Liz and James Fulcher Lakota Wedding October 2001

 What is Smudging?

In a traditional Native American smudging ceremony, the clippings of dried herbs like sweetgrass, sage, pinon and cedarwood are burned.  Participants gather the smoke and bring it toward the body.  The smoke is said to purify, offer spiritual healing, ward off negativity and attract positive energy.  Sometimes, one person will smudge another using their hands or a feather.

I learned all about smudging from my husband, James “”StandingBear” Fulcher.    James and I frequently smudge each other when we’ve had cross words, been ill or just want to cleanse ourselves and our home of negative energy.   He and I were married in a Lakota Ceremony in Oklahoma in 2001, and the night before our wedding we were smudged by “Red Shirt” a Lakota Shaman and dear friend to bring in positive energy to our union.

Sometimes you would like to cleanse a space, or around your body but using smoke isn’t practical.  Picture this:  You’ve had a disagreement with a co-worker and you feel dumped on, angry and frustrated.  You have the sense that there’s a toxic energy in your office.  You pull out your bundle of sweetgrass and other dried herbs and light it.  You walk around cleansing the room.  Your office quickly fills with smoke.  The fire alarm sounds.  Everyone runs around in a panic.  Someone discovers your little purificiation ceremony is the cause of the chaos.  No, that really won’t work at all.

If you want to smudge to cleanse the energy and creating smoke isn’t practical, use a hydrosol!   I wrote an earlier post about hydrosols here.   Since plant energy and personal intention are the foundations of this practice, using the plant in another form can be just as powerful.

Why Sweetgrass Hydrosol?

You can purchase hydrosols from several plants that are traditionally used in smudging and you make your own smudging blend.  Sweetgrass happens to be my personal favorite for energetic cleansing.

This is from the website of StillpointAromatics.com:  “Sweetgrass Hydrosol is one of the most powerful hydrosols to clear energetic space. The burning of Sweetgrass for ceremonial purposes has been part of the native culture in North America. Sweetgrass was once used in Europe as a strewing herb where it was laid at the entrance to churches – especially on saints’ days. It is believed that the practice of using the grass in European churches gave rise to the botanical name Hierochloe or Holy grass. Sweetgrass is distilled purely for the hydrosol, as no essential oil is produced from the distillation.”

Therapeutic and Energetic Uses of Sweetgrass Hydrosol:

• Uplifting and extremely  energetically protective
• Powerful for space clearing and smudging
• Excellent for removing old energeric debris and energies on all levels
• Use as an invocation spray to “set and call in new energies”
• Beautiful deodorizer for rooms and cars alone or blended with essential oils
• May be helpful for sore throats
• Can be used on scrapes and cuts
• May be helpful to stop bleeding due to the coumarins

Books about Smudging

Sage & Smudge: The Ultimate Guide by Diane Ronngren and
Sacred Smoke by Harvest McCampbell

Where to purchase hydrsosols:

MorningMystBotanics.com
StillpointAromatics.com
AromaticsInternational.com
NaturesGift.com