Transcription
Yeah, but you see, sighs, it is the cause. If you can't do them, catcher along dingy bar. Smudging is a very important part of our culture. It connects us with our our spirit, our Creator. And in smudging, we have four sacred medicines. We have sage, sweet grass, tobacco, and cedar. And most much as you'll find people using sage, because it is the medicine that we say that when you first offer tobacco, then you are you are ready to start on your us much.
So we have a smudge bowl here, and we have some medicines here. And there is no right or wrong way to smudge. I've been told by my elders and a lot of our people, when they go to ceremony, if they don't know how to smudge, they feel reluctant. So they'll step back and say no. But as part of these circles, we usually stand, and the person, the elder or the conductor of the circle, will like to smudge.
Now today, we're going to do is we're going to use, I'm going to use sage. And this is what they call a white sage. And there are a number of different sages depending on where they come from. And white sage is one of the ones that you'll find in a lot of ceremony. Now, you can write us say Sates much, but you can also mix it with all the other medicines. You can put a little bit tobacco in it. You can put a little bit of sweet grass in it and cedar. But today, we're just going to smudge with just the one medicine.
Now, when we smudge, we usually don't put anything to contaminate. I don't, anyway, this the bowl. So we just strike a match and then we can might and well, the eagle feather. Today we have an eagle plume with us. And what do we smudge? I personally, again, like to uh smudge using my senses first to smudge those. And people who are wearing glasses will use the smudge their glasses and take those glasses aside. Know a nice much. I used to say Bush vulgar Geminid Oh cease Isaac dish the cause music adored him. So he knows that I am addressing him.
And when I smudge, I cleanse my hands. And I usually cleanse my ego feather because I'll use that to help smudge the people in the circle. So I'll smudge my breath because those are where my sacred words will come out of. I will smudge my eyes so that I may be able to see all the good things that has he has to offer us. I also smudge my ears because I'd like to hear those good words that people have to say in those circles. I also smudge my hair because for me, this is my identity. And this hair also has that DNA, they say, of our history. And I also smudge. I also like this much here. And I also smudged. I also smudge my feet so that I may walk on this mother earth with a great respect.
And you can pray in silence. You can pray for whatever you need. And today, what I need to do is that the Creator to be with me. So I say Baruch Hashem, they do not emotional, we Jew shemagh can all gay go with chicken Nico Nicky Anthony gonna be which we all. So I ask the Creator to be with me from this day forward and all that I do. And just have a spirit around me. So the the smudge that we liked helps create that that message up to creator. And then that smoke.
And when we smudge, and for smudging, there's an open side to this bowl. And we face that open side of that bowl out to the people that we're smudging. And when I come up to them, we'll smudge them in a way that is offering them that smoke. And then those people will smudge themselves. On while they're doing that, I hold this eagle feather. I hold it in honor that so that this eagle feather will also here help to hear those prayers. So again, there's many different ways that a person can smudge. There's no right or wrong. For me, this is the way that I do it. And if I model that behavior for others, they pick up their own ways of smudging. So it's one way for our for us to connect their spirit without a creator with the kajam middle in my language.