sage and sweet grass

I have used sage and sweet grass, to spiritually cleanse myself and my home, for over 30 years now.  Unfortunatly I don't have a picture of sage to show you because it's all used up right now.  But here is some lovely sweetgrass that was sent to me by my friend, Jim, from New Mexico.

Sage is used to rid the self and home of any bad vibes that may be lingering.  You burn it in a mother-of-pearl shell bowl, and waft it over your head and all around your body.  Then waft the smoke all over the house, starting from the Eastern direction, going clockwise. This is called "smudging".  It is best to keep the windows closed for this first part, and then open them wide, so all the bad energies can be swept outside.  Make sure the corners of your house are smudged thoroughly, as this is where dark energies tend to linger.

The sweet grass then ushers in the good energies.  Burn it in the same manner of the sage, and you will be delighted by the sweet beautiful fragrance of it.  It is so beautiful you can't help but feel better when smelling it.

Here is a picture of the sweetgrass.......it comes braided like that.  Hope you get to enjoy these two fragrant cleansers at some time in your life.

meandering last night

I get out of bed after having slept a couple of hours, then sit here at the computer, perusing links and reading blogs. A lot of what I read has to do with opening to new creative inspiration ... people discovering a new writing style, or a sudden yearning to draw or paint. It also has to do with opening to new psychological and philosophical insights.. wanting to learn of different spiritual paths, and delving into holism, embracing the Goddess, or Buddha, or Jesus. Many different people with myriad things bringing them forth into their lives. Then there are some elders, who've walked the path of the creative or the spiritual, and offer teachings, in their own ways, or show the results of their own learnings, through words or pictures or songs, or other forms of the creative. What a varied, yet often the same, tapestry.

It's nearly 4am. I pull up my blog on a separate window, so I can listen the music as I write. It soothes me.(Yet I've decided to remove the music, because it's getting rather repetitive, and I can 't figure out how to change/add songs!) The radiator is hissing. Not the best sound, but at least there's heat coming up. It's 16°F/-8°C; pretty cold for these parts, I'd say, but probably not for some of you Canadians out (up) there.



Time to try sleeping.