I recently accepted an invitation to perform a house blessing in northeast Austin. A couple moved to the area from Connecticut fairly recently, and it is their custom to perform a blessing ceremony in their new homes. As we talked about what they were expecting, I asked if there was any place in the house that might also need some additional clearing before the blessing. And, yes indeed, there was.

Apparently, everyone who slept in the spare bedroom had nightmares. On occasion, they would awaken either unable to move or feel like something was sitting on their chest, making it difficult to breathe. There also is a bath area between the spare bedroom and the master bedroom that also seemed troubled. Since they had moved in, Chris had insisted that the door to the bath be closed so she could sleep.

I invited Toni and Charlie to join me. We arrived at the house in the early evening. The owners – Ian and Chris – are a wonderful couple that we were attracted to immediately as very “good people,” with rich experience and knowledge of Spirit. They had already written their blessing prayer, and had it beautifully framed.

We walked through the house to get a feel for the energy, which was wonderful. The structure and energy flow had already been set according to feng shui principles. Charlie was the first to pick up on the energy vortex in the spot that I felt was the “heart” of the house. However, the feeling of the energy in the spare bedroom was dramatically different; warm and stuffy, even with the air conditioner running. Something was definitely “up” in this room.

The house is only less than 10 years old, and prior to building the land had just been a cotton field. Although many people had rented it since, there was no clear history of some of the strife – either current or historical – that is evident in other areas of the city, although the original landowner did build his house on top of a hill that is visible from the front porch. And the house looks very much like a fortress. That was notable to us.

After rattling and drumming the energy of the rest of the house, the five of settled into the spare bedroom. Toni and I both got at the same time that the energy imbalance had nothing to do with the room or the land, as we had assumed. It was centered on something that had been brought into the room by the owners in their move. (This was corroborated later when Chris said that they had similar problems with a room in an apartment they rented temporarily while searching for a house. We had not known this before.)

Toni and Charlie felt a strong sadness that seemed to be centered in the closet they were closest to.

Within just a few minutes, the story began to sort itself out. The name of the woman was Lizzie (Elizabeth) Thompson or Thomason, who had lived in Connecticut – in the same town or neighborhood as Ian and Chris. She was seen as an elderly, thin woman with disheveled hair pulled up in a bun. She had died roughly 125 to 150 years ago. Apparently, she was not an only child, but felt very alone and isolated. The family situation was not good. All she had was her home and possessions. So she did not want to cross over.

The energy in the room felt like that of a big, dark cat. When angry or on alert, it would crouch back into the corner of the room. It reacted to our presence with that kind of attentiveness. This made particularly good sense when thinking about the experience of those who felt pressure on their chest .. as cats sometimes do crawl on a prone person’s chest.

Chris either lived in Lizzie’s Hartford house or nearby, and Lizzie attached herself to her for reasons that are not clear. Again, Chris mentioned later that this neighborhood dated from the late 1880s, which matched the 125-150 year timeframe.

When she moved from her house to Ian’s, she took *most* of her belongings with her. When they then moved to Austin and into the new home, that’s when things began to happen. Lizzie found herself very far away from her home and she was not happy. Something had been left behind, and she had been searching for it.

As we gathered information in the room, the temperature rose steadily and the air became increasingly dense. Soon we were all sweating. We began the ceremony to balance the energy and send Lizzie on, drumming and rattling as I called to Lizzie to join her family. (She was not particularly interested in joining her immediate family, but a grandmother appeared to be of assistance.)

The energy began to calm and the temperature of the room cooled. The air was clearer and not as heavy as we ended the ceremony. Chris felt that she could finally let Connecticut go, even though she had nothing whatsoever holding her there .. other than Lizzie.

We determined that there was an object – possibly a box – that Lizzie was missing and had been looking for. Chris thought she knew what and where it was and began looking for it in boxes from the closet. But the object – a box – was not there. As we watched, Chris looked like someone searching for a beloved object that could not be found, fighting back tears as the frustration mounted. It was clear that she was finally letting Lizzie’s frantic and fierce energy move through her. Eventually, she gave up. We decided instead that they could craft an appropriate object into which any remaining energies could be infused, then mailed back to Lizzie’s home to complete the circle for her healing.

With the energy of the room now balanced, it was time for a beautiful blessing ceremony. We rattled and drummed as Ian played his singing bowl in each room as Chris read the blessing prayer they had written. It was WONDERFUL!

[Originally posted June 26, 2008]