Smudging is a ritual burning of sacred herbs such as Sage (for purity of spirit), Sweetgrass (for healing ceremonies), and Cedar (for dispelling negativity).

Bundles of these sacred plants are tied together forming smudge sticks or braided together and then dried. Traditionally a council, central, or cooking fire was used to light the end of a smudge stick or a braid.

Today a candle is often used instead; and, then the herbs are put in an abalone shell or a ceramic bowl. Generally, the smoke is first offered to the Four Powers, then to Mother Earth and Father Sky, and then a smudging prayer is recited.

Native American Four Powers Sacred Hoop 

The Four Powers are four equally important ways of perceiving things in life and of pursuing knowledge. These are the four cardinal points of the circle, each of which represent different power essences of nature, seasonal rhythms, and stages of life.

These four directions are North (Wisdom, White, Buffalo, Maturity, Strength and Stamina); East (Peace, Gold, Eagle, Elder, Clarity and Illumination; South (Expansion, Green, Mouse, Infancy, Wholesomeness and Expectation); and West (Nourishment, Black, Bear, Youth,  Introspection and Authenticity).

Afterwards, the hand or a feather is used to direct a few curls of smoke, imbued with the fragrance and spiritual energy of the sacred herbs, to the people, places, or objects that need cleansing...

Native Americans commune with the Great Spirit by smoking the scared pipe and by feathering themselves with sweetgrass, allowing the smoke to convey their prayers throughout the Sacred Hoop to Great Spirit.

During private and group ceremonies, prayers are transmitted through the smoke of the sacred pipe.

The pipe bowl is symbolic of the female and the wooden pipe stem symbolizes the male. The joining of the two represents the connection between Mother Earth and all the creatures that inhabit Earth.

The pipe bowl may be made of soapstone or wood and often resembles an Animal Totem.  The bowl may be inlaid with silver, decorated with beads and leather and painted with symbolic colors.

There are sacred pipes used only by men or only by women. A sacred pipe belongs to the community so the holder of a scared pipe must spiritually earn the right to be its custodian, usually through cleansing or fasting.

Sioux Chief Sitting Bull with Peace Pipe

The sacred pipe was used by the great chiefs to seal the peace treaties with the white man because it bore the same special ceremonial significance to them as taking an oath on the Holy Bible did to the white man.

This Pipe Ceremony is a ceremony which an Elder oversees. Elders are men and women, regardless of age, who have been infused with Wisdom and other spiritual gifts from the Great Spirit.

After the participants gather together in a circle, the Elder lights a braid of sweetgrass to symbolize the unity of the many minds and hearts present and smudges each person in the circle