Smudging is praying. It is offering smoke and dried plants and humbling ourselves before Creator and asking favor among the spirits. One might imagine someone waving a bundle of dried California sage to banish ghosts, but this would be the wrong way to use sage. Smudging is more than that.

The word “smudging” is specifically Native American, but in every culture, herbs are dried and burned in prayers or celebrations. The coastal tribes used an abalone shell. One of my great teachers, Thompson, showed me how the shell is in the shape of a heart. He pointed out the heart ventricle and its shape. The point is turned towards yourself if the prayers are personal, and outwards for prayers for others or the community.

A coal (they have them specifically for this purpose) can be used or it can be continually lit with a lighter. Dried cedar is used to please the spirits. We have lots of helpers and there are many spirits that can help clear a house or help with one’s prayers. Sweetgrass is used to bring in sweetness and beauty. It fills the area with positivity. Tobacco is pleasing to the Creator. My friend gifted me a tobacco plant. Because of the grasshoppers this year, I have it growing amongst my house plants in the sun and it is doing wonderful. I have never seen a tobacco plant and it made my heart happy to see the flowers on it!

One might think sage is the main plant for smudging. Sage is very powerful as a blessing. Blessing a newborn. Prayers for strength or healing are all amplified with sage. But sage by itself is rarely used, and using local sages is encouraged. It is often blended with other plants, like tobacco, cedar, and sweetgrass. An herb for each direction. Sage is not used in clearing houses or removing anything malevolent from a person. This is one of the great myths, no doubt started by a non-native person on social media! Sage opens portals. You may think you are clearing a space, but you are inadvertently making it much worse. You need other plants to close the portal.

So, there I was, with my token sage bundle and lighter. I’m afraid of fire, so I used one of those lighters with the long adjustable end for fireplaces or grills. I had been asked to clear a house. The depression upon this woman that lived there was incredible. She had just left a psyche ward and the house was filled with negativity. I was in her upstairs bedroom, lighting my sage bundle (this was before I started working with other medicine people!) when suddenly the lighter end turned around and burned by hand. Just like in a Disney haunted house movie, I marched down the stairs and told Doug sharply, “We’re leaving!” I made a few houses a lot more haunted with a sage bundle.

In our very haunted house in Pueblo, Doug and I continually smudged the house out with cedar, sweetgrass, tobacco, and roses, lavender, or lobelia. Sah lol is Indian Tobacco, or lobelia. It is used in herbal medicine to open airways. In smudging, it is used for sacred, fervent prayers.

A feather is used because we believe that the smoke rises to the heavens and the prayers are carried on the wings of birds. That is why feathers are so sacred to Natives. We believe the prayers are on the feathers we find and that the birds are messengers. Different feathers mean different things. Eagles are representations of Great Spirit, Unegwa.

In the morning, add your herbs to the shell and face east. Great Creator is in the east and we honor Father Sun, Nudah. Our unborn generations reside in the east. The east also holds heart medicines and is the place of the family. Facing south, we honor the animals, winged ones, plants, and trees. It is the place of physical health and the skeletal system. The place of youth and of vitality. In the west resides our beloved ancestors and those that have passed away. Our beautiful friends and family that continue to help us and pray for us. West is the place of the elder. In the north, we see the rain and snow and the great rock people and mountains. It is the place where we learn hard lessons to gain wisdom. It is a place of peace. We then raise the shell to the sky and honor the star people, below to honor Mother Earth, Etsia Elohenu. Then to the fire itself, atesela, for it represents the community. Our people.

I will smudge for you all this morning. Blessings to you all! Wado!