As the wheel of the year is nearing its coldest months, it is time to prepare your home for the winter — when staying in will be more frequent. Although the cozy feel that the cold season brings, it is still possible to eventually feel entrapped, dormant or uninspired during this time.
As much as possible, you would want to bring warmth into your home by decluttering, sanitizing, and charging the space with joy using scents close to your heart.
Benefits of Smoke Wands
Smoke wands are known to clear the energies of spaces, dispelling negativity and low frequencies surrounding your home. Aside from its cleansing abilities, the scent coming from the resinous smoke that smoke wands produce induces feelings of calmness and peacefulness. Sage is the most common variety because of its purification abilities in ceremonial practices and meditation. However, it is not the only option to choose from. Other herbs that are also ideal for smoke cleansing are juniper, lavender, mugwort, cedar, and rosemary. What makes sage very common is simply because of its accessibility in most metaphysical stores.
Know your Herbs
Before you head out and collect herbs for smoke clearing, it’s best to know its common associations especially if you have specific intentions in mind.
Sage: Sage purifies and cleanses space. Best used as a base for other sweet-scented herbs such as rose and lavender.
Juniper: Juniper is an herb of beauty, timelessness, and protection. This herb is ideally suited for attracting love and regaining self-love.
Cedar: Cedar has a woody scent that invites coziness into any room. It is commonly associated with renewal and grounding.
Rose: You guessed it right! Roses are for attracting romantic love in one’s life. Another common association with roses is victory and success, making it an herb ideal for manifestation.
Lavender: Lavender represents feminine energy and all the traits under it, including grace, beauty, and connection with nature. It heals, protects, and calms the mind.
Frankincense: Frankincense brings out a woody, aromatic scent that promotes solitude and sacredness. Frankincense is ideal for deity and ancestral altars.
Making Your Smoke Wands
Prepare your chosen herbs by trimming them to an appropriate size. For this technique, you would need about 15 to 20 sprigs of your chosen herbs, a pair of scissors, and some jute twine. When choosing herbs to combine, make sure they complement each other. Woody scents like cedar, juniper, and sage go well with floral and citrus scents. If you’re feeling a little creative, you can add rose petals and a piece of dried orange to your chosen woody base.
Then, as neatly as you can, secure your herbs in a bundle using twine from the bottom to the top. Make sure you leave small gaps so the twine can catch the herbs and/or flowers when they dry completely. Finish off by trimming the herbs that are sticking out of the bundle and dry it for at least two weeks. Once they are ready, you can light them up with a match.