Smudging

[Joan Marie]

I want to talk about smudging, but I first want to make a disclaimer.

I first experienced smudging when I attended an event where the ceremony was performed by members of the Lakota Sioux tribe. I was very moved by it. However, I was very young and foolish and did not pursue my interest with the Natives when I had the chance and I now live in Europe.

The only things I know about smudging are what I have learned from the internet. I have however, made a real effort to wade through a river of the more new-agey stuff (and there is a lot of it on the internet) and have tried my best to find out what I can about the authentic rituals.

So, if I post anything here that is wrong or even offensive to the traditions and rituals of smudging, I apologise in advance. I am posting here because I truly seek to learn.

I want to focus on one area that I found so interesting about the 4 things you need to perform the ritual:

First and foremost, the materials involved each symbolize and honor one of the four elements, a central theme in many Native American rites.
* The shell or clay bowl represents water
* The herbs and resins represent the earth,
* The feather and wind it creates represent air
* The flame used to ignite the herbs represents fire

The four elements are so much a part of tarot, of alchemy of so many other practices and rituals. I love this beautiful consistency across cultures, across time and place.

I just want to share a photo of my smudging « tools » and tell you a little about them.

I made that smudging stick, the earth element, from salbei (sage) that I grew myself last summer. It’s a regular sage, but this summer I am growing the more authentic white sage. The little wooden beads are from a mala necklace I got in Indonesia a few years ago. It broke and I use the beads for things.

The seashell (water element) is California Abalone. I found that shell on the beach near Pacifica, California during a very difficult time in my life when I was really needing healing. It’s a beautiful shell.

The candle (fire element) is from this house and is most probably about 50 or so years old. I light it to light my sage from and then save the candle only for this purpose.

The feather (air element) is probably the most interesting piece. I was in the forest sitting on a lake admiring the ducks one day, especially this exotic breed that’s made a home here somehow, the Mandarin Duck. This duck has an unusual feather on each side, just one on each side. (I later learned it’s called a Sail feather because of its shape) I was looking and really wondering about this feather, what its special purpose could be, the other ducks don't have it, just the Mandarin. Just as I was thinking this, one of the Mandarins swam toward me and began pulling on that feather. I thought he was cleaning himself or something, but he pulled the feather right out of himself and dropped it on the shore and swam away. I only had to reach forward to pick it up.

I am convinced it was a gift.

Much later when I was looking for a feather to use for smudging, of course I thought of this one. It is my smudging feather now.

I practice smudging only rarely. When I feel a strong need to.

[QueenofWands]

That's awesome that the things you needed were provided before you even knew you needed them. I am going to be using some of my own homegrown herbs as well for smoke magic...I have cedar and rosemary readily available here.

[TheLoracular]

I was reading Minerva Siegel's book "Tarot For Self-Care" a few months ago and she commented that she considered using the word "smudging" for smoke cleansing rituals to be cultural appropriation. Not the cleansing ritual itself, just calling it "smudging"

I have really mixed feelings about this and was curious what others thought. To the best of my knowledge, smudging is a practice that is part of worldwide indigenous traditions even if the ritual tools and style vary with cultures. Isn't "smudging" a word that pre-dates our yucky Colonial American past?

I'm pretty comfortable with using the word and tradition with respect to all faiths involved. But what do others think on the topic? I've felt a little troubled about it ever since I read that.

[Joan Marie]

Here is my understanding of cultural appropriation. And I know for a lot of people this is a sticky wicket and I do not claim in any way to be an authority on this subject. But since the discussion is open, let's have it and see if we can get somewhere.

Learning about an appreciating other cultures is important. Adopting some of their customs and at times, rituals, can be part of that experience.

Where the problem comes in, as I understand it, is it when that is done wrong or disrespectfully.
One of the most clear examples is a few years ago when at some big concert, Glastonbury or Coachella or one of those, it was a "style trend" for girls to wear the Warrior headdress of some Native American tribes. Anyone with a knowledge and understanding of the meaning behind that particular cultural artifact would never wear it like that. Would simply never wear it at all.

This is similar with the Hindu bindi.

To say "oh that looks cute or fun or whatever, I think I'll try it" or wear it as a halloween costume or make it a sports team mascot, demonstrates at best, a severe lack of curiosity that can make you look pretty stupid or insensitive even if, in your ignorance, you had no ill intent. At worst, it's just a flagrant disregard for or belittling of cultural traditions.

Regarding smudging, I have no idea if using the word is considered cultural appropriation. It strikes me odd though that using the word might be offensive but the practice by a non-native is not? How does simply calling it something else make it okay (if in fact it wasn't okay)? I would think the important thing is the ritual itself and how it is performed.

I honestly do not know if it is offensive for non-native people to practice this art, even if the person doing it has done their best to understand and respect the tradition. I also do not know if there is something special about the word itself. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the problem is not taking the word away (appropriating) or an arbitrary assigning of the word to the practice. Why is it called "smudging?" Did Minerva Siegal offer any insight on that?

I think we've all seen the idea of cultural appropriation taken too far at times and that can make people very cynical. Conversations spiral into the ridiculous. This is really unfortunate because there are important things here for us all to learn about respecting cultures and not making light of some deeply meaningful practices and traditions.

[fire cat pickles]

I agree with JM: it seems to be taking the idea of cultural appropriation too far. I would argue that this may cheapen instances of true cultural appropriation, of which JM has also pointed out there are egregious instances.

Since when do Native Americans have a monopoly on smudging anyway? There are many cultures who use this practice in their rituals. Christian churches come to mind. What about Buddhists? Hindi? Are they all guilty of cultural appropriation? Or is it just Wicca people and/or tarot card readers who are appropriating? Why single us out for adopting the practice? This hardly seems fair. Many religions use the practice to clear sacred spaces. If it's the word she's talking about, it's an English word. Native American's have their own languages. It's all very confusing and her argument really doesn't make sense. I could understand better if someone were to use Native American words instead of "smudging". Really, what the hell is she talking about?

Remember this is the opinion of one person. Who knows what her agenda is. Let her have her opinion.

[QueenofWands]

Here's my personal take on it - Smudging, to the best of my knowledge, is a ceremonial religious practice done by some (not all) native American peoples. Smoke magic or smoke traditions are done by MANY different cultures...saining (sp?) being a Celtic take on it, burning of holly branches to cleanse away past troubles is a very European Yule practice (and one of the reasons holly iconography is so prevalent in current modern Christmas imagery), and so on. Almost all Asian cultures have incense traditions tied to healing and spiritual practices, as do Indian (aka from India) traditions.

Using incense and smoke healing practices is global in nature. Smudging is a specific type of smoke work, imo, and I wouldn't use the phrase for anything I do because I never learned a smudging ritual from someone with authority and knowledge to teach it (a Native American practitioner). However I would not hesitate to burn incense or a dried smoke wand - especially one I made myself with personally sourced materials.

When I went to purchase a feather for use with such wands, I bought it from a Native American practitioner and she included an abalone shell sourced from her reservation land, which I greatly appreciated. We also traded tips on growing sage in general as I'm trying my hand at diviner's sage this year I think and it grows similarly to white sage.

I think it comes down to respect AND understanding that despite the more common usage of smudging = burning dried herbs, smudging is an actual specific ceremony with specific ritual intent and traditions. So THAT wouldn't be an appropriate use of the term. You can burn whatever you wants - that's done around the world. Smudging is, as the OP shared, a specific practice.

A brain dump of thoughts as I've been studying more about it lately. I'm even taking an incense-making class as part of my herbalism studies and that has been FASCINATING because incense burning (whether stick, cone, maze, mandala, herb bundles, herb wands, or simply tossing loose herbs on a fire) is literally a global tradition and there are almost no folk culture roots where it doesn't take place. For that reason I would never say "burning herbs is cultural appropriation" in the general sense. But I WOULD say if you're burning a bundle of herbs and calling that smudging that's an inappropriate description of what you're doing.

Hope that all makes sense.

[Joan Marie]

Hope that all makes sense.

It makes a lot of sense. Thank you.

[fire cat pickles]

Yes that does clear up the confusion, thank you.

[TheLoracular]

Thank you, everyone. That was exceptionally helpful.

[Joan Marie]

I was looking through old photos and I found one of the duck that gave me the feather I described in the original post to this thread. I'm not sure it is exactly the same duck, but it was one of these Mandarin Ducks that hang out at the pond near me.
You can see the "sail feather" I showed in that OP.

[Papageno]

For those of you with deep pockets and not afflicted by allergies:

https://www.shoyeido.com/product/brilli ... ed-incense

There's an interesting article on kneaded/fermented incense aka Nerikoh here:

https://www.kyarazen.com/making-kneaded ... -neri-koh/

A very long time ago, I recall Shoyeido listing plum as one of the ingredients, as suggested in the Kyarazen blog,
now they list apricot and honey. I don't know if they've changed their formula as a cost cutting measure, but the prices
of their incenses, especially in the premium range have risen steadily and dramatically......really dramatically.

There's another company that supplies resins and also markets their own version of a kneaded incense,
allegedly based on an ancient Egyptian recipe......trust me, the quality doesn't even come close to authentic Nerikoh.

Real Nerikoh is truly exquisite, it's ethereal.