WHITE SAGE MEDICINE

I messed up. 

In the spirit of releasing, reflecting and restoring I am considering my relationship to the world and the ways I have moved in the world. 

I can’t clearly remember the first time I met White Sage, but I assume that it was circa 2004 in a healing training of someone kind, far removed from the plant’s Indigenous lands, peoples, and practices. What I do remember is deeply loving the smell and the way energy changed and shifted in its presence. I feel deeply in love with the magic and medicine of White Sage. I would burn, gift, drink White Sage. I truly felt like I was using it in an authentic way. I purchased it from a source that focused on cultivated, sustainable harvesting practices. I personally recognized the cultural significance of White Sage for many Indigenous peoples. 

But I didn’t dig deeper, certainly not deep enough to understand that the use of White Sage in my ceremonies, social media, book, or even the use of the word smudging was “cultural appropriation.” Certainly not deep enough to understand how endangered White Sage is or the poaching and illegal sales of White Sage.  What’s worse is that I should have known better. I became very aware of and sensitive cultural appropriation during the later years of my time in the Peruvian Amazon. I should have dug deeper, done more research. But I didn’t. 

In my book Ritual Baths, where White Sage is mentioned often (as well as smudging), I talk about the importance of letting your healing tools find you. I write about the importance of finding your feathers because if a healing tool comes to us by way of suffering, the energy in it is no longer healing. How did I not acknowledge this with plants and the people who care for these plants? 

It wasn’t till folks started kindly and lovingly calling me out that I began to dig deeper. 

I think that I assumed when I would share something on White Sage in social media or in my book, that folks were already aware of sustainable harvesting practices and honoring traditions. But we all know what happens when we ass-u-me

I am so sorry for these unconscious actions. I feel deeply ashamed for how I exploited someone I love so much without even realizing the harm I was causing... Someone who gave me so much, the Spirit of White Sage. 

It’s making me question all the relationships where I say “I Love You” . What do I mean by that? How can I better show up for that? What is the expression of my love? How can I be a noble steward to who and what I love? Love is meant to regenerate us, not exploit us. 

And it’s not lost on me that this questioning and humility is coming from the ever present unconditional love teaching of White Sage, and this is so humbling, so awe inspiring. 

More recently in my work, I talk about the importance of putting things down and taking things off as a way to feel more aligned spiritually…That if you feel you need a tool of some kind, you can simply manifest it, and that this is the true way to work with the energy of manifestation — for healing. I think I am getting a bittersweet dose of my own medicine.

So where to go from here? How to make amends?

I’ve planted White Sage in the sunniest and driest part of my garden. I sit close, give offerings, sing and pray for forgiveness. I encourage folks to know the sources of the sage they have and to only purchase cultivated White Sage. I never buy commercially when I want to connect to White Sage for healing. I call on it energetically and I do so with deep honor, reverence, and respect to the plant and to the many tribes whose ancestors have tended to the plant. And I seek out more and more ways to create reparations, starting with giving 100% of the proceeds for my Lion’s Gate Ceremony, (which very fittingly is focused on how we are connected to, not separate from, Everything...) to the California Native Plant Society who does so much for the protection of this sacred plant. 

Film Resource: Saging the World