How to Sage or Smudge Your Home

This year, my family and I moved to France for one fun-filled year of adventure.  We found a great house for rent in Alsace, one of France’s wine regions.  This was a perfect fit for us, because it was previously a vacation home, so it came complete with EVERYTHING: furniture, dishes, bedding, towels, and even some homemade honey from the bees in the back yard.  Great right!?

Definitely!  But it didn’t feel like home.

This is a pretty common feeling when you move into a new space.   It can even happen when you bring a new baby home.  The space just feels different.

Saging or smudging your home is a fantastic way to clear the air, energetically sweep away the cobwebs, or just purify and cleanse your space.  It’s been used for centuries in First Nations ceremonies for its purifying smoke.  And it’s super simple too!

Here’s some of the most common reasons you might chose to smudge your space.

• You feel stuck or stagnant.  Any time you want to move energy along.
• You’ve had a large gathering of people in your home, and you want energically clean up.
• You’ve had a fight with someone in your home, and you would like to start fresh.
• A large change has taken place, a new addition to the family, a divorce, marriage or death.  You want to be able to ease through the transition with more grace.
• You have some negative feelings are lingering longer than you would like.
• You move into a new space.

First you’ll need some dried sage.  If you are lucky enough to live near wild grasslands, you can simply wander out and pick it yourself, dry it and bundle it up. If not, call around to local holistic shops or find it online.  A small amount can last quite a while.  The bundle might look something like this.  (This is a large one – I’m set for a long time).

Next is the most important step.  Set your intention.  My intention was to invite the energy of the past occupants to move on, and to create a warm inviting energy for my family to move into.  Your intention might be to clear away some past negativity from the space, or to open yourself up greater peace and harmony, or simply to bless the space.  Tie your intention into what you believe, for a christian, your intention might be “let the light of Christ’s love shine and clear away all that no longer serves me in this space.”

Now go and open up all the windows! Or as many windows as you can.  Fresh air always helps to clear out the old and stale, while freshening up our mood and attitude.

Light your sage! Don’t worry it won’t flame up.  It will just smoke gently.  Hold your intention in your heart, and move from room to room.  If you find it helpful you can connect your intention with a mantra, such as “I clear and allow new beautiful nourishing energy to fill this space”.   You can use the back of your hand to bush the smoke gentle forward or something from nature, like a bird’s feather.  Move through each room in your home.

Finishing with a little meditation and diffusing an essential oil with a fresh aroma like lemon or lemongrass, is a beautiful way to finish this ritual.

I’m hoping that it helps you feel more comfortable and at home in your new space.  🙂

Hugs to all,

Marie

ps.  If you are curious about your home space and energy, and how they inter-influence each other, I highly recommend the book The Holistic Home by Laura Benko.  It’s full of great tips for helping you see how your mind, body and space (home) are interconnected.

pps. If you are curious about getting some high quality essential oils into your home, check out www.mydoterra.com/berwald to learn more about how we can create a wellness revolution in your life.   Message me to setup your free 20 minute wellness consultation – marie.berwald@birthbliss.ca

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Since publishing this article, a few of you have requested a recipe for a smoke-free smudge.  Personally I love the smell of burning sage, but I get it.  There are times when you might not want smoke in your home, like with a new baby during a Canadian winter, when it’s just too cold to open up all the windows.  Here’s my recipe for a smoke-free smudging alternative that will also work to clear the energy.

Clearing Spray (just shake and spray)

• 4 oz spray bottle (glass or metal is best)
• 3 drops Lemongrass essential oil
• 4 drops Purify essential oil blend (available from doterra)
• 3 drops Clary Sage essential oil
• top with water