Benefits And Uses Of White Sage
Plus… How To Work With White Sage
Updated 2025.06.09. This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, Amanda Linette Meder and her partners may earn a commission or other compensation, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
White Sage (Salvia apiana) is a plant native to high desert ecosystems and grows prevalently in California and in the Mountain West.
Since ages before my time, White Sage has been considered a sacred, cleansing, purifying and protective plant.
The leaves of the plant are whitish-green, and if you rub the fresh leaves between your thumb and forefinger, a refreshing, cleansing scent is released.
Native Americans started the tradition of using White Sage, also known as Sacred Sage, to release lingering energies, however, other cultures have similar traditions with other herbs, like Cedar or Juniper.
Though, White Sage has gained popularity for use in ceremonies to seek blessings of health and prosperity, release spirits and encourage protection. It just works so well and smells so good. It also has many more uses than just energy clearing - you can also use the leaves for tea or in facial steams, one of my favorite uses.
Sacred Sage can amplify any clearing and protective techniques that you are already using. As a plant and a living being, Sage has a Spirit. The Spirit of Sage is also dedicated to offering protection, blessings, and clearing.
Take a moment now and ask that the Spirit of White Sage be with you.
Inhaling and exhaling, sense the energy coming into your space.
Ask…
Plant Spirit Energy of White Sage, please help me cleanse and purify my space, bless it for my highest and greatest good. Help me release everything that’s no longer serving me so that I can align with my best self and sacred path.
Guide me towards the areas of my life that need to be cleansed, protected and supported.
And so it is.
Sage can help you, feel clearer, boost the energy in the room, reboot the spiritual energy in the space, ignite creativity and restore your intuitive balance and center.
How To Work With White Sage
When you first work with any plant for sacred reasons, it's important to say a blessing and introduce yourself to the plant. It helps you have a more intuitive relationship with the plant’s gifts to you and others.
Most people, including myself, burn its leaves to release the healing energy it carries into the space around us.
Sage Smudging is a ritual where the leaves of the plant are burned and the smoke is directed into and onto areas that need clearing and release.
The goal of smudging with Sage is to release a person, object or area of any residual energies that are no longer aligned towards what is presently intended for the space.
Smudging, also known as Saging, is excellent for these occasions
After a work day
In between clients
During the grief process
After house guests leave
To release negative emotions
Following an emotional release
To refresh the energy in a home or office
To clear any lingering spirits after a transition
The idea is that as the leaves are burned, and you express your gratitude for its assistance, the Spirit of the Sage Plant carries your intentions to purification and cleansing up to other Divine Messages who can then hear your calls and act on what’s needed to achieve those goals. Think of the smoke as a conveyor belt towards the Heavens for your prayers.
It also releases its energy of protection and clearing into the space, and onto and around the area, person or object that needs clearing.
As the smoke moves through the room or over a surface, the smoke attaches itself to any heavy, negative energy that is within the space, object or being. As the smoke falls to the floor, it 'drops out' any negative energy with it.
This heavy energy is now released so that new, more positive energies can repopulate the space.
Ways you can use White Sage to clear in a smudging practice:
You can smudge to clear a room, building or property.
White Sage can assist you in releasing emotions and thought forms that no longer serve you.
Sage can assist you in cleansing unknown energies from objects when they first come into the home or as they are used.
You can perform this smudging ritual on anything or anyone that needs clearing. If it is a living being, just remember to ask permission.
General Sage Smudging Protocols
You can use a White Sage Wand or individual leaves, depending on how big of an area you are saging. If you're only saging your body, a single room or studio apartment, an individual leaf will do. For larger areas, use a White Sage Wand.
If you have a choice between a smaller wand and a larger wand, choose the larger wand - I find these burn better.
The first step of working with White Sage
Sage intuitively and eventually you’ll find a process you like.
If I’m saging a house, I like to start on the main floor, then migrate to the ground levels before moving to the upper levels. If I’m saging my body, I like to start at my feet and move up from there. You’ll want to give extra attention to areas that have been neglected or places you know energy lingers.
When I was smudging a house recently, a few children were present and wanted to help.
I told them that we were going to go around and clear the energy, and then let them do it, supervising, but also just observing. They intuitively opened cabinets, closet doors and got under their own beds.
They enjoyed it and ran around laughing as they did it. So if you have children or others present and feel comfortable, invite them in the process if they want to be involved, it takes less time when more people sage, especially if the property is large.
As you smudge, you will likely feel called to open a back door and wave the wand around there - just follow your own guide. You know your space better than anyone.
Before you begin, ask the Spirit of White Sage to guide you. Visualize the Spirit of White Sage coming into your energy field to assist with the process and let this energy guide you.
The second step in smudging with White Sage
After you light the Sage, do not stop it from burning. The Spirit of White Sage knows just how much needs to be released and will burn accordingly.
If you feel you are done burning Sage, but the Sage doesn't feel that way - place the wand in a fireproof bowl, or on the stove and allow the Sage to cease burning, naturally. You want to let the White Sage put itself out if you can.
Sometimes I just set the wand outside until it's done with burning and this blesses the neighborhood. If you watch the smoke, sometimes it will drift to a particular part of the room, car, or person - that may be where the healing/protection energy is most needed.
To begin smudging using White Sage:
Do not let the flame burn. Light the Sage at the very tips of the leaves on top of the wand. Once the flames come to life, blow them out quickly.
Once the Sage is lit, and the flame is blown out, the wand or the leaf will smoke.
The movement and release of the energy come with the smoke, not with the flames.
Place the lit, smoking end of the Sage wand, down inside the bowl, and rest the sides of the wand on the edge of the bowl. If you are using a leaf, you can set it down in a bowl or hold an ash bowl under it.
Set an Intention - what would you like to see released? What prayers do you have that you’d like to send up to the Divine?
Now use your hand, a small piece of cardboard, or a feather to "waft" the smoke.
As you work with White Sage to clear, I suggest repeating a mantra, for example, as you smudge, repeat:
I release all energies that no longer serve me to be released from me and this space and into the Divine Light. You no longer have nor hold power here. Thank you for filling the space with all that supports my highest good now.
Loving and peaceful energy is welcome and invited in now. This is a sacred, entered space, and anything that no longer serves is released with this sacred smoke.
Then move through the home or around the body or object until the smoke has saturated the energy room or energy field.
For each different type of smudging process, follow the instructions below -
Smudging Yourself or Someone Else
Bend over, so that the bowl is about the level of your feet and ankles.
Start at the bottom of your body and gently waft the smoke upward. Slowly unbend and straighten up, you are bringing the Sage/bowl and fanning the smoke up, up, upward until you’ve sent the smudging smoke up above your head. As best as you can get the back of your body by waving the wand or leaf behind you.
If you are smudging someone else, make sure to smudge them on all sides from feet to head.
Smudging an Object
If you have a crystal or a piece of jewelry given to you, or anything else that you want to cleanse, hold it in your hand if it's small enough, if it's not, stand in front of it.
Waft smoke from below the object, so that the Sage smoke covers the object from below, traveling upward. Swirl the smoke around the object until you feel the cleansing is complete.
If you are smudging an object used for protection, such as a crystal that you wear and have asked it to absorb negative energies, you will want to cleanse this object periodically to make sure it is fully functioning.
Smudging a Room or House
Keep the windows and doors closed to the area you have chosen to smudge while the White Sage burns.
Choose one room to begin in. You might like to start from the back of the house and move to the front, or to start from the bottom floor and move to the top.
Start in one corner of the room and gently waft the smoke from the floor up to the ceiling. As you smudge, move from the bottom and to the top of the space, following the natural pattern of smoke.
Then move from the backmost corner of the room to the front of the room by the entryway.
If you encounter a window, waft smoke into the four corners of the window, starting from the lower-left corner of the window moving to the upper left, then to the upper right, back down to the lower right.
Seal the window by completing the "loop," making sure the smoke is wafted over the entire window frame.
Then move to the next corner, and waft smoke from the bottom to the top of the corner, and once you complete the final corner, move to the center of the room, raise the bowl to chest height, and waft smoke up towards the room center.
You are now done with this room. Move through the space you are in, intuitively, until you complete all rooms.
Allow the smoke to penetrate the rooms for at least 15-minutes. Upon completing all rooms, open the windows and doors to release the energies that have attached to the smoke.
Make sure to get all the rooms, and if you have a room with cabinets - open the cabinets and waft smoke into them the way you would for a window.
A few safety tips when burning White Sage
Use a heatproof bowl to put the White Sage in, after it has been ignited. I prefer a fire proof ash tray. If the bowl that you’re using gets hot, use a coaster to hold it.
Keep the air as still as possible when you smudge. No fans, or open doors and windows while the White Sage is burning. Any gust of wind could further ignite the White Sage and blow sparks and ashes out of the bowl.
Avoid wearing billowy clothing and tie back long hair.
Where To Buy Sage
Go with wild harvested (most of it is), which makes it organic by nature, or organic sage.
So to recap
White Sage can assist with energetically cleansing and resetting a space.
You can work with it by burning it around the place, object or person you'd like to cleanse, this is called smudging.
If you are smudging a house, a wand of Sage might be best. If you are smudging a person, you may only need to use a leaf.
Using Sage to clear can be helpful anytime you’d like to refresh your energy or your home’s energy!
For best results, use your intuition to guide the process and ask the Spirit of White Sage to assist you.
Now that you have called in the Spirit of White Sage, and perhaps even begun the saging process, notice how you or the room feels different - lighter, clearer, airier. That’s the energy of White Sage.
For more content like this, start your 14-day free trial in The Membership!
The Membership is a guided intuitive and spiritual development program, featuring a curated online hub of rotating learning topics with at-home lessons and exercises, live workshops and guided meditations so you can flourish in your sacred connection anywhere, anytime and at your own pace.
Other Articles You May Enjoy:
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. As an Etsy affiliate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
