HEM’s Cleansing Collection comes in a flat white gift box holding six hexagonal boxes of incense sticks and a long, green-painted wooden holder. All six scents are white sage blends, each paired with a different plant. The incense is made in India.
Sage in six versions
- white sage (“White Sage Royal Sage”)
- blue sage
- black sage
- lavender
- eucalyptus
- yerba santa
Yerba santa is a Californian shrub whose Spanish name means “holy herb”. Eucalyptus is a tree from Australia, known for its fresh, cool scent. If you are not yet sure which sage blend you like, this set will tell you.
The boxes also differ in colour: lavender is purple, blue sage is blue, black sage is black and eucalyptus is green. That makes it easy to pick the one you feel like straight from the drawer.
Sage smoke in tradition
By tradition, sage smoke is used to cleanse a space energetically, for example after moving house or on New Year’s morning. The world came to know the custom from Native North American ceremonies. If you follow it but find the smoke of a sage bundle too much, a stick is gentler.
Setting up the holder
Push the bare end of the stick into the hole in the holder, light the tip and blow out the flame. The stick leans over the board and the ash falls onto the wood. Put the holder on a heat-resistant, steady surface, because the wood can burn too.
Stay in the room while it burns and open a window. Before bed, press the glowing end into sand or a heat-resistant bowl. Keep children, pets and birds away from the smoke.