#desert sage

[joshuastudebaker]

Purple Sage Blooms

Location: Lake Owyhee, Oregon

[pablodelarcorey]

Goldwin 0 / Goldwin 0 - 3L Jacket / Nur Abbas / Jacket

[aspelladay]

Ghost Sickness Spell (1)

In many metaphysical beliefs, particularly Native American ones, the problem isn’t that ghosts clank their chains at night or pop out at inconvenient moments to say “boo!” Rather, ghosts need to be avoided or banishing because it’s believed that contact with ghosts causes illness in the living, something specifically known as “ghost sickness.” If you fear this type of unhealthy contact, burn desert sage and white sage[*] to repel and remove these influences as well as strengthening the defenses of the living.

[*Note: White sage or Salvia apiana has become endangered due to overharvesting. Kitchen sage also works just as well and it has the added benefit of being incredibly cheap.]

(from The Element Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells by Judika Illes)

[nani-kaiki]

me for jackfruit the label

photography @ashleyjayyne

[feralf]

[justdaysoffuturespast]

[ethical-witch-blog]

Sage vs cultural appropriation

I think as witches/wiccans it is crucial that we research as much as we can about other cultures and when we use a tool/ technique based in another culture that we understand the background and history of that culture as well as that tool/technique. In saying that, it is also up to us to use our compassion, intuition and learned knowledge to determine when it is and when it is not appropriate to use those tools/techniques.

That leads me to sage. First nations people have been using sage (white sage and desert sage primarily) in ceremony and for medicinal use in very small quantities for centuries. Sage is so powerful, it is unnecessary to use a bundle, rather only a single leaf passed over the person from head to toe. This new age trend to buy large amounts for smudging has led to many companies to sell dried white sage purchased from businesses who firstly take from wild plants (devastating those plants in the process), rather than cultivated plants, leading to  a decrease in the sustainability of the product.

As an Indigenous woman myself, I am responsible for reminding my other sister/brother witches that not only is this harming the earth but its also ignoring the history of repression and violence against native peoples. Colonizers limited native peoples’ ability to cultivate and use sage, often by violent enforcement, in an effort to cease cultural ceremony and therefore wipe out native peoples’ cultural and religious beliefs - consequently annihilating their identity. We only continue to contribute to this historical ethnic and cultural cleansing by engaging in the type of capitalism that damages crops while never fully understanding the impact on indigenous people, who now still struggle to ensure that especially white sage remains sustainable.

This all to say that next time your thinking of doing a smudging, take a step back and think about the impact you could be having on the land, our ancestors, your sisters and brothers. Also, look around - there might be many other earthly gifts to use instead. My favorite is rosemary and lavender from the garden, but there are many other options out there. My personal opinion is the smudging is fortified by the intention, which is stronger with plants I have grown rather than one i have taken, possibly with harm.

United in love and compassion x

[tolackcolour]