Smudging
Burning bundles of dried plants to cleanse with their smoke; a practice that passed from North American Indigenous ceremonies to the New Age movement.
Smudging is the burning of bundles of dried plants for ritual purposes, using their smoke. Cleansing with smoke has a long history in religious ceremonies in many parts of the world [1].
North American Indigenous peoples use these bundles (smudge sticks) in traditional ceremonies; they have burned them to purify homes after illness and for success in hunting [1]. White sage, the sacred plant of the Kumeyaay, Chumash and Cahuilla of southern California, is also burned in bundles in cleansing ceremonies. More recently the New Age movement adopted the bundles and began using them to clear spaces of unwanted energies [1].
In 2024 researchers from Utrecht University examined 29 bundles sold in shops and online in the Netherlands: ten contained or were made of white sage, and some contained North American Artemisia species. Rising global demand may lead to unsustainable wild harvesting of white sage, harming both the wild plant and the Indigenous communities that rely on it for their ceremonies [1].
According to the researchers, the Netherlands has its own traditions of burning blessed plants, so there is no need to bring plants from the other side of the world; they suggest Lavender, Rosemary, tansy and rose instead [1]. Cleansing with Juniper smoke in Anatolia and with arça in Central Asia belongs to the same broad family of traditions.