Smudge Stick

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A smudge stick is a bundle of dried herbs, most commonly white sage. Often other herbs or plants are used or added and the leaves are usually bound with string in a small bundle and dried. Some other herbs and spices that are often used include cilantro, cedar, lavender, and mugwort, none of which are native to the Americas. Smudge sticks are used in a practice known as smudging, in which the dried herbs are burned to produce a cleansing, positive-energy smoke cloud. Smudging is both a ceremonial and an every day practice, akin to washing one's hands before dinner. While the history of smudging is not exclusive to Native Americans, and it has been practiced all over the world, its modern incarnation as propagated by various New Age movements, owes a great deal to Native American history and rituals. In addition to having spiritual benefits, there is a great deal of scientific evidence proving smudge sticks' effects as a pesticide, a meat preserver, and in increasing the flow of oxygen to the brain, making it a modern melding of the spiritual and the scientific.

Smudge sticks are used in ceremonies and rituals involving smudging, a practice that involves the burning of certain herbs to create a cleansing smoke bath, which is then used to purify anything from people to ritual and ceremonial space, to tools and objects. This practice is ancient, and held as sacred by many cultures, including the Native American culture. There are many different ceremonies and rituals that include smudging. Each culture has its own way of bringing about physical, spiritual, and emotional balance, of cleansing negative energy and differing cultures and people have their own methods and herbal mixtures for smudging performed for varied specific purposes. Native Americans, for example, tended to favor sage that was lit from the central or cooking fire. The smudge stick is the actual herb or bundle of herbs that is burned.

The term "smudge stick" entered the English language through Indigenous American Indian traditions in America, beginning with post-Columbian colonization and propagated much later in the New Age traditions of shamanism. The binding of smudge sticks for many traditions was a sacred, intentional process in and of itself. The process of employing scent in rites of purification, be it in censers, through burning incense or smudging (the process of using a smudge stick) is endemic throughout traditional rites in many cultures, as explored by ethnography, anthropology, and sociology. Smudging has been used for thousands of years, though it is impossible to say exactly when smudging began, and its history is certainly not limited to Native Americans. In some cases, smudging is linked to the use of incense, as incense, like a smudge stick, is a natural object that is burned for a specific purpose. The history of incense itself goes back thousands of years to Egypt in 1530 B.C.E. Israel, in the fifth century B.C.E., devoted separate altars for the offering of incense. Indeed, herbal smoke mixtures or incense are burned around the world, from China and Southeast Asia, to India, to Europe and the rest of the Western World.

The Native American history with smudge sticks may have begun because of very practical reasons, however. Smokes from certain herbs have been scientifically proven as excellent pesticides. Other smokes are known to preserve food and hides. Thus, associating the burning herbs with positive energy and cleansing attributes is not a far leap. When there were no sticks to speak of, sacred herbs and resins were simply burned in a special bowl. The smoke produced was wafted around the person, place, or object needing purification and cleansing. Smudge sticks offered an innovation that made such rituals and ceremonies easier to perform and with greater control. Rather than wafting the cleansing smoke towards the subject, the bearer of the smudge stick was able to form a smoke blanket applying the power of the herb to the precise area desired. The herbs most often used were sage and sweetgrass. The sage drove out the negative and the sweetgrass attracted the positive.

Smudging is by no means an outdated, archaic practice. It is often used by real estate agents to cleanse apartments, condos, and houses before they are sold. Indeed, modern science has proven that the aroma of sage increases the oxygen supply to the brain, producing a physical relaxation of music tension. In addition, the smoke from some herbs actually changes the molecular structure of air and energy, producing a cleansing effect.[6] As the sense of smell is connected very powerfully to instinct and memory, the burning of smudge sticks has been found to be a very effective aromatherapy agent, especially when combating feelings of depression, anger, fear, frustration, resentment, and grief.

It is a shame that smudgin has been connected to the occult. Incense burning is ancient. As it says above, incense which is smudging was practiced in the Jewish temple. The Catholic church still uses incense. It clears out negative energy. Members of this website use smudging to rid the home of negative energy when people have nightmare or depresson. The is electromagnitism to the world, and smudging affects it in a positive way.

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