Burning Sage and Fairy Dust

A couple of days ago I went with my grandmother, Nanni, to check out the space that will become the office for her foundation. The foundation has been operating out of her car port for several months now, so they are anxious to move but there have been many obstacles on the way forward.

The new space is on the second floor in a sort of ritzy shopping center in Scottsdale, but it's still under construction. We went up to look at it and do a sage ceremony to clear the energy. I've burned sage in new living spaces before, mostly because I like the way it smells. The possibility of clearing bad energy has always been sort of secondary.

Well, they asked me to participate in the ceremony to help tie in the future to the work they are doing now. I did my best to clear my mind of any doubts and participate whole heartedly and without judgment. My job was to sprinkle fairy dust as we went along, which made withdrawing judgment a little bit harder, but when I found out the fairy dust had been a gift from Analea, my aunt who passed away in 2007, what I was doing made more sense.

We began by placing a wooden angel figurine in the north window. We then moved to the east side of the building with the sage and began blessing each of the four compass points. We moved clockwise around the room. Nanni explained the significance of each direction: East represents the future, South is the stabilizer, West carries energy from the past, and North represents wisdom. As we moved around the room Nanni explained and offered blessings, her friend Rose placed crystals to absorb the energy (I assume, I don't really know how crystals are supposed to work) of each direction, and I sprinkled fairy dust. As we came back to the North and finished placing the blessings and objects of the ritual, Nanni read a few lines about what it means to live and act by faith, then she sealed the whole thing by ringing a Tibetan singing bell.

What was really interesting to me was that Nanni just knew what she was doing. If it were me I wouldn't have been able to do it without a script or some sort of guide to help me through. In spite of the skepticism I am prone to, it all seemed very natural to me. I could tell that it was seen to be a significant milestone or turning point, and because of that I was happy to be involved.