a structured framework and resources for further study. The approach is New Age in orientation while drawing on established scholarship about ritual thresholds and sacred time.

Clearing as a threshold practice

Anthropological and religious studies literature describes major transitions as rites of passage with recognizable phases: separation from what was, a threshold period, and reintegration into what is next (van Gennep, 1961). Victor Turner later emphasized the threshold stage as a distinct state where normal structures soften and meaning becomes more fluid (Turner, 1969). New Year’s week functions similarly in many cultures. It is a socially recognized crossing, and crossings tend to make what is unresolved easier to detect.

When people say, “I do not know why I feel heavy,” a spiritual interpretation is that the system is perceiving unfinished energetic threads during a threshold period. That does not require drama or crisis. It can be as simple as an outdated role, an obligation that no longer fits, or a relationship pattern that continues to occupy attention.

Sacred time and the seasonal calendar

Mircea Eliade’s work on sacred time explains why cyclical calendars repeatedly return communities to potent symbolic moments rather than treating time as purely linear (Eliade, 1968/1961). Ronald Hutton’s history of the ritual year documents how seasonal observances mark transitions and help communities metabolize change over time (Hutton, 1996). In that context, clearing old energy is not a trendy ritual. It is a practical human response to cyclical time.

New Year’s week and the winter season also carry an intuitive logic: nature reduces, sheds, and conserves. A clearing practice aligns with that seasonal pattern rather than fighting it.

Energetic residue in New Age frameworks

New Age healing frameworks often describe the human energy field as responsive to thought, emotion, environment, and relationship dynamics. Barbara Brennan’s model, for example, treats the energy field as an informational structure that can hold patterns and require intentional clearing or reorganization (Brennan, 1988). Donna Eden’s work similarly frames “energy hygiene” as a learnable set of practices aimed at restoring balance and resilience (Eden & Feinstein, 1998/1999; updated editions exist). Caroline Myss popularized the idea of symbolic and energetic “contracts” and the way spiritual meaning can shape how people carry experience in the body and psyche (Myss, 1997). Across these perspectives, the shared theme is consistent: what remains unprocessed tends to remain present.

This teaching does not ask anyone to adopt a single model. It encourages a basic principle: what is not released tends to repeat.

A simple clearing method for New Year’s week

The practices below are designed to be accessible, non-performative, and appropriate for a church setting. They require no special tools.

1. Name what is finished

Write down one to three items that are complete but still energetically “present.” Examples may include:

• a role that no longer fits

• an obligation maintained out of guilt

• a repeated dynamic that drains attention

• a promise made to an old version of self

This step functions as separation in rites-of-passage terms (van Gennep, 1961; Turner, 1969).

2. Choose a release action

Select one action that symbolizes release. Keep it simple:

• discard a page after writing the items

• donate objects linked to an old season

• clean a small space with a clear intention

• take a quiet walk and mentally “return” the energy to the past

The goal is not superstition. The goal is a deliberate marker in sacred time (Eliade, 1968/1961).

3. Create a threshold moment

A threshold moment can be as small as standing at a doorway, pausing, and stating a short line such as:

“I cross into the new year with clarity. I release what is complete.”

Thresholds matter because they organize experience, which is why cultures build rituals around them (Turner, 1969; Hutton, 1996).

4. Replace the space with one stabilizing practice

Clearing is more effective when the space is filled with a stabilizing rhythm. Options:

• five minutes of breathwork daily for one week

• a short evening candle practice with silence

• a consistent wake time for several days

• a simple gratitude statement each morning

In energy medicine frameworks, repeated small practices are often emphasized over intensity (Eden & Feinstein, 1998/1999).

Community application for a church setting

For members who feel steady and resourced, New Year’s week is also a time to support others without spotlighting them. Seasonal ritual calendars historically included communal care, generosity, and shared observances that reinforced social bonds (Hutton, 1996). A modern expression can include:

• discreet support for a family in need

• volunteering time during the week after the holiday peak

• creating a community intention board focused on stability, protection, and renewal

This aligns with the Church of New Enchantment’s emphasis on grounded spiritual practice as lived life, not performance.

Conclusion

Clearing old energy before the year turns is a practical spiritual act. It treats time as meaningful, recognizes thresholds as real, and supports the human need to release what has expired. New Year’s week is not only about beginning. It is also about closing. When closure is honored, the next cycle tends to unfold with less resistance and more clarity.

References

Brennan, B. A. (1988). Hands of light: A guide to healing through the human energy field. Bantam. 

Eden, D., & Feinstein, D. (1999). Energy medicine. Tarcher. 

Eliade, M. (1961). The sacred and the profane: The nature of religion. Harper & Row. (Original work published 1957). 

Hutton, R. (1996). The stations of the sun: A history of the ritual year in Britain. Oxford University Press.