A few weeks ago, I brought home an antique painted deer skull.

It’s a beautiful piece that I thought would be a great addition to my personal home collection of cacti and succulents.

The night I brought it home, I had the most lucid dreams and visions of my life.

Upon waking up, my first thought was to blame it on the skull.

I hadn’t saged it. I hadn’t even inquired about its history. And honestly, I hadn’t considered anything more about it other than its beauty.

Antique items have a history.

The history of the piece can include:

The people who owned and loved it
The situations in which the piece was used
The areas where it was placed before you got it
The residual energy it may have picked up over the years

To be haunted means an antique item has a person attached to it - a dead person, that is. Usually, this deceased person is a previous owner or an admirer of the piece.

An antique item is haunted only if these situations are come into play:

The person who previously owned the piece has not yet crossed over AND they have a strong emotional or spiritual attachment to the item.

However, all items, antique or new, do have the potential to have residual energy attached to them - which is why I recommend releasing this energy through a saging or smudging ritual.

How do you know if an antique item is haunted?

Unfortunately, it’s very hard to tell if an antique piece is haunted until after you bring it home.

There are so many Spirits present in most antique stores, that it can be really difficult to pinpoint who is attached to what, until after you walk out of the store and single out the piece in question.

Thankfully, if you’ve brought a piece home and you think it may be haunted, there are a few things you can do.

How to Clear an Antique Piece

of both Spirit and residual energy

1. Make sure you clear the residual energy

Most of the time, when you bring an antique piece home, there are no Spirits attached to it. However, there may be built up residual energy from other the years - such as energy the piece as absorbed from nearby arguments, emotional disputes, performed rituals, blood and sweat from building the thing or traumas.

This energy can accumulate and when placed in your space, can change or affect the harmony of the environment.

Learn how to use sage and clear it.

2. Talk to the Spirit present compassionately

After you have cleared the residual energy, if you are still noticing the tell-tale signs that a Spirit is in your home, it may be possible you’ve brought home a friend.

If you are a medium, a sensitive or someone who can connect with Spirit, try to talk to this Spirit and ask them to leave. Many will go if you address them directly and try to rationalize with them nicely.

Remember, there are many reasons why deceased people do not cross over and FEW of those reasons involve wanting to be a burden or a problem.

3. Find a medium who specializes in clearing

If you don’t feel comfortable communicating with the Spirit, find someone who does.

Mediums, shamans, and many healers can communicate with a Spirit and convince them to cross-over. When a Spirit crosses over, they are no longer attached to the physical world, and, therefore, no longer attached to your item.

And finally, if for some reason none of these solutions are effective for you, you may find it best to part with your piece.

While it is rare that a Spirit is attached to an item, it does happen.

Thankfully, the solutions mentioned above will solve most issues.

So . . . was the deer skull I brought home haunted?

No - but I did need to clear out its residual energy.

After that, everything was fine.

- Amanda