The sage (Salvia officinalis) is a plant up to 80 cm, with erect stems, elongated leaves with a pubescent underside, and beautiful violet flowers, which are grouped from 4 to 8 in terminal inflorescences. It grows in poor meadows, field margins, ditches and rocky slopes, generally in dry and sunny environments.

This plant is highly appreciated by herbalists for its medicinal properties. It is indicated for oral conditions, sore throats and also as a digestive and nervous tonic. It is common to take it in the form of an infusion or decoction, although it is also found in the form of a tincture, extract or essential oil.

To all these uses we can add a quite different one. It involves burning sage leaves to purify the air in rooms. It is also used in energy cleansing of the home, such as energy cleansing done with palo santo or other incenses.

4 steps to purify the house with sage

He purifying ritual a space with the smoke of a sacred plant is a universal practice. The Salvia officinalis It is one of the plants most used for this purpose, normally for energy purposes, but its properties justify it: its essential oils have proven their ability to enhance intellectual abilities.

By smoking a space with sage, it promotes mental claritythe happiness and the calm. To burn the sage and purify the house, follow these steps:

1. Preparation: You need a bunch of dried sage tied with cotton, a bowl to collect the ash and a feather or fan. In some places you will find a ready-made bundle of sage, which you can burn as if it were a stick of incense.
2. On: Light the sage inside the bowl, blow to stoke the fire, and let it go out. Be careful with sparks!
3. Sahumar: You can bring the smoke closer to the people participating in the ritual. Direct it to the head, arms, legs, back…
4. Cleaning: He slowly moves through the space with the bowl, dispersing the smoke with the feather. Make it go where your intuition guides you.

Instead of an ordinary bowl, you can use an incense burnerwhich is like a small «botafumeiro». With a small piece of charcoal, you put the plant to burn and pass it through the house with undulating movements to clean and purify the environment.

If you don’t want to resort to smoke, you can always purify the home environment by spraying the sage essential oil diluted in waterlike an air freshener.

You can also perform cleansing rituals with other plants, such as palo santo, a sacred Peruvian wood that produces a whitish smoke that is also attributed with purifying properties.

How to get sage to burn

To burn sage you need to use the dried plant. In herbalists and online stores you can find bundles of ready-made sage to burn, usually California white sage (Salvia apiana). It is often combined with palo santo in kits to purify the house. Also sage incense.

Just like the Salvia officinaliswhite sage extract also has antimicrobial properties according to a study published in the Argentine Journal of Microbiologyhence, for example, it is used to give foot baths or make homemade deodorants, although there is no evidence of its effects when burned.

You also have the option to grow the plant and dry it at home yourself. Ask for watering in moderation, when the soil is dry and avoiding waterlogging, about two or three times a week. When cutting it to dry it:

1. Do not tear it off, cut only the twigs with leaves that you need.
2. Make sure it has grown enough and that you have enough twigs so that if you cut off a bunch, the plant is not too weakened and can continue growing.
3. Group the leaves to make a bundle, tie them with string and hang it in a dry place so that it releases moisture.
4. How long it takes will vary depending on conditions. To check if it is dry enough, squeeze the leaves with your fingers and see if they break and fall apart. If so, it will be ready.

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