Beware Of "Smudging"

 

Recently, a colleague of mine was placing an order for sage.  According to several online and book sources, sage; Salvia officinalis, the common sage or sage, is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many places throughout the world.

Sage has an impressive list of medicinal uses, all backed up by medical and scientific research. According to the Medical News Today website, sage can:

1. Improve cognitive function and protect against dementia.

[Sage can]positively impact cognitive skills and protect against neurological disorders.

The study author maintains that:

“In vitro, animal and preliminary human studies have supported the evidence of Salvia plants to enhance cognitive skills and guard against neurodegenerative disorders.”

2. Reduce blood sugar levels and bad cholesterol.

One study saw 40 people with diabetes and high cholesterol take sage leaf extract for 3 months.

At the end of the trial, the participants had lower fasting glucose, lower average glucose levels over a 3-month period, and lower total cholesterol, triglyceride, and levels of harmful cholesterol. However, the participants had increased levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol.

The researchers concluded:

“[Sage] leaves may be safe and have anti-hyperglycemic and lipid-profile-improving effects in hyperlipidemic type 2 diabetic patients.”

3. Acts as an anti-inflammatory.

Although more evidence is needed to confirm this benefit, certain compounds in sage appear to have an anti-inflammatory action. One study investigated the effects of a range of these compounds on the inflammatory response in gingival fibroblasts. These are a common type of cell found in the connective tissue of the gums.

4. Helps maintain good nutrition and health overall. 

Sage contains a wealth of nutrients and vitamins. However, since it is normally consumed in such small amounts, sage does not provide significant amounts of calories, carbohydrate, protein, or fiber.

(See medicalnewstoday.com/articles/266480#risks).

I asked my colleague if he drank sage tea, and what benefits he experienced. He gushed about all the health and wellness benefits especially if you use it to "smudge."  He would burn the sage and inhale the fumes to "focus his good energy," and dispel "negative energies" from his house. I immediately knew that it was used for an occult purpose (so-called "life-energy" is a sure sign of the occult). 

This post is the result of my research, and a warning to those who would use something legitimate (sage) for an illegitimate (occult) purpose, that is poison to the soul. 

What is Smudging?

Smudging is an occult practice, often not seen as one because: (a) there are many good and legitimate uses of sage, and (b) it appears in many otherwise reputable places not in connection with the occult.

A wellness resort and spa endorses smudging and has written the following:

The art of smudging is an ancient spiritual ritual for purification, dispelling negative energy and improving mood and can easily be incorporated into your weekly routine or meditative practice.

Sage: The Latin word for sage, salvia, stems from the word, heal. Other qualities believed to be associated with sage when burned are wisdom, clarity, and increased spiritual awareness.

Palo Santo: Spanish for “holy wood”, Palo Santo is a sacred tree which grows in select parts of South America and is a natural insect repellant. It has been used for centuries by shamans in ritual prayer, ceremonies and healing, known for its grounding and focusing effect which can enhance creativity, productivity and increase good fortune.

Desert Rose: A symbol of clarity of the mind and excellent meditation stone. (Emphasis mine)

It continues describing a Smudging Ritual:

• Smudging is the ritual of cleaning the energy of a physical space, object or person. If you have a meditation ritual, you can burn Sage or Palo Santo before your practice. This will help prepare your energy and mind for meditation and allow you to more easily connect.

Other items are burned, but almost always, it's sage. What "energy" is there and how is it "cleaned"? Occultic mumbo-jumbo. The meditation is occult also, like yoga, which the spa has at different times.

• First you start with a simple intention of focusing on clearing the negative energy out of your space and mind.

More nonsense on "energy."

• Once you have your intention in mind, light the Sage or Palo Santo and hold at a 45 degree angle pointing the tip down towards the flame. Allow it to burn for 30 seconds and then blow it out.

Like "make a wish and blow out the candle" but with an occult intention.

• Place it on any heat-proof burning surface like an abalone shell, a traditional vessel used by Indigenous American people that represents the element of water.

Here there is reference to the pagan practices of Native American Indian shamanic practices.

• If left to rest the stick will smoulder and release smoke for approximately 5 mins. If used for smudging, walk around the room, space, object or person, fanning the smoke over its entirety, whilst focusing on cleansing and clearing negative energy.

Exactly what is being cleansed, and how is burning sage accomplishing it?

• Once you’ve finished smudging and removed the negative energy, you must push positive energy into the space to maintain balance. To do this, declare your intention out loud or silently in your head.

You must "push positive energy" by declaring your intention to...who??

The pagan/occult concept should be clear. The spa ends with advice on "when to smudge:"

Before you go to bed after a long day around people

• Before and after a you’ve had guests at your home

• When you move into a new home

• When you begin a new job

• When you start your own business

• Before and after a healing session

• Before meditation

• After any illness

• After an argument / conflict

It's an occult panacea! (See civanacarefree.com/cleansing-your-space-smudging-ritual).

Smudging: A Pagan/Occult Ritual That Invites Evil

Smudging, is shamanic; that is, it has been practiced by pagan shamans ("medicine men" who practice divination and sorcery) especially among Native American tribes for spiritual or supernatural purposes, and it is common in the modern Wicca (witchcraft). 

According to one source:

Smudging is the common name given to the indigenous American tradition known as the Sacred Smoke Bowl Blessing.  This is a powerful spiritual cleansing technique which calls upon the spirits of various sacred plants to drive away negative energy and to restore balance to an individual, a group, a space, or all three.  This tradition has been a part of the spirituality of indigenous Americans for thousands of years, and now this cleansing ritual is available to anyone who is willing to give it a try.  The ritual is very simple and very empowering, and you don't need a lot of expensive equipment to start doing it in your own home.

Perhaps you are wondering why smudging is effective?  It is because it allows you to effect the world of subtle spiritual energies using the spirits of various powerful, healing plants.  If you have ever worked with yoga or meditation, you will understand that your body, and indeed, the spaces that you occupy, vibrate with invisible energy currents that can be strongly effected by outside forces, both physical and spiritual.

Smudging allows you to wash away all the emotional and spiritual negativity that gathers in your body and your space over time.  It's a little bit like taking a spiritual shower!  The effects of smudging can be very effective, often banishing stress almost instantly and providing energy and peace.  Smudging can also help your body and space to adjust to the healing rhythms of the seasonal cycle.  More than anything, though, smudging can turn your space, and your body, into a peaceful, beautiful temple in which you can rejuvenate yourself and fine happiness. (See spiritualscents.com/t-art_What_Is_Smudging.aspx; Emphasis mine). 

It therefore calls on spirits. These spirits are not the good angels. The belief that there is negative energy affecting us that can be cleansed or cleared away is part of the pagan view of unnamed and unquantifiable energy, a core occult principle. Diagnosing health and emotional problems is usually done by tuning in to (or feeling) a person’s “energy,” and treating such problems is through affecting the “energy” or “energy field” of the subtle body with various pagan/occult methods, or by applying a supposed "healing energy" from an outside source (however, these methods and explanations are often disguised with scientific sounding language). There is no credible basis for these beliefs; they are absolutely occult and medicinal quackery. 

An Occult Mockery of Incense

From an article in The American Ecclesiastical Review, an article by Andrew W. Case (1944; pgs. 451-458) has this to say about the Church's use of incense (and which smudging is an occult mockery): 

The use of incense is connected primarily with the physical aspects of the sense of smell. Perfumes, pleasant odors of any sort, are agreeable to men. In ancient times they were offered to important individuals and often diffused over the roads on which they journeyed, or, as an accompaniment of food and wine, used at banquets. It was only natural to suppose that the same delectable odors would be acceptable to gods on the same principle as that by which foods which men preferred were offered to them. As men were honored with incense, to the Deity a similar honor was paid. Thus it is quite understandable that the rising smoke should be regarded as the vehicle of prayer.

As God commanded Moses to place incense "before the tabernacle of the testimony," so, as a sacramental, the Church prescribes its use in her ceremonials, although, as previously stated, its use was unknown during the first four centuries. Protestants, excepting the high church Anglicans who use it, declare that since the old laws were abrogated by Christ and that since the use of incense was not a primitive Christian practice, its use in Christian worship is invalidated. Then too they frequently contend that the Church in using incense has copied a pagan practice.

At first glance it does seem strange that the early Christians did not burn incense, particularly in light of the prophecy in Malachias which seems to point to its continued use in the new dispensation. "For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 1:11). Furthermore it might seem strange, this neglect of the use of incense among the early Christians, when one recalls that it was one of the three offerings of the Magi at the birth of our Lord.

The fact that it was a Jewish usage may have tended to cause Christians to neglect it for so long, but what was probably a more powerful deterrent was its use among pagans and the common practice during the persecutions, particularly of the first century, of insisting that Christians should offer a few grains of incense on the altar of the Emperor as a mark of their renunciation of their faith. When apostates yielded in this way they were called Thurificati. Thus incense was anathema to the early Christians because of its association with paganism as well as Judaism and was not adopted into the Church's liturgy until paganism was dying out in Rome. In the light of the foregoing it is illogical to contend that the Church has copied a pagan practice.

It is not definitely known when this sacramental was introduced into the services of the Church. Its common employment in the Jewish temple and the New Testament references would suggest an early familiarity with it. St. Luke wrote: "And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared to them an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense" (Luke 1: 10). In Apocalypse 8: 4 we read: "And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."

The Catholic Encyclopedia states that "the earliest authentic reference to its use in the service of the Church is found in Pseudo-Dionysius," and Brightman's Eastern Liturgies says that its use is referred to in the Liturgies of Sts. James and Mark which, in their present form, are not older than the 5th century. Indeed, almost all the venerable Eastern liturgies attest to its use in the Mass, especially at the Offeratory. A seventh century Roman Ordo mentions that it was employed on Good Friday and in the procession of the bishop to the altar. A church in Antioch was presented with a thurible by a Persian king about the year 594.

During the later persecutions incense was used to honor the martyrs. As their bodies were carried to the catacombs or the crypts of the early churches for burial, small urns of incense burned in niches along the way. Later the gums and spices were burned in vessels suspended from chains and it is thought that from these evolved the swinging censers as we know them today. This custom may account for the practice of placing a few grains of frankincense with the relics of martyrs when they are entombed in altars.

In the Roman rite incense is burned at solemn high Mass, solemn blessings, functions, choral offices, processions and absolutions for the dead. There are two cases when it is used but not burned — the five grains put into the Pascal candle and, as mentioned before, the grains put into the sepulchre of consecrated altars.

At Mass it is blessed before it is burned. Before the Introit the priest blesses it, saying: "Mayest thou be blessed by Him in Whose honor thou art to be burnt. Amen." Between the Offering of the Chalice and the Lavabo the priest again blesses the incense, saying: "By the intercession of blessed Michael the Archangel, who standeth at the right hand of the altar of incense, and of all His elect, may the Lord vouchsafe to bless this incense, and to receive it for an odor of sweetness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen." The sweet odor of the burning confection rising heavenward is a natural symbol of prayer ascending to God. "Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice," sings David (Psalm 140: 2). Indeed these words form a portion of the prayer said by the priest as he incenses the altar...

In all the years man has discovered no finer odor for our Lord than that which emanates from the substance of the incense tree. "Mayest thou be blessed by Him in Whose honor thou art to be burned," says the priest. The tears of a wounded tree are twice blessed in the Mass. Twice blessed therefore is the creature of nature which, being wounded, gives up its fragrant tears in honor of Him who wept over Jerusalem; in honor of Him who was wounded and shed His precious blood for the whole world; in honor of Him whose unbounded love extends to all nature. All nature in turn serves Him, but the tears of olibanum are twice blessed.

The use of incense in the occult smudging ritual is completely different, since it allegedly has properties that can clear or cleanse supposed negative energies (or evil spirits) and/or bring “balance.” This is ascribing supernatural powers to a substance and/or to the ritual involved using it, but the basis for this belief rests on beliefs in unverified, unseen “energies" and "spirits." To burn sage, believing it has power to actually effect a change beyond fragrance, is to enter an occult worldview and call upon demons ("energies;" "spirits"). 

Conclusion

Smudging is usually done with smudge sticks, bundles of herbs that can be purchased or made with sage, cedar, sweetgrass, lavender, etc. During the smudging ceremony of a home, the person smudging is encouraged to focus his or her energy and control breathing. After the smudge stick is lit with a candle, the person waves the smudge stick in the air, often wafting the smoke with a feather, and walks around the house starting at the front door and moving clockwise. Extra attention is paid to the corners of rooms (which supposedly accumulate stagnant energy). Once the entire house has been ritually cleansed, the smudge stick is extinguished at the front door. Some people leave the smudge stick outside the front door, thinking it has protective power.

Some people also smudge themselves by directing the smoke around their body and through their aura. This is thought to cleanse them of negative or stagnant energy. Auras are the occult concept that human beings and other living things emanate subtle energy fields or fields of light, surrounding us like bubbles of power.

There is nothing inherently wrong with burning incense or using herbs to beautify the fragrance of one’s home, but that is not what smudging is about. As with all occult teachings, there is no medical or scientific evidence for its use, and it contradicts Church teaching. God is the one to whom we turn for help and protection, not spirits and energies. Want to be protected from evil? Use the approved sacramentals of the Church, like Holy Water, the St. Benedict crucifix medal, the Five-Fold Scapular, etc. Pray the rosary, pray to St. Michael the Archangel, and stay close to the Mass and sacraments.

"Be subject therefore to God, but resist the devil, and he will fly from you." (St. James 4:7).