Prologue
Welcome to Burning Sage - Looking in all the dark corners to heal from abuse.
Who are we?
Welcome to Burning Sage. We are Marie Ruth and Renr Noll, writing under pen names to protect our children and grandchildren. We appreciate your curiosity and ask that you understand the difficulties in revealing identity. We admire the individuals who bravely reveal their identity as they speak about abuse. Unfortunately, in our situation, it is difficult and could be life threatening if our real identities were known.
Today, we are safe. Everything we write here is true. It happened.
We are writing this exactly for the purpose we state. We want to heal and to grow. We want and need to move on to a place of peace. We are looking in all the dark corners so we will acknowledge our part. And their part.
If we can help another, that is a lovely bonus.
Why the name Burning Sage?
The act of burning sage in modern spirituality originates from North American Indigenous communities. Burning incense and herbs can be traced back throughout time through all cultures. The act is called smudging and there is a scientific basis for the ritual as it can remove 94% of airborne bacteria.
So that is the background of smudging. Why did we choose it as our name? The act of smudging is used in modern culture to ground a person. The ritual is calming and centering. It is meant to remove all the negative from your life.
We each burn sage in our homes from time to time. So the metaphor felt appropriate as we burn our past to heal ourselves for our future.
What is the purpose of this exercise?
We want to look in all the dark corners to heal from abuse. By doing this as publicly and safely as we can, we are also holding ourselves accountable for our own healing.
With the above in mind, we know that healing also flows from helping others.
In that light, we accept subscriptions on Substack. The Substack articles are an in-depth narrative of our lived experiences.
We are committed to donating a portion of our profits to causes that have helped us along the way. Nonprofits such as our local domestic violence shelter and outofthefog.net. If you are a founding member, we welcome your suggestion for an organization close to your heart that serves the survivor community.
Our purpose is not to make money. But we acknowledge that someone, somewhere may feel inclined to help.
We thank you. We appreciate you.
In addition to Substack subscriptions, we hope to build a community of support for survivors and those in the process.
All comments will be monitored. Only positive comments will be kept.
Be kind.
We have been through enough, as have many in our community.
We will not tolerate sass.