Triangular
Smudging
The next process that White Eagle wishes to
impress on you is the discipline of smudging.
Smudging is the ritual purification of a person, place, or thing using
the burning of sacred herbs such a cedar, sage, sweet grass, lavender, copal,
or pine. In class we use a mixture of
cedar for purification and protection, sage for clearing negativity and
lavender for bringing the essence of love and increased ability to
journey. I use sweet grass after sage
for bringing balance, and the sweet spirits.
You can use a seashell, turtle shell, or a pottery dish for a smudge
container. Light the smudge and use a
feather to fan the smoke over your body.
One student at my Nashville White Eagle School
found smudging nearly saved her sanity and health. She was a social worker calling on some of
the most angry, depressing places in the city.
She keeps smudge in her car and uses it between calls to clear the
negativity that cleans to her energy field like de-energizing psychic
lint. Just a tiny leaf of California
White Sage stuck on a safety pin to burn in the ashtray of her car was a life
saver. Thus she could offer a clear,
helpful and healing attitude to all her clients. Try it!
For interstate and big city driving this safety pin trick is a
must! I certainly could have never
brought the XAT Native American Medicine Society’s Ceremonial Drum into the
exercise yard of Tennessee’s Death Row and held a ceremony with the Native
American Circle there without a whole lot of sage smudging during and
afterward!
A few years ago, the ancestors and the Little
People gave the late Dorrine Running Deer, a fellow shamanic practitioner, a special
triangular smudging practice for clarity and balance. It goes far beyond to traditional practice of
smudging. Like the circular breathing,
this practice helps to balance us between Earth and Sky.
Too many students of metaphysics get so involved
with the top three gateways (chakras) that they forget the root, navel and
solar plexus. The top gateways of crown,
throat and heart bring energy down from Father Sky. The lower gateways of root, navel and solar
plexus draw energy from the Earth into our energy body so that we can function
in the here and now and manifest our good intent. The heart draws energy from the Middle World
in which we live and is the Shaman’s Doorway.
Too much attention to the top chakras makes for a real spacey person who
may have good ideas but just can’t make it happen.
We were born to be in balance. If we spend time in close communion with
Mother Earth and Father Sky we are naturally balanced by their energies. However, our dependence on false sources of
energy, far away from the original source such as computers, television, video
games, cell phones, etc. weakens us and
warps our natural energy balance.
Remember, simple is better! So,
you see, a triangular healing form to balance, add clarity and to help cement
our Mother Earth – Father Sky connection is very important!
Have your friend hold their arms out to the
side. Next, in a clockwise manner, fan
the smoke from the heart (to your left) to the tip of their finger. Then fan the smoke in a triangle to the top
of the head and back down (to your right) to the other fingertip. Then fan the smoke fingertip to fingertip
across the body to complete the bottom of the first triangle.
From there, fan the smoke diagonally down to the
Earth at the toes, and then diagonally back up to the fingertip and across the
heart to complete the bottom triangle.
You are moving in a figure eight direction except the pattern you are
drawing is triangles. Make your
triangles nice and crisp because the sacred geometry is much of the “Medicine”
here. I also go up to the head and
smudge of the top of the head at this point.
Now turn your friend around and do the same thing
in the back. You’ll make a figure eight
movement as you draw two triangles joined at the base. This geometric form works with the way energy
comes into your body from Mother Earth, Father Sky, and environment is
processed into vital life force.
The Triangular Smudge Ceremony is a great gift for
a friend who is spacey, out of balance, needs to get a grip on reality, or has
experienced trauma. Later on we’ll learn
how to use this pattern and add two other geometric planes to make a tetrahedron
– which is the ultimate balancing form in Nature. This Triangular and Tetrahedronal healing
form can be followed with your own breath or by drawing the energy form with
rattles, drums, feather wands or crystal healing wands.Use these two simple disciplines of Practical Shamanism and you’ll find your first steps Through the Shaman’s Doorway very gratifying!