Salt & Sage Love Smudge for a Lowkey Pagan Wedding Blessing

Whether you want to sprinkle some spiritual goodness into an eclectic earthy elopement, or you're searching for an authentic Pagan wedding blessing or spell, start with this smudge…

 

A dash of ‘behind the scenes magic’ for your marriage celebration.

 

This salt and sage ‘Love Smudge’ ritual is the perfect addition to any lowkey Pagan wedding. It’s sweet and simple, with all the spiritual symbolism and meaning of a traditional smudging ceremony. But because it’s so subtle, it won’t make your conservative wedding guests uncomfortable (you know the ones). 

 

The ritual begins with a unique recipe of pink salt, soil, anointing oil or holy water, sacred herbs, and sage. These ingredients are burned and blended together by your wedding officiant during a period of prayer and meditation. Because your officiant plays such an important role in the process, we suggest that you ask a close friend to get ordained online to officiate your ceremony. 

 

Related: 5 Great Reasons to Ask a Friend to Officiate Your Wedding

 

Then, this potent mixture is used to cast a sacred circle around your wedding ceremony, welcoming the wisdom of ancestors and spirits, and blessing your marriage with the gifts of lasting love and good communication.

 

After the ceremony, the remaining mixture can be used as part of a powerful cleansing ritual in any space in which you want your love and communication to flourish – such as a new home, bedroom, or back yard.  

 

Related: Wiccan Wedding Spell – A Handfasting Love Spell

 

 

This ritual was designed by Reverend Scarlett Mullikin, a professional wedding officiant, practicing Eclectic Pagan, and owner of Natural Element Ceremonies. Reverend Scarlett is ordained through AMM and performs numerous Pagan weddings and elopements throughout the year at a variety of venues. She refines the ‘Love Smudge’ recipe for each ceremony, using a unique blend of herbs for each couple she meets. 

 

Below, you’ll find everything you need to get started, including directions on how to make the smudge blend, and examples of what your wedding officiant should say or do during the smudging ceremony. 

 

• Get ordained online for free & perform weddings for friends and family 

 

 

Bring your ceremony outdoors and leave the decorating to Mother Nature.

 

 

Before the Wedding Ceremony

 

Prepare the ‘Love Smudge’ with Salt & Sacred Ash

 

1. Gather your ingredients. You’ll need:
 

• A candle 
• Lighter or matches
• Several small glass vials or bottles. 
• A metal bowl or stone hearth (any safe place to light a fire)
• Himalayan pink salt (or a mixture of salts, such as sea salt and common salt)
• Anointing oil (essential oils, such as lavender or myrrh, and olive oil or almond oil can be used )
• Large handful of sage (common sage or white sage if available, for cleansing and protection)
• Rosemary (for protection of home and hearth)
• Thyme (for courage, strength, balancing time and intentions)
• Cinnamon bark (for balancing sweetness, bitterness, spiciness, and strength in love)
• Lavender (for welcoming love and devotion into a healthy marriage)
• Soil (a handful of earth from a meaningful place)
• Any other sacred herbs to suit the couple’s needs*

 

*Personalize this recipe by adding any other ingredients that reflect the dynamic between the couple to be married. For example, you might add rose petals (for love, gratitude, friendship, a happy sex life); lilac (for pure love); cedar needles/ cedar spray (for wisdom and maturity); or pine needles (for persistence, prosperity, and good health). 

 

 

2. Cast a sacred circle in your home or outdoors (in the light of a full moon), or choose another sacred space in which to blend your ingredients. 

 

 

3. Light the candle and sit in meditation or prayer. 

 

 

4. Reflect on the couple to be married. As you hold them in your mind, meditate on the blessings of love and good communication for the duration of their relationship. 

 

If you’ll be performing the ceremony as officiant, meditate on your desire to do the greatest good in your role.

 

 

5. Blend the herbs and one or two drops of oil together in the bowl as you reflect on these blessings. 

 

 

6. Burn the ingredients until they form a coarse ash, then allow the ash to cool. 

 

 

7. Blend the cooled ash, earth, and salt mixture together slowly by layering them into your glass container a little at a time. (They won’t mix well if you don’t layer them.)

 

 

8. Welcome fresh air into the mixture and shake it all up. 

 

 

9. Give thanks to the ancestors and spirits as you shake the mixture, asking again for their blessings of love and good communication for the couple who plan to marry. 

 

 

10. Gather your filled vials and give thanks to the space. 

 

The mixture is ready for your wedding ceremony! 

 

 

 

Reverend Scarlett's original Love Smudge, sealed and ready for the wedding ceremony

Photo: Rev. Scarlett Mullikin

 

 

 

The Day of the Wedding Ceremony 

 

Casting the Circle & Blessing the Marriage

 

To officiate an under-the-radar lowkey Pagan wedding in an authentic way, Rev. Scarlett recommends the following steps and wording: 

 

1. Arrive at the wedding venue early to cast a circle using the Love Smudge. Do this before any guests arrive to ensure that the circle casting is completed in private. 

 

 

2. Begin the wedding ceremony in the usual way. This often includes a warm welcome to guests, an invocation, a telling of the couple’s ‘love story,’ a moment of silence for lost loved ones, or the officiant’s thoughts on marriage.

 

 

3. Ask guests to silently offer their prayers or blessings for protection, love, harmony, a happy home, and good communication skills.  

 

 

4. Perform the ceremony in the usual way. This might include an exchange of wedding vows, rings, a unity ceremony, and any special readings. 

 

 

5. Then comes the magic: Right before the part of the pronouncement when you ask the couple to kiss, say: 

 

“Now the circle is open but never broken,

blessed be this union…”

 

Notice that sweet Pagan blessing and subtle reference to the sacred circle? It’s simple, sweet, and will complete the ritual, but won’t draw the attention of your guests. 

 

 

Perfect! Blessed be!

 

 

The secret to a lowkey Pagan wedding ceremony?

Keep the magic behind the scenes 

 

♡

 

 

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You might also like: 

 

 

• 6 Ways to Include a Sword in Your Wedding Ceremony

 

• Unique Unity Ceremony with Tarot Reading on Love & Marriage
   
• Pagan Wedding Blessings for Every Season and Ceremony

 

4 Pagan wedding blessing examples and sample scripts to help you personalize your own handfasting, marriage ceremony, or Year and a Day celebration. Read the full article. 

 

 

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