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| Photo courtesy of www.whisperingwoodsbrockville.com |
When I was in my early twenties, I had my first introduction to smudge sticks. I honestly don't know if it came via my spiritual friends who lived by the Susquehanna River or through New Visions bookstore. I just know I bought a smudge stick and started to smudge. I didn't know much about it logically. I knew that it felt normal to me. It felt like a memory.
The most common way to smudge is to use a "smudge stick" made of the key essential dried herb, sage. There are many variations of sticks. Some include lavender. Others include juniper and cedar. Smudge sticks are dried herbs bound together by string into a bundle that you light. When lit, the bundle creates a smoke that neutralizes the surrounding area and/or person(s).
This tradition of smudging was probably inspired by the Sacred Smoke Bowl blessing of First Nations and Native American people. They would take sacred herbs placing them in a bowl over fire, burning the herbs for blessings, and driving out negative energies. Smudge sticks today are a portable, more convenient way of holding our own ceremonies.
When smudging, you take the lit stick and can walk it around your home, or move up and down your body, making sure to reach all four sides of your body from the earth to above your head. By smudging, you are removing any negative energy or forces around you.
Sometimes people will smudge a house if they feel it is haunted. Sometimes people will smudge a room if they've been arguing in it. Other times smudging is used before a healing art to "cleanse" the room. I personally have experienced the stillness that comes with a smudged house. It's as if, everything suddenly feels still and quiet.
A few weeks ago, I decided to smudge my house once again. I had purchased at an outdoor show, many years ago, a round bowl made of cement, that I keep my smudge stick in. I withdrew my stick, lit it, and blew on the edges so the flame so it would catch all the stems to create that smoky effect. I then, with concentration on my stick and intention on clearing the energy, started making my way up and down each wall of the house. This time, I used my palm to spread the smoke instead of a feather and used a crystal singing bowl. In the past I have allowed my soul to chant words without thinking. Other times I would keep it simple with "Hey-Hah" sounds. As I made my way around the house, each time I came to a door frame or arch, I would pause doing the lining and the middle on each side. I could feel that there was a clearly defined "wall" created between spaces. (Remember, our mind creates reality.) My husband followed me, in a state of fascination, nervously trying to talk, but I would simply pass him the smudge stick and then go back through to each wall playing my crystal singing bowl for an additional cleansing, until we swapped again.
When I entered the living room, I felt a division half way through. I needed to do each side of this invisible wall that I felt. To me, my living room is whole and complete. When I mentioned it to him what I felt, he said he thought that the front half of the living room was an addition to the house and showed me on our hardwood floor how there were these small spaces of remnant cement. I had always looked at those spaces with little thought. Now, it made sense.
I sat down with my bowl after smudging both sides of the imaginary wall and played for several minutes. An energy was there, not happy about this opening of two spaces. But I continued to smudge and play until I felt that it was time to stop. I knew that opening the space into one energetic room would take time. We had only been in the house for about six years. There were decades of created energy before us.
As the years came and went after my first introduction to smudging, I learned more about the tools that could be used. A braid of sweetgrass; a stick of Palo Santo wood; a spray.
Sweetgrass is a common herb burned by a variety of Indigenous peoples before ceremonies. Churches in Europe hung it above their doors on saint's day.
A piece of Palo Santo wood (more flame, less smelly) comes from a tree that literally means "Holy Wood" in South America and has been used by Shamans and Medicine People for cleansing and healing.
Today, you can even get sacred sprays that combine water from a "holy" place along with essential oils from sage, cedar, juniper, and more.
It doesn't matter which method is used. Each one is simply a tool. We have the power to use our minds, our intentions and energy to clear a room without the use of smudge sticks and sprays. However, many of us have forgotten or don't believe in our own personal power. So, the earth has left us clues on how we can still perform these "cleansing" actions by using it's plants.
