Smudging Ceremony

What is a smudging ceremony and what is for ?

To begin with a smudging ceremony  is  used by shamans and spiritual healers across native peoples in the USA Canada south America and Mexico .

The ceremony goes back many hundreds of years and is still practiced today by modern shamanic healers to clear negative energy either from an individual  or a place where negative energy is present .

In times gone by shamans would do this to help heal and get rid of what they would consider bad energy attachments to an individual .

“ This could be interpreted as having evil spirits attachments “

Anyone who needed the help of a shamanic healer would call on such a person to help them do a smudging ceremony or this also could be group of people .

So how is a smudging ceremony conducted and what is used to do a smudge?

The tools used are feather, Sage or Palo stick , Tobacco and a shell or small bowl .

The most common shell used is an Abalone shell which come from sea .

So how is such a ceremony conducted?

First the shaman will bless the sage and the sacred items to be used they will sprinkle tobacco around the person or the venue or area to be blessed and cleansed .

Also,  this could include using a rattle to let the spirit world know that they are conducting a ceremony .

They then light the sage and using the feather bring in the blessings by using the feather to cleanse them selves first .  Once this is done, they then will use the feather by brushing g the smoke from the lit sage in an upward motion starting from the front of the person up over the head down both side s of the person then under the feet round the back and back to the front .once this is complete the shaman will give thanks to the Great spirit mother earth and the ancestors .

If they are doing a building, they will follow a similar technique by going into all room’s corners of  the rooms to clear negative energy. If the building as windows, then opening windows and doors  helps to clear any negative residue that may linger .

So, why the use of  the feather ,sage , shell and flame?

These all have a spiritual meaning and represent the four elements Earth, Air, FIRE AND Water .

The shell water because it comes from the sea . Fire when you burn the sage , Sage and tobacco because they come from Mother earth and the feather that comes from birds  that represents air .

There are variations on how this is done depending on the local customs and practices of different shamanic traditions around the world .

Some shamans will also use a drum when conducting such ceremonies .