Smudging is the common name given to the indigenous American tradition known as the Sacred Smoke Bowl Blessing. This is a powerful spiritual cleansing technique which calls upon the spirits of various sacred plants to drive away negative energy and to restore balance to an individual, a group, a space, or all three. When people speak of smudging, they usually are referring to burning sage to purify their homes and themselves. Make sure the smoke permeates the body when you smudge with your hands, feather, or fan. When smudging yourself, a group or space, offer the smoke to the four directions first, beginning in the East – calling the blessings and protection in.

Since 1984 the Taos Herb Company has manufactured hundreds of products from organic, sustainably wildcrafted superior quality herbs to help you explore natural healing options.

From 1975 to 1993, Dr. Robert Hawley was a Taos Pathologist and Cardiologist. Dr. Hawley was a strong patient advocate. Also a storyteller, Dr. Hawley treasured the Taoseños (people who live in Taos) traditions of storytelling and folk healing and upheld these traditions as critical to patient well-being. While some doctors would have been skeptical about the use of herbal medicine and curanderismo (a form of folk traditional healing that includes herbal medicine, healing rituals, and spiritualism common in Hispanic-American communities, particularly in the southwestern United States), he saw it as a critical component to wellness and healing.

Dr. Hawley, and his son Rob took a 2-week field trip with seminal herbal expert, Michael Moore. After the exposure to herbs with Michael Moore, Rob became fascinated and began buying books and spending all his extra time in the forest around Taos and Southern Colorado picking plants and keying them out (identifying plants through a systematic procedure that looks at all of the parts: stems, seeds, and roots to identify the species). Rob pressed plant specimens in a big hard-bound book -- his improvised plant press and herbarium. A few months after that field trip, it was Dr. Hawley's idea to start an herb store. Rob, his sister Tina and husband Fritz opened a little 400 square foot herb store at their first location on Camino de la Placita. "We started out as purists, selling only bulk herbs. We didn't have any extracts or body care products," Rob Hawley recalls.

With Michael Moore's instruction and a lot of book studying, Tina and Rob learned how to extract herbs. Rob's wife, Julie, jumped into the business as well. A few of the first extractions created by Tina and Rob were Ginseng, Osha, and Motherwort. Now Taos Herb Company manufactures hundreds of products from organic and sustainably wildcrafted herbs, and offers custom-blended extracts, compounds, essential oils, aromatherapy, traditional ceremonial herbs, smudge sticks, and Yerba Hair Care products.