Commercialized "Smudge Sticks" Used as Incense in the Netherlands: An Inventory of Plants and Trends Behind a New Age Fashion

Abstract

Incense is essential in religious ceremonies, even in relatively new religious and spiritual movements such as New Age and Neopaganism. These garner little attention from ethnobotanists, although they trigger an international trade in wild-harvested plants. In this paper, we studied the botanical ingredients of smudge sticks (dried plant bundles burned for purification) in the Netherlands, and people's motivations to use them posing the following questions: what plant species are included in smudge sticks? what are they used for? and are exotic plants preferred over native Dutch plant species? We visited online and physical shops in Dutch cities, acquiring a total of 29 different smudge sticks containing at least 15 species. We held semi-structured interviews with 11 users, vendors, and herbal experts, and collected data from 33 questionnaires. Salvia apiana L. was most frequently found, along with North American species of the genus Artemisia. The rise of the New Age movement resulted in North American ritual plant species being easily available in (online) shops in the Netherlands and smudge sticks being used for personal protection and cleansing. Despite the smudge sticks' commercial demand, there is no data regarding the pressure on wild populations of species used in these bundles. For the preservation of these species it is crucial that scientific monitoring of their harvest is undertaken in the future.

Keywords: California; Ethnobotany; Europe; Native American; Neo Paganism; United States; Wicca; cultural appropriation; ritual plants; witchcraft.

Figure 1

Collage of collected smudge sticks sourced from (online) shops in the Netherlands. (a) Salvia apiana; (b) Artemisia tridentata; (c) A. ludoviciana and Calocedrus decurrens; (d) A. tridentata; (e) Thuja sp.; (f) A. ludoviciana. Pictures by I. Pombo Geertsma and C. van der Linden.

Figure 2

Collage of partly colored smudge sticks composed of Salvia apiana mixed with other species, and smudge sticks composed of only European species. (a) S. fruticosa; (b) S. apiana, Phalaris sp., and Anacardiaceae sp.; (c) S. apiana, Eucalyptus sp., cf. Pseudognaphalium sp., and one unidentified plant. (d) S. apiana with Rosa sp. petals; (e) Eriodictyon sp., Limonium sinuatum, and cf. Pseudognaphalium sp.; (f) S. officinalis and S. rosmarinus. Pictures by I. Pombo Geertsma and C. van der Linden.

Figure 3

Energy cleansing packages on sale in a shop in Utrecht, March 2023. To the left, a package is sold combining a white sage smudge stick with an iron pan, and to the right, an energy cleansing kit combining white sage (probably S. apiana) with palo santo (possibly Bursera graveolens), Florida water, colorful gemstones (“chakra stones”), an energy card and an instructions booklet. Picture by I. Pombo Geertsma.