Smudging to Cleanse a New Home & Chase Away the Evil

Let me start by saying I am not someone who has ever really believed in witchcraft, life on Mars, Area 51 and all that jazz. I’m basically a skeptic. 

Though I am on the fence about ghosts… Mostly because I’ve lived in an old house and… you know…. things go bump in the night in old houses.

But this new house has some seriously bad energy (which translated to some serious bad luck for us, I’m convinced) from way back before we moved in.

Vibes of unhappy people and tales of past mishaps literally stalked us. And that’s not even counting the bounty hunters trying to track down the previous occupants. (No! it wasn’t a foreclosure…)

Right before we moved in to this house, our luck turned seriously bad…

I SMASHED my hand two nights before the move. Kaboom. Mash. Couldn’t use my hand for anything kind of smashed.

That was the start of it.

Within weeks, we’d had terrible things happen to those closest to us. A dear cousin passed unexpectedly. Another was diagnosed with leukemia at not even 30 years of age. My mom had a terrible fall when she slid on the tile in their kitchen. Unfortunately, I could seriously go on and on…

Then my unstoppable, unbelievably wonderful, loved beyond words dad collapsed in our yard was diagnosed with stage IV bone cancer.

Rationally or irrationally, I’ve been blaming the bad spirits associated with this house.

I have a cousin who is seriously in to the mystical… And she told me I needed to “smudge” my house.

Say what? The house was smudged with dirt and grime when we moved in, but she had something else in mind…

The Native American Practice of Smudging

In a nutshell, smudging is the practice of using herbs to clarify and cleanse a room and remove negative energy. And apparently there is some science behind it.

Since my family has been assaulted with bad news and bad luck since the day the papers on this new house were signed, I decided to give this smudging thing a try.

I’m pretty sold on the benefits of infusing essential oils in to a room now so…

What the heck, right? If nothing else it will make the house smell pretty…

Herbs to Use for Smudging

Here are the herbs you need to round up if you are going to host (is “host” the right word?) a smudging:

• Sage – known for clarity and focus, sage is the main herb in smudging
• Cedar – besides reminding me of northern Michigan, it’s benefits include positive energy and the smell is purifying
• Sweetgrass – the herb that bends but doesn’t break is known for cleansing

Then there is Palo Santo. Also known as Holy Wood. It is used at the beginning of ceremonies. (This one is optional. I opted not to get it, but if the sage doesn’t work, I may try this too!)

And the final supply for my smudging ceremony? A shell…

A quick zip around Google and I found a “supplier”… sounds funny doesn’t it?

And she was located in a small town in Michigan near me and had an Etsy shop. I love keeping it local!

So I ordered everything I needed in one stop…

How to Smudge Your House

Once your supplies arrive, here’s what you have to do to kick those evil spirits to the curb…

• Pick a day when you can open the windows. This lets both the smoke and the bad spirits out…
• Place the sage smudge stick in the shell. Light the wide end of the smudge stick and allow it to flame for a few seconds.
• Gently blow out the flame. Hold the shell in one hand and the smudge stick in the other so you can use the shell to catch the ash.
• Wander through the rooms you want to cleanse or the whole house if you need to cleanse the entire place.
• Tell the spirits to get the H*LL out of your house as you wander from room to room. (In my case, this part felt great to do! Although the dog was a bit confused at who I was yelling at since it was only the two of us at home.)
• Once you are done, use the shell to extinguish your sage stick. I also ran mine under water, too.

And while I haven’t tried it, the directions from my supplier (tee hee, again, that sounds funny) says the stick can be reused. I guess if you have stubborn spirits that just won’t leave. Hopefully ours knew I meant business?

Wish me luck! We could definitely use it…

Until next time,

Shelley