Smoke Cleansing Isn’t New, You’re Just Late to the Conversation.....Karen

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There’s a peculiar modern habit of taking something ancient, flattening it into a single narrative, and then gatekeeping it like it was invented last Tuesday. Smoke cleansing has become one of those casualties.

Let’s get something straight right out of the gate:

Smoke cleansing is not new. It is not trendy. It is not owned by a single culture.



What is specific are certain ceremonial practices, names, and protocols. And that’s where people keep tripping over their own feet.

The Internet Version vs. Reality

The internet has decided that all smoke cleansing equals one specific Indigenous practice. Native American Smudging. That’s neat, tidy, and completely wrong. Not all Native Americans Smudge! 

Because long before hashtags and hot takes, people across the world were lighting things on fire for spiritual, medicinal, and practical purposes.

Here’s the part people conveniently ignore people were smoke cleansing for AEONS before Coachella Culture Witches came to the Americas:

European traditions → incense, juniper, mugwort
Middle Eastern traditions → frankincense, myrrh
African traditions → various plant smokes for ritual and protection
Asian traditions → temple incense, herbal fumigation

That’s not overlap. That’s parallel development across entire continents.

Human beings figured out early on that smoke carries scent, presence, and intention. It preserves. It purifies. It marks sacred space. It shifts atmosphere—both physical and spiritual.

No one culture gets to slap a copyright on that.

Where Respect Actually Matters

Now, here’s where nuance enters—and where most people promptly exit.

There are specific ceremonial practices within Indigenous traditions that are structured, named, and culturally rooted. Those practices carry protocols, prayers, and meaning that belong to those communities. There are specific plants within Indigenous traditions that are overharvested, and you should either grow your own or find something else to use.

That’s real. That matters.

But—and this is the part people choke on—

That does not erase the existence of every other smoke-based practice on the planet.

You can respect specificity without erasing universality. Both can exist at the same time. It’s not a competition.

The Real Issue Isn’t Smoke It’s Laziness

What you’re actually seeing isn’t cultural protection. It’s intellectual laziness.

It’s easier to memorize one talking point than to:

  • study actual historical practices
  • understand regional plant use
  • learn the difference between method and meaning

So instead, people repeat:

“That’s not allowed.”

Without ever asking:

“What, exactly, are we talking about?”

Smoke Is a Tool. Always Has Been.

At its core, smoke cleansing is simple:

You burn something.
The smoke carries intention.
The space shifts.

Everything else—herbs, resins, prayers, technique—depends on your tradition, your practice, and your knowledge.

If you’re working within your own framework, using plants that align with your path, and understanding what you’re doing?

You’re not borrowing.
You’re practicing.

Blunt Truth

When people reduce all smoke practices to a single narrative, they’re not protecting culture, they’re flattening it. That kind of intellectual laziness doesn’t just erase nuance, it actively sidelines the breadth of Indigenous and POC traditions across the globe. Entire lineages of practice, African, Asian, Middle Eastern, diasporic, get quietly pushed out of the conversation because they don’t fit the one talking point being repeated the loudest. That isn’t respect. That’s a sanitized version of history that prioritizes simplicity over truth. And in doing so, it ends up whitewashing the very diversity people claim they’re trying to defend.

The world didn’t wait for permission to discover fire.
And it didn’t wait for permission to discover what smoke could do.

So no, smoke cleansing isn’t owned.

But ignorance?
That seems to be in abundant supply.

Wisdom keeps chasing some of you, yet you keep outrunning it. Keep that shit up.

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