What is smudging and how do I do it?

Well some of you may be familiar with the ritual of smudging and some of you may not. 

Smudging is a traditional ceremony that is used for purifying and cleansing ones energy from negative energy, clearing spaces of energies that are not for the highest love and compassion. 

Many cultures and religious have been using this ritual for centuries. 

Smudging contains four elements to it. 

The first one is the container. This could be a bowl empty of full of water, a shell a larger one such as an abalone shell or dish. 

The herbs. These can be a variety of different herbs, the most used are Sage, Cedar, Rosemary, or sweet grass. and these are gifts from mother earth. 

The third element is fire. Lighting these sacred plants

and lastly is the smoke that produced from the fire and the air creating smoke that will cleanse and clear. 

People can be smudged as well as spaces or items. 

The sacred plants are lit and then the fire is blown out which then produces the wafting of smoke. The smoke is then either fanned, with the hand or a feather around the person, or space. 

If you are the person who is being smudged or smudging yourself, the smoke is guided towards you and also inhaled with long slow breaths.  Allow the smoke to move all over the body from the head to the toes. 

The ash that falls from the herbs is caught in the bowl and discarded back to mother earth, giving her a gift in return. 

Palo Santo is another item to use for smudge. 

If cleansing a space, the same can be down lighting the smudge wafting the smoke around the area. 

When doing this ritual is important to set an intention to allow any energy that is not longer of service, that is stuck or stagnant or creating low vibration to be cleared, dissolved and transmuted back into love and light. 

You can also use essential oil mists that are also created with the same intention, if you are not partial to smoke, or you like options. 

Times to Smudge: 

When there is funky energy at work, or if the family home has been feeling a little strained or even giving the home a good clear out, as everyone has been home for so long, (lots of different energies here- due to the times of covid) If you have bought or leased a new property and want to clear any previous energy, if you have been feeling flat and lacking energy, If you have been doing some deep healing, if you feel you need it are all good reasons to use smudge.