SMUDGING     In nature, and in most things sacred, everything usually comes in fours.  Four seasons, four directions, four times of the day, four times of the moon, etc.  And so we were given four plants  to use in ceremony or as sacred plants; tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.      Tobacco was given because we don't have anything we can truely call our own.  Everything belongs to the creator.  The closest thing we have of our own is our body.  So, it would be difficult for us to give anything back to the creator as a way of an offering to say thankyou.  We were given tobacco to use as an offering.  It represents our willingness to give back to the creator for all things given to us to help us live.  We fill our pipes with tobacco and the smoke carries our prayers to the creator.  Anytime we pray we offer tobacco on the ground to represent an offering, or we fill the pipe, or burn tobacco in a fire.        Cedar was given because it is appealing to the Thunder Spirits of the west.  The Thunderbird loves the cedar tree.  The thunderstorms come from the west and we burn cedar as an offering to the thunders so that they may not bring us harm during the storm.  The thunderbird fights evil with its eye which sends out lightning to destroy all bad things on earth.  It is in constant battle with the creature of the water. It is said that lightning will never strike a cedar tree.  We also put cedar on the rocks as we bring them into the sweat lodge, as as offering and prayer to the stones which also represent the west as the stone is the father of the thunderbeing.  (The west was the first direction created, we pray toward the west first.)         Sage was given as a purifier.  We burn sage to drive anything away that is of the negative, or would do us harm.  Before we begin a ceremony we smudge the area and all the people with sage first to cleanse before we begin.  Especially before we fill the pipe.  Sage is often laid on the ground as a sacred place to stand during a ceremony or vision quest. And, it often creats a barrier between us and anything that would do us harm and so can be used as a protector.            Sweetgrass carries a scent that is pleasing to those things of the positive.We                           burn sweetgrass to attract and make welcome those spirits of the creator that we would want at a ceremony or gathering.  It is usually burned after we burn sage.  During a pipe ceremony the tobacco is waved through the sweetgrass smoke  as a blessing before it is placed in the bowl.  Always remember, sage first, then sweetgrass   Mitakuye Owasin  ~Chaske~