Smudge stick

A smudge stick is a bundle of dried herbs, most commonly white sage. Often other herbs or plants are used or added and the leaves are usually bound with string in a small bundle and dried. Some other herbs and spices that are often used include cilantro, cedar, lavender, and mugwort, none of which are native to the Americas. They have a strong, pleasant aroma when burnt.

Overview

A smudge stick is a bundle of dried herbs (sage among the most common) that is tied together and burned for the purposes of purification.

Smudge sticks are used in ceremonies and rituals involving smudging, a term that, like smudging sticks, originated in Native American culture. Smudging involves the burning of certain herbs to create a cleansing smoke bath, which is then used to purify anything from people to ritual and ceremonial space, to tools and objects. There are many different ceremonies and rituals that can be done. The smudge stick is the actual herb or bundle of herbs that is burned.

This practice is ancient, and held as sacred by many cultures. As such, many differing cultures and people have their own methods and herbal mixtures for varied specific purposes. Each culture has its own way of bringing about physical, spiritual, and emotional balance, of cleansing negative energy. Native Americans, for example, tended to favor sage that was lit from the central or cooking fire.

Smudge sticks find continued and wide use in contemporary, middle-class Western nations made popular by the so called New Age movement.

Popular herbs

Herbs are used as smudge sticks during smudging ceremonies. Though which herbs, exactly, are used can vary infinitely, there are some common ones, along with some common meanings. The principal hers used are sage, cedar or juniper, lavender, and sweet grass. In addition, pure tobacco is used by some Plains Indian tribes. The smudge sticks are burned in a pure form, or as a mixture, depending on the desired effect and on tradition.

Sage (Artemisia tridentia) is not the same as the European varieties and is indigenous to the Americas. Smudge sticks of Sage are burned in smudging ceremonies to drive out evil spirits, negative thoughts and feelings, and to keep negative entities away from areas in which ceremonies take place. Sage is also used in keeping sacred objects like pipes or Peyote wands safe from negative influence. In the Sioux nation, the Sacred Pipe is kept in a bundle with sage boughs. I would think special crystals could be so protected this way as well.

Cedar smudge sticks are burned while praying to the Great Spirit (also known as Unsen', the Source, or Wakan Tanka) in meditation. It is also used to bless a home before taking residence there, a tradition dating back to the Northwest and Western Canadian Native Americans. It works both as a purifier and as a way to attract good energy.

History

The term "smudge stick" entered the English language through Indigenous American Indian traditions in America via cultural exchange and were propagated in New Age traditions of shamanism. The binding of smudge sticks for many traditions was a sacred intentional process in and of itself. The process of employing scent in rites of purification, be it in censers, through burning incense or smudging (the process of using a smudge stick) is endemic throughout traditional rites captured by Ethnography, Anthropology and Sociology.

Smudging has been used for thousands of years, though it is impossible to say exactly when smudging began, and its history is certainly not limited to Native Americans. In some cases, smudging is linked to the use of incense, as incense, like a smudge stick, is a natural object that is burned for a specific purpose. The history of incense itself goes back thousands of years to Egypt in 1530 B.C.E. Israel, in the fifth century B.C.E., devoted separate altars for the offering of incense. Indeed, herbal smoke mixtures or incense are burned around the world, from China and Southeast Asia, to India, to Europe and the rest of the Western World.

The Native American history with smudge sticks may have begun because of very practical reasons, however. Smokes from certain herbs have been scientifically proven as excellent pesticides. Other smokes are known to preserve food and hides. Thus, associating the burning herbs with positive energy and cleansing attributes is not a far leap.

When there were no sticks to speak of, sacred herbs and resins were simply burned in a special bowl. The smoke produced was wafted around the person, place, or object needing purification and cleansing. Smudge sticks offered an innovation that made such rituals and ceremonies easier to perform and with greater control. Rather than wafting the cleansing smoke towards the subject, the bearer of the smudge stick was able to form a smoke blanket of the herb's power. The herbs most often used were sage and sweetgrass. The sage drove out the negative and the sweetgrass attracted the positive.

Smudging

Smudging is the common name given to the Sacred Smoke Bowl Blessing. This is a powerful cleansing technique of Native American origin. To many traditions, smudging involves a four directions ceremony or prayer. It, thus, sends specific kinds of smoke or prayer into the four different directions. Of course, different tribes have different prayers, but the smoke is typically directed to a specific action or a specific direction, aiding in divination. However, in general smudging is used to maintain balance and shield against negative energy. As has been noted above, it is often used as a cleansing agent.

Some smudging rituals are performed on a daily basis. Others are reserved for special or ceremonial occasions. In general, it has been likened to the washing of hands before a meal.

Contemporary use

Helps sell apartments.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Budilovsky, Joan, and Eve Adamson. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Meditation. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002.

External links

• About Smudging and Smudge Sticks. Retrieved July 15, 2008.

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