What is sweetgrass smudging? Have you tried smudging with sweetgrass? Or smudging your home? The sweetgrass sacred medicine is very important to the indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Indigenous smudging is a proven way to feel better spiritually, and physically using native medicines. 

The sweetgrass teaching tells you why it is so sacred, what sweet grass represents, who the medicine is for, how you go about sweetgrass burning and other sweetgrass teachings. The sweetgrass braid is a beautiful native symbol, and we can help you learn about smudging with sweetgrass and safe. Native American medicines are so important to the indigenous culture, so you can begin to smudge with sweetgrass, to use in sweetgrass healing and other sweetgrass uses.

You want to know why sweet grass is such a sacred medicine, and how to use sweet grass smudging to attract positive energy into your life?

Now, smudging is a cleanse, and a form of prayer to purify your mind, body, and spirit, and to give thanks to the creator, or to whoever it is that you pray to, also to attract positive energy into your life, and to send good thoughts of health and wellness to your friends and family, or those around you. Various Indigenous tribes around North America, even the world, practice smudging. Now, this specific smudging process has been taught to me by elders in my Anishinabek Nation. Now, the most important thing about smudging is your intentions, so what are you intending, and what are you trying to accomplish? So intending to do good when you're smudging, thinking positively and wholeheartedly is what it's all about.

Now, there are three major points to know when smudging with sweet grass.

#1 understand why sweet grass is a sacred medicine.

Sweet grass, or weengushk, is believed to have been the first plant to grow on Mother Earth. I've also heard teachings that say that sweet grass is the woman's medicine, and other teachings that say that sweet grass is the man's medicine.

Now, similar to the other four sacred medicines, all living things have energy attached to them. In the old teachings, sweet grass is said to be the hair of Mother Earth, and Mother Earth has feminine energy, which might be why people say that it is the woman's medicine. However, sweet grass also represents strength, which is more of a masculine energy. One strand of sweet grass can be easily broken, but when the sweet grass is braided, it's almost impossible to break. Strength in family and the strength in the community is what the sweet grass medicine teaches us, and what it represents. So now we know why sweet grass is so important as a sacred medicine.

#2 know how to smudge with sweet grass

One way you can smudge with sweet grass is to light the end of it. Carefully wave it so that it will burn enough to release smoke into the air. Sweet grass doesn't burn as well as cedar or sage, so people typically burn sweet grass with another sacred medicine so it will continue to burn. You can either create a smudge stick, which is a variety of medicines tied together into a bundle, or a smudge bowl, which is a few different medicines mixed together into a smudge bowl, or here I'm using an abalone shell for my smudge bowl. If you're wondering how to smudge with sage, then watch this video right here for a step-by-step process for smudging with sage.

So once you've lit your medicine, you first want to smudge your feather so that you are cleansing the feather and purifying it. You then smudge your head and your eyes, so that you only think good thoughts and see the good and the positive in everything. Then you smudge your mouth so that you say only positive things. And after you finish smudging yourself, you allow the smoke to touch everything else in the room. Now, this smells a lot differently than if I were just burning sage, because I put pieces of the sweet grass inside of my smudge bowl. The entire time that you are smudging, continue to think good and positive thoughts.

It's also important to focus on what you're thankful for, so saying thank you to the creator for having our health, and having our family in good health and our spirits with us, that makes us stronger. I also pray and hope that everyone watching is in good health, and thank them for being a part of this smudging ceremony, thank them for learning Anishinaabe ways, and I pray for the health and wellness of all of you. When you're done smudging, let the medicine burn out on its own, and give thanks to the creator for giving us the gift of the weengushk, and for giving us the sage as well.

#3 why you would use sweet grass as the medicine of choice for smudging

So, because sweet grass is the sacred medicine that represents strength and the community sticking together, it's usually used when, say, there's a community feast or a family gathering. Sweet grass is also one of the more popular-smelling sacred medicines, and it's often used as an air freshener or a decoration in your house because it smells so good, and it also gives off a beautiful, calming aroma.

You'll find lots of other uses for sweet grass as well, such as in candles, air fresheners, incense, essential oils, and in baskets as well. Sweet grass basket weaving is very popular, and a lot of our ancestors used sweet grass to weave baskets for gathering berries and other sacred medicines. So now you know when you would use sweet grass to smudge.

So we've gone through these three important points to know about sweet grass smudging, which are, one, why sweet grass is a sacred medicine, two, how to smudge using sweet grass, and three, when you would use the sweet grass medicine. Now after understanding these three important points about sweet grass smudging, you know exactly why and how to smudge with sweet grass.