You may have seen us raving over the last few months about the benefits Palo Santo has and since cleansing our team mate Simon with it – who at the time was somewhat skeptical, he now buys it in bulks for the month as he admitted he felt it influenced more positive outcomes for him.
What is Palo Santo
It’s wood from a tree called Bursera graveolens, nicknamed Palo Santo, that grows in South America. For centuries, Palo Santo, which translated means “holy wood,” and has been burned as an energy cleanser.
Personally I like to call it the ancient wood.
Palo santo is available in different forms.
- Wood. The wood of the palo santo tree is available as sticks, chips, or powder. It usually comes from the branches of the tree, so it’s 100 percent wood.
- Resin. Palo santo wood contains a very aromatic resin, which can be extracted and used separately.
- Oil. The essential oil of palo santo can be derived from the wood and fruit.
I personally prefer the wood sticks. I find the smoke it produces is more beneficial than the other forms it can come in.
What is Palo Santo used for?
Palo Santo is traditionally used as a natural remedy for colds, flu, stress, asthma, headaches, anxiety, depression, and reduce inflammation and clears negative energies by promotibg good luck and clarification to come your way.
There is currently no human studies that have been conducted to say that Palo Santo helps us in anyway. However, I do believe that if studies were conducted on humans, it would provide results which shown it did scientifically benefit us as there as been studies conducted on animals in 2013 and 2014, which did suggest that when exposed to limonene, rats did show decreased signs of stress.
Palo Santo essential oil is mainly composed of limonene.
Palo Santo is commonly used to repel mosquitos, deter ants, termites and flies.
I would also advise to be careful when using it near wasps as Simon did have a incident where he used it in his room and 2 wasps came from out of nowhere and it would seem as if it somewhat irritated them as they proceeded to try to attack him and sting him.
How to Use Palo Santo
Use a candle to ignite your stick of Palo Santo. Hold it at about a 45-degree angle and point the tip down toward the flame of your candle. If the sticks were a little wet, you might have some problems lighting them so make sure to store them dry.
Allow the stick to burn for about 30 secs, then blow it out. A stream of smoke will rise from the embers and spread into the environment. You can hold it in your hand or place the stick on an incense holder.
Smudging can be performed at home, starting at the front door, and moving around the house fanning the smoke from there. With a specific intention in mind (often to clear your home from negative energy), focus on every room’s corners where energy tends to be stagnant and fan the smoke to them corners.
To cleanse yourself, start from your head and make sure you circle from the top of your head, around your shoulders, down to your chest area to your hips, down each of your legs and your feet. Don’t forget to also do under the soles of your feet. While you surround yourself in the smoke of the stick remember to keep repeating your intention, be verbal with your intention, the universe and beyond can only hear your intention if your project it out.
When finished with your cleansing, place the stick in a fireproof bowl.
Some people like to cleanse daily with Palo Santo but twice a week would be more than enough.
My Advice
Palo Santo is more of a positive cleansing tool, therefore if you are using white sage to cleanse yourself or a home, I would personally use Palo Santo to fill what the white sage takes away.
My opinion, white sage strips away bad energies like paint striper would on a wall full of paint, it strips it right back to the beginning. I don’t necessary find Palo Santo that harsh. So if your using a stronger sage to remove something negative, you will obviously end up with a void, if you do not fill that void with something then that leaves it back open for negative energies to re-enter so fill it with the properties Palo Santo has to offer, nothing but positive, relaxing and healing vibes will enter that void
I also would not use just Palo Santo to soley clear entity’s away from a person or a home. However, I do think if you have been around a negative person or have entered a home or environment that has made you feel somewhat down, drained or even felt negative, surrounding yourself with the smoke of Palo Santo will offer you enough protection to ensure you don’t carry these negative vibrations as your burden.
Where can you buy Palo Santo
If you type in Palo Santo into search engines you will see plenty of shops you can buy it from online. However, I do think visiting aromatherapy shops is the better alternative as the wood seems of better quality in my opinion.
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