#Smudging at Midnight
Whenever I get the chance, I enjoy creating my own altar tools. As the weather gets colder, I find that we get less chances to go out and experience nature. Because of this, I guess you could say, I have been taking every opportunity to get out and about.
During this last week I was out and walking around the lake looking for rocks and a few items for ritual. I noticed that there were a plethora of duck feathers. See!
I thought they would be good because docks, have always been interesting. I grew up here in Boise, and this area is known for the cultivation of its parks and there are always a lot of places for the Ducks to swim. One of our largest parks, they have multiple pawns and the ducks have basically taken over.
After I brought the feathers home I realized that I didn't know what the actual magical properties of a duck was, so I looked it up. Of course it's important to know the correspondences that you are utilizing when you use an item, especially anything that comes from a living animal.
As it turns out, Ducks represent the concept of being in the present and in the moment. The phrase I often see associated with it when doing research is, "Be here now". @RumDancer and I have been practicing this concept and I believe she even has a couple meditations on her page up now. It was just funny that this is what I find and that is what I've been relearning in my practice, or at least reintegrating.
Part of making your own altar or magical tools is being present while you're making them. You want to be aware of the moon cycle, the correspondences of the actual item, any feelings or personal affiliations that you associate with either the ritual or the item and the purpose of crafting an item. Of course, time and date and astrology are also important.
I got the area ready and started a fire before I actually put together the smudger.
Ingredients
To craft the smudger all you need is feathers and string.
All optional but can improve correspondences or intent.
I chose a very simple design which was to say that I used string, made of hemp that I dyed purple. You need enough to tie the feathers at the base and additional cord to wrap so that the feathers will stick together securely.
A tip that I have learned as I have been making these myself, you can make them as detailed or as simple as you would like. It is quite easy to include all of the above optional items and to do so you want to put them through the string or wrap them with the string as you wrap around the base. I don't suggest using glue or anything like that because it will not allow the feathers to be flexible, something that you need when you want to have a proper wafting direction.
Once everything was put together I took the herbs that I had and I put them into the fire which created quite a bit of smoke. Additionally I rolled a little bit of the sage and also Damiana and mugwort. I like to smoke some of it and charge my tool myself as well. Additionally the smoke blend gives you a nice little Buzzy feeling.
By the time that this was done it had a very good feel to it and it was flexible. I ended up adding a slight amount of oil to the feathers to not only change their color and make it a little bit more vibrant, bringing out the natural darkness of the feather. I also did this to seal.
There she is. Once you're done putting yours together, you may notice that after a day or so it loosens up a little bit or becomes too flexible. to correct this you can add a little more string on the bottom and then hanging upside down which will cause the string to remain tight as the oil dries out. I do you remember when I first did one of these I didn't get all of the feathers in the same direction either. One thing I would recommend is that you maybe tape it together first or if you can hold it together as it would be when you used it and aim for making a rowing motion. This is to say that you will want to brush it Forward against the air, there should be a nice tug or resistance and then you lift it slightly bringing it back like you would if you were swimming or imagined that you were rowing an oar in the water you use the Direction One Way with the pressure against the paddle and then you lifted up out of the water bring it back quickly and that is how you go in One Direction. If you do a fanny motion above smoke it's going to follow the direction that you fan and if you don't have all of your feathers facing the right way you also might get some conflicting directions. That's all right, it's all up to your personal style. I found some much larger feathers, I think they might be a hawk or a raven, they're very dark nearly black with a little bit of white on them so I'm not sure.
Large feathers that are at least 6 inches long are going to make more direct smudging fans and the ones like these from the duck, since it's the first time I made it with duck, I didn't realize but they are actually better suited for airy or simple smudging to a general area.
They are a little bit more difficult to direct the flow of the smoke but I think that it's an attractive piece and definitely does its job.
thank you for taking the time to read my post. I'd love to hear some feedback and if you have any suggestions or tips from times when you have made your own smudging fans, let me know. Feedback is a good thing.
For more art gaming magic you can find other post here by following me, I also have a new page on Facebook. Additionally, I am on Twitter. I'm still getting used to the social-media thing, but I'm learning. Hope to see you around, and love and light.
