Sage

Sage is in the south on the wheel of the Sacred Herbs. Sage is used for purification, especially clearing emotional energy. The smoke of Sage has a sharp-edged quality to it that feels very effective in clearing people of their everyday feelings and preparing us for ceremony, teachings, and healing. Sage can be used to prepare a room for sleep, clearing and enhancing the dream space. After a nightmare Sage can be burned to drive away the disturbing images and prepare us to return to sleep. Ceremonial objects and healing tools can be cleansed by passing them through Sage smoke.

Other ways of using Sage include rubbing it onto the body for purification or healing, carrying it for protection, or placing it in ceremonial sites for ritual. In The Sacred Pipe Black elk refers to the use of sage in the Sun Dance of the Lakota people:

"In every sun dance we wear wreaths of sage upon our heads, for it is a sign that our minds and heart are close to Wakan-Tanka and His Powers, for the wreath represents the things of the heavens--the stars and planets, which are very mysterious and wakan."

When I first started learning about the use of Sage I was mystified and disturbed because several different kinds or plants were used and referred to as Sage. Plants from the Sagebrush family, Artmesia, are used as well as plants related to culinary sage, the Salvias. I worried that there could only be one real "Sage" and that many people were using the wrong plants. Actually both kinds of pants are used and seem to have similar qualities. Artemesia tridentata or Basin Sagebrush is used by people throughout the Southwest and southern California. The Cahilla people used it as an air purifier and disinfectant, burning it in homes and sweat lodges. Last year while visiting Hopiland we were shown sticks of several different kinds of sagebrush. Only the Artemesia tridentata is used in ceremony; the others are burned just because they smell good.

The other Sage that is used frequently is White Sage or Salvia apiana. White Sage grows in southern California. It is a large shrub with broad, pale gray leaves and a very pungent smell. To me this Sage feels like the one with the strongest purifying quality.

Cedar

Plants of several different species are also used as the Sacred Herb Cedar. Again different plants were used in different parts of the country. In the southwest the Utah juniper is used by the Hopi for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Utah Juniper or Junipurus osteosperma grown throughout the southwest in dry, rocky places from 3000' to 8000'. It is usually no higher than 15'. In California the Incense Cedar or Libocedrus decurrens is used. This is a large tree growing in the Sierras. The people on the east coast used an entirely different species. The smoke of all there different Cedars seems to have similar qualities.

Cedar is in the west on the medicine wheel. It is associated with the physical and can be used to clean and purify a place. Cedar releases negative ions as it burns and thus creates a more peaceful energy in a room when it is used. Cedar can be burned after cleaning the house to complete the cleansing process on a deeper level. To me the smell of Cedar smoke is clear and crisp but more soothing than sage. This is the herb I could find and gather most easily in my local area and is the one I have used the most over the years. My children love the smell of Cedar smoke and have often asked me to burn it.

Sweetgrass

On our medicine wheel we find Sweetgrass in the north. Sweetgrass has the quality of balancing the mental aspects. It can be used for blessing and to bring in sweetness. It is good to burn Sweetgrass after cedar or sage, because after cleansing and driving out unwanted energies a vacuum is created. It is good to fill that space with the sweetness of Sweetgrass.

Sweetgrass grows in a large area of northern North America. It grows in meadows, bogs, and moist places all across the northern plains and in the mountains as far south as Arizona and New Mexico. It is also called holy grass. The botanical name, Hierchloe odorata comes from Greek. Hieros means sacred and chloe means grass. This grass was also used in Europe for spreading at the doorways of churches on festival days. The fact that people as diverse as early Europeans and Native Americans considered the same plant holy indicates that both cultures were simply recognizing the inherent quality of the plant. As we use these Sacred Herbs today we can experience for ourselves these qualities. No single culture has an exclusive claim to the use of herbs that Creator has made available to all people.

Sweetgrass is used by the Lakota people as an offering that provides a connection with Creator and all of creation, as described in The Sacred Pipe:

"O Grandfather, Wakan-Tanka, behold us! Upon the sacred earth place this Your herb. The smoke that rises from the earth and fire will belong to all that moves in the universe: the four-leggeds, the wingeds, and everything that moves and everything that is. This offering of theirs will now be given to You, O Wakan-Tanka! We shall make sacred all that we touch!' As the sweet grass is put upon the coal, the other town in the lodge cry, 'Hi ye!' (Thanks), and as the smoke rises, the holy man rubs his hands in it and then rubs them over his body. In the same manner the 'lamenter' and the helper purify themselves with the sacred smoke."

Using Sweetgrass, Sage, and Cedar

Sweetgrass, Sage, and Cedar are all primarily used in ceremony by burning their leaves to produce a cleansing smoke. Sweetgrass is available in long braids. Cedar and Sage are either prepared in sticks of branches tied together in sticks or as loose branches. They call all be burned in containers such as abalone shells or a fired earthenware dish. Be sure the container is large enough to hold and sagely contain the fire and little burning pieces that fall from it. Cedar or Sage are very flammable and when you burn their loose leaves they will flare up, so be sure to use only a very small quantity. At home, I often use only one leaf of Sage at a time. Allow the leaf to burn only long enough to get going then carefully blow out the flame and allow the leaf to smolder. The point here is to produce smoke, not a roaring fire. Lighting a stick or braid may take a little longer but they often will continue to produce smile for a longer period of time.

The smoke can be used to cleanse people, objects, or a space. If you are indoors leave a door or window partially open to allow the smoke to carry the energies it cleanses out of the room. You can move the smoke using a single-feather fan or your hands. Find ways that feel good to cleanse yourself. You can pull the smoke up and over your head and use it to cleanse (or sweetgrass to fill) chakras. If you are working with another person remember to clear the back of their bodies as well as the front. To cleanse a room walk around with your dish or shell, waving the smile into all the corners and under the beds.

Tobacco

Tobacco may have been the most universally used of all the five Sacred Herbs. It appears to have been used in most of North America. In California people who had no other form of agriculture would grow Tobacco.

Tobacco is in the east on the medicine wheel and has the quality of communication with Spirit. Tobacco smoke is visible breath that takes prayers to the Great Spirit. Tobacco also has the quality of connecting people with each other and bringing peace. It is often used as an offering to pants when gathering herbs. A gift of Tobacco is offered to elders in exchange for teaching or healing.

"In offering tobacco to spirits, it is not necessary for the person making the offering to inhale the smoke. Tobacco is most commonly offered by being placed on coals or thrown on fire...Tobacco need not even be burned, but may be placed on the ground as an offering to the earth, thrown on water, or placed on or by sacred rocks or trees...

Whenever herbs, trees, animals, and stones are taken for use, especially sacred use, tobacco is placed by the requested substance as it is asked to offer itself to meet human needs.

Tobacco offered directly or as smoke allows for communication with the spirit. As a Mesquakie told a student seeking to understand Native American culture: 'We use it (tobacco) in ceremonies; we put it in the fire, and then we can talk to the spirits.'"

"Secondary methods involve those making the offering to bring the tobacco smoke into themselves and then blow it towards the spiritual recipient. The sharing of the smoke between the one making the offering and the spirit receiving it creates communion between the two. The sacred smoke may also be spread over oneself or over objects and persons as a blessing."

The pipe ceremony of the Lakota people is an example of a highly ritualized use of Tobacco in prayer. The two books I have quoted, The Sacred Pipe and Offering Smoke, go into great detail on the history of this ceremony and the use of Tobacco.

Using Tobacco in ceremony is often difficult for contemporary people to understand and accept because of our experiences with the misuse of Tobacco in our culture. When this powerful herb was introduced to the explorers and settlers of the "New World," the Europeans learned to use the herb but did not understand its sacred nature. Smoking Tobacco for the wrong reasons probed to be addictive and devastating to the health of the smoker. Many of us have come to believe that smoking is wrong and that Tobacco is an evil weed. It is hard to get beyond these beliefs and come to appreciate the innate sacred quality of Tobacco.

In her book Buffalo Woman Comes Singing, Brooke Medicine Eagle describes her experience of confronting her attitudes about Tobacco:

"He spoke of tobacco, whose sacred medicine is unifying and bringing together all peoples. Yet we humans have turned to using it for our own gratification: to numb and ease ourselves, ignoring the disharmonies within us and in our relationship."


Starting on page 250, Brooke explains the recapitulation process she went through to get beyond her early experiences with Tobacco.

To use Tobacco in ceremony it is important to feel respect for the plant. Bringing unexplored negative attitudes toward Tobacco into a ceremony in which it is to be used will cloud the intent of the ritual. When Tobacco is smoked in ceremony it is taken only into the mouth and inhaled. For some people even using Tobacco in that way is a problem. Other herbs can be substituted as a smoking mixture but they do not have the same sacred quality that Tobacco does. Offering Tobacco in ways that do not involve smoking may be a solution.

Corn Meal/Corn Pollen

We find corn in the form of ground meal or pollen at the center of the wheel of Sacred Herbs. Among those people who practiced agriculture in North America, corn was the staff of life. It was the primary plant food that sustained the life of the people. Many tribes have stories explaining the gift of corn to the people. There are ancient rituals for the planting and harvesting of corn, and for ensuring the proper conditions for its growth. Corn is a plant that holds a strong central position in the lives of these tribes because of its role both as a food and in ceremony.

Corn Meal and Corn Pollen are used as offerings in many different ways. The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions describes the Pueblo use of Corn Meal:

"Meal, made from perfect ears of (usually white) corn, is sacred and associated with praying. The meal is held in the hand, brought to the mouth and prayed and breathed on before it is sprinkled over sacred objects and people. Corn meal is sprinkled as a sanctifying element over altars, prayersticks, shrines, kachina masks and other sacred objects and into springs and graves and on corpses and killed deer. It is sprinkled to bless new houses, to delineate sacred paths, across roads to bar enemies from entering, as a road for spirits and humans to travel over, before and over kachina spirits of rain and fertility (who also carry it) and before kick stick racers. Cornmeal is rubbed on newborns and the dead. Chornhusk packets of meal accompany requests to medicine societies for a cure and to a person chosen to become one's ceremonial parent when joining a ceremonial society."

The use of Corn Pollen is described in this passage from The Sacred:

"Corn Pollen is one of the natural elements that is used by the Navajo people in rituals and to accompany prayers. At a healing ceremony of 'sing,' the people are seated at the far end of the hooghan facing the door. The 'singer' (hataalii) or medicine man passes his own pouch filled with blessed corn pollen, gathered in his own corn fields or given to him as a gift, to the person seated by the door which faces the east. The bag is passed from person to person going clockwise.

As it is passed, starting in the east, each person takes a small pinch of the corn pollen from the bag. First he/she puts a bit on the top of his/her head, then a dab in the mouth; and, finally, he/she sprinkles it towards the chimney hole--up towards the center roof of the hooghan and offers a prayer before passing the bag on to the next person. The prayer may ask for a healthy and long life, for prosperity, for abundant crops, rain, healthy children, and so on. David Kindle, a Navajo elder, tells us some of the reasons corn pollen is considered sacred and is
used in prayers and ceremonies by the Navajo people: 'This is symbolic thinking. Just imagine this corn pollen. We use this as an offering.

Maybe the Great Spirit doesn't need it, but for us it's just the thing. We know we should try to offer what little we have, the pollen which is needed for all vegetation. One plant communicates with another by pollination. Even the worms, even those little ants down there, know this. Pollination is the sign of the growing of the harvest crop or anything that needs pollination: then the fruit comes following that.'"

Corn Meal and Pollen are used as prayer offerings when gathering herbs or hunting. Corn is also used in greeting the new day. A pinch of Corn Meal or Pollen is offered to the rising sun with a prayer of thanks for the gift of another day and as offering of the intention to be of service.

Corn is grown in different colors--primarily white, yellow, blue, and red. Each color of corn represents a different direction on the medicine wheel. Imagine a medicine wheel of corn within the center of the Wheel of Sacred Herbs. From this we can learn the different aspects of the center.

Gathering and Growing the Sacred Herbs

All of the Sacred Herbs are available commercially. It is important to know that any of these herbs I use were grown and gathered properly. For that reason I prefer to do my own gathering whenever possible.

I gather Cedar and Sage (Sagebrush) on my visits to the Sierras and the Southwest. Plant materials we intend to use in ceremony should be gathered in a very respectful way. Learn to identify the plant you want to gather. Find a healthy stand of plants away from the road or any source of pollution. Try to locate the Grandparent plant and ask permission to gather in that location. Listen for an answer and respect what you hear. Forget about your plans to gather if it is not the right time or place. Give an offering to the Grandparent plant but do not gather from that plant. Choose healthy plants to gather from and give them an offering too, thanking them for the gift they offer you. Take only a small amount from each plant and gather only as much as you need.

I always take thread or fine cotton string with me to gather Sagebrush or cedar. It is best to wrap the sticks right after gathering while the branches and leaves are still soft and supple. Put together enough branches to make a bundle about one-half to one inch thick and anywhere from four to twelve inches long. Wrap around with string to hold it tightly together. Hang them in a dry place for several weeks.

I have never found White Sage in the wild, but I plan to keep trying whenever I go to Southern California. I was able to find a few plants in a native plant nursery, which I planted in the past year. Three of them are in my yard and growing very well. One is big enough to gather from occasionally.

I would love to gather Sweetgrass, but it does not grow in this area and I don't make it to the northern plains very often. There is a related plant that does grow nearby. This is called Vanilla Grass and the scent is quite similar. I gather a small amount of this each year and burn it if I run out of Sweetgrass. The scent of the newly-picked leaves is wonderful. I like to pick a leaf if I see a plant on a walk and carry it with me.

When visiting friends in Tennessee years ago I remember hearing that it was illegal to grow Tobacco without a permit. It was not surprising that growing such a lucrative crop would be highly controlled. It is hard to feel good about how most Tobacco is grown in this country. It is planted as a monoculture and depletes the soil on which it is grown. It is sprayed with many chemicals. Tobacco is not a plant I would want to gather even if I found it growing in the wild. It is very irritating to the skin and can cause a bad rash. For all these reasons it seems best to buy a good organically grown Tobacco.

Corn is the one plant among the Sacred Herbs that is a part of my personal and family history. My grandfather grew corn every year. Eating those big, sweet roasting ears is one of the best memories of my childhood. Now I feel compelled to grow corn every year myself. Sometimes it seems that corn takes up too much room in the garden and is just not practical, but I usually plant it anyway. I now grow corn not just because it tastes good but because going through the ancient process nourishes my soul as well as my body. I have worked out a personal ritual for planting and caring for the corn. The changes in the summer season are marked by the stages of its growth.

With all of These Sacred Herbs, learning about their traditional uses has been an important part of my process. I really begin to know them through my own experiences with them over time. Using them in ritual and prayer connects me with a circle that is bigger than my personal world. Becoming familiar with the plants, gathering and growing them, has enriched their place in my life.