What exactly is smudging ?

[entheogenic-gnosis]

Every day before i enter my prayers and meditations I smudge my room (with sage or Palo Santo sticks), then I smudge myself. (I also smudge the various cacti in the room as they were people...Though only half serious when I started, I've continued to do it, as it can't hurt, and I figure all living things, even plants, need to be cleansed of negative energies from time to time. )

I also smudge the room and myself before and during brewing yagé.

... drums or bells may help clear negative energies from a room as well.

Some will even tell you not to leave the room while you are brewing, as this gives negative energies a chance to invade in your absence, ...though I prefer to stay in the room simply to monitor the brew...

As a child my parents would take me to "Rendezvous", this is where people live in nature, some as "mountain men" some as natives. My family and our family friends would stay in teepees, dress as natives, and so on, any way at night the older natives or a shaman would come and smudge the kids with sage (before telling stories by the camp fire)
...I always thought it was one of the better parts of my childhood, and for whatever reason I have always practiced smudging since...

...one night at Rendezvous I remember seeing two old natives smoking a cannabis joint, I thought the smell was sage, I was probably only 7 years old so I did not recognize cannabis yet, and I asked the natives "are you trying to smudge your insides?"...
...they laughed.

That may have been my first encounter of cannabis which I can remember, any way, ever since then I have always looked at smoking cannabis as a means of "smudging your insides" (though always half way seriously)

-eg

 

[steppa]

I asked the natives "are you trying to smudge your insides?"...
...they laughed.

Great!

 

[Intezam]

..if we was killary hintons or tonall dumbs, we'd make it illegal to dress as natives (...unless you're native)

 

[entheogenic-gnosis]

I'm not native American, but my mom's friends, the people we went with, were natives, so rather than "mountain man" style, I was always with natives...

Rendezvous were known to be lively, joyous places, where all were allowed- free trappers, Indians, native trapper wives and children, travelers and later on, even tourists who would venture from even as far as Europe to observe the festivities. James Beckwourth describes: "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running, jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that white men or Indians could invent."[1]

Rendezvous are still celebrated as gatherings of like-minded individuals or clubs in many walks of life. The fur trading rendezvous are celebrated by traditional black-powder rifle clubs all over the US and Canada. These gatherings range from small gatherings sponsored by local clubs to large gatherings like the Pacific Primitive Rendezvous and others. These gatherings include much of the same activities of the originals, centering on the shooting of muzzle-loaded rifles, trade guns and shotguns, the throwing of knives and tomahawks and primitive archery, as well as cooking, dancing, singing, the telling of tall tales and of past rendezvous. Personas taken on by participants include trappers, traders, housewives, Native Americans, frontiersmen, free-trappers and many others, including soldiers.
-Wikipedia

I remember living in a teepee, I had a breach cloth, moccasins, beaded leather belt, a tommahawk, a bow and arrows...

...for whatever reason I don't really remember much of the "mountain man" aspect, I remember it as being generally natives...

-eg