Smudge Sticks

Smudging is an important purification ritual in many different cultures and traditions. Smudging has been used by many people as a ceremony of purification--among pagans as well as Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, among Hindus and Buddhists as well as Cherokee and Lakota. Called "incense" in some traditions, it can be made of a variety of fragrant plant materials. Native Americans have used their local plants of obtained more exotic materials through trade with tribes of other regions. Among the plants used for smudge are tobacco, sweetgrass, calamus, red willow bark, red osier dogwood, cedar needles and sage.