A smudge stick is a bundle of dried herbs, often bound with string and usually rather small. The herbs are later burned as part of a ceremony or ritual. Plants that are often used include sage and cedar.
The American English term "smudge stick" is usually found in use among non-Indigenous people who imitate North American Native sacred ceremonies. However, the herbs used in commercial smudge sticks, and the rituals performed with them by non-Natives, are rarely the actual materials or ceremonies used by traditional Native Americans. Using scent and scented smoke (such as incense) in religious rites is an element common to many different cultures worldwide, but the details and spiritual meanings are usually unique to the specific cultures and ceremonies in question.
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Smudging in Native American traditions
In some First Nations and Native American ceremonies, certain herbs are traditionally used to purify or bless people and places. For instance, some cultures use the smoke of burning red cedar as part of purification and healing ceremonies, and sometimes smudging is done in hospitals to "cleanse and repel evil influence.".
However, the same herbs that are burned by one culture may be taboo to burn in another, or they may be used for a completely different purpose. When specific herbs are burned ceremonially, this may or may not be called "smudging," depending on the culture.
Traditionally, when gathering herbs for ceremonial use, care is taken to determine the time of day, month, or year when the herbs should be collected; for example, at dawn or evening, at certain phases of the moon, or according to yearly cycles. Gertrude Allen, a Lumbee, reported that her father, an expert in healing with plants, stated that sage varies in potency at different times of the year. Most commercial gatherers do not follow these traditions.
Native American spiritual ceremonies and usage of traditional botanicals are considered by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to be protected as traditional knowledge and Indigenous intellectual property.
Controversy
Native American students in college dorms have at times faced harassment and been forbidden from smudging due to university policies that prohibit the burning of candles or incense in college dorm rooms. This has raised issues around the religious freedom of Native Americans.
Smudging with sage, or actions inspired by it, has been adopted in some variant forms into a number of modern belief systems, including many forms of New Age and eclectic Neopagan spirituality, such as modern Wicca. This has been protested by Native activists as a form of cultural misappropriation. While the burning of incense, and the use of sacred fires that put off smoke, is found in many cultures worldwide, the term "smudging" refers to the culturally-specific practice of ritually burning herbs sacred to Native Americans, such as sage.
Smudge sticks are often sold commercially, despite traditional prohibitions against the sale of spiritual medicines like white sage. These sticks may be made of a single herb or a combination of several different herbs; often these herbs are not found bundled together in traditional use, and their use is not universal to all, or even most, Native cultures. In some Native American cultures the burning of these herbs is prohibited. Other commercial smudge sticks may contain herbs not native to North America, as well as substances that are toxic when burnt.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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