[Aki]

well, the first question that I need to know is: is it in a sage stick, or is it just loose leaves? If it is a stick of sage, bound with string, then all you have to do is lighted. But lighting a stick of sage, is not like lighting a candle.

What you have to do is hold of the flame to it, much as you would for lighting a wooden stick or a stick of incense on fire. You have to wait until you can see a little bit of burning ember, and then you go ahead and blow it out. the burning embers made by this will continue to burn through the plant matter, creating the smoke that you so desire. Most types of sage bundles will eventually smother themselves, but do keep a look out as some of them will burn through your entire bundle without you realizing it. I learned that the hard way, although it made some very nice Sage ash.

although, I have heard that a bundle of sage will smoke more when there is bad energies, and bad spirits around. If this happens to be the case, little smoke could simply mean that you are not surrounded by a ton of energy, or that you do not have any lingering spirits around you.