Smudging

Smudging involves lighting a bundle of dried herbs, allowing them to smolder, and directing the smoke with intention around a person's body, throughout a room, or over objects. The smoke is believed to attach to negative energies and carry them away as it dissipates, leaving the space or person energetically clean. Different herbs serve different purposes. White sage is the most widely used for cleansing. Sweetgrass is burned after sage to invite positive energy. Cedar offers protection. Palo santo ("holy wood") from South America cleanses while simultaneously raising the space's vibration. Lavender, rosemary, and mugwort are also common choices. Beyond spiritual tradition, emerging research suggests that smoke from certain medicinal herbs may have antimicrobial properties. A 2007 study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology found that medicinal smoke reduced airborne bacteria by over 94% within a confined space.

The English word *smudging* in this ritual sense derives from Indigenous Californian and Plains nations' bound-herb-bundle ceremonies, documented in 19th- and 20th-century ethnographic work — Joseph Epes Brown's *The Sacred Pipe* (1953, recording Black Elk's Lakota teachings), Frances Densmore's *Teton Sioux Music* (1918), and the broader Bureau of American Ethnology corpus. Specific traditions vary: Lakota *inípi* sweat lodge incorporates sage and sweetgrass smoke; Anishinaabe ceremonies use the Four Sacred Medicines (tobacco, cedar, sage, sweetgrass); Tongva and Chumash use white sage (*Salvia apiana*) specifically. Parallel smoke-purification practices exist in nearly all religious traditions — Catholic censing with frankincense and myrrh (documented in *Exodus* 30:34, ~6th century BCE textual tradition, formalised in the Roman Mass), Hindu *dhoop* (Vedic ~1500 BCE onward), Tibetan *sang* offerings, Japanese Shinto and Buddhist incense, and Aboriginal Australian smoking ceremonies. The contemporary New Age conflation under the single English word "smudging" is a 20th-century synthesis. Robin Wall Kimmerer's *Braiding Sweetgrass* (2013) and Nicholas Black Elk's *The Sacred Pipe* (1953) are the standard contemporary references for Indigenous context; United Plant Savers' 2017 listing of white sage as at-risk reflects the commercial-harvest pressure created by the global market.

If you want to follow the spirit of the ritual respectfully, use garden-grown common sage, rosemary, lavender, or mugwort — these produce comparable cleansing-style smoke without the white-sage harvest-ethics problem. If you do buy white sage commercially, verify the supplier sources from a small Indigenous-owned farm rather than wild-harvested California stock (United Plant Savers maintains an ethical-source list). Procedure: open at least one window or door before lighting, hold the bundle over a fireproof dish (clay, abalone, or ceramic), light the tip until it flames, blow out the flame and let smoulder, then move through the space clockwise, paying attention to corners and doorways. Set the intention out loud at the start. Never leave a smouldering bundle unattended, and let any avoidant family members or pets leave the room first.