However, she assured there’s no one “right” way to approach cleansing. The basics of cleansing rituals are fairly simple, but some people may feel pressure to perform them in a specific way, Stephanie added. “Rosemary and sage are also used a lot, and those are fairly simple to grow in your own garden, and both have their own different traditions for use.” “Both of those plants have a long history of use for cleansing practices, and they’re both really prolific in central Texas.” she said. Stephanie suggests using juniper and cedar for cleansing rituals. While you may want to think twice about cleansing a space using white sage, there are plenty of other options to be explored. Cleansing Your Space With Sage Alternatives As a result, non-Native people burning sage to “smudge” their homes or other spaces can minimize the cultural importance of this ritual - not to mention negatively impacting how the herbs are grown and harvested. Even today, Native people have to fight to maintain sovereignty over their traditions and sacred lands (remember the Dakota Access Pipeline?). Until 1978, it was illegal for Native Americans to practice their religions, which included burning sage in smudging ceremonies. Though it’s an ancient ritual, it’s still practiced today, and holds hefty cultural significance for many indigenous people. Smudging is performed to remove negative energy and to heal, bridging the gap between the mortal and higher realms.Įliminating negative and stagnant spirits from an area, smudging fends off sadness, anxieties, poor health, and impurities from the space, leaving only peace and prosperity. It is a primary plant used in smudging ceremonies, which are performed to cleanse the body, energy, aura, or a ritual or living space with the smoke of the burning fragrant plant leaves. The Cultural Significance Of White Sage Smudgingįor many indigenous tribes, white sage plays an extremely important cultural and spiritual role. Those people are Native Americans, indigenous to Southern California and the surrounding areas, who have used white sage for spiritual rituals for centuries. As a result, Stephanie said, “it makes it so that people who have been using sage for hundreds of years don’t have access to it.” What’s more, the white sage plant takes two to three years to grow back after being cut down, making for slow turnaround times and unethical overharvesting practices to speed up production. That’s because it requires extremely specific conditions to grow in - it lives in a relatively restricted natural range in Southern California, so it’s difficult to cultivate the plant on farms in other places. “It’s not a sustainable plant, really, for people to use,” she said, noting that white sage is typically wild harvested (meaning it’s not commonly grown on farms). Stephanie Tait, an Herbalist, shared her unique perspective on the plant and the practice of smudging white sage. But it turns out that it's better to cleanse a space without having to use white sage using this rare plant is more problematic than it sounds. Known for cleansing spaces of negative energy or spirits, white sage can be found everywhere from upscale yoga studios to Amazon resellers - a testament to its popularity. As a result of spiritual wellness gaining speed in the mainstream wellness realm, sage smudging has also recently risen to fame. Spiritual wellness has been on the top of most everybody’s mind lately, and for good reason: living through a global pandemic and global crises, clearing negative energy from a space is beneficial to us all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |