Author Topic: Respectful Appropriate Way to Return/ Get Rid of Sage, Sweetgrass?  (Read 8723 times)

I have been going through some of the "New Age" things I accumulated over the years, and I found a sweetgrass braid a friend sent me a few years ago. She should not have bought it and sent it (didn't know better), and I should not have it. Now I am wondering what the most appropriate respectful thing to do with it would be. I imagine plenty of other people who come to this board will need to know what is the right way to correct their possession of sage, cedar, or sweetgrass. Any direction would be appreciated. I will, of course, contact the friend and explain why we should not use sage and sweetgrass.

Offline earthw7

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Re: Respectful Appropriate Way to Return/ Get Rid of Sage, Sweetgrass?
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2014, 02:50:20 pm »
I guess for me the use of medicine is not wrong it is why you use it.

When you misuse another cultural ways then it is wrong not the medicine.

Sage, cedar, and sweetgrass can be used as a tea so drink it or as my husband said burn it.
but If you want to get rid of it bury it in the ground give it back to the earth.

as you should know Sage is a disinfected so you can boil the sage and use the water to wash
your counter tops, it kills germs, i sometime wonder why people don't know this.
if your sick drink sage tea.

Cedar keeps bugs away so keep some in your dresser drawers and the tea is good for you
Sweetgrass we wrap our clothes in to make them smell good, it makes a light tea which is also good for you.
everything native do is mostly common sense.
what happens when people don't know the why of thing they make up things.
So now a very common herb has grown in to some thing i don't understand, thats
what happen when people mess with things they don't understand
In Spirit

Re: Respectful Appropriate Way to Return/ Get Rid of Sage, Sweetgrass?
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2014, 11:44:41 pm »
I have read posts about how the use of these things for "cleansing bad energy" makes a mockery of the actual rituals (the thread on Kate Clinton and "sage the Whitehouse" for example. What I have is sweetgrass given to me for that purpose, and I really wasn't sure what ordinary uses it had. Burning it occurred to me, as did burying it in the earth, but since I know nothing about respectful protocols around those things, I thought I'd ask. Honestly burning it didn't sound that different than "smudging," but I guess your point is that if I'm not intending it to be a ceremony, then it's not disrespectful.   

used2bnaf

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Re: Respectful Appropriate Way to Return/ Get Rid of Sage, Sweetgrass?
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2014, 10:55:51 pm »
I am a former new age foo foo kind of guy.  I had a lot of sage, sweet grass, and cedar.  I chose to do as earthw7 intimated.  I used them in responsible and acceptable ways not related to ceremony.  *off topic*  I had many other things that are medicine or sacred.  I considered each item carefully.  Some were buried and other things were repurposed for something non ceremonial related.  For example I had several Sun Dance skirts.  I didn't want to bury or burn them.  I turned them into small pillows and donated them to a nursing home.  Just some ideas...

Respectfully,\

Roy
aka Used2bnaf