Smudging Your House: How To Clear Old Negative Energy and Invite New Positive Energy


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I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to clear the negative energy from 2022 from my body, family, and house. It’s been one hell of a year where we all got sucker punched! I’m glad the year is over and praying this year won’t be so intense with life-altering events.

An ancient process called smudging clarifies old energy and invites new positive energy. Although studies on the health effects of smudging are lacking, I found one study that validated that natural smoke products have some benefits.

“wood and a mixture of odoriferous and medicinal herb on aerial bacterial population caused over 94% reduction of bacterial counts in one hour (60 minutes), and the air remained disinfected and clear for up to 24 hours. “

There is no doubt that medicinal herbs promote healing; however, some studies referenced in other articles on the health effects of smudging referenced the healing properties, but if you read the studies, they site the herbs were ingested in some form, such as a tea or capsule versus burned. I am pointing this out for transparency reasons, as the two are different.

On the other hand, sometimes we need to have faith that the ancient Elders and Spiritual Leaders of the First Nation people knew what they were doing by burning herbs to purify, clear negative energy, and bless a space.

Photo by Los Muertos Crew from Pexels

Burning Sage

Smudging is a tradition that is common to First Nations tribes. It involves one or several medicinal herbs, including woods and resins gathered from the earth. The four most common sacred herbs used in First Nation ceremonies are tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.

The most popular plant used for smudging is sage. Sage is known for clearing out negative energy and purifying people and spaces. However, it’s important to note that white sage, the most popular herb in First Nation tribal ceremonies, has been over-harvested in the west, southwest, and Mexico.

The popularity of white sage is in high demand by non-First Nation people internationally. Because I don’t want to support or encourage this sacred plant’s continued over-harvesting and/or poaching, I don’t use white sage. An alternative is Mediterranean sage, also known as common garden sage. The chemical properties between the two plants are similar and will still do what we ask the plant for energy to do. Purify and clear our space.

Other commonly known herbs are not always connected to smudging but offer the same energetic properties — herbs such as rosemary, lavender, and Palo Santo wood. I’ll share a list of herbs and spices that you can burn.

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Purpose of Smudging a House

Smudging is a great practice that can substantially impact your physical, spiritual, and mental health. It reduces illness and helps promote mental clarity while reducing anxiety and stress.

Regular smudging can also help lift your mood and leave you feeling lighter, more positive, and more connected to yourself and those around you.

According to the Smudging Protocol and Guidelines published for School District №58 in British Columbia, Canada, their Elders/Spiritual Leader’s rationale for the cleansing process is as follows:

We smudge to clear the air around us.

We smudge to clean our minds so that we can have good thought of others.

We smudge our ears so that we will only listen to positive things about others.

We smudge our whole being so we can portray only the good part of ourselves through our actions.

We smudge to cleanse negative energy within our own being or any negative energy in a space.

The smudging ceremony allows people to stop, slow down, be present, and be mindful so they can ground themselves, reconnect with themselves so they can, focus, let go, and rebalance their energy.

How To Smudge Your Home Or Space

Smudge Stick or Loose Leaf? Smudging your home or space is essential for creating a sacred and peaceful area. It’s a widespread practice in spiritual circles, and with good reason — the smudging prayer combined with burning herbs or smoldering smudge sticks can help bind us to a higher power while realigning our energy.

To start smudging your living space, add a loose-leaf herbal blend or smudge stick to a heat-proof bowl and allow it to smoke.

I prefer using loose-leaf herbs that sit on top of a charcoal disk. These disks are orderless and chemical-free and will allow your herbs to smolder longer rather than creating a small fire in a bowl. In addition, you can control the amount of herbs you want to burn versus a smudge stick that may continue to burn after your smudging is done. I find this wasteful.

If using a loose-leaf herbal blend, place the disk in an incense burner, light it, and let it smoke for a few minutes before sprinkling herbs on top.

I like to use a small cast iron burner with a lid. That way, I can walk through rooms without worrying about burning embers flying out and causing a fire. For other containers, such as a seashell, be careful. Heat can crack the shell and cause a fire. Safety first when smudging!!

When smudging a room, some ancient traditions recommend circularly moving the smoldering bowl and saying your prayer as you move through your space. Feather fans are also used to help the smoke penetrate through the room.

Remember to smudge entry doors into your home (e.g., front and back doors), hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, and walk-in closets. These are all spaces that can trap negative energy.

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Smudging House Blessing

Kiera Fogg’s book Sacred Herb Bundles For Energy Cleansing explains that you should also say a prayer or blessing when smudging your home.

“A sacred prayer is a call to the Universe designed to accompany your ritual and reflect the specific intentions you have set.”

So ask yourself, what is your purpose for burning herbs? If you want to say a prayer or blessing, Kiera recommends you say it at a minimum once while smudging and several times throughout your day after you are done.

Here are some of her examples from her book.

Invoking Miracles

“Thank you for the miracles, all in your perfect ways and all in your perfect timing.”

Receiving Divine Abundance

“Thank you for the divine health, wealth, and abundance that flows to me in all ways.”

Releasing Unhealthy Attachments

“I fully and freely release that which no longer serves me. All is well.”

Self-worth

“I choose to release the opinions of others. It bears no weight on my self-worth.”

Physical Health

“I love my body, and my body loves me in return.”

Self-expression

“God speaks through me.”

If none of these prayers or blessings resonate, then you can write your own prayer. Kiera suggests the following when writing your prayer or blessing:

1. Set a clear intention. What specific outcomes do you wish to manifest?

2. Decide on two or three keywords related to your intention.

3. Write one or two sentences that succinctly reflect your desired outcome. This statement should be made with gratitude as if it has already occurred.

Photo by Nia Ramirez on Unsplash

Alternatives to White Sage For Smudging

First Nations have certain herbs that are considered sacred herbs for their ceremonies- herbs such as sage, cedar, sweetgrass, juniper, and lavender. These herbs, in particular, release bad energy from the space home and invite new energy.

However, don’t be limited to those previously mentioned sacred herbs. There are thousands of herbs and herbal blends that you can make or purchase. I’ve used the following blend, peppermint, rosemary, thyme, olive leaves, and rose petals. I’ve also used Palo Santo wood as a single herb.

Here are some medicinal herbs, flowers, and spices that have a pleasant fragrance and powerful metaphysical properties and are appropriate for smudging. (Sourced from Sacred Herb Bundles For Energy Cleansing pg. 27)

Apple — Love, beauty, wisdom

Chamomile — Peace, purification, protection

Lotus Flower — Rebirth, fortitude divinity

Basil — Health, happiness, protection

Clover — Faith, hope prosperity

Lemon — Purification, protection, energy boost

Rosemary — Focus, mental clarity, health

Cinnamon — Love, success, prosperity

Lavender — Love, relaxation, serenity

Dill — Luck, romance, prosperity

Eucalyptus — Health, purification, protection

Ginger — Passion, progress, prosperity

Hibiscus — Passion, femininity, creativity

Peppermint — Prosperity, growth, renewal

Palo Santo — Stress release, protection, good fortune

Rose — Love, happiness, friendship

Sage — Purification, protection, wisdom

Sweetgrass — Peace, purification, positive energy

Vanilla — Love, peace, good fortune

Yarrow — Courage, wisdom, protection

If you’re looking for a way to clear the energy in your space, invite positive energy, and offer a blessing or prayer. Smudging may be for you. This ancient practice has been used for centuries to purify one’s home or space many benefits come along with it. After smudging, people often report feeling better, lighter, more positive, and more connected.

If you want to learn more about smudging, I recommend two books on the topic that I have found helpful in making my own blends for burning.

Sacred Herb Bundles For Energy Cleansing: Your Guide to a Powerful Healing Practice to Purify, Bless and Inspire by Kiera Fogg (2019)

The Healing Power of Smudging: Cleansing Rituals to Purify Your Home, Attract Positive Energy, and Bring Peace into Your Life, by Rodika Tchi (2017)

Have you tried smudging before? What benefits have you noticed? Let me know in the comments.

Note: links included in this article are affiliate links

New Online Store

Farm-to-Bath-Logo-FINAL_1200pxHi Everyone!

Thompson Street Farm LLC has spun off its soap / bath and gift products to a new website and store.  We now have a new look, and store.

I will be doing business as Farm to Bath and the new website is www.farmtobath.com.  There will be new products added going forward, so make sure you comeback and check out the site.  With this new site I can now offer reasonable shipping fees, special promotions and best of all SALES! I am very excited.

Please check out my new store and let me know what you think!

Sincerely

Brenda

Thompson Street Farm

dba Farm to Bath

www.farmtobath.com

Flower & Garden Show 2015

If you have cabin fever from all this snow and extremely cold weather come on down to the CT Flower Show and warm up by thinking about spring! Starting today through Sunday I will be at the CT Flower & Garden Show. I will have a sampling of my best selling soaps plus, lavender sugar scrubs, lavender body sprays and herbal salves.

Flower Show

PLUS! Show offer only!  Interested in turning your backyard or small plot of land into cash? Off is only good during the show get $50.00 off my next full day SPIN Farming workshop March 14th from 9 – 4 in South Glastonbury. Show price $150.00 normally $200.00.

SPIN Workshop Flyer

 

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Home Spa Day – Avocado and Olive Oil Hair Treatment

Winter is a time for me to regroup, do research and experiment with new ideas.  This winter is no exception.  Since the first of the year, I’ve been testing all kind of things for possible new product lines and launching new projects (this blog is one of those projects!).

The biggest project is the renovation and conversion of my green house into a commercial aquaponic operation.  I’ve hired a start up company call Fresh Farm Aquaponics  to install the system and teach me how to use it.  More on them and the new system in upcoming posts.

My other projects include expanding my all natural herbal soap line and developing a new specialty line of spa soaps using minerals from around the world.  I’m really excited about my new line and will be rolling that out soon.  Finally, with the help of my friend Elyse, we are busy testing and developing recipes using micro greens, herbs and other produce that I grown here on the farm with the hopes of publishing a cookbook in the coming year.  Just make me another pot of coffee please, I need something to keep me afloat….AHHH!

 

Giada De Laurentiis

I recently purchased Giada De Laurentiis’ newest cookbook “Giada Feel Good: My healthy recipes and secrets”  While looking through her cookbook, I came across the section about hair (page 198).  She talks about home natural beauty treatments for her dry hair.  She discusses several of her treatments but one caught my eye and I had to give it a try…on my daughter.

For those of you that don’t know, my daughter Katie has severe Cerebral Palsy.  She suffered a stroke the last few weeks of our pregnancy and no one knew it until 3 months later when her Pediatrician, on a hunch that something wasn’t right, referred us to a specialist for an evaluation – our world was changed forever.  Needless to say, the news that our beautiful daughter had significant brain damage was devastating for our family.

She is now seventeen years old and years of harsh medications and several major surgeries have taken their toll on her body.  Katie is currently on a cocktail of seizure drugs and a few other medications for other organ problems and it’s affecting her hair.  Her hair is dry as a bone and she has serious split ends.  One drug side effect makes her hair thin out, which is a problem.  So when I saw Giada’s home recipes for dry hair I got excited and knew I had to try it on my Katie!

 

olive oil 1

Just two ingredients are needed – 1 small avocado and a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of olive oil.  Since Katie’s hair was so dry, I used 1/2 cup.

 

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I cut the avocado into pieces, added the olive oil into my blender…

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I blended it into a nice green paste.  It will be thick and I thought about adding more oil (or water) to thin it out but decided not to.  I didn’t want to change anything and follow Giada’s recipe as written in her book.

 

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I started on the top of Katie’s head and scalp and worked it in all the way to the ends of her hair using the entire mixture.

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Giada then puts a shower cap over her hair and leaves it in for 10 – 20 minutes.  I didn’t have a shower cap so I used plastic wrap instead – worked like a charm.  She also states that you may need to wash your hair more than once to get all the oil and avocado residue out.

So I set the timer for 10 minutes, put Katie in the bath tub and gave her a bath.  After 10 minutes, I rinsed and washed her hair like I normally do, including adding conditioner.  I was surprised only 1 washing was needed – that told me Katie’s hair was really dry and absorbed all those good nutrients.   After the final rinse, I could tell right away Katie’s hair FELT softer and healthier. I was getting excited but still needed to hold my enthusiasm for the final test – combing out her hair (her hair is always full of tangles) and seeing how it felt when dry.  Would it feel greasy because I didn’t wash all the oily residue out?

 

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A few hours later, her hair was dry and what a difference!  It felt so soft, it felt moisturized and healthy and what a shine!  I also noticed her split ends looked pretty good.

Katie before after

Here is the before and after pictures – the lighting isn’t exactly the same but either way you can definitely see a difference.  Even combing her hair out a day later was easier and tangles were easier to manage than before.

3 happy faces

I give this natural home spa treatment my highest rating – Three Happy Faces!!!!!  It was easy to create and the results were far beyond my expectations!  I will be giving Katie this treatment once a month going forward.  Thank you Giada for sharing your hair secrets with us. This recipe really works!