We could all stand to live with fewer negative vibes and a smudge kit is a great start.
Smoke cleansing or smoke clearing, known more commonly by “smudging” an indigenous American practice, is the practice of using smoke, often sage leaf smoke, to clear away stagnant or bad energies in spaces and in people. It’s a nice practice when you start to feel stuck in a rut.
For clearing, you need a couple of things: a smudging herb, a source of fire, a heat-safe place to rest your smoldering stick, and some kind of hand fan to direct the smoke (but you can always get away with waving with your hand). You may also want to consider a quality incense stick holder for a simpler way to add cleansing smoke to your space.
If what you’re really here for is the sage, then this bundle set from Mama Wunderbar might be for you. It comes with four different smudging sticks as well as a stick of palo santo.
This bundle includes traditional white sage for general cleansing use as well as a flower sage stick which is white sage wrapped in flower petals which is supposed to cleanse negative energies related to love and relationships.
The cedar smudge stick is good for cleansing spaces and homes. I burn cedar here at home and it has such a piney, cozy feel to it. The last smudging stick is made of yerba santa which is also known as mountain balm. Yerba Santa is good for spiritual cleansing on yourself or others to prepare for ritual work. There’s also a palo santo stick which is the South American equivalent to our North American white sage so it’s nice for any cleansing you may need.
It comes with clear direction as well as a prayer card to work from. The bundles are handcrafted so they’ll range in size from three to five inches long. They’re each blessed in ritual to carry on extra good vibes to you.
This kit comes with everything you need to create a little witch core corner. It includes a white sage smudge stick, abalone shell burner, wooden cobra stand for the abalone shell, feather fan, tealight candle, Dead Sea salt, blessed anointing oil, peppermint and lavender bath soak for you, and step-by-step instructions for five rites and cleansings.
I like that this kit includes steps for protecting your home after you’ve cleansed it which I don’t see often in kits like these.
If I were buying one of these for myself, it would be this kit and that’s because of the soapstone smudging bowl. The five-inch diameter bowl is a perfect size for a smudge stick and the best part is that soapstone is heat-resistant. You can place your burning smudge stick in here and the bowl should stay mostly cool to the touch.
Being heat-resistant also makes it easy to hold so you can take it with you as walk the perimeter of your home. It’s a good way to avoid dropping sage ash everywhere or burning your hands on a too-warm abalone shell.
Beyond the bowl, this set comes with a sage bundle, two sticks of palo santo for cleansing, and white sand for filling your bowl to make it even more heat-resistant. The sand also turns this into an incense burner as you can burn stick incense by standing them upright in the sand.
This is a traditional set that gives you smudge sticks and an Instagram-worthy place to rest your burning sage.
The kit includes three four-inch sticks of white sage that was grown and packaged within the United States. The abalone shell creates a space that can handle the heat of a lit smudge stick so you don’t accidentally burn your table or altar cloth. It has that gorgeous, iridescent seashell interior which makes it that much nicer to look at.
You can leave your shell directly on the table but they include a wooden cobra stand to elevate your abalone shell. Cobra stands are three legs carved from a single piece of wood so that they are all interlinking. I don’t do woodcarving, but that sounds really difficult to me. The stand can fold closed or open up to hold your shell burner.
This set is available in different combinations of abalone shell size and two different finishes on your cobra stand (stained or natural). The shells go from 5 inches across up to 6.5 inches across. Just keep in mind that some of the larger shell sets only include one smudge stick.
If you like getting fun extras, check out this Starter Set for Positive Vibes. It comes with the smudging basics of a California white sage bundle, abalone shell burner, and wooden cobra stand. There’s also a large turkey feather for fanning the sage smoke around.
You also get a chakra bracelet with real amethyst, tiger’s eye, turquoise, lapis lazuli, amber, and red agate. The band of the bracelet is covered beads made from volcanic rock which are porous so if you place a few drops of essential oil on these black stones it can act as an aromatherapy bracelet you can carry around with you.
For days when you’re feeling a little lazy, the set gives you a box of white sage incense cones with mini burner that you can light and leave without having to walk around and waft smoke with the regular sage stick. There’s a drawstring pouch to store everything in as well.
Abalone shell burners may be more popular, and maybe even a little prettier, but I will always choose a copper bowl over a shell for my sage burner. If you keep a hot object on an abalone shell, the shell can heat up and be uncomfortable to hold or carry but, used correctly, a copper bowl is a safer way to store something hot like a burning sage bundle.
To be used as a burner, metal bowls are filled with sand which absorbs the heat can act as a snuffer for incense. The sand is key to keeping the bowl cool enough to touch. and this bowl comes with its own sand so you can start using it right out of the box. Plus, these bows are very multi-purpose which I like.
The bowls come in this featured Tree of Life design with white sand or Dragon design with black sand.
For the actual smudging, it comes with a California white sage smudge stick.
This kit is from a family business that puts an emphasis on ensuring that its elements are sustainably and responsibly sourced. It comes with a five to six-inch abalone shell burner, white sage bundle, and two palo santo sticks. The sage is harvested and processed within the United States and the palo santo is only taken from already fallen trees.
The turkey feather works as a fan to waft the smoke around and the set includes a small instruction guide. There’s also a keychain depicting Kokopelli, a trickster and fertility deity among Southwestern indigenous nations, but unless you do work with Kokopelli, it might be best to leave the tricker out of your cleansing.
This kit offers four different ways to cleanse: white sage, palo santo, sweetgrass, and selenite. There are two white sage smudge sticks, one in a traditional bundle style and the other in a smaller wand style making it easier to hold and burn all the way down. The sage is wildcrafted in California, meaning it is sustainably harvested from wild growing sage instead of sage grown on a farm.
While sage banishes negative energy, sweetgrass was traditionally used to invite warm, loving energies in. These two work great in concert with each other. Palo santo wood is burned like the other herbs and has cleansing energies.
I love that this set comes with a selenite crystal which is my favorite cleansing crystals out there. It’s great as kind of an always-on bad vibes catcher to help keep the energies of your space even when you haven’t had time to burn your sage.
Keep in mind this is only the smudge sticks and doesn’t include a burner.
If you or someone you’re buying for can’t be around smoke whether for health reasons like asthma (see the CDC’s guidelines on asthma and second-hand smoke) or simply personal preference, that doesn’t mean they still can’t benefit from smudging. This kit by Sage My Nest is a complete set of white sage wand-style bundle, abalone shell burner, and wooden cobra stand, but it also includes a sage and lavender essential oil room spray.
You can use this spray in place of burning sage to accomplish the same kind of clearing of negative energies without using smoke or risking getting ash on your carpet as you walk around. There’s also a sage and lemongrass spray version of the kit if you don’t like lavender, but who doesn’t like lavender?
Smoke clearing is a term for cleansing items, spaces, or people with smoke. It's a practice that has been found in cultures all across the globe going back thousands of years.
The most common cleansing smoke herb in North America is white sage and it's used for clearing negative and clinging energies and leaving things feeling fresh and new (spiritually that is). We're all probably familiar with the sage in our food and white sage has a light-colored smoke that's very earthy and distinctive.
You can also use other plants like cedar, lemon balm, sweetgrass, vervain, and palo santo (literally 'holy wood') which is the South American equivalent of sage.
How Do You Clear Something?
Once you have your herb bundle and a heat-safe place to rest it, you can begin by lighting one end of the smudge stick over a candle, lighter, or matchstick. A candle is your best bet as sometimes it can take a second or two to catch.
Don't expect the sticks in your kit to light up completely. You don't want it to look like a torch. Instead, what you want is a soft smolder. If the leaves do catch on fire, that's okay, just let it burn for a second and then blow it out. That should leave you with glowing orange embers at the edges. This is where you get your smoke.
Once you've got a good smolder, use your hand, feather, or a small fan to waft air past your smudge stick in the direction of the thing, place, or person you want to smudge. This moves the smoke where you want it and helps to keep the smudge stick lit.
If it burns out faster than you want it to, you can relight it easily. When you're done, you can rest your stick on your heat-proof surface and it should go out on its own. I always recommend snuffing it out by pressing the glowing parts into the heat-proof container because leaving anything smoking unwatched is a risk you don't need to take.
Avoid dousing your stick in water to put it out as the leaves are so densely packed, they may not dry properly and could get moldy.
If you've got cleansing to do (new apartment, tarot cards, or haunted house maybe) smoke cleansing is your friend. Pick up a smudge kit with everything you need.
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