Charlie Rainbow Wolf
Sage (Salvia officinalis) is another one of those herbs that is familiar to most people, whether they’re into gardening or naturopathy or not. It’s used in potpourri, cooking, and incense, and it also has magical rites. It’s incredibly easy to grow, it has a nice flower and a pleasing scent, and it is a wildflower in many places of the world.
Sage is great for the beginning gardener. It’s inexpensive from most garden centers, and if you know someone who has a parent plant, it can be easily split to provide you with a start. Give it some well drained soil and a lot of sunlight and then forget about it. It’s pretty drought tolerant, and it will let you know if it needs water by wilting. Most of the common sages are perennial, anywhere from eighteen to twenty-four inches tall and up to thirty-six inches wide, and will come back again and again to bring their delights to your door. Older, woody plants benefit from a hard prune now and again. My husband’s even inadvertently flattened a couple of mine with the lawnmower; they’ve just come back bright leaved and sweeter-smelling next year!
This herb is usually grown for its leaves, which come in dusty shades of green and have a very distinct, earthy aroma. Plant it near your cabbages and carrots to deter garden pests. It will help add flavor to your tomatoes if they’re grown together, although keep it away from cucumbers. The flowers are pretty, but shouldn’t be allowed to bloom as that will take the scent and taste away from the leaves. I keep one old sage that I do let flower though, because it attracts bees and butterflies and other pollinators into the garden.
Sage has a fairly long growing season and will tolerate mild frosts, but it’s better to harvest the leaves before that point. Pick them in the morning after the dew is gone but before the sun gets too hot. Sprigs of sage can be dried and tied into bundles, or the individual leaves can be dried and stored for adding to recipes and loose incense. Finely chopped fresh leaves can be whipped into butter for a delicious herby spread, and this will keep in the freezer. Add fresh sage to honey, maple syrup, and herbal vinegars for added flavor, or add it to ice cubes to use in soups and stews at a later date. Sage can even be substituted for basil when making pesto for a different kind of flavor. Dried sage makes an excellent addition to salt rubs when cooking.
As a folk remedy, sage is popular and very beneficial. Sage tea is soothing for a cold or flu, helping to soothe the membranes, calm the nerves, and ease the stomach. It’s a great mouthwash and helps to reduce swelling and bruising when applied as a poultice. As a massage oil, it’s relaxing and helps to unknot tired muscles. It’s said to assist the body’s natural defenses against infections, and some herbal practitioners prescribe it to help with night sweats, menopause, and the end of lactation after pregnancy.
Magically, sage is cleansing and protective. It’s the first herb that comes to mind when most people think about a smudging—or cleansing—ceremony. In addition to purification, it also aids in longevity, wisdom (as in “the wise old sage”), and in making wishes become reality. Sage is valuable in the grieving process, too, and for honoring the ones who no longer walk this earth.
A Mabon Cleansing Ritual
Whether you realize it or not, you’re constantly being bombarded by the energy of other people and things as you move through your daily life. You can ground, center, and shield and help to deter most of this, but everyone has off days, or days when they feel more open than others. That’s where this ritual comes in beautifully. It’s done at Mabon to bring everything back into balance, but it’s doable whenever you feel that the day has taken a bit out of you.
Like the other ceremonies, this can be done as a group, or worked alone. You’ll need dried sage—bundles from an apothecary are best, but even the culinary spices will work, although if you go that route you should add a heatproof dish and a lump of charcoal. You’ll want a flower pot or similar receptacle full of loose dirt or sand, a green candle and something with which to light it, and a broom—preferably a besom or one of the old fashioned brooms as opposed to something plastic. It’s best to do this right on the equinox, but if you can’t, that’s okay, too. You don’t necessarily need to cast a circle for this ceremony as it’s one of protection and purging, anyway, but you may do so if you wish.
At the time of your ritual, light your sage and get it really smoking (temporarily remove the batteries from your smoke alarms—don’t ask me how I know this one). Carry the sage through each area of your home or garden that you want to clean and protect. Make sure that you’re surrounding yourself in the smoke, too. As you cleanse yourself and your environment, accompany the energy shift by singing or chanting. If you don’t have a favorite, something similar to the following will do:
Spirits, sage, and those welcome here
Purge and protect us from any fears
Cleanse and calm all those whom we love
With our prayers let the smoke rise above.
Once you have saged every area, then it’s time to sweep it. Place your sage onto the plant pot full of dirt so that it is safe, but don’t extinguish it, not yet. Take your broom and go through the motions of sweeping out the unwanted energy and anything that is holding you back from being everything you be. Make your sweeping motions toward the door, and you can continue right outside. I’ve swept things through apartment complex halls and stairs and right down the path into the gutters before today!
When all the energy is swept out, and the area is clean, it’s time to extinguish the sage. If you’re using a bundle, plunge it into the plant pot of loose earth. If you’ve used the loose sage, put this in the earth and stir it around a bit to make sure that it’s completely out. When it’s extinguished and cool, take this soil or sand and tip it out of the plant pot somewhere that is not on your property—a ditch, or a hedgerow, for instance. You’ve now taken all the negative energy away from you and your home so that the balanced energy can return.
Sage asks you to pause and remember that challenges are a part of life; we have to have light and dark for there to be the equilibrium. What you’ve done is made way for the challenges with which you can cope and banished any residue that might overwhelm you. Keep this in mind, and call upon the wisdom of the lessons that sage has to teach the next time you start to feel anxious about something.