Long post on Cleansing/protection/ward evil eye/make sacred/ rituals from different cultures and times.
I found this old post. It helps to demonstrate theres no singular or binary way to cleanse or protect. Over time and region many different or similar ways have been practiced. Might help develop new ideas away from controversy over smudging with endangered plants or vulnerable cultures in survival mode. As this was about smoke and herbs originally this is snippet if these but includes non smoke ones too. There’s many missing i can think of few more since this was last posted like the need-fire
Worth noting ranges on daily to yearly rites
Ancient Greek/Hellenism
A thymiaterion (from Ancient Greek: θυμιατήριον from θυμιάειν thymiaein "to smoke"; plural thymiateria) is a type of censer or incense burner, used in the Mediterranean region since antiquity for spiritual and religious purposes and especially in religious ceremonies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thymiaterion
Thymiateria were used in antiquity to burn incense during religious rituals such as sacrifices or offerings to the gods. Carved from marble, this thymiaterion is composed of three parts: a stemmed foot, a deep receptacle, and a lid. The deep bowl, which could have held a large amount of costly incense, rests on the spreading tray-like top of the tall foot. The lip of the bowl is scored along the edges to suggest an organic plant pattern. The same pattern is repeated on the domed lid, which is decorated with small ridges and perforated at regular intervals to allow the scented smoke to escape. The top of the lid is flat and undecorated, but a separately-made finial may originally have been attached. The sharp-edged, angular form of the thymiaterion with its decorative ridges imitates metal vessels. Traces of red paint remain on the foot and lid suggesting that the vessel was originally brightly painted.
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/32131/unknown-maker-thymiaterion-and-lid-greek-south-italian-or-sicilian-4th-century-bc/
Thyme
The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples, believing it was a source of courage. The spread of thyme throughout Europe was thought to be due to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs".[2] In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares.[3] In this period, women also often gave knights and warriors gifts that included thyme leaves, as it was believed to bring courage to the bearer. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals, as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyme#History
Mint
Greece: the Latin name for mint, Mentha, comes from an ancient Greek myth. The story goes that a water nymph named Minthe had an affair with Hades, the god of the underworld. Hades’ wife, Persephone, was not happy about this and she used her powers to transform the water nymph into a low-growing plant that would be trampled by passersby. Hades could not undo the transformation, but he did give the plant a beautiful fragrance so that when Minthe was trampled, her true beauty would appear in the form of the aroma of mint.
In ancient Greece, mint was used in funerary rituals along with rosemary and other aromatic herbs. The use of mint in funerals and association with death and the afterlife probably had practical reasons and came about because the strong smell of the herb would cover up any decaying odor from the body of the deceased.
https://gardentherapy.ca/herbal-histories/
Plants and herbs that appear in myth
https://www.theoi.com/Flora1.html
Kemetic/Ancient Egypt
Kyphi
Kyphi is a compound incense that was used in Ancient Egypt for religious and medical purposes.
Kyphi is latinized from Greek κυ̑φι for Ancient Egyptian "kap-t", incense, from "kap", to perfume, to cense, to heat, to burn, to ignite.[1][2] The word root also exists in Indo-European languages, with a similar meaning, like in Sanskrit कपि (kapi) "incense", Greek καπνός "smoke", and Latin vapor.
The manufacture of kyphi involves blending and boiling the ingredients in sequence. According to Galen, the result was rolled into balls and placed on hot coals to give a perfumed smoke; it was also drunk as a medicine for liver and lung ailments.[7] See wiki for full ingredients
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyphi
There is also a type of incense known as jb (referred to on the Stele of Sekerkhabau from Saqqara). The name was written using the hieroglyph for kid (a young male goat) leading some to suggest that it was based on musk.
According to Plutarch the Ancient Egyptians burned frankincense in the morning, myrrh at midday and Kyphi (Kapet) in the evening. In addition certain gods were associated with specific types of incense (for example, Hathor was strongly associated with myrrh) and certain types of incense were used for specific ceremonies.
Incense ingredients were either ground and thrown on hot coals or mixed with dried fruit (such as raisins or dates) and formed into small pellets to be burned.
https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/incenseperfume/
Video Burning of Kyphi (Ancient Incense) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jENOZqJQoaY&feature=emb_title
Mesopotamia/Babylonia
The experience of aromatic oils was not just for the Gods, it was felt by the people in and around the spaces where they were burned. This was particularly true within Assyrian culture in northern Mesopotamia. Kiersten Neumann, a Curator and Research Associate at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, discussed the raw materials connected to aromatics within Assyrian temples: cedar, cypress, juniper, boxwood and fir (terebinth). Service to the gods was performed by elite personnel within the temple. The Arabian peninsula was the principle place to acquire these spices and incenses. Arabic caravans used camels that traveled along a set trade route that then sold these precious substances to those who wished to burn them.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/drsarahbond/2017/06/26/recreating-the-aroma-of-the-ancient-city-incense-and-perfume-in-the-ancient-mediterranean/#64085282586a
Takpirtu
Takpirtu or Takpertu, inscribed tak-pir-tú and as a gloss to the term šu-gur-gur-meš, and literally meaning “wiping,” from kupurru,[1] “to wipe, rub,” or more generally ““to perform a wiping rite,” were Mesopotamian purification rituals whose oldest attestations go back to the Old Babylonian period. It was an integral part of the Bīt rimki and Bīt salā’ mê rituals and may have been a cleansing rite in its own right as it is listed separately in the Exorcists Manual, perhaps in the form of tak-pir-tú nussētiq, burnt offerings.[2]
Its earliest appearance seems to have been at Mari. Middle Babylonian attestation comes in the form of two references to the supply of grain or flour for the ceremony in temple administrative tablets from Kassite Nippur.[3] In later neo-Assyrian and neo-Babylonian periods it was used for the spiritual cleansing of a field or a building, especially in the temple of the moon god Sîn in Uruk, but also in the context of a person, such as a sick person or the king, a type of cleansing ceremony was accompanied by a liḫšu, whispered prayer, “By the life of Anu and Enlil they are conjured,”[4] or conjuration, "butting evil." Dough was wiped over the thigh of the subject, a scapegoat was sacrificed or carcass of a sheep was used to purify the cella of the temple,[5] which was afterwards cast into the river along with the zisurrû, “magic circle of flour,” and garakku-brazier, a black and white cord.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takpirtu
Mîs-pî
Mîs-pî, inscribed KA-LUḪ.Ù.DA and meaning “washing of the mouth,” is an ancient Mesopotamian ritual and incantation series for the cultic induction or vivification of a newly manufactured divine idol. It involved around eleven stages: in the city, countryside and temple, the workshop, a procession to the river, then beside the river bank, a procession to the orchard, in reed huts and tents in the circle of the orchard, to the gate of the temple, the niche of the sanctuary and finally, at the quay of the Apsû, accompanied by invocations to the nine great gods, the nine patron gods of craftsmen, and assorted astrological bodies
The rituals are for the consecration of a cultic image, a statue formed from a wooden core encased in gold and/or silver, decorated with inlaid precious stones, and dressed in robes. They involve the “washing of the mouth” (mîs-pî proper) on the first day to cleanse the statue of all traces of human contamination in the production of the idol, and the “opening of the mouth” (inscribed KA.DUḪ.Ù.DA, Akkadian: pit pî) performed with syrup, ghee, cedar and cypress on the second to bring it to life, sacraments which may be related to the pit uzni, “ear-opening” ceremony. “On this day be present: for this statue which stands before you ceremoniously grant him the destiny that his mouth may eat, that his ears might hear.”[3] The rituals facilitated the idol taking on the persona of the deity, awakening the supernatural force within it, and enabling it to see, act, eat and drink the offerings and smell the incense:[4] ṣalmu annû ina la pīt pî qutrinna ul iṣṣin akala ul ikkal mêul išatti, “this statue cannot smell incense without the “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony, it cannot eat food nor drink water.”[3] Four exemplars from Hellenic Uruk do not include the pit pî stage, but instead introduce a burnt offering of a brushwood fire, lamentations recited by a kalû-priest and the presence of the monarch. Its application seems to have spread to encompass other objects, such as a ceremonial torch, the hide of a bull which is to cover a lilissu- or kettledrum,[5] the apotropaic figurines used in the Šēp lemutti ritual, the divinatory bag of the barû-priest, the mouth of the river to abate its torrent, and even the jewels adorning a king’s chariot. It seems that the process of mouth-washing was intended to prepare a person or thing for contact with the divine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%AEs-p%C3%AE
Heathen and Old early medieval English
To hallow is "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate".[1] The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.[2] The noun form hallow, as used in Hallowtide, is a synonym of the word saint.[3][4][5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallow
The noun is from the Old English adjective hālig, nominalised as se hālga "the holy man". The Gothic word for "holy" is either hailags or weihaba, weihs. "To hold as holy" or "to become holy" is weihnan, "to make holy, to sanctify" is weihan. Holiness or sanctification is weihiþa. Old English, like Gothic, had a second term of similar meaning, wēoh "holy", with a substantive wīh or wīg, Old High German wīh or wīhi (Middle High German wîhe, Modern German Weihe). The Nordendorf fibula has wigiþonar, interpreted as wīgi-þonar "holy Donar" or "sacred to Donar". Old Norse vé is a type of shrine. The weihs group is cognate to Latin victima, an animal dedicated to the gods and destined to be sacrificed. Fire in general used to hallow or sanctify an area
In Eyrbyggja saga (bit not in Landnamabok) it is recorded Poroflr carried fire round the land he claimed. This ritual was probably also performed in order to sanctify his new homeland. It is possible that this land was related in one or another sense to the Hof building. This may be supported by other Old Norse texts. https://books.google.ie/books?id=CSdzCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA293&lpg=PA293&dq=old+norse+claiming+land+a+place+with+fire&source=bl&ots=19Ij13Nw4l&sig=ACfU3U3YCWyr8_kDFKYwrhler585n49GRw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwis0-KgtojqAhXUlFwKHY9gCrwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=old%20norse%20claiming%20land%20a%20place%20with%20fire&f=false
The saga begins with Gotland being discovered by a man named Þieluar (Tjalve) (Gutnish: Tjelvar). He was a mythical figure who shows up twice in the Prose Edda and once in Gutasaga. Gotland is under a spell and under water during the day and out of water only during the night, a spell that is broken by Þieluar lighting a fire on the Island. Þieluar's son Hafþi (Havde) and his wife Vitastjerna (Gutnish: Hwitastierna) had three sons named Graip, Gute and Gunfjaun, the ancestors of the Gutes. After Havde's and Vitastjerna's first night together, she had a dream about three snakes entwined in her bosom. This was interpreted as a symbol that all things are connected in circles and that they would have three sons. The subject is depicted on some of the picture stones on Gotland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutasaga#Modern_Gotland
To Smoke’words if you use smoke in heathen rituals
Reocan From Proto-Germanic *reukaną, whence also Old Frisian riāka, Old High German riohhan, Old Norse rjúka. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reocan#Old_English
Reek From Middle English rek, reke (“smoke”), from Old English rēc, rīec, from Proto-Germanic *raukiz (compare West Frisian reek, riik, Dutch rook, Low German Röök, German Rauch, Danish røg, Norwegian Bokmål røyk), from Proto-Indo-European *rowgi- (compare Lithuanian rū̃kti (“to smoke”), rū̃kas (“smoke, fog”), Albanian regj (“to tan”)).[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reek
and
however, a term with old english roots that conveys the proper meaning of smoke cleansing in witchcraft: rēcan. pronounced similarly to the modern word “reek,” the term rēcan means: “to fumigate, expose to smoke, cause to emit smoke, or burn as incense.” closely related, the old english word rēocan means: “to emit vapor, steam, or smoke.” the term later evolved into the middle english word reken, meaning “to emit smoke.” while the word was not exclusively used to refer to foul smells, it lost much of its original meaning as it evolved into the modern day “reek,” which is now associated only with unpleasant stenches. given its old english roots and lackluster definition, the term rēcan makes an eloquent and appropriate moniker for the smoke cleansing performed in non-native practices of witchcraft and paganism.
https://musingsofmagick.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/recaning-smoke-cleansing-in-witchcraft/
Nine Herb Charm (herb ideas)
The "Nine Herbs Charm" is an Old English charm recorded in the tenth-century CE[1] Anglo-Saxon medical compilation known as Lacnunga, which survives on in the manuscript London, British Library, Harley 585.[2] The charm is intended for the treatment of poisoning and infection by a preparation of nine herbs. The numbers nine and three, significant in Germanic paganism and later Germanic folklore, are mentioned frequently within the charm.[2] The poem contains references to Christian and English Pagan elements, including a mention of the major Germanic god Woden.
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2018/05/15/the-nine-herbs-charm/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Herbs_Charm
Rune poems
‘May Thor Hallow’ > [‘Thor Vigi’](https://old.reddit.com/r/AsatruVanatru/comments/f4upbh/%C3%BEur_uiki_%C3%BE%C3%B3rr_vigi_thor_vigi_may_thor_hallow_in/) "þur uiki" > "Þórr vigi" > "Thor vigi" > “May Thor Hallow” in runes
‘ siþi þur’ > ‘ Siði Þorr‘ > ‘May Thórr safeguard’ ‘May Thor protect.’ ‘May Thor work magic’ possible translations
Sources
https://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/db.php?id=16064&if=runic&table=mss
http://dro.dur.ac.uk/1053/1/1053.pdf
https://utrianlax.tumblr.com/post/47034486631/rune-stone-s%C3%B6-140-korpbron-jursta-%C3%A4gor-ludgo/amp Picture of it
Apple Wassail for blessing crops and trees
The Apple Wassail is a traditional form of wassailing practiced in the cider orchards of southern England during the winter. There are many well recorded instances of the Apple Wassail in the early modern period. The first recorded mention was at Fordwich, Kent, in 1585, by which time groups of young men would go between orchards performing the rite for a reward. The practice was sometimes referred to as "howling". On Twelfth Night, men would go with their wassail bowl into the orchard and go about the trees. Slices of bread or toast were laid at the roots and sometimes tied to branches. Cider was also poured over the tree roots. The ceremony is said to "bless" the trees to produce a good crop in the forthcoming season. Among the most famous wassail ceremonies are those in Whimple, Devon and Carhampton, Somerset, both on 17 January.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Wassail
Celtic/Gaelic
Saining
Saining is a Scots word for blessing, protecting or consecrating.[1] Sain is cognate with the Irish and Scottish Gaelic seun and sian and the Old Irish sén - "a protective charm."[2][3][4]
Traditional saining rites may involve water that has been blessed in some fashion, or the smoke from burning juniper, accompanied by spoken prayers or poetry.[2][3] Saining can also refer to less formal customs like making religious signs to protect against evil, such as the sign of the cross. In Shetland, the Scottish folklorist F. Marian McNeil refers to the custom of making the sign of Thor's hammer to sain the goblet that was passed around at New Year's celebrations.[5]
An old Hogmanay (New Year's) custom in the Highlands of Scotland, which has survived to a small extent and seen some degree of revival, is to celebrate Hogmanay with the saining of the household and livestock. Early on New Year's morning, householders drink and then sprinkle 'magic water' from 'a dead and living ford' around the house (a 'dead and living ford' refers to a river ford that is routinely crossed by both the living and the dead). After the sprinkling of the water in every room, on the beds and all the inhabitants, the house is sealed up tight and branches of juniper are set on fire and carried throughout the house and byre. The juniper smoke is allowed to thoroughly fumigate the buildings until it causes sneezing and coughing among the inhabitants. Then all the doors and windows are flung open to let in the cold, fresh air of the new year. The woman of the house then administers 'a restorative' from the whisky bottle, and the household sits down to its New Year breakfast.[6] Saining with juniper was also used in healing rites, where the evil eye was suspected to be the cause of the illness, but it apparently fell out of use by the end of the nineteenth century after a young girl with respiratory problems suffocated due to the amount of smoke that filled the house.[7]
Saining is a common practice in modern traditions based on Scottish folklore, such as blessing and protecting children and other family members.[2][3] While many of the surviving saining prayers and charms are Christian in nature,[2][3] others that focus on the powers of nature are used as part of Gaelic Polytheist ceremonies.[8][9]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saining
Smàladh – Smooring the Hearth Fire
Each household would have a hearth fire over which all the household food would be prepared, and around which the most important aspects of family life would happen. The hearth fire would traditionally have been kept alight all year long in both Scotland and Ireland, with the exception of Bealltainn eve when it was extinguished and then relit from a flame brought from a communal bonfire to ensure health and prosperity upon the household in the coming year.1 It was a matter of pride and superstition not to let the flame die out even in the height of summer, and many households could boast that their hearth had remained alight for several generations – even centuries. If the fire did die out, it was said “the soul goes out of the people of the house.”2
Smooring, therefore – a Scots word usually translated as ‘smothering,’ but perhaps more accurately ‘subduing’3 – was a process by which the fire was dampened down so it would not need tending, and therefore could be left safely alight during the night. In Ireland, it was said that the Good Folk would be displeased if they arrived at a house during the night to find that there was no fire for them.4
In Ireland, a charm such as this was said as the fire was covered with the ashes:
“Coiglim an tine seo mar choigleann Críost cáidh;
Muire ar mhullach an tí, agus Bríd ina lár;
An t-ochtar ainglí is tréine i gCathair na nGrás
Ag cumhdach an ti seo ‘s a mhuintir thabhairt slán.
Translation
I save this fire, as noble Christ saves;
Mary on the top of the house and Brigid in its centre;
the eight strongest angels in Heaven
preserving this house and keeping its people safe.)”6
These days it’s not really possible for most households to keep a flame burning all year round, if at all. As a result, the ritual becomes more symbolic, something to be done as you go up to bed and make sure all the lights and appliances are switched off, for example. The following rune is just one example of a smooring that was recorded by Carmichael. I tend to visualise the sacred three as being the gods, the ancestors and the nature spirits:
Smooring the fire poem
An Trì naomh
A chumhnadh,
A chomhnadh,
A chomraig
An tula,
An taighe,
An teaghlaich,
An oidhche,
An nochd,
O! an oidhche,
An nochd,
Agus gach oidhche,
Gach aon oidhche.
Translation
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround
The hearth,
The house,
The household,
This eve,
This night,
Oh! this eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.8
http://www.tairis.co.uk/daily-practices/smaladh/
Romania
Sweeping
In Romanian lore, the besom is a potent object which becomes truly magical at special occasions. For example, for Marina’s Day which is celebrated in Romania on July 17, mothers celebrate Marina, the protector of the souls of dead children, by crafting brooms with bristles made out of Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) and offering them to each other alongside flowers, corn, and chicks, and they keep the brooms which they use to sweep their homes and yards. They believe that these special brooms not only sweep away the dirt, but also bad luck and spirits such as the strigoi. Strigoii, which are believed to mount the brooms of the villagers to go to their nocturnal gatherings on the nights of Sângiorz (April 23) and Sântandrei (November 30), were unable to mount the brooms made of Wormwood. The Wormwood broom is also used by the Romanian people to bring someone back home, to sweep away evil forces, and even illness by sweeping around the ill. The broom is also a potent tool against Muma Pădurii (the mother of the forest). For this, the broom of the witch or the disenchantress or the broom of the mother whose child is haunted by the mother of the forest is used during a disenchanting ritual by sweeping the entrance to the home or by placing it next to the child’s bed. In all the spells and charms where the broom is used to repel something evil, the disenchantress or the witch always says to said evil to leave and go far away “because I will sweep you with the broom” (“Că eu cu mătura te-oi mătura”) otherwise.
https://www.theoldcraft.com/2018/05/14/the-witchs-besom-how-to-craft-and-use-your-own-magical-broom/
