Our Very Own Ghostbuster, Jessica Denyer

We’ve made it through Halloween. In this post Jesse tells us a paranormal story that may just convince you to believe in the healing properties of sage, cedar, and palo santo. So, if you’re scared of spooky spirits catching up to you, you should consider reading this article. — Editor Ike Spry

Welcome back!

So, we’ve talked about crystals; we’ve talked about astrology; heck we’ve even talked about chakras. What more useless knowledge could my brain possibly hold? As I pondered this question all of last week, I was finding myself sucked dry of all ideas for my next blog–that is until I fell into a conversation with members of the flag football team, who by force read my blogs and find them “interesting.” I told them a story about a crazy old woman that would come into my old work, yes, at the crystal store. She would ask if she could smoke various items claiming she could gain their powers if she did. (Disclaimer: I called this woman crazy for a reason.) One of the things she asked to smoke was a bundle of sage. That’s it! This brings me to my post about sage! Thank you, Ben and Desmond, for reminding me. This is also relevant because it was just Halloween when I was writing this, and everyone knows one of sage’s best uses is to cleanse places of bad ju-ju. So, let’s learn about saging….

As someone who has had many experiences with the paranormal, I would often wonder about the bundles of “cleansing” sage, palo santo, and cedar for sale at the crystal store. What do these really do? I wondered if burning them actually has effect. I thought, I’ll have to learn about that, one day. That day came one Friday evening when I received a random call from my cousin who would never call me at work. When I went on break, I called her back, and she was freaking out. She said that she kept hearing voices all night, that her kids were waking up with nightmares, and then she sent me her home camera footage of her doors opening and closing by themselves while she wasn’t home. As I’m sitting outside of a Starbucks listening and seeing all of this, I am trying to rationalize it in my head. Maybe it was the AC blowing the door. People have nightmares sometimes. Maybe you’re just being paranoid. But she pleaded for my help. So I told her that when I returned from my break I would finally read our little pamphlet about sage, palo santo, and cedar, and how to cleanse a house of spirits with them. I figured it was worth a shot, and if it didn’t work, at least the house would smell nice. From the pamphlet this is what I recall:

Burning sage is a ritual that Native Americans and other indigenous peoples have used to cleanse people and spaces of negative energies and mostly spirits. To burn sage properly, you light one end of the sage and let it float into the air. To sage an entire home you can walk around and use a feather or I guess anything to waft it around in every room to make sure you are covering everything. 

Burning palo santo is done similarly but is focused more on personal energies and eliminating negativity in general in both people and places. 

Cedar burning is done in the same way, except that it is a great follow-through after saging your home. It promotes positive energy and protects your home from negativity. 

Now, I was ready to go ghost hunting. I bought a bunch of sage, palo santo, and cedar. I even bought the feather and this fancy shell bowl you’re supposed to sit the sage in while you burn and waft. The shell is abalone. I went to my cousin’s house after work, and when I walked in the door, what is usually a very warm, welcoming, upbeat place was very cold and dark. Like I said before, I’ve had many paranormal experiences, and this for sure felt like one. I immediately got busy saging the house. By the time I was done burning the sage, the palo santo, and the cedar, the house felt back to its normal order again. My cousin has had no issues since. She now regularly sages, palo santos, and cedars her home in hope of repelling any negative spirits from returning. To all the non-believers out there, I say, when you have a ghost experience for yourself one day, this story will have new meaning and relevance. 

So that’s the story of how I cured a haunting by burning various different leaves and sticks. Come back next week for a new segment called Crystal of the Month, where each month I will pick a crystal of my choice to write in depth about (since people liked my blog about moldavite so much). 

Thanks for reading!

Jesse your Astrology and Crystal Guru