Herbal Prayer Bundles

Celebrate the Sacred

Our Herbal Prayer Bundles are created with freshly gathered herbs and wrapped with cotton string.

Herbal prayer bundles, also known as smudge sticks, are traditionally burned to honor the sacredness of an occasion, to clear, bless or protect a person or space, raise the energy or prepare for prayer, dream or healing. Herbs are burned by people all over the world in sacred ceremonies and for special occasions. In Southern Italian and Mediterranean culture we refer to this practice as Fumigatione, or fumigation.

NOTE: The clinical effectiveness of smudging as a way to cleanse a person and/or space is outlined in a 2007 paper titled “Medicinal Smoke Reduces Airborne Bacteria” published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology.

The authors open with their intent: “This study represents a comprehensive analysis and scientific validation of our ancient knowledge about the effect of ethnopharmacological aspects of natural products’ smoke for therapy and health care on airborne bacterial composition and dynamics.”

The researchers analyzed the burning of wood and a mixture of medicinal herbs over a one-hour period in a closed room. A massive 94 percent reduction in airborne bacteria was detected over this short period and, as the authors detail, “the ability of the smoke to purify and disinfect the air and to make the environment cleaner was maintained up to 24h in the closed room.”

A very large list of pathogenic bacteria were found to be absent in an open room after a colossal 30 days following treatment, leading the authors to conclude, “We have demonstrated that using medicinal smoke it is possible to completely eliminate diverse plant and human pathogenic bacteria of the air within confined space.”