Making Your Own Smudge Sticks or herb Bundles

Before starting any activity as spiritually directed as making herb bundles, wash yourself, or at the very least, wash your hands and forearms, letting the water run down them, to flush away any energy held.

All plants that are picked and dried should be honoured. Take only one stem or two, so the pant can continue to flourish. Have empathy, and show the plant respect. Ask permission of the plant, that you may take this branch to perform your spiritual practice. Your intuition will tell you whether it is right or wrong - when another plant should be chosen.

Pick stems that are long enough to be bound together. look in your garden to see what has grown and matured. The herb garden is a good place to start; you could use sage, lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano or clary sage. If you have access to cypress or pine, you could use a small, young branch. It is sometimes said that herbs or other materials that are indigenous to the region should be used, but my favourite, Californian white sage, comes from a place far away from my home.

Essential oils can be added to your bundle before tying. They are highly concentrated energy forms and will increase the energetic potential of the plant(s). Use them in moderation, remembering that they are flammable. Try to use an essential oil or oils that are compatible with your bundle, that is, from the same kind of plant.

However, if a particular herb, plant or tree - such as cypress, cedar or pine - is not available, by adding that essential oil we can bring the plant's energy into the smoke, in fragrance form.

Arrange a small handful of stems and leaves, not using so much that there will be difficulty in burning, or too much smoke produced. put the stems in a rubber band to keep the pieces together while you tie the bundle, removing it when you've finished. Take a long piece o doubled cotton thread and place the top of the bundle together tightly, in a criss-cross fashion.

Start at the top, criss-crossing the length of the bundle, and finish by winding the cotton around the bottom part of the stems. You'll now have a cone shaped bundle. It needs to dry before it'll burn, so hang it upside down in a dry place; an airing cupboard would be ideal.

To use the herb bundle, ignite the end then put out the fire, so it's just smouldering. Hold a small fireproof bowl under the bunch to catch any alight pieces that may drop as the bundle burns. Then walk around the room slowly, wafting the smoke into all the corners so it gradually clears away negative influences and energizes the protective, cleansing frequencies.

If smudging a person, walk around them; If smudging yourself, move the bundle around yourself, or move your body, so the smoke can enfold you. Start at the top moving down to the feet where the energy will disperse into the ground. The smoke can be directed with a cupped hand, a feather, a bunch of fresh herbs or leaves, a flower, or a crystal stone - whatever feels right for you.

Do this with pure thought. Some people do it with prayer, chanting or singing but do what feels right for you. When you have finished, place the bundle down carefully with a fireproof dish underneath, as it might still contain burning material - the idea is to have a spiritual smoke 'wash', not set fire to your home1 Then, open a window.

Decorative Bundles
If you do not plan to burn the bundle, a whole world of possibility opens up. Bundles can be bound incorporating colour, texture and meaning. Essential oils will add fragrance and energy. Try flowers like marigold or rose. Spices such as cinnamon sticks and clove, and fruits in the form of dried lemon or orange peel, are cleansing in their own right.

Small pieces of fragrant wood can be added and, depending on how you plan to display the bundle, other objects wound into the arrangement - such as crystals and minerals, and the small light rocks that are the resins in their original form.

Herbal Smoke Bowls
Another method of using smoke involves putting a drop of an essential oil on a small amount of dried material on a big shell or a piece of fireproof pottery or glass, then setting light to the material and putting out the flame to release the smoke.

Reference: The Fragrant heavens: Valerie Ann Worwood

Smudge Sticks

In the native American spiritual traditions, smudging plays a central role. Smudge sticks are long bundles of fragrant plant material, wound tightly, lit at one end until the material catches fire, then blown out so it continues to smoulder releasing smoke.

The fragrant materials used by native Americans are usually sage, wormwood, cedar or sweetgrass. Occasionally, depending on the location within the USA and Canada, the soft young stems of pine are used - these have pine needles attached and are very pliable.

There is also a plant called prairie lavender which is included in the smudge sticks of certain Nations; although it is not of the same species of lavender known throughout Europe it has somehow acquired the name lavender from early European settlers.

Sage
There are many types of sage, including salvia apiana which can grow very tall and be over one hundred years of age. Another variety often used is salvia columbarne. Sage brush, artemisia tridentata, belongs to the wormwood family, rather than to the sage.

Wormwood
Artemesias belong to the wormwood family although they are sometimes called sage. They bear no resemblance to the sages we know in Europe. In native American culture, artemisia spinescens is sometimes used in smudge sticks.

Cedar
Often, the trees that are called cedar are actually of the juniper family, such as juniperus virginiana all types of cedar needles are also used, including thuja occidentalis.

Sweetgrass
This is sometimes called vanilla grass, and is hierochloe odorata, a tall green grass which becomes yellowish when dried. On drying, its aroma becomes more apparent. In some nations it is put on the hot stones of sweat lodges.

In all the above, it is the leaves and soft stalks that are used. Smudge sticks are held in the hand, carrying smoke to where it's required, or the smoke is directed by the hands or with a feather.

Other cultures use a small branch of a plant or tree to direct the smoke, often of the same species as that used in the smouldering fragrant material.

You could also use big crystals to spread the smoke around, or other stones that you are attuned to - or amber, which is a resin from a plant.

Reference: The Fragrant heavens: Valerie Ann Worwood

Holy Smoke - For Purification

Smoke comes from fire which has always been considered one of the main elements in purification, along with prayer. In Buddhist temples in Japan and China, the smoke from burning material is used not only to send prayers upwards, but to smoke the body for spiritual cleansing, purification and healing of the auric field. People can be seen using their cupped hands to direct the smoke over their heads and shoulders before entering the temple.

Incense is often used, asd, as I have discovered on occasion, some rather less aromatically pleasing materials. I have found myself in thick, pungent clouds of smoke, which filled my lungs and clung to my clothes all day.

The small lumps mof resinous incense burnt in censers in Christian churches - particularly of the Orthodox and Coptic traditions - can produce large amounts of smoke, which pervades not only the building, but engulfs the congregation within. Native Americans use smudge sticks made of fragrant herbs, grasses and trees; directing the smoke around people as well as places with a feather.

All these, and other, traditions use the smoke of natural, fragrant plant materials. The purpose of these ceremonies may be specific in that they mark a rite of passage - such as birth, menarche, manhood, marriage, menopause, retirement and death - or aim to improve ill-health. or they may be more general in that they aim to cleanse the auric field and alter the energy residing within a space or emanating from a person.

Smoking is thought to clear negative influences, restore balance, induce spiritual purification, increase spiritual awareness, or prepare the body-mind-spirit for sacred ceremony. Smoke is also used to cleanse environments, whether at home or work, and in exorcism.

Essential oils incorporate the two elements that constitute the smoke ceremonies - fire and fragrant plant material. They do not themselves produce smoke- unless burnt on charcoal - but many people find this an advantage. In burning fragrant plant material, the aroma is released by the heat, but so too is a great deal of smoke.

Essential oils are also readily available, whereas some of the plant materials traditionally used are not. Essential oils can be used on their own -in diffusers or simply on smelling strips - and directed, as in smoke ceremonies, around the head and body of a person or around the room.

Whatever material is used, and whatever the purpose, the other crucial element is spiritual thought. As you go about the business of using holy smoke, or essential oils on their own, invoke your spiritual source and put your whole mind into asking for assistance in achieving your goal.

Essential oils are flammable, and care should be taken when using fire of any kind. The only time I recommend using essential oils in conjunction with fire is in candles. Shop-bought 'aromatherapy' candles may contain synthetic fragrances, which have nothing to do with aromatherapy or cleansing and purification.

You can make your own essential oil candles using candle making kits and pure, natural essential oils.

Natural resins have, of course, been placed on braziers or censers for millennia, but few of us own the equipment to replicate this system of use. If you do, the incenses traditionally used - depending on the culture - include frankincense, myrrh, copal, benzoin and gum Arabic in resin form.

In Asia, especially japan, fragrant woods such as Jinko, kara-mokkoh and kyaras are highly prized, and come in delicate strips which are placed on charcoal or in small incense burners. They are generally used to raise the spiritual energetic level of a person, rather than for purification and protection.

If you have a fireproof incense dish, usually made of pottery or metal, essential oils can be used in conjunction with small round pieces of charcoal that are sold specifically for use with incense. But, be warned, the effect is dramatic as the essential oil smoke shoots high into the air, and before trying this method do a test-run outside, and stand well back.

The charcoal does not always look as if it's alight when it actually is, so care must be taken. patience is required: the charcoal will light in one place, and tiny sparks can be seen running across the surface as the heat activates the entire piece, which can still at this point be black. In fact, red-hot, without the red! Wait until this process is complete before adding the essential oils, which should be used in moderation.

Reference: The Fragrant Heavens: Valerie Ann Worwood

Modi, Muslims to attend temple ceremony on contested India site

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and two prominent Muslims who lived through deadly riots following the razing of a mosque in 1992 plan to attend the foundation-laying ceremony for a Hindu temple on Wednesday on the same site.

Modi, whose Hindu nationalist party had led demands for a temple there dedicated to the god-king Ram, will unveil a plaque, his office said in a statement.

His visit to the northern Indian town of Ayodhya comes despite his interior and energy ministers both testing positive for COVID-19 days after a cabinet meeting last week.

Construction of the temple was made possible by a verdict last year from the Supreme Court awarding the disputed site to the Hindus.

The planned visit by the two well-known Muslims showed an easing of animosity between followers of the two faiths in one of Hindu-majority India's most communally sensitive regions.

"Whatever happened are things of the past," said Iqbal Ansari, one of the Muslim litigants. "I've been invited and I think it's the wish of Lord Ram and I am going to attend it."

Mohammad Sharif, another Muslim honoured with one of India's highest civilian awards for doing the last rites of unclaimed bodies since the riots, said he too had got an invitation and was keen to be there.

In 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the 16th-century Babri Mosque on the site, triggering clashes in which about 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

Hindus believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a physical incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Barricades have been put up across the town with heavy police presence, as authorities try to limit the number of visitors to maintain social distancing.

At least two priests in the area and four policemen have tested positive for COVID-19.

Still, nearly 200 people are likely to be there at the event, including 135 holy people and priests from Nepal.

Reference: Reuters: By Saurabh Sharma 17 hrs ago: 5th August 2020: (Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Andrew Cawthorne)