In my personal opinion everybody can sage whatever feels good to them. But here is a few helpful tools that I use in my own personal practice.
Materials you’ll need to sage:
- Sage or Palo Santo
- A tool to light it
- A vessel for your sage
- Something to fan the sage or Palo into the area ( I use a long feather )
Sage: The Latin word for sage, salvia, stems from the word, heal. Other qualities believed to be associated with sage when burned are wisdom, clarity, and increased spiritual awareness.
Palo Santo: Spanish for “holy wood”, Palo Santo is a sacred tree which grows in select parts of South America and is a natural insect repellant. It has been used for centuries by shamans in ritual prayer, ceremonies and healing, known for its grounding and focusing effect which can enhance creativity, productivity and increase good fortune.
Palo Santo Sticks VS. Sage
Sage cleans negativity from the surroundings, while Palo Santo attracts positivity. Although Palo Santo is mainly used for spiritual purposes and cleansing energy, sage is burned to ward off negativity.
Beginning the Sage process:
- Before lighting my Sage or Palo I always like to start with a ritual prayer. You can find different ones on Pinterest catered to what you need. Ask yourself why you’re smudging? Is it a house blessing? A house cleansing? To get rid of any negative energy that might be stagnant in your surroundings?
- After you pick a prayer, mantra or blessing to say begin by opening all the windows to let the negative energy leave your space.
- Begin by lighting your Sage or Palo. After it grabs a fire blow it out. For Sage I like to hold mine up to my ceiling fan to really get a good smoke going, but sometimes Sage smoke can be too intense for some. If it’s Palo Santo you’ll have to relight it a few times while you’re doing your cleansing as it will go out. I personally really enjoy the scent of and will let it burn on a vessel. To do this grab some charcoal from your local grocery store like Whole Foods or sprouts or you can find on Amazon. You simply light the charcoal you’ll know it’s light as you’ll see it stream across and make a sound, after you light the Palo blow it out and put it over the charcoal, it will then continue to burn.
- Once you have your pick of what you’re using to smudge go around your entire house or space slowly and take the feather and fan it up to the sky as you recite your prayer/blessing/mantra. When doing this make sure you get the corners of every room as that is where a lot of stagnant energy lies. *Corners are so important.
- When you are finished put your sage out. You can do this by sticking the smoke end into your vessel of choice and snuff it out. You will be able to reuse your stick or sage again in the future. So don’t throw it away.
How often should you smudge?
Whenever you feel called to!
I smudge at least once a month or if I have someone in my house who I don’t know too well such as a cable guy, plumber, etc. You never know what someone else is carrying on them and I don’t want that to be brought into my home,
I also sage when the energy feels stagnant and I need a good cleansing.
Can I sage myself?
Absolutely! I do this all the time! Stand with you arms and legs out wide and do circles around yourself with the sage/stick. I love to repeat a mantra while I’m doing this.