How to Make Your Own Smudges
By Linda Seekins

If you would like to make smudges for your own use, it's an easy process.
All you need are the particular herbs you want in them and something to tie them together.

Smudges can be used pretty much in the same way as any other incense. They are especially handy for purifying the circle for you can wave them around the area or use them to delineate the edge of the circle.

If you need to take a smudge through a large area such as your home to purify or whatever, you should take a lit candle or a lighter with you so that you can relight the smudge if you need to, since most smudges will not stay lit like regular incense.

Be careful about falling sparks and cinders as you wave it around so that you won't start an accidental fire.

You can use a lot of things as smudges, not just sage or cedar. If you want to make your own, it's really simple.
Gather a bundle of the fresh herbs, for example -- cedar twigs -- to the length that you want.

Put the bottoms of the stems together and tie them tightly with cotton string, yarn or thread. Do not use synthetics, leather or wool, for they give off nasty scents when they burn. Then wind the string around the bundle (be sure it's tight, for as the smudge dries, it will shrink and the string will loosen some) up to within an inch or two from the top end and tie it off, or wind it back down to the stem end again and tie it off there.
The top end will be ragged, so you can either leave it that way, or trim it with scissors to make it neater like the ones you buy.

Now lay the smudge out or hang it up to dry for a couple of weeks and it's ready to use.
Don't worry if it doesn't look as fancy as the ones that you buy, mine don't. It's not how fancy it is, but what herbs are in it that matters.

You can combine herbs in a smudge, such as the usual sage and cedar, or make specialty smudges for specific purposes, such as herbs for love, healing, protection or whatever else you wish. Experiment with different herbs to find just the scent that works best for you.
You can also use specific colors of cotton yarn or whatever to tie them. Be sure to empower them as you make them so that they will be more attuned to their purpose.

Now, there is one more thing that you can do which not many people may have considered. When you strip the dry leaves off the herbs from your garden or from the wild which have been hung up to dry, save the dry stems, bundle them together and tie them like a smudge. These are excellent to use just like smudges and there is usually little difference in the scent. If you only have a small amount of an herb, you can still have smudges and use the leaves for other things. Sage stems work well for this. Another example is hyssop stems which are excellent to use for purification since hyssop is extremely purifying, even more than sage. This is a good way to have smudges of herbs that have leaves that don't make into smudges very well, like hyssop, thyme or other herbs with small leaves which tend to fall off the stems when they dry.

You will discover that this is an interesting and fun way to use herbs for scenting and it will be something which you have created yourself.