Learning About Sweetgrass Incense

Recently the surge of popularity for incense has resulted in a widespread affection for incense in general, and so even though incense has been used for centuries, its popularity has only quite recently been revived among the general public. Incense is now burned for many reasons, not only for rituals and ceremonies but also for simple personal use, and for various other therapeutic and aromatherapy purposes.

Sweetgrass incense can easily be considered as being one of the most popular types of incense out there, and for a number of different reasons. In order to be able to truly understand these reasons, you need to learn about what sweetgrass incense is, as well as the qualities and benefits that it has to offer.

About Sweetgrass Incense

Sweetgrass, which mainly grows in the plain areas of the United States, is a wide-bladed grass, one which is usually plaited into long lengths for use in prayer, cleansing and smudging. It is an aromatic herb which is used in herbal medicine and in the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages, and which owes its specific and distinctive aroma to the presence of coumarin.

In the earliest traditions, sweetgrass was strewn on church doors on Saints' days in Northern Europe, and it is believed that this was because of the sweet smell that arose when it was trodden on. It was also used in France for a variety of purposes, including to flavor candy, tobacco, soft drinks, and perfumes, for instance.

Sweetgrass was, and still is in fact, very widely used by North American indigenous peoples, and in that regards, as a sacred plant it is used commonly in peace and healing rituals. The sweetgrass leaves are dried and made into braids, and then burned as vanilla-scented incense.

There are considered as being many uses for sweetgrass, including: the Anishinaabe natives believe that it is a purifier, and they burn it before all ceremonies; the Blackfoot chewed sweetgrass as a means of extended endurance in ceremonies that involved prolonged fasting; Kiowa use fragrant sweetgrass leaves as stuffing for pillows and mattresses, it is used for sewing purposes by the Menominee; and it is used as an incense by Flathead.

In fact, the sweetgrass incense is the most popular and commonly used form of sweetgrass in general, and it is thought that no act is more universal than the inspiring practice of inhaling fragrant and intoxicating scents from quality incense, such as the sweetgrass incense.