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Sweetgrass Braid
Not on the shelf right now — call and they will tell you when it lands.
What this is
Burned for its smoke. Used to clear a room or an object before the work, and to keep the air of a space.
The practice
What this tradition does with an object like this — how it is used, not a promise about what follows.
How it is used
- 1Light it, let it take, then blow the flame down so it smoulders — smoke is the working, not fire.
- 2Carry it through the room from the back of the house toward the front door if you are clearing; from the door inward if you are calling something in.
- 3Leave a window cracked. The smoke needs somewhere to go.
Working it properly
The craft under the instructions — direction, count and order. This is the part that is normally only said across a counter.
- On charcoal, the disc is lit at the edge and left until it ashes over grey before any resin goes on. Resin onto a live coal scorches and turns bitter, which is what people are smelling when they say a resin is bad.
- The room is walked from the back of the house toward the front door to clear, and from the door inward to call something in. Corners are where practitioners slow down; the middle of a room is not where anything sits.
- Smoke is also how a carried piece, a new charm or a second-hand object is cleansed before it is used.
- A window stays cracked. Clearing a house and sealing it is how the tradition describes moving a problem from one room to another.
What completes the working
A working is a ladder, not a single object. Each rung below says what the addition does, and shows what Yeye's Botanica carries for it.
anything carried is passed through the smoke before it is worn
smoke the air, wipe the thresholds — the two halves of clearing a room
the room is smoked first and the candle is set into the cleaned air
What people get wrong
- Letting it flame instead of smoulder.
- Clearing a room and then shutting every window, which leaves what you moved standing in the hallway.
