Yerba Santa Smudge

Description

Yerba Santa smudge is another cleansing herb introduced by Indiginious peoples of the Americas.

We associate Yerba Santa with Feminine, the element Water, and the planets Moon and Mars. This combination works well to aid in connecting with divine feminine, Goddesses and Warrior Goddesses.

Yerba Santa smudge fumigation properties:
– Aids in physical and spiritual healing
– Offers protection of space
– Aids in connecting with and using psychic powers.
– Traditionally used to honor the ancestors of the Indigenous people.

Burning Instructions:

– Light the bundle from the top for about 10 seconds, then gently blow it out.

– You may also crush the leaves and place them on a burning charcoal tablet. (Shop for charcoal burning supplies)

– Please be cautions and burn safely. Keep away from flammable materials while burning. Do not place smoldering bundle on flammable surfaces.

– Keep out of reach of children, pets & flammable material. Do not use around children, pets, pregnant individuals or those with respiratory issues. (A safer alternative would be a hydrosol.)

– Extinguish the bundle in sand, dirt, or place it in a fireproof vessel with a lid and close the lid. You may also mist with water to extinguish, but this adds moisture to the herbs and may make them difficult to relight.

– Do not leave a smoldering bundle unattended.

Suggestions for fumigation and cleansing with Yerba Santa smudge:

Open doors and windows. This allows for the banished spirits to leave. It also introduces natural air for cleansing and health.

Do what you feel is best. A suggestion is to start on the uppermost floors of the home in the easternmost room. Fumigate in a clock-wise or docile direction around the room.

You may also start at the door and fumigate from an inside wall towards a window. If there are no windows, start at the furthest corner from the door and fumigate the spirit/energies toward the door. Fumigate room by room, moving clock-wise or docile to the next room.

Achieve a more through fumigation by opening closets, access panels and interior crawl spaces. Don’t forget utility rooms and bathrooms. Attics and basements also require fumigation.

Prepare a banishing chant or prayer to recite as you fumigate. Command the negative energies away and call upon the positive energies to stay or come.

You may also use a bell, rattle, maracas, shekere, tambourine, cymbals or drums to drive out the spirits. Some beneficial spirits like faeries, imps, and brownies may find shrill sounds of bells and cymbals too harsh and leave.

Our thoughts on the word Smudge:
Smudging, from the root smudge which is of English origin (15c., smogen; variant circa 1520s, smutch), has become the term for the smoke cleansing ceremonies of North American Indigenous people. We believe the over board use of this term is disrespectful to the spiritual practices of the Indigenous peoples.

We here at Hermits’ Cupboard prefer to use the terms FUMIGATION, CERIMONIAL FUMIGATION, SACRED SMOKE or SMOKE CLEANSING. These are our preferred terms for the activity of using herbal fumes or smoke to cleanse a space or individual.

We use the term smudge in our listings because 1) It is the name given by the manufacture, 2) It is the more common term used in search queries which brings traffic to our store. We hope for a day when we can achieve the same search results with alternative English terms.

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