Smudging! How? Why?

Saging tips and how to’s! I’ve also included some prayers that I use when saging the space to get rid of the unwanted negative and stagnant energy. My dear friend, Pierre Bensusan, has permitted me to use his track called ‘Sentimentales Pyromaniaques’ from the album 'Altiplanos'.

Transcript

Hi and welcome to In the Flow with Lorie Albert,

A podcast designed to teach us to manifest our best lives in every moment and every day.

Let's get in the flow.

So what actually is smudging and why do we want to do it?

Why do we burn sage when we smudge?

What is it?

Smudging or saging is done to clear the negative or the stagnant energy from a particular space.

You can do it before you move into a space.

Like if you're moving into a new apartment or new house or whatever,

You might want to burn the sage.

You can smudge or burn the sage if you feel a weird energy.

If you feel like something's a little bit off in your place,

You can smudge it.

If you find yourself,

Here's a good one,

If you find yourself having an argument with somebody in your family or that sort of thing,

It can clear that negativity out,

Right?

It clears the stagnant energy,

But it also clears negative energy too,

Which is really cool.

When I sage,

I usually use white sage.

Now,

I use white sage because I'm one of those sort of,

I don't know,

I'm going to say it this way,

Like purist,

Right?

Because I figure if it's good enough for the Native Americans,

Then it's good enough for me,

Right?

Now,

You can also use,

And I know that the Native Americans used other things too,

But you can also use cedar or palo santo or lavender or sweet grass.

I just figured that the Native Americans,

They know what they're doing,

Right?

And they've been doing this for so,

So long.

But yeah,

So my thing is that I use the white sage because I can feel the energy shifting as I'm doing it.

White sage is actually an antimicrobial,

So it's definitely good for cleansing,

Right?

You know,

During COVID,

I saged all the time for spiritual reasons and for physical reasons,

Right?

I always think that's funny.

Okay,

So when you begin the process of saging,

You want to make sure that you use a bundle of sage,

Right?

The dried sage.

Yeah,

It has to be dried.

And you want to make sure that you have a shell or an ashtray or something there to catch the ashes,

Okay?

Trust me,

Even if you think you won't need it,

You may.

And I'm going to tell you a story in just a second,

Right?

Yeah.

So,

Here's the rule of thumb about saging.

This is not scientific.

This is just something that,

You know,

We sort of understand,

Okay?

When you light the sage and it starts to burn and the smoke starts to come up,

If the sage isn't exactly very dense,

Like if there's not a lot of smoke,

Then the energy in the place where you are is light,

Okay?

And it won't need too,

Too,

Too much clearing,

Right?

But if the smoke is dense and the sage burns like crazy,

Then you know that it needs some sort of clearing,

Okay?

I hope that makes sense.

Now,

Let me give you this perfect example.

Oh my gosh,

Wait till you hear this story.

Okay,

So this past weekend,

I did a house clearing,

Okay?

House cleansing,

That sort of thing,

Okay?

And so basically,

These people redid the house,

Okay?

And they hadn't moved in yet,

So it was clear.

So I started,

It was a big place,

Right?

It had been built in like the 1920s,

Right?

So a lot of people had lived there.

I didn't know if,

I really didn't know if it had ever been saged before,

You know?

Just wasn't sure,

Right?

However,

I started going through all the rooms and the rooms were very clear.

It felt good.

So the reason why I'm saying that is because there wasn't in the house,

There wasn't much smoke coming from the lit sage.

And it was really interesting and it was good,

You know?

So I get finished with the house and the way I do that is I take my eagle feather and I just make that,

You know,

I take,

You know,

I get the smoke up in there and you get,

You got to get it into like every corner of the room or the house or whatever you're doing,

Right?

So I did the whole house and it was great.

And I actually,

What was,

Just as an aside,

A young couple was there.

It wasn't a young couple,

Actually.

It was sort of an older couple and that had lived in the house and it felt like it was back in the 20s or 30s.

So there was a couple there that had lived in the house and then there was somebody else that was there too.

So I got to talk to the spirits that were there,

Ask them to sort of leave the people alone,

You know,

They were moving in,

That sort of thing,

Right?

So anyway,

So I'm saging the house,

Saging the house.

The sage wasn't burning too much.

But then I,

We decided because we didn't know if the house had ever been saged to do the whole property,

Right?

And they had like a lot of,

Relatively lot of land,

You know?

So I'm walking outside and literally the second that I walked outside,

The sage started burning and burning and burning and burning.

And I was like,

Whoa,

This is crazy.

There was so much smoke billin'.

I'm sure the neighbors just loved it,

But at least it smells pretty good.

So I'm walking around and the sage is just going crazy.

So there was a pool there and there was all these grounds.

So it's saging and so I'm thinking,

Wow.

So I just start and I'm praying,

I'm saying my prayer that I'm going to share with you guys in a minute.

I'm praying and praying and praying and sending the prayers out,

Sending the prayers out.

It was amazing.

I burnt more sage and the smoke came out from that sage more than,

I used the rest of the big bundle of dried sage,

White sage that I had.

So it was crazy and it was cool.

So now it was,

What was great about it was,

Is that I felt,

Because I was saying these prayers that I'm going to tell you about in a minute,

I felt like it,

It just,

The whole place was just light.

And that's what you want to feel when you're finished saging.

You want to feel that the mood,

That the energy has just lightened up a bit,

Right?

So the main saging prayer that I use is this,

I break up and release all stagnant and negative energy from this space.

May peace,

Light and divine love protect us and be ever present.

So I'm going to say that again because what I love about this prayer is it covers all the bases.

You know,

You're breaking up the stagnant and the negative energy and then once it's void of all stagnant stuff and stagnant energy and negative energy,

You want to call in divine love,

Right?

So this is what the prayer is again.

I break up and release all stagnant and negative energy from this space.

May peace,

Light and divine love protect us and be ever present.

Now full disclosure,

I got that from John Edward,

The famous medium,

His book.

And I've been using it ever since I read the book,

I've been using it,

Right?

It's amazing,

Right?

Now there's another prayer that I really love to use,

Maybe towards the beginning of the session or if it's a big space,

You say it a few times throughout the spaces,

Right?

And this is the actual smudging prayer,

Native American smudging prayer,

Okay?

So let me read that to you.

This is absolutely beautiful.

And this will be all over the place.

So I will make sure that you guys have access to this somewhere.

May your hands be cleansed that they may create beautiful things.

May your feet be cleansed that they may take you where you most need to be.

May your heart be cleansed that you may hear its message clearly.

May your throat be cleansed that you might speak rightly when words are needed.

May your eyes be cleansed that you may see the signs and wonders of the world.

May this person and this space be washed clean by the smoke of these fragrant plants.

And may that smoke carry our prayers spiraling to heaven.

Isn't that just stunning?

Stunningly beautiful.

So we are going to meditate,

Sort of,

Okay?

I want you to close your eyes and I'm going to read yet another Native American prayer.

And I've read this before.

This is called the Great Spirit Prayer.

And to me,

This prayer sort of helps us.

It cleanses our,

It cleanses us.

It's a healing prayer as well,

Okay?

So let's get our eyes closed.

Okay,

Close your eyes.

Take a deep,

Deep breath in.

And release.

Perfect.

Oh great spirit,

Whose voice I hear in the wind,

Whose breath gives life to all the world.

Hear me.

I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes toward me.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.

Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.

I seek strength not to be greater than my brother,

But to fight my greatest enemy,

Myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades,

As the fading sunset,

My spirit may come to you without shame.

Let's take a nice deep breath in to complete this beautiful prayer.

And release.

Beautiful.

Namaste.

Thank you for your 1995

Reviews

Wow thank you for sharing your knowledge Lauri on smudging. I hope you record the last prayer as a separate meditation recording.