What it is
Defumação, literally "smoking," is carried out by burning a chosen combination of dried herbs, such as rosemary, benzoin, lavender, sage, cedar, and rue, so that the smoke passes through a space and, often, over the people gathered in it. Within Santo Daime and the related traditions it draws on, this practice is understood as a form of cleansing, releasing what the herbs are believed to hold from the soil, sun, and air that grew them and using that released energy to disperse negative influences in the space. The tradition itself is old, with roots described as going back centuries among Indigenous American practices of ceremonial smoke cleansing.
Two forms
Practitioners distinguish two forms of defumação. A defumação de descarrego is meant to clear away lingering negative presence, described within the tradition as "astral larvae," that can settle into a space and make it heavy or difficult for the people who live or work there. A defumação lustral follows or stands alongside it, meant not only to finish clearing what remains but to draw in what the tradition describes as the positive currents of the Orixás, caboclos, and pretos velhos, spirits associated with guidance and healing in the Umbanda tradition the Santo Daime draws upon.
Its place before a work
Defumação is carried out before certain works, such as healing works, the work of Saint Michael, and the Mesa Branca, or White Table, work. In practice it is typically handled by two designated helpers, or fiscais, one tending a small fire and its embers and the other carrying a censer and the herbs, moving together through the space, including past the seated congregation, before the work formally begins.