While the majority of people love smudging with sage, there are others who claim the smell of burning sage stinks to them. Other complaints about sage is that it smells similar to a certain illegal substance, so people don’t want to smudge before the inlaws arrive for a visit lets they be suspected of something they’re innocent of. And if you live in a humid climate, keeping the sage wands burning can be a real challenge. It’s hard to create an atmosphere of positivity and peace if you’re frustrated and angry.
There are also the few people who are even allergic to sage. Since using sage is all you hear about these days, people are often unaware that they have alternatives.
But not to worry. Before those cute little smudge bundles became popular, people were still effectively cleansing people, places and objects with incense of different types. The smudging with sage bundles is from Native American culture, but other cultures have used and still use frankincense, myrrh, copal and sandalwood to name a few to fumigate and cleanse a person, place or thing.
Each of these resins and herbs mentioned smell quite nice, and for some jobs are even more effective than sage. It is believed that the combination of frankincense, myrrh, and copal were used as far back in history as 1500 BCE! Dragon’s blood is another resin that is excellent of clearing a place of negative energy. I like to use it in combination with other resins because dragon’s blood also adds an extra boost of magicaal power to the other resins and herbs.
Charcoal disk with Frankincense and Myrrh resins.
The way to use these incenses is to use charcoal blocks. If you’re not familiar with charcoal blocks, these are specially made self igniting disks of charcoal with little dips for your incense in the tops. They generally come in rolls of 10, and as of this writing, they are on page 4 in our “Incense- Granular & Powdered” section under “Ritual Items”. To light them, hold them carefully on one end, and light the other end. You can hold it carefully with your fingers or tongs. It will start to ignite, sending sparks racing across the disk. Set it in a heatproof container to allow the sparks to light the whole thing. Give it a couple of minutes to start glowing with heat, then you can add your incense. Charcoals get very hot, so it’s recommended to fill your heat resistant dish with sand, rocks or clean kitty litter to help absorb the heat; especially if you plan on carrying it around room to room to cleanse your house. Be sure your tabletop is protected from the heat as well. This will create thick plumes of smoke that cleanse an area very well. You will want to open your windows no matter what type of cleansing you do. This gives the negative energy a route of escape as well as bring in fresh clean air.
Does smoke choke you? If so, you can get the appropriate essential oils and burn them in an oil warmer. This will create the cleansing scent in the air, but without all the smoke. My personal favorite is to cleanse using a combination of frankincense, sandalwood and other resin that feels right at the time to cleanse. Then a few times a week burn oils in an oil warmer to bring in the vibrations that I want.
Another method that you can use is to put a few drops of the essential oils into a spray bottle filled with distlled water. You can then spritz each room of your home to cleanse it, or to draw in certain energies. If you are not allergic to sage, you can add sage oil to the bottle to utilize it’s effects without the smoke.
If you wish to burn something besides sage with Native American roots, you can burn sweetgrass. It comes in braids, and to burn you just light the end. Of course with the braid and smudge sticks, you still need a dish or shell to catch the ash or sit the burning bundle in if you need to.
~Draiga
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