How To Sage Your Home and Get Rid of Bad Energy

by | Spirituality

Ohhh spring is in the air!!! Hopefully all my previous videos about DIY cleaners has inspired you to do a spring clean :)

Cleaning is an energizing practice – not only physically but also energetically.

Another way to change your home’s energy for the better is to waft it with smoke (the good kind!). Using smoke from the embers of ancient medicinal herbs to “clear a space” is called smudging, and the most popular plants to smudge with are sage and palo santo.

Both are said to neutralize and lighten negative energy.

In this week’s video I’m diving into the ancient ritual of smudging sage and explaining how to do it. It’s a great practice after a spring clean! I explain:

  • What smudging is and where it comes from
  • What items you need to get started
  • The two areas in your home that need it the most
  • A simple tip to light your sage stick in TWO seconds
  • What to do once you’ve finished the practice

It’s a short video but it’s packed full of information and tips on how to sage your house that I picked up at a recent workshop :)

To a lighter, more energized home!


Transcript

Have you ever walked into a yoga studio and smelled the delicious earthy scent filling the room? You’re likely smelling sage!

Burning sage is one of the oldest and most common rituals used for cleansing people and their personal space. Native American sage rituals are probably the most common cultural reference, but these rituals carry across many different continents. Ancient Celtic Druids have been known to burn sage, as well as the Indigenous people of the Amazon who perform Palo Santo burning practices for medicinal and cleansing practices (Palo Santo (“holy stick” is a wild tree native to Mexico is commonly used to product burning sticks and incense).

I’ll go into an exact the steps you can use on how to sage your house or personal space at the end, but first…

Why would I want to burn Sage?

I believe the main purpose to burn sage is for healing and cleansing purposes.

This practice works particularly well when you want to clean a new apartment or house from any negative or stagnant energies that could be leftover from previous tenants.

We, as humans, can feel energy from different sources, even if our logical mind can’t quite place what it is that we are feeling.

Where would I burn sage?

You can harness the benefits of burning sage in your home, your office, your property – basically any dwelling that you or others are often exposed to.

I think clinics or therapist offices would do well from burning sage monthly. These are high traffic places and it’s best to keep the area ‘energetically’ clean.

You can even ‘cleanse’ a person or object by burning sage around them.

Where do I get it from?

For the purposes of saging your home or office, I recommend buying White Sage.

You could use dried garden sage, but you would need a lot of it and it takes time to tightly wrap it together.

Here’s one I recommend on Amazon.

When should I sage my house or office?

You could sage your home or office whenever you feel that it needs a good ‘energetic cleanse’.

To really harness the Earth’s magical energies, I recommend burning sage on a New or a Full Moon.

How to sage your house or office?

1. Set your intention.

You need to be clear of the outcome that you want.

  • Are you trying to cleanse a room of negative energy?
  • Are you cleansing an apartment before you move into it so you can get rid of any stagnant energy from previous tenants?
  • Do you have a high traffic office that you want to cleanse?

An example intention is: ‘I want this home to be filled with light and love and prosperity’.

There are many prayers and meditations you could follow, or just use your intuition. Remember, ‘You Always Know’ so sometimes trusting your gut is the first place to start.

Here’s a Great Resource For Saging Prayers on Pinterest

2. Light your sage stick. Point the tip down and light the sage from the bottom up so that the air draws it into the leaves and it burns evenly. If you try to burn the sage with the tip pointing up it’s much harder and it may not light.

3. Sage yourself to make sure you are clear from any negative energies. You can do this by holding the sage stick in front of your face and using your hand to swirl the smoke around your head.

4. Open up all the windows in your house – this is a great time to let fresh air come inside (we in South Florida love our AC!)

5. Start with the farthest room in the house (from the entrance) and walk around doing every corner, windowsill and doorways. Wave the sage in the air from the bottom up in each area. Windows and doorways are called ‘gateways’ and negative energy can easily enter the house through these (just as us humans do).

Carry a fire-resistant plate around with you to catch any ash. (Remember, even though there is no flame, it’s still burning, so do take care and watch out for any embers!)

6. Focus on high-traffic areas, like the living room and kitchen. These are common areas that often hold energy from many different people.

7. Sage certain items in your house that you are constantly using or items that people are handling a lot.  These are susceptible to picking up negative energy.

8. At the end of your practice, sage the front door from the inside to the outside.

9.  Afterwards, take a bit of the ash and put it at the entrance. Place it on the inside of the door if you need to protect energies from going out, or on the outside if you have a lot of people coming in and you want to protect the energies that come through the door.

10. Finally, clap your hands around the house or use a maraca to dispel any lingering energies. Supposedly loud noises keep the energy out.

My conclusion

I fully believe in using sage to cleanse your house. I think this is a wonderful cleansing ritual and when I do it, everything about my space and my body feels ‘lighter’. I feel at peace, joyful, safe, energized, creative, and able to deeply rest.

If it’s good enough for our planet’s Indigenous cultures then it is good enough for me!  Think of it as ‘spiritual hygiene’.

Have you used sage to cleanse your home or office? Do you have anything else to add? What is your favorite sage to use?

Tell me in the comments below. I’d love to know!

Lindsey Victoria

Lindsey is the author of A Life Well-Balanced, a lifestyle blog dedicated to helping people live a more balanced life - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

27 Comments

  1. Michele C Perkins

    Can I use sage also on my dogs, the same way I use it on myself when I am cleansing my house?

    Reply
    • Lindsey

      Yes, you can – as long as they stand still long enough! The smoke won’t harm them, but animals are sensitive to smells so I would keep the sage stick at least 4 feet away from them (remember it has a burning ember on the end of it) while saging and then make sure to sage their beds, dog bowls, toys, etc.

      Reply
    • Ron

      Where can I buy a feather?

      Reply
    • Elio

      Thanks for your recommendations. It was a good experience to follow your instructions.

      Reply
  2. Sue Hencinski

    Do you have to burn anything after you sage?

    Reply
    • Lindsey

      Hi Sue. You don’t need to burn anything else after you’ve already burned the sage. It’s recommended to go around your house with a maraca or clap your hands to create noise. This is said to dispel any lingering negative energy.

      Reply
    • Nereids

      I would like to burn sage in my house I’d lost a love to it was my son that passed away

      Reply
  3. Jack

    Why can anyone tell me what time of the month to burn or what to e of day?

    Reply
    • Lindsey

      Hi Jack, I recommend harnessing the Earth’s energies and burn sage on a full moon or a new moon. Burn Sage on a full moon with the intention of completion and releasing what is blocking you from manifesting. Burn Sage on a new moon with the intention of new beginnings and inviting in what you want to manifest.

      Reply
  4. Valerie

    If I live in an apartment building of three units, should I smudge the common areas also – such as basement, front door to the building, hallways/stairwells? If so, before or after my apartment? Would the basement come first or the third floor (I am on the second floor)? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Lindsey Victoria

      Hey Valerie – I recommend that you do smudge the common areas! I tend to smudge from bottom to top – so start with the basement and move upwards :)

      Reply
  5. LaTonya Rena Thomas

    Can I sage my house if there is not a full/new moon?

    Reply
    • Lindsey Victoria

      Absolutely! You should do it whenever you want to bring in fresh energy or move stagnate energy. I like to do it around the new/full moon to harness the moon’s power during that time.

      Reply
  6. Katrina

    Hi Lindsey!

    Do you clean the house before you sage or after?

    Thank you for your advice :)

    Reply
  7. Jess

    There is a negative energy in my mother in laws house. Sometimes it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I took a picture recently and you can see a dark shadow in a closet in her home. Any advice for how to remove this negative energy/being safely, effectively, and to make sure it does not attach itself to myself, daughters, or anyone else in my mother in laws house or my own. Is saging enough? What precautions should I take?

    Reply
    • Joseph

      I have a similar problem and would love to hear an answer to the situation aforementioned by jess

      Reply
    • Lindsey Victoria

      Hi Jess, I would suggest that saging can be one of the things you can use to remove negative energy from your home. After you are done, clap loudly or make noise to help remove the negative energy. I would also recommend running lavender, frankincense or melissa oil in a diffuser. I’ve also read that you can spray saltwater around the home too. You might want to also consider hiring an energy healer who can help do further cleansing of your space.

      Reply
  8. Samantha

    Hi Lindsey,

    I have decided to sage my home, but I am not comfortable doing this myself, so I wanted to find someone else to do it. Is there someone who can do this for me? ( I’ve asked at the local church, but they don’t offer that service)

    Reply
    • Lindsey Victoria

      Hi Samantha, this is a great question! I do not know the answer but I recommend Googling ‘space clearing near me’ and I think a list of practitioners will show up as it did for me when I googled that.

      Reply
  9. Jen

    I was taught (from a native American) that you only have 1 window or door open, which would be at the end of your cleansing, thus pushing all the negative energy out that one opening. If u have more than one window or door open the energy can reenter thru that opening. Jus saying. To each is own preference I guess.

    Reply
    • Bill

      That’s the same thing a person told me when I bought my sage.

      Did the ceremony this morning at sunrise. Felt good.

      Leaving the one window open for some time.

      Reply
  10. Donna Reid

    Is there I can say for someone that is being led by a negitive energy, but he went out of state with her, so it will have to be done from here. It is my son. Please if you have anything.

    Reply
  11. Suz

    Both my parents passed in the house. To not disrespect their residual energies, would I want to sage? And what would that do?

    Reply

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