Purify Your Space with Smudging

Most of us have had the experience of walking into a room where someone has just had an argument, and you can feel it. Maybe you’ve experienced being in the same space as someone when they are fuming mad about something that has happened. There are undoubtedly times in life when the energy needs to be cleared.

We all carry energy with us, and extend it into the world, whether we realize it or not. Our spaces hold the energy they are exposed to, and so do we. According to Heather Askinosie and Timmi Jandro, co-founders of Energy Muse, crystals carry energy with them as well. In their book Crystal Muse: Everyday Rituals to Tune in to the Real You, Askinosie and Jandro offer a variety of rituals using specific crystals. The heart of each ritual begins with a clearing, of your space, your self, and the crystals you will use. Space clearing is also helpful, they suggest: after a fight, argument, or illness, if you move into a new space, after having a party, or if you’ve had a loss in your life and you’ve been grieving.

Askinosie and Jandro recommend using sage, a plant has been used since ancient times for purification. They speak to the “smoke bath” created by burning sage as a way to dissolve negative energy. The smoke of the sage is believed to carry away any “negative energies or influences” as it dissipates. Askinosie and Jandro compare the negative ions created by burning sage to the negative ions present near the ocean or a waterfall, with a similar sense of lifted energy. Burning sage, they say, results in “a light, balanced, and high vibrational energy.”

Sage leaves can either be burned individually (in a fireproof bowl or container), or, more commonly, bundled together into a “stick”. The smoke from the burning sage should be dispersed around the object you wish to cleanse using a feather.

Smudging ritual:

1. Invite the “plant-medicine spirit of the sage to be there with you, and ask that it assist in purifying and cleansing you, your space, and your crystals.” Light your sage, giving it about 30 seconds to burn, and then extinguish the flame, leaving the smoking sage.
2. Using a feather, intentionally direct the smoke to surround your body, starting at “the top of your head and working downward toward your feet.”
3. Next, open the doors and windows of your space to “allow the unwanted energy to be released.” Start by directing the smoke around your front door, and move inside, “saging the space by moving clockwise through it.” Waft the smoke into all the corners and towards the ceiling. “Say these words out loud or silently: ‘I ask that the plant spirit of the sage please remove and release any negative energy from this space.’”
4. To clear any energy that has come into contact with your crystals, surround them with the sage smoke.
5. Complete the ritual by fully extinguishing the burning sage in a fireproof container.