Crystal,

Sorry for getting into the disagreement, nothing was meant to be directed at you. I realize that saging doesn't work for everyone and wish you luck in resolving the issue.

Sage

I use it like a blind American hoping for magic, perhaps they use it in a different way.

I'm sorry, I thought this comment was not only hilarious, but true.

This is the issue. There are many, many, many, many, many, many, many (did I say many?), different rituals that exist across thousands of years, hundreds of civilizations and hundreds of belief systems and it's not a question of whether or not they work, it's a question of whether or not you are correctly applying that tradition/ritual in the appropriate way.

If you have a demon or seriously malicious negative entity after you smuding isn't the appropriate response. Smudging is the act of clearing negative energies, bad magic & general bad spirits away from the home. It is not for predatory, attacking spirits. There is a difference.

Knowledge is power, serious power, but you also have to know how to use it.

If someone tells me they are being attacked by a predatory spirit or entity my response would likely include smudging but that's not all of the response.

Burning sage or smudging is great to clear a space and relieve it of bad energy that was left by previous occupants or clearing the home after a bad argument or clearing the home after someone you really don't like comes to visit you (for most people this is in-laws, LOL).

If you have a predatory spirit after you there is a line of tools that you should start with and it includes smudging but it is certainly not the answer.

First of all if you can identify a specific area in the home where the spirit is strongest you will want to start by creating a protective field AROUND that area to try and contain the spirit. You can do this with spells or spirits. Containing a bad entity or spirit will help you to clear them from the home. From there you will go into a series of other actions and it ends with smudging because you will want to clear your space of all the negative energy from banishing a bad spirit.

There are hundreds of people who are on here, some participate, some just read... but we all have individual belief systems and we have to respect each other's unique beliefs because religions/beliefs/ideologies are extremely personal and you have to approach each other with the respect you want to be treated with in return. Sharing our experiences & ideas is important and promotes growth, but in sharing those experiences & ideas we have to make sure we word it so others will appreciate where we are coming from and not be turned off or upset because when you're reading something you can't hear the person's tone or inflection.

:thumbup: So true.............Magnolia, do you have a degree in Human Psychology or what? Your insight and knowledge of the magical workings of the human mind is always spot on.

Crystallover wrote:One question though, will my spirits be affected?

I also have this question. My sister is thinking about using sage in the house, or at least the room we sleep in. I was wondering if it will affect my spirits and if there's anything in particular I should do? No one in my house knows about me being a spirit keeper. ?

kenpodragon wrote:http://www.creepyhollows.com/faq/index. ... =banishing

that's a relief :thankyou: thanks

A quick bump...

I read some months ago about a ritual for house cleansing that involved first smudging the entire house with sage, to drive out negativity and negative spirits, ensuring that the smoke went into all nooks and corners, into closets and cabinets, etc. throughout the house. Then, all corners, nooks, etc. of the house were smudged again, this time with sweetgrass to bring IN the POSITIVE energies and entities. I actually like that idea because as they say, "nature abhors a vacuum". If we clear out the negative and don't fill that empty space with something beneficial, guess what's going to come strolling back in at the first opportunity? The negativity.

Now, I have a separate question regarding sage. There is no way I am going to be able to produce smoke in this house. First of all, I have an extreme smoke allergy. You should see my eyes water when I'm at church and incense is used during Mass. Argh. Second, my hubby, who has only a very partial idea of how active I am regarding paranormal things, would smell it and there is no doubt he would become extremely concerned, knowing my extreme aversion to smoke. Unquestionably, he would start wondering exactly what is going on. He's strongly religious, so it would not sit well with him, to put it mildly.

So, bearing all that in mind -- MUST the sage be burnt in order to gain benefit from it? Are there cleansing uses for the sage without actually igniting it? I'm just curious. I have other, non-smoke-related methods of cleansing, such as sound energies and the use of crystals. But if sage can be used without producing smoke, I'm all for adding another weapon to the arsenal.

Now that I re-read what I wrote....gee whiz sorry if I came off argumentative. LOL. I can get that way.

I actually like that idea because as they say, "nature abhors a vacuum". If we clear out the negative and don't fill that empty space with something beneficial, guess what's going to come strolling back in at the first opportunity? The negativity.

All this saging reminds me of an acupuncture treatment called moxibustion and cupping. In moxibustion they use mugwort and sometimes sage to burn on top of acupuncture points to get rid of "evil" wind. This wind a way to describe pollution, pathogens in the air or simply cold air where the human body wasn't prepared to protect itself. And cupping is done by circling a flame inside a glass cup it to create a vacuum to suck out the evil diseased air. Typically once the "evil" air is sucked out it doesn't return into the body, unless you are sitting on top of the source like say your home is built on top of a machine/chemical shop/factory, where there is a new source of trouble everyday. And I guess metaphorically, negativity wouldn't go away if your house is on top of a grave, bar, etc.

So, bearing all that in mind -- MUST the sage be burnt in order to gain benefit from it? Are there cleansing uses for the sage without actually igniting it?

I've seen sage pouches like mojo bags. You can also grow sage around the house. My new home has lots of rosemary bushes, and I found that to be protective as some plants attract protective beings/vibrations. But you will find different states of herbs will produce a different result. Like steaming the essential oil in an oil burner is different than burning dry herbs on charcoal, is different than burning cones. Smoke and vapor is the state of spirit. I suppose different states are received differently. It's all about experimenting.

Also sage is not the only herb you can use. I have found burning frankincense and copal to be more powerful than sage as they are used in holy places like church. So I don't think your husband would object.

This is a little bit of a sidestep (also sorry if someone else brought this up, I read the thread but need new glasses and may have overlooked a post!) but one thing to consider when using white sage for smudging is to make certain that you get it from a place that grows their own! White sage is currently struggling due to a lot of over-harvesting in the united states and a lot of sellers tend to just snag it without replanting any. It has awesome properties but be sure to leave some to everyone else

(I on the other hand am deathly allergic to sage, I tried burning some once and nearly had to go to the hospital, lol. Perhaps dark spirits are also allergic and that's why it usually gets rid of them? :lol: )

To actually contribute to the discussion, due to my allergy I've found some other things that have properties similar to sage that you don't have to burn! When I was having issues with a darker spirit, sprinkling salt around the entrances to our home, leaving out calming and positivity-fuling lavender and rose, and using lots of rosemary was enough to annoy them out. Of course my spirits did help out too

There's a lot of sites that show alternatives, particularly for sage since it's currently threatened in the wild. A google search will show several

It isn't so much that the hubby would object to my burning the same sort of incense used at church -- it's that I am SO allergic to any sort of smoke, it would be completely out of character for me to deliberately produce any sort of smoke in my own house. At that point, he would most assuredly wonder what had gotten into me and thing something was drastically amiss.

He and I are both Catholic, but he is skittish about the paranormal. He's aware that I am psychic, and has accepted (if reluctantly) the fact that I read Tarot as one of my part-time jobs. I've told him more than once that if the Church had given us any way to handle our natural paranormal abilities, I would have happily made use of those methods. But instead, because all the Church says is, "It's evil, reject it", I have had to craft my own methods for using what I believe to be a gift from my Maker. I think it is wrong to take our gifts, ANY gifts, and throw them back in our Maker's face, so I think the advice that tells people to suppress their inborn talents is way off base. But I digress.

Long story short, I think he'd have a heart failure if he thought I was now pursuing the ability to cast spells, use spelled items, and bringing spirits on board. Out of respect for his feelings, I am more than willing to continue keeping my full level of extrasensory, etc. activity on the down-low, if you know what I mean. I've been handling it this way my whole life anyway -- the only people who REALLY know what I do are a few friends who are similarly interested in the paranormal, the ones I started learning with when we were all 12.

But I'm digressing vastly from the topic of sage. Thanks for the info about the other ways to use sage and other, non-smoke-oriented cleansing techniques. Those are all a possibility for me.