Palo Santos

Palo santos is the Spanish term for holy wood but its scientific name is bursera graveolens. The palo santos trees are native to the Yucatan Peninsula and have been used as a spiritual cleanser for centuries. Even the ancient Incas used it to cleanse their spaces prior to rituals and ceremonies. 

Palo santos is known for its cleansing properties, but the reason for that goes beyond spirituality. The oils in the palo santos wood have antimicrobial properties that aid in anxiety reducing and soothing the central nervous system. This leads to happier moods and an uplifted outlook on life. Beyond the spiritual uses, palo santos has been used as a mosquito repellent, pain reliever, and stress reducer. 

So how do you use it? There are a multitude of different forms of palo santos, but the most popular is to burn it in wood form. These pieces of palo santos are usually 3-4 inch sticks of wood that are easy to hold. One end is usually lit using a torch and used almost like a sage/smudge stick or as an incense. It has a woody and warm smell that is similar to that of a campfire. With this you can walk around a space, wafting the smoke throughout the area to cleanse any negative energy. Similarly it can be used to cleanse spiritual tools, crystals, and even people. And the best part is that this small piece of wood lasts a long time and can be used multiple different times for different cleansing purposes. 

Another popular form of palo santos is in an essential oil. This can be used as a perfume or even in oil diffusers. There is a lot of versatility to essential oils; they can be applied to candles, spells, people, and even used to perfume a space. With palo santos cleansing properties, this makes this essential oil very useful for removing negativity from tools and people. 

The last popular form of palo santos is in resin form. Like wood, this can be burned. With a little bit of charcoal and in a fire safe dish, this resin burns fast and gives off a very aromatic smell. This is great for spells that involve burning herbs. Another method of using resin is adding it to a carrier oil and bruning it as an essential oil.