Christmas 2018

I am lucky enough to have always had someone in my life who knows exactly the kind of material things that make me happy. This year was no exception. I received an awesome gift pack from The Holistic Sage, containing all the kind of stuff that support and enhance my journey

I have a heightened sense of smell, more so than any of my other senses. In fact, the times I’ve reacted most strongly to a sense has been to the sense of smell. A couple of times I’ve been so overwhelmed by a stench that I was close to passing out. So smell is important part of my environment.

I grew up very close to the heart of Sydney. My family’s apartment was on the ground floor just off one of the busiest roads in the country. Yet my bedroom was always fragrant, especially on warm summer evenings. My Grandmother had planted a dense, floral garden in the front of the apartment as soon as she and my grandad and mum had moved there decades before. She planted a fragrant jasmine bush outside what was now my bedroom. By the time I was born the jasmine bush was covered with flowers releasing the warmest sweetest scent imaginable, even though it was for a brief time, long enough to neutralise the fumes from the dense traffic nearby.

I use a lot of incense. I love the smell of the smoke combined with the fragrant overtones, whether it be jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli or frankincense. My gift pack included six different types of incense. One of the best things about The Holistic Sage is that it stocks a lot more than just your favorite or well-known incense. They have a large variety with scents I’ve never heard of. My gift pack included Nag Champa (one of my absolute favourites) and jasmine but also something called Tulasi, Divine Guru, Chandan,  and Midnight Bloom. There are blends of different herbs, flowers, woods and essential oils that are mixed to make special fragrances. I couldn’t help myself. The first thing I did was light my different incense, one at a time just for a few minutes, to get an idea of the fragrance. And they were all so intoxicating. The room I use for mediation and vision quests always smells amazing now.

I also received a smudging kit. These kits are put together by The Holistic Sage and containing everything you need to successfully perform a smoking/smudging ritual. My kit included a bundle of organic, Australian grown white and black sage, a handcrafted feather and crystal fan/wand for directing the smoke, and a hand-crafted clay smudge bowl to hold the burning embers. Some kits come with an Abalone shell instead.

I love my smudge stick. Although smoking/smudging is found in almost all indigenous cultures, I remember the words of a First Nations American elder who said something like ‘there is so much bad medicine in the world today the smoke helps cleanse the bad medicine so that only good medicine reaches us ..’ Whenever I have a rough day I come home and use my smudge kit. I also plan to use smudge to prepare myself for a vision quest whether for healing, for guidance or just paying respect to my companion spirits.

My favourite part of The Holistic Sage gift pack was the Tibetan items. I received a set of Tibetan prayer flags which I have set up on my deck overlooking the valley. At various times of the year a great rush of wind comes blowing down the mountains and spreads through the valley below and I sense the crisp, clean mountain wind picking up the prayers and showering them on the valley below. I plan to sit out on my deck at dusk praying for compassion and loving-kindness for all beings feeling the breeze adding my prayers to the prayer flags. I will have with my Tibetan singing bowl.

I always thought a Tibetan singing bowl was like a resonant bell or going that you just struck gently. That’s one aspect of it but the ‘singing’ nature comes out when, rather than striking it, you run the mallet along the outer rim of the bowl, slowly. Something happens and the bowl starts to vibrate and produced a song-like sound that gets louder as you continue rimming the bowl with the wooden mallet. That will be an amazing sound to focus on as I meditate.

The Holistic Sage has so many unique, interesting and exotic ideas with which you can make your own gift pack, or perhaps you can contact them with specific idea for a gift pack which they will customise for you. They don’t just have incense and prayer flags. This shop has clothes, jewellery, crystals and precious stones, statues, dream catchers and wind chimes, candles and essential oils, books, journals and tarot cards and much more that has not yet been put onto the website. If you don’t see what you want contact them, they might have exactly what you are looking for.