How to Sage Your House: Step-by-Step Guide

To cleanse your space, you might consider smudging your home. Burning sage has cleansing and healing properties that can remove stagnant energy. A place can acquire negative energy from guests or old tenants. Whether you’ve been feeling stressed or want to clear your space for other reasons, here is a step-by-step guide on how to sage your house. 

What Is Smudging? 

Burning sage or smudging is said to eliminate negative energy from your space. It can also cleanse your aura. Changing your dwelling’s energy with smoke can alleviate stress and help neutralize the vibe of your home. 

How to Sage Your House

Sage is a medicine for women that can provide clarity, strength, wisdom and vision. Cleansing rituals use sage to clear a space or a person of impurities, including thoughts, sadness or anxieties. For centuries, indigenous cultures and Native Americans have burned sage as a part of a cleansing ritual. If you want to learn how to sage your house, follow this guide to cleanse your home. 

1. Gather Your Tools

To smudge your house, you’ll need a bundle of sage or sage stick and something to light it with, like a long match or candle lighter. When you finish cleansing your space, you’ll need something to put out your sage, like a vessel, sand or dirt in a clay bowl. 

Ensure that you don’t get your sage wet since water can damage the medicinal herb and make it difficult to relight. Large spaces require more smoke, so ensure you have a big enough bundle to cleanse your home. If you are sensitive to smoke or can’t light things in your rental, consider getting a sage mist or spray instead. 

2. Set Your Intention

You’ll want to prepare what you wish to achieve from smudging your space. If your goal is to remove stagnant energy, you’ll want to repeat something about that while your sage is burning throughout your home. You can also use sage to clear your chakras of negative energy, much like you can use crystals in crystal healing practices. Come up with a mantra and manifest it as you walk slowly through your home. You can say, “I rid this home of negative energy and cleanse this space.” 

3. Open a Window

All energy will need somewhere to go, so you’ll want to plan an exit strategy before you begin to smudge. Open at least one window to give the smoke somewhere to exit your home. Having the doors open can be an excellent way to ensure that there is plenty of air circulation throughout your dwelling as you cleanse your space. 

4. Burn Your Sage

Light your sage by your front door with a long match or candle lighter to ensure it is well-lit. A sage bundle can take a moment to ignite, so stick with it and turn the stick as you light it to ensure it’s burning evenly. You’ll want to repeat your mantra as you walk the interior perimeter of your home slowly. 

Walking in a circular motion like this for a ritual purpose is called circumambulation and began in sacred rituals and ceremonies. Line the doorways to rid them of energy that enters your home to protect your space. Ensure that the smoke enters your closets and other crevices of your home. You can also wave your sage over your body to align and clear your chakras of negative energy.

Cleansing Your Space

There is no right or wrong time to smudge your home. Once you learn how to sage your house, you can cleanse it whenever you want. Respect the culture and origin of burning sage by acknowledging where it began when you cleanse your space.