Celebrating Solstice: Lavender Herb Bundle

If you have lavender in your garden, it’s easy to make small smudge bundles, and Summer Solstice is the time to harvest. Cutting back the lavender is actually GOOD and helps sustain the health of the plant. Here in Michigan, my Lavender angustifolia (English Lavender) is thriving and ready for cutting back. How sweet this aligns with the Summer Solstice.

In ancient European pagan traditions the summer solstice was the time to harvest the great power of plant healing and magic. Classic summer plants, including lavender were burned in bonfires and harvested to dry and tincture for future use.

“In particular, medicine people took advantage of this day to capture the maximum potential of lavender and vervain for banishing worries and St. John’s Wort for bringing sunshine to sorrow.” - from Traditional Medicinals ‘Herbs and the Summer Solstice’

Smudge sticks are tightly bound bundles of dried woody, resinous herbs, that are slowly burned as a way to purify and cleanse the air.

To make the bundle: gather 12-20 cuttings the same size, wrap with cotton thread and hang to dry. It’s best to wrap firmly as the plants will shrink as they dry. Hang away from direct light, in a space with decent air flow and allow to dry for about three weeks.

Lavenders are in the same botanical family as mint, rosemary, culinary sages - and patchouli. The instructions for care of Lavenders cultivars varies a little (a quick google search will help you figure that out). For all the lavenders, its key not to cut into the woody part of the plant, but cut back the new season’s growth. For the Lavender angustifolia, you can harvest twice a year; right about now and again in late august to keep the plant from getting too ‘leggy’.

SMOKE PURIFICATION RITUALS

The power of herbal smoke cleanses spaces, facilitates ritual, and even heals physical ailments. It can also be a transcendental medium to alter mood and allow us to engage in shadow and dream work. It’s no wonder then that the burning of herbs has become so popular. However when anything becomes mainstream, we must always remember to look at where these traditions actually come from so that we may use them in a respectful and sustainable way. (Alchemists Kitchen)

“In most cultures throughout the world smoke, smudge, and incense would have formed part of ritual and ritual was seen as part of the sacred ordinary and ordinary sacredness.” (Irish Holistic Magazine)

HOW TO USE A LAVENDER BUNDLE

Holding the “handle” of your bundle, light the end (a candle works best), being careful to avoid flyaway ends and falling embers or particularly combustable herbs. Hold the burning end over a clay bowl, ashtray, or other non-flammable container at all times. Allow the bundle to burn for a few seconds and when it seems like it is going, carefully, gently blow or wave it to put out the flame. Allow the stick to smoulder for a few minutes; never leave its attendance. To extinguish, smother or crush the smouldering end until it goes out. Try to avoid using this water as this can ruin the herbs for further use. (Central Coast Lavender)

Remember it is the smoke that does the work and not the flame.

EDITORS NOTE

I cannot begin to dig into the ceremonial or spiritual implications of 'smudge’. But I can speak to the fact that humans have used smoke from plants and herbs in a near global way to infuse a space with aromatics for the purpose of ridding the space of bad smells, bad juju and welcome positive energy.

It might be worth digging into and deciding for yourself where “smudge” fits into your practice. I prefer to stick to the Scottish and Eastern-European witchy practices of my ancestors.