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Well I hear alot of "new" people that are just coming into the craft ask what smudging is. So I thought I might take a few minutes to explain.


Smudging is the name mostly associated with the Native American Traditions. It is a blessing someone or something with the smoke from certain herbs/plants. It is also very useful in protection blessings/ rituals. Smudging is calling upon the spirits of sacred plants to drive away negative energies and restore balance. It is the art of cleansing yourself and your environment using simple ritual and ceremony. The most common type of herb used is White Sage , but is not limited to just that. Others use, Sweetgrass, Cedar , Juniper, Frankincense and Myrrh and even Tobacco.

I generally smudge when I am doing readings or when I feel a lot of negitivity and especially when I am doing a house blessings and working most spells for protection. It is not the same as just burning and incence stick. I i am using just loose white sage or herbs I will place them in an Abalone Shell and a feather or somethings I just use my hands. but I also do use smudge sticks as well, which is a bundle of herbs blessed and tied to form a stick. Most of the "sticks that i have are a blend of white sage and sweetgrass, which was sent to me from a deat friend whose Shaman blessed them.

By no means is this a complete description of the history, as thereare many other traditions that use smudging.

So my question is when you do smudge and what do you prefer to use amd how often to you smudge ?

The only instance I have actually heard of smudging was when someone was trying to make a negative energy leave her house. She bought smudging sticks made out of sage and went from room to room of her house waving the smoke into all corners of each room and she said a prayer or blessing while doing this. She did this to rid her house of negative energy and spirits.

Well sis,smudging for me is using sage as a protection or cleasning. Sweetgrass can also be used for cleansing and I have found wonderful resutls with combining both sage and sweet grass. My inlaws use frakensense(sp) and another herb combined to help ward off unwanted spirits.

I guess I didn't really answer the question you asked. Smudging is just a cleansing ritual, you can use various herbs for it but I have only heard of sage before now. It can also be used for protection.

Miserableatbest you did answer the question. With smudging there really is no right or wrong answer.

Any herb can be used for smudging depending on what you want to accomplish. The rites that are said with the herb and your belief of the smudging is what makes the smudging work.

I always smudge when I move into a new house. I use a sage stick & I also use sea salt. I also smudge if I start feeling bad energy in my home from someone that might have come in.

I smudge a tool for my altar. I also smudge my home to keep negativity away. I smudge my tarot cards. I pass the cards through the smoke of sage.

My car I smudge it also. A protection.

I just went through my home earlier today and let the smoke from the sage stick linger around my crystals, gems, statues.

I use the sweet grass as it grows all over town here and is easy to get without buying it and it works really well....

Yes indeed there is no right or wrong answer. I smudge my tools as well, although i sometimes just place my crystals in sea salt as well. Everyone has their own individual way that they dothings although alot of us do the same.

I've only honestly heard of smudging in a few books that I've read but I never quite understood it. So I'd have to thank you for the explanation.


I'm afraid though, I can't answer the question at hand, for just learning this information.

I usually smudge a few times a year . I have a miniature hand held type hibachi pot .I use white sage leaves as well. I also use it for negative energy removal or blessing my home. My mate died in my home, after a long illness, he was native american. I smudged after he was taken from this world. It was a cleansing for a fresh start.

In an Infinity House, (a collective) It was mentioned that Nagchampa
an Indian (far east) incsence is used to cleanse negative spritits as well, so they had some burning, a guest from up stairs, came into the room, with the member of the house, the meber had had an issue with the buring of scents, yet the guest he reacted to the arguement in hostile form, I mean he went from a pot baked happy go lucky to a near demonish demeaner in a split second so I find an element of acctuallity in this practice.

I have seen sage used to cleanse a room. Actually, I anticipate seeing several rooms cleared tomorrow using sage. I have been told it will clear away negative energy

Scent is a powerful connection to the mind in its self, when I think of the hospital I smell hospital, I like the aroma therapy, some fetishes revolve around scent, I dated a girl who would revert to a child like state when around fresh laundered and dried clothing. A house that is not in order, can be "cleaned" by simply adding fregrance, and removing things suggesting of sloppy habits. yet the abuse of scent is a growing concern as well.

When I smudge, I use white sage. I do this when I feel negative energy in my home or I am doing a blessing of the home. I have used white sage mixed with sweetgrass.

well I also use sage and actually skunk oil it is great to repel evil spirits as is frankescense is ... My mom was full blooded amer. Indian and she was always smudging and burning certain herbs for clensing and protection of our home..

Warriorinhell & Morbidcuriousity both of the herbs that you have mentioned and the skunk oil are good for getting rid of negative spirits. White sage is particularly good for getting rid of those energies that will drain you.

Dabbler, I haven't heard of what you have listed will have to check it out.

Nag Champa originated in India and has a high concentration of Sandalwood

hmm.. thanks morbidcuriousity. I didn't realize that it was partially sandle wood. Its not a scent that is loved by my nose I guess that is why I didn't recognize it.

YEah I don't care much for that scent either. But it will help with negative energy.

I am so happy to see all the different responces. Dabbler I am not familair with that either so i will have to check that out

I also use sage and sweet grass I smudge my bed room about once a month to get rid of energies that are not wanted

Whenever I move to a new place I always go through the whole house/apartment room by room and smudge. I have always used sage or sweetgrass and sage mixed. When my Grandmas house would not sell I went through and smudged and it sold within 2 weeks.....

i like to smudge when i am feeling down or when i am depressed.... or feel pissed off Smudging is a great way to focus on removing the emotions and energies and concepts thats making me feel that way... When you or someone else are feeling ill... smudging in itself might make a person to start to feel better... if it is believed that the negativity.. is an aspect of then feeling unwell.

Ive never heard it being the term smudging always heard it as purification or cleansing. So this is definitely a term I will enjoy doing research on thanks for the knowledge

I usually smudge with sage, as well as with the smudging I burn on my altar nag champa, dragons blood and sandalwood. As well as a charcoal burning with chosen herbs atop. The smudging cleanses the room and the incense whist burning the incense and charcoal both lightens the air, sooths the atmosphere, as well as calls out to the dorment energies, therefore activating them once more.

Smudging does not always have to be cornered, from each end of the room, apartment or house. Anywhere the smoke travels to is appropriate for the effect. The added spot checking is for individual purposes I think.

I have smudged houses upon moving in with sage and have given some to people I know when they moved near me.

My stepdaughter's friend was having bad nightmares in one and in only one room in my apartment. Some Comanches she knew came over and smudged the room to banish what was ever in there. It worked.

Humans are haunted by disagreeable scents, they linger in corners, the ex boyfriend/Gfs scent lingers, the drifting scent from neighbors, having a uniform scent to "overcome" all the other scents, a good thing indeed, to let us complete the purging of such sources of unpleasant recollection.

The use of Skunk Shot in the abandoned houses of Washington (commonly used by drug users, and prostitutes) an example of using scent to keep unpleasant elements away.

i have a sage stick a friend gave me after my mom died. Plus, I grow sage.

Is there an incantation or ritual associated with this?

I have used smudging as well for ritual and for cleaning space and self in general. Mostly it has been sage or sage and sweet grass mix. However, I have known tobacco to be placed in the mix as well. A mixture of the herbs/smells seems to make the smudging more potent. At least for ME it does.

all different kinds of sage out there that are good for this....



never white sage.... good for other things but not for smudging

Native Americans believe that were Sage and Ceder dwell, no evil can. They also believe that spirits can "hide" in corners - hence why they have rounded dwellings. I have used Nag Champa, Frankencense, Sage and Ceder and also Sea Salt in each of the corners of a house. All with great success.
I was given Sage that had been blessed by a Medicine Man. I was very fortunate.

I smudge when I am cleansing my house. I do this whenever I feel the need, when there is a lot of negativity in our appartment.

I use white sage which I place in a silver bowl. I light it outside and start to wave the smoke with my hands, firsst around the our door, and doorsteps and then I move methodically from room to room waving smoke in each of the four corners.

When I have gone over the whole house, I give thanks to the gods and godesses and puts the silverbowl outside so eventually it will stop burning.

I have no incarntations or other, I just focus on everything clean and positive when I do this ritual.

This is just my way of doing things.

We use sage when smudging our home. We've found that with us the white sage seems to work the best. We smudge when we feel there's negative energy around us. When we feel overly depressed, we'll do it just to lift some of the negativity away. The only other time we do it is when the cat's acting strangely. She'll go around hissing and growling and try to attack things that aren't there.

Native people throughout the world use herbs to accomplish this. One common ceremony is to burn certain herbs, take the smoke in one's hands and rub or brush it over the body. Today this is commonly called "smudging." In Western North America the three plants most frequently used in smudging are sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.

http://www.asunam.com/smudge_ceremony.html

If our mammal nature is in instict then the conection to scent and its subtle effect on our environment and the way we interact is anything to that equation then scent is like with dogs a precurser to sounding someone out, so if a persons habitat.. is a nuetral scent, then that scent trigger is lowered in the equation, example I cannot now smell the heavy sweat of someone, sweat that would make me uncomfortable in an enclosed environment. I like the idea of being in a relitive scented and sound filled environment, a debate is abrupt sounds reacting, perfume is one persons attention (when used heavy).