ayurvedic smoke cleansing: an ancient tradition

what is smoke cleansing?

Smoke cleansing is a practice performed by various cultures, religions, and faiths around the world. A ritual steeped in history, smoke cleansing involves the burning of various herbs, resins, wood powders, and essential oils for health or spiritual purposes.

Smoke cleansing can used to achieve a wide variety of purposes; connecting to the spirit world, purifying and cleansing space, creating a sacred environment, providing herbal support, inviting in community, eliminating negative energy, supporting physical and/or mental wellness, or simply to give a pleasant aroma to a room, are some of the ways in which smoke cleansing is used.

Many different types of herbs, resins, and other ingredients are used, which is based upon that which is regionally, culturally, spiritually, or historically significant to the people performing the ritual.

Just as Native American tribes used Sage to cleanse, other cultures use a variety of botanicals, including the roots and barks of trees, like magnolia, peony, and cypress, to herbs like mugwort, cinnamon, myrrh, and rosemary.

in ayurveda

In Vedic text, incense is used as one method of smoke cleansing. In Ayurveda, incense is used as a healing tool to support recovery from illness and to create a clean, peaceful, calm space, which we know is necessary to our healing.

Herbs such as rose, sandalwood, turmeric, champa, and mango wood are commonly used in the Ayurvedic tradition. These herbs are great for worship or spiritual use, or to clear the air and create space for a mindful practice of meditation, yoga, or yoga nidra.

The incense sticks that we offer at the Ayurvedic Wellness Center are sourced directly from Pune, India, where founder Kara Aubin studies annually with her teacher, Dr. Vasant Lad. For over 125 years our scents have been hand-rolled in the same building!

Our selection of incense is both traditional in recipe and unique in fragrance. We have the following incense sticks available.

our fragrances

Durga: a traditional woody, ambery, floral fragrance with undertones of spices, resins and gums. It is a typical temple fragrance of traditional India.
Green Rose: a powdery fresh Rose fragrance with resins and gums to create a spiritual atmosphere.
Frankincense: a purifying, energy clearing smoke.
Yellow Champa: a blend of plumeria (Frangipani) and Sandalwood. A light, delicate Champa.
Sandalwood: Strong spiritual properties, inviting calmness and clarity to the mind.