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Plan your ritual. Decide what you are trying to accomplish by burning this sage. The practice of burning sage is ancient, rich, and steeped in cultural tradition.
- The power of intent is integral here. If you burn sage with the intention to cleanse your home of negative energy, then it is incredibly more likely to do so. Any effect of the plant must be rooted in your mind.
- Perhaps you want to cleanse your home of negative energy. Perhaps you wish to interact with an ancient herbal tradition and rekindle the ancient rites. Perhaps you simply want to burn incense and spruce up your home with a pleasing scent.
Understand what sage can do. Many of the benefits are spiritual and psychological--but there is a physical component.
- On a spiritual level: Many people use sage burning and smudging to connect with ancestral tradition. It is a common belief that the strong scent of sage can purge the negative energy from a room, a home, and a heart.
- On a psychological level: The act of burning sage can mark a beginning, a resolution, a turning-over of a new leaf. When you accept the time-honored ritual and put your faith in the power of burnt sage, you can purge yourself of negativity and find true peace of mind.
- On a physical level: Sage releases negative ions into the air when it is burned, and research suggests that exposure to negative ions may correlate to lower rates of depression.[3] The strength of this correlation is still unclear, but know that sage at least has not been shown to have any negative effect.
Prepare the burning area. Lay out a ceramic dish, a bowl, an incense tray, a shell, or any other vessel that will catch the ash. Fill the vessel with clean sand or rich earth.
- Choose a vessel that holds significance to you. This can be nearly anything: your favorite coffee mug, a piece of your grandmother's china, an ivory bowl from your journey to India; any personal relic that will make the ceremony more meaningful to you.
- Some Native American tribes have traditionally burned sage in cleaned-out abalone shells, which represent the element of water.[4] If you want to pay homage to the ancient rites, consider buying a large abalone half-shell or hollowing out one of your own.
- Avoid using wood, paper, rubber, or anything flammable. Keep water on hand so that you can extinguish the burning sage if the flame grows out of hand.
Open a window or a door before you begin. This will give the sage smoke--along with any negative energy--a way to leave your home.[5]
- Open a window or a door in any room where you plan to burn sage. You want the smoke to cleanse, but you do not want it to linger.
- Consider turning on a fan if you want the smoke to dissipate more quickly. You may not like the pungent smell, or the smoke may irritate your sinuses.
Lay the sage within the burning vessel. Use a candle, a match, or a lighter to set the sage ablaze. Let the sage burn for a few seconds, and then blow out the fire; let the embers smoke.
- Dry sage will catch fire very quickly. Be careful.
- Make sure that the sage has burned enough that the embers will continue to smoke. If the smoke ceases before you are done with your ritual, you can carefully light the sage again.
- You are ready to spread the smoke.
Set your intention for each room. Consider saying a prayer of cleansing. Burning sage is the spiritual equivalent of opening up all of your windows and letting light shine into the soul; dedicate your act to this light.
- For example, say: "I cleanse this room of any impurities, negativity, or anything that does not suit or support the people that live here."[6]
- If you are preparing a room for a newborn child, say: "I purge this room of all ghosts and darkness. I dedicate this room to life, and to love, and to light, and to all that is good."
Let smoke slowly fill the room. Walk around each room wafting smoke into every corner; let smoke trace the walls, the windows, and the ceiling; let smoke curl and coil and roll back upon itself within the space. Imagine negative energy flowing away from the edges of the smoke; out of your home; out of your life.
- Concentrate on gateway areas: windows, doors, closets, hallways. Use your intuition. If you pay close attention to your space, you may notice that some areas are more in need of cleansing than others.
- Consider focusing on busy areas--work spaces, kitchens, entryways. If you have a pet, consider saging their space, but do not disturb them with the smoke.
- Moderation is key. Do not fill the area too thickly with smoke, or your gentle cleansing may become a choking nightmare.
- Try not to inhale the smoke directly; this may harm your lungs.
- This process may set off your smoke alarm, if you own one. Either moderate your smoke-spreading, avoid rooms with smoke detectors, or remove the batteries from the smoke detector before burning your sage.
Try burning incense directly after a saging session. Pungent sage is known for its yang (male) aspect, and incense may lend a complementary yin (female) energy.
- Experiment with-bell ringing and hand-clapping in between burning sage and lighting incense; this may potentiate the spiritual cleansing effect.
Consider burning sage more often. If you can burn sage at least once a week, you may notice that the practice imbues your home with light and calm.
- You do not necessarily need to perform a full smudging ceremony each time that you burn sage--depending on how strictly you wish to adhere to the traditional rituals. Consider burning sage casually, as you would burn incense.
- Consider burning sage to acknowledge significant changes in your home: a new member of the family, a new pet, a new job, a new passion. The practice of burning sage can be whatever you want it to be. The important thing is that you believe that the sage can help you make your life more meaningful.