How to Cleanse a House Without Sage: Super Simple

Spiritual wellness is something that we should all strive for and has been at the tip of everyone’s tongues lately, and for a good reason – living through global crises and a pandemic has made clearing our spaces of negative energy more critical than ever.

Sage cleansing has also become popular as a side effect of this phenomenon. Known for cleansing spaces of negative spirits or energy, white sage isn’t always available everywhere. If you want to cleanse your home but don’t have access to sage, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for more information so you can find the best option if you do not have sage.

The Environmental Implications of White Sage

White sage isn’t the most sustainable plant on the planet and is typically wild-harvested, which means that it is not grown on farms. This is because the conditions in which it can grow are very specific. White sage lives in a restricted natural range in the South of California, which means that it is difficult to cultivate in other parts of the world.

What’s more, white sage plants can take up to three years to regrow after being harvested, so they have exceptionally slow turnaround times. The overharvesting practices used to speed up white sage production are also quite unethical, so much so that the people who have been using sage for millennia don’t have access to it anymore.

These people are the Native Americans of Southern California and its surrounding areas who have been using white sage for centuries.

Using White Sage Alternatives to Cleanse Your Space

Since you will want to think twice about using white sage to cleanse your space, there are a wide variety of other options for you to explore. Cedar and juniper can work wonderfully for cleansing rituals, and both plants have a long history of being used for cleansing. What’s more, they are both prolific in Texas.

The common sage variety and rosemary are often used and are pretty easy to grow in your home garden. Both have their own traditions of use and can be great for cleansing your space. Cleansing ritual basics are quite simple, though it is not uncommon for people to feel pressured into performing them one specific way.

Remember that there is no one right way to cleanse a space. The way you approach the act is the most important thing, and so is your personal experience with both your cleansing medium and the space you are cleansing.

There are many different ways that we could talk about the energies of plants. However, it is essential that you form your own relationship with them, whether you are adding them to your altar, cleansing with them, or taking some time to go outside and be with the plant in person. Simply being near a cleansing plant is an exchange of energy, and you can receive the plant’s medicine in this way.

For instance, juniper is resilient, hearty, and strong and brings those very same energies to your space when you burn it for cleansing purposes.

How to Cleanse a House without Sage

You can burn a sage alternative to cleanse your home, yourself, your workspace, or any other place that you feel needs to be uplifted spiritually. Light the end and let it burn slow and good for a few seconds with a bundle of your plant of choice.

Once the stream of smoke is steady, walk around your space and shroud it in smoke. Be sure to pay special attention to the corners of the space and place the plant in a shell or bowl to allow the embers to extinguish on their own.

Before you start, it is essential that you set your intentions. Smoke cleansing will leave a void in the energy in your space, which means you are going to need to invite new energies into your space using the intention you set.

Take some time to think about your visions for yourself, your family, and your home. What are the things that come to mind before you start cleansing your space?

White Sage – The Cultural Significance

White sage plays a significant spiritual and cultural role for many indigenous tribes. It is the main plant used in smudging ceremonies, which are performed to cleanse the energy, body, or, or a living space using the smoke from a burning fragrant plant leaf.

Smudging is done to heal and remove negative energy while also bridging the gap between the higher and mortal realms. Getting rid of stagnant and negative spirits from an area, smudging helps a space fight against anxieties, sadness, impurities, and poor health to leave only prosperity and peace in its wake.

While it is certainly an ancient ritual, it is still practiced to this day and is very culturally significant for many indigenous people worldwide. It was illegal for Native Americans to practice their religions until 1978, including the burning of sage during the aforementioned smudging ceremonies.

Native people still have to fight to this day to maintain their hold on the traditions that rightfully belong to them, as well as the lands that were stolen from them. Non-Native people burning sage to ‘smudge’ their spaces, as a result, can reduce the massive cultural significance of the ritual.

We also need to mention the fact that non-Natives are negatively impacting the way that these herbs are harvested and grown. This has a dire impact on the quality of the white sage.

FAQs

If you still have a few questions about sage and cleansing your home, office, and personal spaces, we have answered a couple of the most commonly asked questions below.

Why does sage cleanse a house?

Sage cleanses a home by eliminating negative energies from the space, including sadness, anxiety, anger, and stagnancy. It replaces these negative energies with positive energies that you determine when you set your intentions.

Many people will choose energies like calm, peace, wisdom, happiness, serenity, clarity, and acceptance. But it is up to each individual person to decide what is important to them. White sage is also said to ward off evil and malignant spirits that would seek to do us harm.

What can I use instead of sage?

There are plenty of herbs and plants that you can use as a substitute for sage if you are unable to source sage or if you do not like the smell of the herb, including thyme, rosemary, oregano, and bay leaf. The key is to use a fragrant medium that will let off lots of smoke when burnt so that the smoke can shroud your entire space and fill it with the energies of your choice.

Final Thoughts

There are quite a few ways that you can cleanse your home and your personal spaces without the use of sage. We have taken a look at just some of the options above, and we must say that our biggest recommendation would be thyme or rosemary if you can’t get hold of sage, or if you do not like the smell of sage. We hope that you now have all the answers you need to cleanse your home without sage.