Saining is a very old Celtic blessing which means ‘to make sacred’ and is a crucial ritual in Celtic cultures, unique to lineages where it has been passed down.  Using saining to consecrate and protect individuals, families and communities has long weaved sacred energies. There are many ways to sain but most include fire, water, smoke from burning the Juniper (I also use wormwood or mugwort) and poetry or song, to welcome ancestors from across the veil. These elements and herbs have cultural connotations with the dead which transform spaces, objects and peoples into portals that thin the veil between our world and the Otherworlds, allowing clearer communion or presence with ancestors and other spirits to take place.