The Complete Smudging Handbook

A comprehensive guide to smudging with full-color illustrations

• Describes 34 spiritual and physical smudging protocols for divination, grounding, improving health, confidence, and dreaming

• Offers smudging methods for ritual practice and explains how to properly collect, store, and prepare smudging ingredients

• Includes an A–Z catalog of 66 herbs, resins, and woods for smudging, exploring their history and traditional as well as contemporary uses

Explore smudging with this comprehensive illustrated guide that offers new and traditional ways to approach this ancient practice.

While this book examines the common uses of smudging for protection and energetic cleansing with mainstays like sage, sweetgrass, and frankincense, it also offers unfamiliar and surprising ingredients and applications. The author explains how to smudge with rose petals for acceptance or elder to connect with ancestors. Learn how to ritually prepare mixtures of herbs, resins, and woods for various purposes such as divination, grounding, and approaching new beginnings. Markus details 34 physical and spiritual protocols for smudging rituals to improve overall health, courage and self-confidence, clarity, and lucid dreaming. This guide book will teach you how to prepare for a smudging ritual, choose the appropriate method, and select the right ingredients. Markus also shows how to properly collect, store, and prepare your ingredients in bundles and cones to smudge for yourself or others. With a comprehensive A–Z catalog featuring full color illustrated portraits of 66 herbs, resins, and woods, this book also offers a detailed history of these smudging materials.

The Complete Smudging Handbook offers a modern interpretation of smudging and incense burning that will anchor and deepen any reader’s approach to this ancient practice. Immerse yourself in the world of smudging and open up to plant wisdom for improved physical health and emotional wellbeing.

Markus Schirner is a kinesiology and Touch for Health teacher, a Movement Facilitator with Brain Gym, and massage therapist. His other areas of specialization include aromatherapy and herbalism, meditation and breathing therapy, and Buddhist philosophy. He is the founder of Schirner Verlag, one of the best known spiritual publishing houses in Germany.

Preface

Introduction

Smudging Methods

The Smudging Ritual

Sourcing Smudging Materials

The Uses of Smudging

Acceptance Ancestors

Annual Festivals

Blessing
and Consecration

Clarity

Cleansing

Concentration

Courage and
Self-Confidence

Creativity and Inspiration

Divination
and Clairvoyance

Dreams

Energy and Vitality

Evening Smudging
Sessions

Fear and Anxiety

Good Mood
and Joy in Life

Grief and End-of-Life Care

Grounding

Headaches

Healing

Insect Repellent

Letting Go

Light-Bringers

Love and Sensuality

Meditation
and Inner Vision

Muscle Tension
and Stiffness

New Beginnings
and Transition

The Nights of Yuletide

Parting

Prayer and Invocation

Protection

Respiratory Problems

Rheumatism

Stress and Tension

Women’s Issues

Glossary of Herbs & Resins

Agarwood

Amber

Angelica

Aniseed/Star Anise

Ash

Bay Leaf

Benzoin

Birch

Calamus

Camphor

Cardamom

Cedar

Cedar (American)

Chamomile

Cinnamon

Cloves

Copal

Cypress

Dammar Gum

Dragon’s Blood

Elder

Elecampane

Elemi

Eucalyptus

Frankincense

Galangal

Galbanum

Guggul

Hops

Hyssop

Iris

Juniper

Labdanum

Lady’s Mantle

Larch

Lavender

Lemon Balm

Marigold

Mastic

Meadowsweet
(Mead Wort)

Mistletoe

Mugwort

Myrrh

Myrtle

Nutmeg/Mace

Oak

Opoponax Myrrh

Palo Santo

Patchouli

Peppermint/Mint

Rose

Rosemary

Sage

Sage (White)

Sandalwood (Red)

Sandalwood (White)

Scots Pine

Spikenard

Spruce

St John’s Wort

Styrax

Sweetgrass/Vernal Grass

Thyme

Tonka

Verbena

Vetiver

Yarrow

Epilogue

About the Author

Picture Credits