Some Thoughts on "Cleansing" and "Purifying"

I didn't really intend to post "random musings" here on Kitchen Witchcraft, but something happened that compelled me to post general observations instead of another recipe.
The described situation took place some time ago, but another, quite similar thing happened recently that reminded me of it, and I thought it worth sharing, in a way.

I was visiting a friend out of town, and there was a party going on, on which the conversation steered slowly towards witchcraft and the fact that I'm practising it. A lot of people were (as always) asking for love potions and hexes to be cast on their enemies, some were joking, some were only half-joking. I'm sure this is all too familiar to any "out" Witch.
However, as the party was breaking up, one of the people present approached me with a story concerning a friend, who has just moved to a new apartment and was experiencing some "spiritual troubles," as they put it. The symptoms included insomnia, inability to concentrate, violent mood swings and similar inconveniences. The person I was talking to was very concerned about their friend, and eventually persuaded me to come to their place and take a look at it, "maybe perform a purifying rite or at least advise." I've never really felt enough of an expert to offer consultation, but I reluctantly agreed.

As we made way to the place, I was given some additional information. The person experiencing troubles could not account for them in any way : they had no financial problems, nothing disastrous going on in their love-life, no health problems. Thinking that basic comfort  of living might have something to do with it, I asked whether the place they moved into was, perhaps, smaller than the previous one or otherwise a change for the worse. I was told it was a spacious apartment with a nice view. I don't mind admitting I was quite baffled. However, just stepping into the place gave me the answer, and it was such an obvious one that for a moment, I thought they were playing a joke on me.

You guessed it - the place was filthy. Dust, trash, dirty clothes, cigarette ash, dishes moulding in the sink, and as for the beautiful view, it was nigh-invisible through the greasy windows. And those people were wondering why the "spiritual" problems, expecting me to "work some herbs" for them.
Of course, I told them that the only herbs they need are the disinfectant ones, and the ritual they need to perform calls for rubber gloves, sponges, a mop and a lot of scrubbing. Not surprisingly, they were very disappointed, clearly thinking it was possible to wave a magic wand instead of house cleaning. It took a lot of time to convince them that no amount of incense is going to help in this particular situation.

What's interesting is that the person living in this mess was particularly uncooperative, claiming that they were keeping the place as they saw fit, and that they were comfortable in it.  They insisted that cleaning would actually detract from their comfort. I had to enumerate all of their "spiritual problems" back at them a couple of times to get the message across.

Why am I describing all this? Well, sometimes we expect magic to solve problems that really just need some work. I know I do. And sometimes we overlook the most obvious solutions (or causes), especially when they stem from self-indulgence. Sometimes we coat stupid behaviour with layers of excuses. What we don't realise is that ultimately, we end up hurting ourselves.
Oh, and sometimes, we don't keep our kitchen as clean as it should be, and this is a criminal offence if we are to cook anything good in it.