It’s a POTLUCK! Please see the sign up sheet on the wall across from your kiddos’ coat and backpack hooks. 

Join us at the school to celebrate Thanksgiving AND Native American Heritage Month by participating in a Smudging Ceremony. 

What is a Smudging Ceremony?

HOW TO SMUDGE:
Place cedar, sage, sweetgrass into a clay bowl. Light it carefully and let the smoke start to rise, it carries your prayers to Great Mystery.
Rub your hands in the smoke to cleanse them; scoop the smoke into your hands and bring it to your head, so you will think good thoughts – no anger, jealousy, hate; to the eyes so you will see the world around you in a good way; to the throat so you will speak always in kindness and in non-judgmental ways; to the ears, so that you will listen truly listen to each other instead of ‘waiting to speak’ which we so often do; to the heart so you feel connected to all living beings in a loving way; to the solar plexus so your emotions connect with the Earth Mother; Women to the womb, so your life giving energies go out into the world in balance and harmony.

Finally under the feet, this way the dark side of your soul and the world will not follow in your footsteps.

Native American Smudging

Smudging is a way to cleanse a person , place or an object of negative energies, spirits or influences.

The smudging involves the burning of sacred plants then, either passing an object through the resulting smoke, or fanning the smoke around a person or place.

There are two ways of doing a smudging ceremony. The simplest way to smudge is to use a smudge stick. We simply light the end of the wand and extinguish the flame once it has a smoldering end. Have the person being smudged stand facing you and pass the wand back and forth through the person’s aura starting at their feet and moving upwards.

When you reach their head, have them turn, clockwise repeat the same process. To cleanse a room or house, carry in the lit smudge stick, clockwise around the area, making sure to smudge in the corners and behind doors.

When we smudge, you are asking the spirit of sacred plants for assistance and you must pay proper respect to their healing power. Using Sage to “Smudge” is a simple and powerful way to clear your energy field and remove negative energy from the area. 

Smudging is the process of burning the dried plant and fanning the smoke over your body with sacred intention.  Smudging is best known as a Native American ritual, but it is found in other cultures as well.

If the area is not cleared of negative energy, it can build a nest there too.  If you are going to use sweet grass, I suggest that you cleanse the area with white sage and then use sweet grass.

The traditional way is to offer the smoke to the four directions first, calling the blessing and protection in.  Then you fan the smoke around you imagining it passing through you.  It flows through you drawing out all of the junk that you have collected in your aura.  You can also rub out the sage stick or just let it burn out on it’s own. 

Smudge is one of the most powerful tools that we have available to use.  Any time we open our self to energy transfer, we must be sure that negative energy is cleared from the area. 

Smudge is the easiest way of doing that.

Native American Cleansing

1) We will crack a window in each room of your home and take a dried bundle of sage and elabaster Shell and “smudge” your home clearing out any negative or stagnant energies. Smudging is simply lighting the sage bundle, holding it to the inside of the shell while  walking around your entire home allowing the smoke to circulate and cleanse the energy and space.

2) Being firm and unemotional, walk around each room of your home, while saying loudly and firmly, “This sage is cleansing out all negative energies and spirits… all negative energies and spirits must leave and do no harm.3) The main thing is the intent, which is our faith. You have power and have nothing to fear. Your intentions are to rid the home of negative energies and spirits and they will know this, if they are there. Always work with your own energy from within your soul
and incorporate this energy into the cleansing.  Drawing a divine power from within our innermost being.

Always be firm, non-fearing, unemotional and deal with negative ghosts strongly, yet with love. You are always in control and are not powerless.  Some people like to re-visit a cleansed house by going back into all of the rooms with a pleasant incense such as lavender while inviting all loving, protecting, positive spirits into the home. You may
end the ritual by lighting a white candle and setting it on a table to burn for a bit to “seal” the ritual.

Source: http://www.nativeamericanresearch.org