Smudging - Tumblr Posts
Daily meditating...
What Native people say about the use of sage: you can use sage, but you cannot smudge as nothing you are doing (waving sage around) is actually smudging. Smudging is a ceremony and you are, we promise, not smudging. Please buy sage from either us, or someone who sources the sage from us. White sage may not be considered endangered by the US government but corperate sourcing is making it difficult for us to source sage for our own religious purposes. Let alone to sell it.
What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.
Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.
1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.
2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.
3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.
I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk ™
Smudging vs Smoke Cleansing
One of the most common mistakes that I see people make is interchanging these two terms, or using one instead of the other. They are in fact two separate things, and one is part of a closed practice so it is important to know the difference.
Smudging
Smudging is part of Native American traditions, making it part of a closed practice. In fact, due to parts of it being ceremonial, it is impossible for outsiders to smudge as they literally do not know how. Non-natives are not taught the ceremonial parts of smudging, so unless you were taught how, you genuinely cannot be smudging. While different tribes sometimes do it differently, every example I’ve seen does involve burning various plants, which is why it is often confused with smoke cleansing.
Smoke Cleansing
Smoke cleansing is the act of using smoke to influence a space’s energy. This often involves burning plants with cleansing, protective, or other properties to bring those properties to the space itself. Some examples I’ve seen used are sage, rosemary, or even lavender depending on the intended purpose. This is what the majority of witches are doing when they burn herbs around a space. However, it is still important to make sure the plants you are burning will not harm you if inhaled, and that if you are using plants traditionally used by native peoples that they are sourced ethically (here is a post that explains why it matters). If you cannot source your plants ethically, then kitchen varieties of most plants can be used instead.
Knowing the difference between these is really important, as they are different practices. I wanted to make this post because I see the terms used interchangeably or incorrectly literally every time I come on this site, so I hope it helped!
I have finally decided to cleanse my room of bad energy 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 👇🏼 #witch #witchcraft #witchythings #witchesofinstagram #witchyvibes #spell #spells #castingspells #wicca #wiccan #wiccansofinstagram #wiccanspells #pagan #pagansofinstagram #paganism #paganwitch #paganwitchcraft #paganwitches #paganwitchymagic #paganwicca #paganwiccan #wiccamagic #wiccamagick #wiccamagica #paganmagic #paganmagick #magic #burning #smudging #smudgingsage #smudgingritual #burningsage #burningsage🌿 #burningsage🍃 #burningcandle #burningcandles #fire #white #candle #candlemagick #whitecandle #whitecandles #whitecandles🔥 #ritual #rituals #paganritual #paganrituals #wiccaritual #wiccarituals #magicritual #magicrituals #magicritualandwitchcraft #magick #magical #magickal #magickritual #magickrituals #pentagram #cleansing #cleansingoil #cleansingcrystals #cleansingritual #cleansingrituals #cleansingrituals🌝🔮✨ #salts #magicsalts #magicksalts #cleaningsalts #wiccasalts #pagansalts #ritualsalts # https://www.instagram.com/p/By81fT7lIwM/?igshid=zpf4z3xwfnja
"I'm not a monster!"
Darra Heartsworn knows that life is hard when you're different from everyone else. It doesn't matter if you like the same things they do, eat the same food or even play the same games all that matters to them is how you look and to them she looks like a monster. Darra just wants to live a peaceful life taking care of her younger sister Cayra out in the woods to shield Cayra from the harshness of the humans that live in the only village she can walk to and back home with hours of sunlight left in a day. One day while she's in the village her hood falls of as a human child runs into her while playing a game, screaming in surprise causeing the village to turn on Darra out of fear of her appearance. Attacking her forcing her to run, just outside the village with her right eye dripping blood from four slashes from some unknown weapon she screams at them trying to get them to understand "I'm not a monster!" But even as they walk away she knows she needs to grab Cayra and run.