I recently discovered Palo Santo and fell head over heels with its delicious and heady scent, a unique combination of pine, mint and lemon in one and a most awesome smelling alternative to incense or sage. Considered one of the most fragrant woods in the world, this “holy wood” is also enjoyed for its energetically cleansing and healing properties.
The Palo Santo for Love Your Mother is hand-harvested and fair traded in South America by Incausa, based in Brooklyn – our bond being ritual, accoutrement for ritual and the celebration of daily life through ceremony. Ceremonial ritual practices are at the heart of Incausa, a social business experiment that uses the profits from its productions to enable purposeful commerce of indigenous artisanship and heritage. We are over the moon to be doing business with them.
Customers keep asking me the “How to” of Palo Santo so I thought I would share it with you here.. I burn Palo Santo two ways, first and foremost in preparation for meditation as it helps to get you in the flow and to connect with the here and now and secondly, when I want to smudge/cleanse the house, an object or person of stagnant or negative energies. My how to as below..
It’s easy to use, just ignite your Palo Santo stick with a flame, the same way you would with incense. Allow the stick to burn for 30 seconds or so, until you can see that it has caught on and the smoke is in flow, then blow it out. Place the smoldering stick in a dish, into the dirt of a pot plant or somewhere safe on your altar and leave to smoulder. It will burn for up to 5 minutes which should produce enough smoke and scent for one room.
To use Palo Santo in ritual for smudging or cleansing, it’s a good idea to verbalise what it is you are letting go of or clearing. State your intentions as you light your stick, let it smoke and smoulder and then waft it throughout the space you are clearing. I walk the circumference of the room a few times and into the middle, making sure you get into the corners of the space, wafting the stick high and low… do a little dance, you know it. You may need to re-light a few times.
If you are smudging yourself or another person, waft your Palo Santo around all parts of the body, arms and legs, head and top to toe. Enjoy. X
Image: Amy Piddington
APPETITE FOR DECORATION 
Beautiful picys!