Many people come to us asking for ways to cleanse themselves of unwanted energy. Unpleasant energy can come from many places such as an ex lover, an emotionally draining family member, or your own negative attitude.
Ritual cleansing with our sage sticks is a great way to clear your aura and purify your environment. Smudging is a ceremony performed to rid people, places and things of unwanted energy. A ritual cleansing stick is a bundle of dried sage, hand-picked from power spots such as Mt. Shasta.
Indigenous shamans have collected sage for thousands of years, considering it a very sacred power plant. But they are not alone in using smoking herbs to consecrate places, objects and people. Using smoke for ritual purposes is seen across cultures for thousands of years. From Hindu to Christian traditions, the practice is not exclusive to east or west, indigenous or modern. Partaking in the smudging ceremony is to join people of all tribes and colors in revering the mystical power of smoke.
The sage is usually paired with a seashell, a bowl of sand & rocks, or some other container to hold the bundle and catch the embers while its burning. With these two items, and maybe an optional feather, you’ll be ready to start your ceremony.
1. Cleansing Yourself.
Light one end of the bundle on fire so that it’s smoking softly. Be careful not to light too much at once, since so much smoke might set off the fire alarm. Also, be mindful of your carpets or upholstery, since there may be some ashes and embers. If you’re outdoors, make sure you’re obeying all local fire ordinances: only you can prevent forest fires.
Once you’ve got a steady smoke going, simply wave the stick over your body as if you were combing out the bad energy from your aura. In soft movements, wave the bundle across your belly, chest and forehead, swirl it around your head, and brush your shoulders down to your hands.
If you’re familiar with the location of the chakras throughout your body, you can swirl the bundle clockwise over each chakra before sweeping down the arms. Or, swirl the bundle clockwise over your belly, chest and forehead instead of all seven chakras. When you’re finished smudging, you can use a feather to gently brush your aura from head to toe, or simply open the windows to let the smoke out.
2. Cleansing Your Space.
To smudge a space, start by smudging yourself fist. If your energy field is clouded, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to clear the room’s energy. Once you’ve finished smudging yourself, then start working on the house or room.
In each room, you want to start with the corner that’s furthest away from the entrance to that room. With the sage still smoking, gently swirl the smudge stick counter clockwise a few times in each corner. Start at the back corner and moving clockwise from corner to corner until all four have been smudged. When swirling at each corner, it’s helpful to visualize dull, stagnant energy like cobwebs being brushed away.
When you’ve finished cleansing the four corners, feel free to cleanse any furniture or objects in the room to give them an extra deep clean. For example, a chair that a sick person used all week might warrant some special attention.
After you’ve finished cleansing the room, be sure to open all the windows. The smoke soaks up all the dull or intrusive energy, so you don’t want it to linger. Let the fresh air take the smoke, letting the energy be recycled back into Mother Earth.
3. Cleansing Someone Else
To smudge someone else, you do exactly as you would for yourself, except flipped. Instead of swirling clockwise circles over their chakras, you should swirl counterclockwise. Besides that, you perform the same procedure: gently wave the smudge stick over the person’s belly, chest and forehead, swirl it around the head and down the shoulders and arms. When cleansing others, some people like to smudge the front and back as well, which normally isn’t an option when you’re smudging yourself.
Some shamans will also blow over the top of the person’s head, or even into the same centers mentioned earlier: the belly, the chest and the forehead. Afterward, you can brush their aura with a feather, or simply blow the smoke away.
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When you’re finished with the herbal stick, set it down on your seashell or bowl of sand, letting it go out naturally. Avoid wetting the herbal stick, since that might make it harder to re-light later.
Always remember to get rid of the smoke after the ceremony. All of the unwanted energy has stuck to the smoke, so letting the wind take the smoke is the final step in the cleansing process. If, for example, you cleanse the whole house, but then forget to open the windows, the same energy will just settle back into the same crevices, undoing your work. Let the fresh air take all that dull, stagnant energy away and breathe new life into your aura and your space.