Cedar has been revered as a sacred tree across the world for thousands of years, from the towering cedars of Lebanon recorded in ancient Mesopotamian and biblical texts to the great Western Red Cedars of the Pacific Northwest, honored by Indigenous nations as a giver of life. The true cedars belong to the genus Cedrus in the pine family, while the fragrant cedars most often used in North American ceremony are Thuja and Juniperus species from the cypress family.

Botanically, true cedars are evergreen conifers of the genus Cedrus in the family Pinaceae, including the Cedar of Lebanon, Atlas Cedar, and Deodar Cedar, while the aromatic woods commonly called cedar in North America are Thuja and Juniperus species in the family Cupressaceae. Cedar's warm, resinous scent comes from aromatic compounds such as cedrol, cedrene, and thujopsene concentrated in the heartwood, and species like Western Red Cedar owe their natural rot and insect resistance to protective oils called thujaplicins. Cedar is a lightweight, straight-grained softwood with reddish-brown heartwood and pale sapwood.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest surviving epic, the hero journeys to the sacred Cedar Forest guarded by the giant Humbaba, and the cedars of Lebanon were so prized by Sumerians, Egyptians, and Phoenicians that they were felled to build temples, ships, and palaces., Ancient Egyptians used cedar resin and oil in embalming and mummification, valuing the wood's natural power to preserve and protect the body for its passage beyond death., and For many Indigenous North American peoples, cedar is one of the four sacred medicines alongside tobacco, sage, and sweetgrass, and Northern White Cedar was named arborvitae, the tree of life, by 16th-century French explorers whose scurvy-stricken crew was healed by a cedar remedy shared with them by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians.

As this smoke rises, I clear away what is heavy and unwanted, and I call in protection, healing, and steady abundance, standing rooted and calm like the cedar that has sheltered and sustained life for generations.