If you’re a modern hippy asking yourself, “What is palo santo used for?” then get excited. We’re about to answer all your questions about palo santo wood, using palo santo for cleansing, and the benefits of combining it with sage. Good vibes and healing energy are coming your way.
Palo Santo Explained
Palo santo (aka Bursera graveolens) is a Spanish tree that is natively found from the Yucatan Peninsula all the way to Peru and Venezuela. It grows in forests with a dry climate basically all over South America. So, the Spanish are quite familiar with this tree and have been using it medicinally for centuries.
In fact, palo santo wood has even coined the name “holy wood” in Spanish. The woody part, resin, and oils extracted from the tree are used as medicine to treat pain, inflammation, stress, and clear stagnant, negative energy.
Benefits of Using Palo Santo
Like we mentioned above, palo santo wood is used for medicinal and cleansing purposes. What’s amazing about this tree is that the wood, resin, and oil can be utilized. No waste here!
Pain Reduction
Pain reduction is one benefit of using palo santo. People use it to find relief from arthritis, headaches, and other types of joint, muscle, or nerve tension.
Bye-Bye Mosquitos
Palo santo is used to repel mosquitos, ants, termites, and flies in traditional cultures. Apparently, the oil contains limonene, which has natural insecticide properties.
Stress Relief
The resin and oil from the holy wood are used for stress relief. Resin is burned as incense, and the oil is smelled or rubbed on the skin. Both methods are forms of aromatherapy.
Energy Healing
The most known benefit of palo santo is energy healing. The fumes released from burning Bursera graveolens wood are naturally therapeutic and wipe away negative energy.
How to Use Palo Santo
You can use palo santo in many different ways. The most popular way is to light a stick of the holy wood, let it burn for several seconds, and then blow out the flame to produce its legendary smoke.
If you’re using oil, it can be added to an essential oil diffuser, inhaled from a streamer, or diluted with a carrier oil for skin application.
For resin, grab a resin burner or mix it with a carrier oil to use in an essential oil burner.
Use Holy Wood with Sage
Combining palo santo with sage creates a super-duo that packs a healing punch to the energy in your space. The smoke from burning sage clears the energy, wiping a clean slate. After you’ve finished smudging your space, light a piece of holy wood and use the smoke from that to infuse positive energy back into your space. Using both plants together is incredible for clearing and sealing the energy in your home.
Get Your Hands on Palo Santo Sticks
Palo santo is an incredibly popular plant. So, with popularity comes hundreds of companies wanting to sell the wood. Many are legitimate, but some are just trying to make a quick buck on a trend- sad to say.
Always do your due diligence and make sure the palo santo wood you’re procuring has been ethically sourced and is sold by a company that talks the talk and walks the walk. Petite Petitions takes ethically sourced palo santo seriously.
All of the palo santo affirmation sticks are Peruvian-origin wood that is split by hand from trees that were already cut down. Ethical from start to finish, and they even have positive affirmations etched on the surface for extra-extra good vibes.