Incense, by Carl F. Neal

incense Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents

About the Author Carl F. Neal (Oregon) has been a student of incense since 1977. In 1995 he became a professional incense maker and has avidly researched incense ever since. He eventually set aside his retail incense business and focused on bringing an expanded awareness of incense to everyone who would read or listen. Networking with incense makers and users from around the world has given him a very different view of incense. Carl is a self-professed incense fanatic who has been lucky enough to learn from a variety of incense makers from North and South America, Asia, and Europe. He has traveled across America to lead incense-making workshops and discussions and has been a frequent guest at Pagan festivals and gatherings, where he spreads his enthusiasm for incense with vigor. Carl holds bachelor degrees in History and Sociology.

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incense Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents

NEW and EXPANDED

Carl F. Neal Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota

Incense: Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents: New and Expanded © 2014 by Carl F. Neal. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Edition First Printing, 2014 Book design by Michael Maupin Book format by Bob Gaul Cover design by Lisa Novak Cover photo © 2003 by Leo Tushaus Editing by Laura Graves Interior illustrations by Wen Hsu Llewellyn Publications is a registered trademark of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neal, Carl F., 1965– author.

Incense: crafting & use of magickal scents/Carl F. Neal.—New and expanded. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7387-4155-0 1. Magic. 2. Incense—Miscellanea. I. Title.

BF1623.I52N43 2014 668'.542—dc23 2014024065 Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business transactions between our authors and the public.

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Llewellyn Publications A Division of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive Woodbury, MN 55125-2989 www.llewellyn.com Printed in the United States of America

For my mother, who taught me that all things are possible & for Annette, whose words of love and wisdom I can still hear today.

Contents Acknowledgments . . . xix

Introduction . . . xxi Introduction to the Second Edition . . . xxi Overview . . . xxiii How to Use This Book . . . xxiii What Is Incense? . . . xxiv What Is Not Incense . . . xxiv Why Burn Incense? . . . xxv Why Make Incense? . . . xxvi Synthetic Incense . . . xxvii Commercial Incense . . . xxviii Control . . . xxix Empowerment . . . xxx The Joy of Making Incense . . . xxxi

The World of Incense Making . . . xxxi India . . . xxxii China . . . xxxii Tibet . . . xxxii Japan . . . xxxiii Europe . . . xxxiii Native American and Pre-Columbian Civilizations . . . xxxiv

The Philosophies of  This Book . . . xxxv Magickal Philosophy of Incense . . . xxxv The Whole Herb Method and Essential Oils . . . xxxvi The Dry Mix Method . . . xxxvii

Contents

Traditional Recipes . . . xxxvii Concerns about Saltpeter . . . xxxviii Experimentation . . . xxxviii

Chapter One: The Importance of Form . . . 1 A Word about Charcoal . . . 1 Loose Incense . . . 3 Powder . . . 4 Masala Stick (with Wooden Rod) . . . 5 Cone . . . 6 Joss Sticks . . . 7 Coil Incense . . . 8 Incense Pellets (Moist Incense) . . . 9 Other Forms . . . 9 Choosing a Form . . . 10

Chapter Two: Incense Composition . . . 13 Aromatic . . . 13 The Scents You Desire . . . 14 Resins . . . 16 Plant Materials . . . 17 Woods . . . 18

Bases . . . 18 Binders . . . 19 Gum Binders . . . 20 Wood Binders . . . 21 Pellet Binders . . . 24 Liquids . . . 26 x

Contents

The Science of Incense . . . 29 The Art of Incense . . . 30 The Magick of Incense . . . 31

Chapter Three: How to Use Incense . . . 33 Incense Burners . . . 33 Cones (and Cylinders) . . . 33 Loose Incense . . . 35 Masala Sticks . . . 36 Joss Sticks . . . 37 Combination Burners . . . 37 Censers . . . 37

Lighting Incense . . . 37 Hazards . . . 39 Allergies . . . 41 Smoke and Detectors . . . 41

Magickal Incense Uses . . . 42

Chapter Four: Selecting Materials . . . 45 Purchasing Aromatics . . . 45 Buying Binders . . . 48 Growing Incense Materials . . . 49 Selection of Plants . . . 49 Wild Crafting Incense Materials . . . 50

Drying Materials . . . 51 Bag Drying . . . 52 Screen Drying . . . 52 Food Dehydrator . . . 53

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Powdering . . . 54 Powdering Tools . . . 54 The Powdering Process . . . 59 Buying Powdered Ingredients . . . 61 Storage . . . 61 Magickal Considerations . . . 62

How to Choose . . . 62

Chapter Five: Tools and Workspace . . . 65 Tools . . . 65 Gloves . . . 65 Measuring Spoons . . . 67 Scales . . . 67 Bowl . . . 67 Mixing Sticks . . . 68 Drying Board . . . 69 Extruder . . . 70 Clay Tools . . . 70 Ritual Tools . . . 70 Notes on Cleaning . . . 70

Preparing the Workspace . . . 71 Children and Pets . . . 71 Ventilation . . . 71 Noise . . . 72 Magickal Considerations . . . 72 Music . . . 73

Preparing the Drying Area . . . 73

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Chapter Six: Making Incense . . . 75 Selecting a Recipe . . . 76 Mixing the Dry Ingredients . . . 76 Blending . . . 77 Visualization . . . 78 Empowerment . . . 79

Adding Liquid . . . 80 Adding Oils . . . 81 Handling Wet Incense . . . 81 Clean Environment . . . 82 The Care of Wet Incense . . . 82

Rolling Incense . . . 83 The Basic Cone . . . 84 Joss Sticks/Cylinders/Coils . . . 90 Extruding . . . 91 Coils . . . 96 Masala Sticks . . . 97 Other Forms . . . 98 Latex Molds . . . 102 Making a Mold . . . 102 Straw Molds . . . 107

Drying Incense . . . 108 Temperature . . . 108 Humidity . . . 109 Time . . . 109 Box Drying . . . 110

Your First Batch of Incense . . . 110

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Chapter Seven: Recipes . . . 113 Naming Incense . . . 114 Selecting a Recipe . . . 115 How to Use the Recipes . . . 116 A Note on Using Measuring Spoons . . . 117 Simple Recipes . . . 118 Complex Gum Recipes . . . 124 Complex Wood Binder Recipes . . . 145 Incense Pellet Recipes . . . 150 Kyphi . . . 158

Chapter Eight: Experimentation . . . 161 Substitutions . . . 162 New Blends . . . 163 Testing . . . 163 Testing with Incense Trails . . . 164 Patience . . . 167 Aging . . . 167

The Importance of Note Taking . . . 167 Adapting Other Recipes . . . 168

Chapter Nine: Troubleshooting . . . 171 Chapter Ten: Philosophies . . . 179 Incense Making and the Environment . . . 179 “Killing” versus “Nonkilling” Ingredients . . . 181 Palo Santo . . . 181 xiv

Contents

The Incense Shadow World . . . 182 Fraud . . . 182 Plunder . . . 183 Conspicuous Consumption . . . 184

Trust Yourself . . . 185

Appendix One: Ingredient Chart . . . 187 Appendix Two: Making Grocery Store Incense . . . 197 Spice Aisle . . . 198 Bulk Foods . . . 199 Baking/Gluten Free . . . 199 Pet Section . . . 200 Kitchen Gadgets . . . 200 Produce. . . 201 Health Care . . . 201 Recipes . . . 202 Gum Binder Recipe . . . 202 Sassafras Binder Recipe . . . 203 Grocery Store Incense Pellets . . . 203

Appendix Three: Suggested Ritual Uses . . . 205 Cleansing . . . 205 Space Cleansing Ritual . . . 206 Tool Cleansing . . . 207

Incense Listening Ritual . . . 208 Creating Sacred Space . . . 208

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Calling Quarters . . . 209 Sanctifying Tools . . . 211 I Remember . . . 212 Personal Invocation . . . 212 Being Invoked . . . 213

Special Occasions . . . 214 Invoking Deities and Spirits . . . 215

Appendix Four: Listening to incense . . . 217 Koh-do—The Japanese Approach to Incense . . . 217 Listening to Incense . . . 218 Incense as Music . . . 218 Trail Burning . . . 219 Low-Scent Charcoal . . . 220 Koh-do-style Incense Burning . . . 220 Incense Games and Nerikoh . . . 223 Glossary of Terms . . . 225 Bibliography . . . 233 Index . . . 237

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List of Figures An assortment of incense burners . . . 35 A wire incense burner can hold inverted cones . . . 39 A fine mesh sifter is essential for powdering ingredients . . . 55 Mortars and pestles come in every size and shape imaginable . . . 56 “True” mills use grinding plates or stones . . . 57 Sifting directly into a bag reduces dust and waste . . . 60 Drying boards . . . 68 A simple incense extruder made from a “clay gun” . . . 69 Use the thumb and index finger of both hands . . . 84 Applying slightly more pressure at the top will produce a four-sided pyramid . . . 85 Rolling the pyramid will produce the traditional cone shape . . . 86 Using a toothpick to draw on a cone . . . 88 Using a simple extruder with a drying board . . . 92 A simple extruder can be inserted into a caulk gun for easier use . . . 94 Caulk gun extruder with a cake decorating tip on the end . . . 95 Making an incense coil with an extruder . . . 96 A braided incense stick . . . 100 A completed latex cone mold . . . 105 Open the mold widely before attempting to remove the cone . . . 107 Make a furrow in the bed of ash . . . 165 Fill the furrow with your test blend . . . 166 Listening to incense is an important and beautiful metaphor and practice . . . 221

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Acknowledgments

There are so many people who have helped me that it’s impossible to name everyone.

I’d first like to say thank you to those rare college professors who taught me far more than the class material. Dr. Biles, Dr. Merritt, and Dr. Perkins gave me the writing direction, the freedom of scope, and the research skills that have made this dream a reality.

Next, my thanks to the many patient teachers of the Craft who have illuminated dark places for me over the years. Although I’ve been Solitary for most of my time on this path, the instruction and enlightenment I’ve gained from those far wiser in matters of magick have been invaluable. From personal conversations to public debates to workshops, all of you have helped me put the techniques of magick into simple words. My specific thanks to Annette and Mike Hinshaw for introducing me to the wider magickal community and for being my friends through many years of ups and downs.

Thanks as well to David Oller from Esoterics. His often blunt teaching and persistence took me off the road of artificial ingredients and convinced me that all incense should be wonderful and natural—not just ritual incense. David is also the man responsible for first making tabu no ki available in North America!

I also want to thank all the members of the Alice’s Restaurant Incense List for all their articles and discussion on making incense with natural ingredients, information on Japanese incense making and burning techniques, and information on the dangers of chemicals like DPG, saltpeter, and others commonly used in incense making. Although it is not possible to cite each person/member individually, their articles were important sources for this book.

All of that goes double for the members of my own incense group, “The Incense Exchange” (found in Yahoo! Groups). Your questions have been even more valuable to me than your answers. Your ideas, tips, and suggestions have been valuable, and I wish xix

Acknowledgments

I could thank each of you individually for all of the wonderful knowledge you have shared over the decades. I hope this book pleases you all.

I would be remiss not to thank Elysia Gallo at Llewellyn for being open to the idea of a second edition of this book and being so helpful throughout the process. I hope to work with her in ten more years on a third edition! I also want to thank Wen Hsu for the outstanding illustrations. I am amazed at the way the complex ideas in this book have been so clearly illustrated! I also want to thank Laura Graves for her fantastic work as editor on this new edition.

Finally, I must thank my soulmate, Michelle Hawkins. The first edition of this book brought us together. The second edition would never have been completed (on time no less) without her work to keep me on track and on target.

I love you heart and soul, Michelle. Anda.

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Introduction

Introduction to the Second Edition It’s hard to believe that it’s been well over ten years since I last touched the text in this book. In some ways it seems that I was working on this (my first book) just a short time ago. In other ways it seems like a lifetime ago. I have learned so much since this book was originally written. Let me make one thing clear from the beginning: I am not the most knowledgeable incense maker on the planet. I have been so very fortunate to have met, worked with, and learned from many amazing and talented incense makers. The most I ever hope for is to bring the wisdom of these diverse people into a form that is easy to understand, easy to duplicate, and fun, in addition to being a solid reference work. There are a lot of original techniques in this book, but those would have never been developed without many lessons learned from those talented people.

I have made an additional effort with this second edition to allow the voices of some of these incense masters to come through more directly. I have conducted interviews with several leaders in the incense field to lend their perspectives on what is a fascinating field. I hope that allowing you to hear directly from a few of them will emphasize how diverse the approaches and opinions are. The variety of forms, scents, and philosophical views demonstrates the incredible variety within this world of scent.

I have attempted to address, whenever possible, the fantastic feedback provided to me from readers over the years. There is a much stronger effort to illustrate more complex instructions in the second edition. I have also dramatically expanded the number of recipes and incense ingredients. One very noticeable change from the first edition is the change of emphasis from gum to wood binders. I have tried to provide a more balanced

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approach now that I have a much better understanding of the use and sourcing of wood (and related) binders.

It is also important to recognize that the world has changed since the first edition was released in 2003. At that time, binders of any sort were difficult to locate (so much so that in the first edition I included a list of material suppliers). The need for a supplier list has faded away over the years. Today, a quick search through your favorite Internet search engine will provide you with a long list of quality suppliers of incense and incense making materials. Now we can find gum binders in virtually any grocery store, and wood binders might only be as far away as your backyard. There are incense making enthusiasts around the globe, and in the last decade I have seen many incense making workshops pop up in the US from coast to coast. The world is a much friendlier place for budding incense makers.

The amount of amazing incense available for purchase has also improved a great deal for those of us in the West. We have greater access to imported incense than ever before.

Even more importantly to me, there are now more commercial domestic makers of natural incense than ever before. The number of brands of quality Western incense has grown large enough to represent a significant shift from the last decade. I hope those changes continue and we continue to see a blossoming of incense use and making in Europe and the Americas. Perhaps exports of Western incense to the East will even grow one day.

It has been my great honor to have taught thousands of people in classes and workshops all over the USA since the first edition of this book was released. I have learned at least as much from those students as they have learned from me. I was lucky to have been blessed with an overwhelming enthusiasm for incense that drives me to talk and teach about it at every practical (and sometimes impractical) opportunity. Many wise people have shared their wisdom with me so that I could share it with you. They are the true “masters,� and without their help and openness much of this information would remain hidden or even be lost.

Just as in the first edition, this book attempts to offer some modern (in many cases original) techniques while honoring traditions that often stretch back thousands of years.

If you feel that there are any traditional approaches I have glossed over or not treated with appropriate respect, I do offer my sincere apologies. I have attempted in this edition to xxii

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provide as much information as practical without overwhelming readers with minutiae or advanced techniques. This book’s intent is to introduce as wide a variety of concepts and approaches as can be realistically accomplished in a single, highly accessible volume. It is more important to me that I write in an approachable way to invite readers into the amazing world of incense than to offer precise, detailed information on every esoteric approach I have encountered. If you would like to see some of these more advanced approaches, perhaps one day there will be enough support that I could publish such a book. Maybe one day you could publish one instead!

I hope this book brings you knowledge and helps you expand your craft. The intimate connections made when rolling your own incense can’t be duplicated in any other way. It is such a wonderful privilege to be able to write these words for you. May your life be filled with magickal scents!

Overview Incense making is as ancient as humans’ control over fire—older than written history and often shrouded in mystery. You now hold in your hands all the information you need to make your own incense from all-natural ingredients. From the simplest incense for daily use to the most elaborate incense for rituals, with a few ingredients and this book you can make any sort of incense you wish.

It’s important to note that this book is not focused on making incense on a large scale.

Most commercially produced incense is “dipped” incense that is far from a natural product. The making of dipped incense is barely mentioned in this book and certainly not explained. There are a few booklets in print about incense dipping as well as information on the Internet, and you should consult those for information on making incense with synthetic materials. The focus of this book is making natural incense that is a blessing to its user.

How to Use This Book To gain a full understanding of all the factors involved in incense making, you should read this entire book. I know that some people are anxious to “get their hands dirty,” so here’s a shortcut. Skim the rest of this chapter for a general introduction to incense. You should xxiii

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also skim chapter 1, paying particular attention to the different forms of incense, and chapter 5, to see the basic tools you might like to use. Then carefully read chapter 6, and by the time you reach the end you’ll have made your first batch of incense! Once you’ve used a few recipes from this book, you can go back and read the rest of the book to further expand your knowledge.

What Is Incense?

Put simply, incense is anything you burn for its scent. That’s a pretty broad definition, but it’s accurate. The two key concepts that define incense are “scent” and “burn.” All true incense must include both of those factors. Burning leaves are incense for some people, and firewood fits this definition for some others. It doesn’t take twenty-five secret herbs blended by a wizened incense master to make fantastic incense. A few simple ingredients often make the most pleasing scents.

On the other hand, a carefully blended selection of unusual herbs and rare resins can bring about energetic and even physical changes that are staggering. I make this point not only to give you a goal as an incense maker (please, make some incense that will stagger me!) but also to remind you that no matter how much your skill as an incense maker improves, there is always a good motivation to enjoy the work of incense makers who have dedicated decades to this art. There is a great deal of excellent, complex incense out there to enjoy, and much of it has grown out of ancient practices and traditions reaching back millennia. While making your own incense is fun, easy, and very rewarding, please don’t reject all of the marvelous natural incense imported from around the world. There’s time to enjoy a complex scent when the mood strikes.

What Is Not Incense When I wrote the first edition of this book, there was no reason to include a mention of this issue. I hope that ten years from now, when I am working on the third edition, I can remove this paragraph because it no longer has meaning. Currently there are a number of products for sale that are labeled “herbal incense” that are in fact attempts to manufacture synthetic cannabis. Often these substances are a combination of some natural ingredients with synthetic cannabinoids added to simulate the effects of smoking actual cannabis. xxiv

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These substances are generally aimed at young people as a legal way to “get high.” I want everyone to understand that such products have absolutely nothing to do with incense. As various governments attempt to grapple with the problems created by these products, it is important that we remind people that true incense is completely unrelated.

Why Burn Incense?

Humans are blessed with five basic senses. Of those, scent is, after touch, the most intimate. Most human senses have very complicated nerve processes that send information to the brain. Unlike the others, the sense of smell is “directly wired” to the brain. The left half of your brain controls your right hand, but your left nostril is connected to the left side of your brain. The sense of smell is an ancient trait and incense provides a quick connection to your brain. Memory and smell are heavily intertwined. Certain smells can transport us back in time to a memorable place or event.

Incense has many applications in life. Incense is a way to “redecorate” a room in seconds. Although it might take you days to paint a room in order to change how it looks, you can change how it smells by lighting a simple cone of incense. Not to mention that with incense, you can “redecorate” the room every thirty minutes if you so desire.

Incense is also a wonderful assistant for meditation. The gentle scent of sandalwood and cinnamon can bring greater depth to your mediation with the wonderful aftereffects of the scent lingering in the air. In fact, many types of high-quality (and sometimes quite expensive) Japanese incense are an integral part of the meditation habits of people worldwide. This incense may actually create a biochemical reaction that affects the mediation experience.

Incense has long been a way that humans have sent their words to the gods and goddesses of their people. Almost universally, smoke has been considered a way to carry our words, thoughts, and wishes to realms beyond our mortal limitations. On every inhabited continent we find cultures that use fragrant smoke to speak to the powers of their world.

Prayer and smoke are deeply entwined throughout history and across many different cultures. To me, these practices alone demonstrate the significance of incense to those who use it.

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Incense is also a powerful source of energy. Not only can users empower incense with their own energies, the ingredients in natural incense have their own inherent energies that are released when burned. To that end, incense is like a “battery” for magickal energy; when you burn it, its energy is set free for you to use. Of course, you don’t have to use that energy, but I would advise that if you choose not to use it (perhaps you just want to enjoy the scent), that you ground that energy. I prefer not to set energy loose without purpose, but that’s a personal preference.

As a result, incense can make a tremendous difference to the entire magickal process.

Incense is used to cleanse and create sacred space, as an offering both on and off the altar, a way to create a magickal atmosphere and a way to help the practitioner achieve specific mental states. It also serves as a source of energy for the practitioner. Many who practice magick spend a lot of time raising energy. Don’t overlook the added energy released from your burning incense. The effects of incense can have a deep impact on both major rituals and minor magicks.

Finally, although it is quite mundane, sometimes there is a bad smell that you might want to mask. From litter boxes to cigarette smoke to stale fish, there are things in all our lives that don’t smell as good as they could. Lighting a stick of incense offers an immediate way to modify the scent of any room. It takes work and practice to make truly amazing incense, and it seems a shame to waste all of that energy on covering a bad smell, but incense exists to improve our lives. Odors detract from the joys of life, so using incense to change those smells is appropriate. Personally, this is the one circumstance where I am most likely to use synthetic incense. Often the cloying, overpowering smell of synthetic incense can be just right when you have an unpleasant scent to banish.

Why Make Incense?

Since there are so many brands of incense on the commercial market, you might ask yourself why you should bother to learn how to make incense. There are numerous reasons to learn to make incense, although any incense buyer can benefit just from understanding how incense is made. Making incense yourself allows you to avoid the problems of dipped incense, gives you complete control over the ingredients used, and allows you to greatly empower your incense. And best of all, it’s fun. xxvi

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Synthetic Incense You might have heard the terms “dipped,” “soaked,” or “double dipped” describing incense. This category of incense has changed in recent decades and is somewhat controversial. Dipped incense is made using incense “blanks.” A blank is an unscented stick or cone of incense. The idea of dipped incense is fairly new in the long history of incense and in recent years the quality of dipped incense has come into question. Originally, these blanks were made of sandalwood powder and a type of glue. They are basically an incense “base” and “binder” (we’ll talk in detail about those in chapter 2) that are rolled and dried. Instead of using plant materials to scent the incense, the sticks are soaked in oils. As the incense burns, the burning oils supply the scent.

So far, dipped incense doesn’t sound so bad. The problems come from the practices of commercial incense makers. Essential oils are not used in making dipped incense (there might be a few small producers who dip with essential oils, but I’ve never been able to locate any). Synthetic fragrance oils are used instead. A great deal of dipped incense is made with impure oils. Many commercial incense makers and oil sellers stretch their oil supplies by adding a so-called extender to their oil. The most commonly used extender is called DPG, an abbreviation for dipropylene glycol methyl ether. It is a chemical that doesn’t change the scent of the oil but can double or triple the amount of oil you have on hand. DPG is relatively harmless in its liquid state, but according to its material safety data sheet (MSDS) it can produce poisonous gas when burned! That’s not something you should have in your incense.

In addition to DPG, incense blanks are not what they used to be. While blanks may have once been made from sandalwood, or other appropriate woods, modern blanks are generally made using whatever wood powder is on hand. Most blanks are made in countries with few or no regulations, and incense from these places might contain anything, including saltpeter or unhealthy adhesives. There’s no way for the incense maker or user to know what material might be in a blank. In fact, you’ve bought blank incense sticks if you’ve ever used a “punk” to light fireworks—they are the exact same thing. Some experts (such as air quality expert and incense importer David Oller) have suggested that many incense blanks release dangerous chemicals (primarily formaldehyde) themselves when burned.

This is likely due to the use of waste wood powder from the manufacture of plywood. xxvii

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Obviously, few incense makers would use DPG or dangerous blanks if they understood these facts. The sad reality is that incense dippers can’t even control these factors.

Few people who dip could afford to have their blanks tested for dangerous chemicals.

They might never add DPG to their oils, but they have no way of knowing if the company that sold them the oil added DPG. Many wholesalers “cut” their fragrance oils in this way to increase their profits. Naturally, they never tell incense makers who buy oil from them. Do you have friends who don’t use incense because it makes them feel ill or gives them headaches? The chemicals released by burning low-quality incense might be the culprit. Offer those friends some whole-herb incense you made yourself and they might be able to enjoy it with no ill effects at all.

I don’t want to give the impression that all dipped incense is a health hazard or is of lower quality. There are many dedicated incense dippers who would never intentionally cause harm. If dipped incense is made with a high-quality blank and only pure fragrance oils, it should present no danger whatsoever. It’s simply impossible to know what quality dipped incense offers—even if you make it yourself.

Worse yet, the vast majority of dipped incense isn’t made by dedicated individuals but by foreign companies in the same nations that export blank incense to North America. They often manufacture their incense without regard to anything other than their profit margin. They aren’t concerned with the problems that might result from their products. Although not universally true, you should definitely keep the hazards of dipped incense in mind any time you go shopping.

Commercial Incense Even “rolled” incense that you buy can contain dangerous chemicals since many incense makers still follow the poor practice of using saltpeter (potassium nitrate) and cut oils in their incense. In fact, the label “natural incense” doesn’t necessarily mean that incense does not contain saltpeter. I am unaware of any specific regulations related to the labeling of incense.

Saltpeter is often mentioned in published incense making instructions and recipes.

From a professional perspective, there are a number of drawbacks to including saltpeter in your incense. First, it smells bad and is a very strong elemental Fire ingredient. That xxviii

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knowledge can be used to your benefit in certain situations. As you will see, incense doesn’t always need to smell good, and including such a strong aspect of Fire can be appropriate at moments. Generally speaking, adding saltpeter is an unnecessary complication. Saltpeter has another very negative attribute. Potassium nitrate is an oxidizer, which means that it helps supply additional oxygen during the burning process. You might think of it as the chemical version of having someone stoking a fire. The result is that the incense burns much hotter and faster. Burning too fast is annoying, but burning too hot has a significant affect on the scent, in addition to the bad smell of the saltpeter itself.

Another concern with commercial incense—even high-quality, natural incense—is the unknown factor of the ingredients. You should never burn incense that contains anything to which you are allergic. Unfortunately, with most commercial incense, you have no idea what it actually contains. If you are allergic to cedar, for example, it is important that you know if any incense includes that wood or oil before you burn any. Luckily there are a few companies that now include ingredient lists on their incense packages, and more incense makers are picking up on this important practice. Companies like Shoyeido and Juniper Ridge (and others) have begun listing the primary ingredients and (sometimes) every ingredient.

Control All those hazards are a great reason to make incense yourself. The incense maker has control over chemicals like saltpeter or DPG, and when you make your own you can omit these hazardous substances. Beyond that, since you are the incense maker, you know about every single ingredient used in your incense. When you buy incense, you have no way of knowing what ingredients were used. Even if incense is of the highest quality, it might contain an ingredient that you dislike or that triggers an allergic reaction for you.

Incense making also gives you far greater control over the ethical concerns of your incense. Many incense makers never add animal products to their incense while others see it as a natural choice that is perfectly within their path. Some incense makers prefer to avoid the use of rare ingredients out of respect for the Earth, while others feel it is the greatest way to honor Her. Making incense yourself gives you control over any ethical worries you might have. The ethical concerns of incense making are discussed in detail in chapter 10. xxix

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Empowerment Another reason to make your own incense is purely magickal. Just as it’s preferable to control the physical ingredients in your incense, the magickal ingredients are just as important. I’m talking about “empowering” incense (in the broadest sense of that term). By this I mean adding more energy to the inherent energy within the ingredients. You can, of course, buy commercial incense and then empower it. If the incense you’re empowering is full of DPG or potassium nitrate, I don’t see that empowering it would make it less offensive to Nature, but you can always try. Personally, I have always found it more challenging to empower incense that was made by someone else.

Not only is it less effective to add positive energy to incense after it has been made, you also have to worry about what kind of negative energies the incense might have collected.

Most commercial incense is made overseas and sent to North America on cargo ships.

It can take months for the incense to reach the shores of your nation. Then it can take months more before it appears on the shelf of your favorite store. During all that time, the incense has been exposed to many kinds of outside influences. When you buy incense, you don’t even know under what conditions it was made. The energies of a poorly regulated factory might not be what you want to offer as a sacrifice to a deity of your path.

If you decide to make incense rather than buy it, you can empower it throughout the process. The ingredients you use have their own energies, but you can add to that power as you blend, mix, and roll your incense. You can empower it from start to finish. The result will be incense that you feel honored to offer on your altar. No matter how wonderful commercial incense might be, it is impossible to surpass the power of incense you make yourself for magickal uses. You can focus your intent for the incense (love, health, prosperity, etc.) through the use of visualization. That is discussed in more detail in chapter 2.

It is nearly impossible to have complete control over the energy in your incense, but the greater your control, the more ability you have to shape the final magickal result.

Another aspect of the general empowerment process is impressing your intentions upon the energies within the incense (called “aligning” to the energies). You can think of it as “telling” your incense what you want it to do. The energies within your incense may not all be imbued with any specific purpose. By impressing your desires on the incense, any of these unaligned energies will understand how to behave and will contribute to the xxx

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incense’s purpose. This is one reason I recommend that you never make incense when you are in a bad mood or are otherwise burdened with negative energy. It is very easy to transfer that negative energy into your incense and unwittingly defeat your own magick.

The Joy of Making Incense There are still more great reasons for making your own incense. If you are an avid user of incense, then learning how it is made is important to you as well. Even if you never intend to make a single stick of incense, this book will give you the knowledge you need to be an informed consumer. You will have a basic understanding that will allow you to be much more critical when buying incense. You can more easily see why one incense should be more expensive than another. That knowledge can keep you from overpaying for a pretty package that contains poorly made incense.

Another reason to make your own incense is the incredible connection that you create when you blend, knead, and roll incense. Every touch connects the incense more deeply with its maker. Your energy is added to the incense and it is your energy that directs all of the unaligned power in the incense as well. That intimacy can amplify the effects of the incense when you use it in your magick or gift it to someone very special to you.

Perhaps the single most important reason to make incense is that it is fun! It’s a simple thing to say, but the process of making incense is joyous. Burning your incense is a second chance for it to bring you joy. If you have no desire to make incense for ritual use, then make some just for the fun of it—you won’t be disappointed. Many of us enjoy “crafting for the craft,” and making incense is one of the greatest of the magickal crafts.

The World of Incense Making As soon as you make your first batch of incense, you will join a line of incense makers that stretches back beyond the boundary of written history. No one can guess how long humans have enjoyed the benefits of incense. As you make your own, think of that line of women and men stretching back further than anyone can see. This is an ancient art that we can continue to explore in the modern world. This will be the quickest history lesson you’ve probably ever had, but I want to give you a sense of how this ancient art has come into this new century. xxxi

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India India is the home of many of the basic materials used in incense making. With materials ranging from fine sandalwood to the Goddess Myrrh, India has long been the home of master incense makers. Although fine Indian incense is difficult to locate in North America, many basic incense traditions come from that distant land. The majority of incense from India in the twenty-first century is of the dipped variety (discussed earlier), but with diligent searching you might find a supplier of natural incense.

You may have heard of the Silk Road or the Spice Road, but the trade in Indian spices was just as much a trade in aromatic incense ingredients. Among the many goods that trekked across continents were frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, and camphor. Not only did India offer the world its goods, it also offered its incense traditions. The trade routes went west out of India all the way to the western shore of Europe, and east to China and beyond.

China China has long been a land where all aspects of life were closely observed and studied.

Herbs, teas, and incense itself were all subjects of careful consideration by skilled Chinese artisans. As the Chinese worked to improve and perfect their skill with fireworks, they did the same with incense. It is believed that China is the birthplace of the joss incense stick (personally my favorite form of incense). The innovation of “self-burning� incense elevated incense making to an art as well as a science.

Although China is primarily a maker of factory-produced dipped incense, quality incense is still produced there. Unfortunately, there are few good sources for this incense in the West, but changes in China might offer us access in the future. From China, the skills of the incense maker continued east, to Japan.

Tibet Hanging on the edge of the Himalayan mountains, the lands of Tibet have always been a source of mysterious wisdom and mystical substances. The incense of Tibet reflects the legendary reputation of the lands where the Earth thrusts upward, challenging even the sky itself. Not surprisingly, Tibetan incense is usually centered on heavy earthy scents. xxxii

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As one would expect from this rugged land, the incense sticks tend to be thicker and create a dense smoke. Even in the twenty-first century, most of the incense from Tibet is made in small villages before being sent to a distributor for export. Several wood binders from Tibet are now available to incense makers in the West.

Japan Although certainly not the creators of incense, the Japanese are the world’s incense making masters to many of us in the incense community. In Japan, the art of incense making was taken to unequaled heights. Traditional Japanese incense masters study for their entire lives; tens of thousands of hours are needed to learn enough to become such a master. Even today, these masters continue to introduce new ingredients into their repertoire.

These masters create incense that is the result of the life’s work of dozens of masters who came before. While you might think that they are locked into only repeating the past, incense masters around the world continue to learn from others and find new materials to use.

We are fortunate that we in the West are able to buy many brands of this high-quality Japanese incense. It is important to note that just because incense is labeled “Made in Japan” does not mean that it is the high-quality incense mentioned. High-quality incense is more expensive than its synthetic counterparts but has become easier to locate in recent decades. Don’t be intimidated by the idea that high-quality incense is more expensive. You can find incense that costs more than gold ounce for ounce, but natural incense often only costs slightly more than lower-quality synthetic incense.

Europe Europe also has a very long history of incense use. However, as with most other aspects of culture, Europe suffered a long “dark age” of incense use. The early Christian church viewed the burning of incense as a Pagan practice. Some biblical scholars believe that early Christians were sometimes forced to offer incense to appease Pagan gods. As a result, they rejected this practice within Christianity. When Constantine converted to Christianity the clouds of frankincense began to fade from Roman cities. Even so, just a

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few hundred years later the church revived aspects of Roman incense use which developed into the smoky clouds seen today in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches today.

One primary difference between the East and West is that Europeans didn’t make the transition to self-burning incense until the last century. From the censers of ancient Greece and Rome to the fires of the Celts in the West, European traditions grew into their own body of knowledge. The ingredients from the Far East were incorporated into this lore, but local flora were included as well. Although demeaned in some corners of the modern incense making world, European incense traditions are rich with understanding of the earth and her power.

Native American and Pre-Columbian Civilizations Although less well known in mainstream incense communities, North America has also provided valuable contributions to the world’s incense traditions. In North America, deer’s tongue (it’s a plant, not an animal part), desert sage, pine, and even tobacco are part of the incense tradition. These materials are all at the disposal of modern incense makers. The traditional Native American incense materials best known in Pagan communities are white sage, desert sage, and sweetgrass. Native American healers and shamans from many different tribes knew the power of incense would bring visions and to carry prayers to the gods.

From Mayan copal smoldering with the blood of a High Priest to the Incan burning of Palo Santo wood, pre-Columbian civilizations have also introduced us to a variety of incense making materials not available in the Old World or Asia. Still in wide use today, the incense of these ancient cultures endures because of its power and deep connection to the Earth.

In ancient times, the world was crisscrossed with trade in valuable aromatics and spices. Although products of the New World were limited to North and South America until the sixteenth century, in modern times we now have access to a wider range of aromatics than ever before. Modern trade has made many of the once rare materials common and affordable. At times, frankincense has been more valuable than gold (and anyone who has enjoyed frankincense understands why), but today it is quite affordable to people of virtually any income level. xxxiv

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The Philosophies of This Book Every nonfiction book, especially one of this nature, is written with certain philosophical perspectives. The methods that I describe in this book aren’t the only methods or approaches that will work. I don’t offer this book as the “final word” on incense making.

Rather, I see it as a first step to wider understanding. If you disagree with an approach or a philosophy in this book, I invite you to challenge it. Only by having open discussions, research, and debate can we improve our techniques and basic approaches.

Since I wrote the preceding paragraph over a decade ago, a number of my ideas have indeed been challenged! In some cases, you will see changes in this edition resulting from that feedback. In other cases, no changes were made but a deeper understanding still resulted from the discussion. While I understand the continued need in some quarters to keep magick and incense “occult” (meaning “hidden”) knowledge, in general I strongly believe we should have these conversations in the open and share our views with everyone.

Keeping incense knowledge secret has undoubtedly resulted in many wonderful ideas being lost in the mists of time. I remain personally committed to a philosophy to publish as much incense knowledge as is practical.

It is also worth noting that many practitioners of magick have already received specific training with incense. Different traditions follow different methods and philosophies. If you find that what I say conflicts with that training, follow the teachings of your tradition.

I mean no disrespect to those who follow different philosophies and my hope is that we can show each other new ways.

Magickal Philosophy of Incense As you would expect, my personal views about incense and magick are reflected in this book. One place where I have found disagreement with some in the magickal world is over the elemental associations of incense. Because my perspective may not be considered mainstream, I wanted to take a moment at the outset to make my philosophy clear. There are some in the magickal community who believe that incense represents the element of Fire and nothing else, regardless of its content. They disregard the idea that incense can represent Water or Earth. Likewise, there is another school of thought that says incense represents the element of Air. xxxv

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I believe that incense can invoke any element or combination of elements depending on the ingredients the incense maker chooses to include. However, this elemental mix goes beyond that understanding. I believe that regardless of ingredients, incense represents all the elements. I look at this issue from the perspective of what goes into all combustible incense.

With only a few exceptions, the ingredients that go into natural incense are taken from plants. These are plants that buried their roots in the earth and grew deep into her soil. It is from the earth that these plants drew their nourishment. Think about materials like amber. By definition, amber, which is fossilized tree resin, has to be at least 100,000 years old. That’s tens of thousands of years buried within the earth. With that knowledge, I can’t disregard the earth energies contained in all natural incense.

Not only do most plants take their nourishment and stability from their roots in the earth, no plants can live or grow without ample amounts of water. They use a constant supply of water to survive. Beyond that, you can’t make self-combusting incense without using Water to activate the binder—so you can’t make this type of incense without it. We can see that incense contains the energy of all of the elements. I understand that some disagree with that concept (and quite vocally) but you will find this idea throughout this book.

The Whole Herb Method and Essential Oils Making “whole herb” incense was a fairly new concept to me when I wrote this book’s first edition, but I quickly became a strong proponent of it. Whole herb incense (a term coined by David Oller) is made only from natural plants, resins, and woods. In general, whole herb incense avoids the use of oils—including essential oils. The whole herb approach stresses the use of plant material over oils. Rather than using lavender essential oil, you would use lavender flowers. Replace patchouli oil with patchouli leaf. Essential oils are distilled from plant material and are subject to chemical changes during the process.

The whole herb contains the oil in its natural form.

Over the years I have, upon occasion, returned to using oils in my incense. You will find that some of the recipes in this book include essential oils while many do not. In this second edition I have included additional information about blending and including essential oils into incense blends of all styles. xxxvi

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The Dry Mix Method This book also emphasizes the “dry mix” method. This method brings together all of the dry ingredients, including the binder. Water (or another liquid) is added and then the incense is rolled. There are other incense makers who favor the “wet mix” method where the binder and the water are mixed first and then the other ingredients are added. The wet mix method will work for most of the recipes in this book, but I don’t go into any detailed explanations on how to do that. I find the dry mix method to be less messy, easier, and more precise—especially for novice incense makers. But if you are more comfortable or have experience with the wet mix method then certainly feel free to use it instead.

Traditional Recipes While there are certainly a few authentic, ancient incense recipes, not all recipes that claim an ancient legacy are legitimate. As with many other aspects of the modern neo-Pagan movement, there are sometimes people who wish to add authority to their work. They may make claims in an effort to create a false history they hope will give them legitimacy.

That has no effect on how good (or bad) a recipe might be, but please don’t try some bizarre recipe simply because someone claims it is ancient or traditional.

Some genuine traditional recipes call for unusual ingredients collected in strange ways (flowers collected by a running brook on an odd-numbered weekday). Such things are often found in recipes as a way to dissuade would-be magickians. It is true that gathering plants under a full moon or on the equinox, etc., can intensify the power in your ingredients, but many highly detailed requirements to gather materials in strange ways are more a test of your ability to see the truth than they are efforts to get you to hang off the side of a cliff at midday on a Tuesday to collect moss. Also be aware that even the most authentic traditional recipes might contain products that are ethically questionable or no longer available. I would suggest substituting more appropriate materials.

I would also mention that there are some herbals, formularies, and spell books from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries (and occasionally even older) that have been reprinted in recent years. These books may contain recipes of questionable origin.

I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with using these recipes; I just think that it’s important to take their claimed historic use with extreme wariness. Then, as now, some of xxxvii

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these books were published in an effort to sell the materials listed inside and were not pure efforts to bring occult knowledge to print.

Concerns about Saltpeter I also want to discuss a practice I strongly believe needs to be avoided. Many books (including some quite good ones) about incense making advocate the use of saltpeter (potassium nitrate or sometimes sodium nitrate) in incense. I would strongly urge you not to follow this practice, at least not routinely. Incense that won’t burn without saltpeter in the recipe can almost always be reformulated to burn properly without this stinky addition.

Properly formulated incense will burn without the use of this harmful chemical. Not only does it add an unpleasant scent to your incense, it will also change its magickal energies.

Saltpeter is aligned very strongly with the element of Fire, so if it is used in all incense you will slant all your work toward that element. If Fire is at cross-purposes with your magick, it might harm you more than help.

On top of all that, saltpeter is a hazardous material. Keep in mind that saltpeter is a key component in gunpowder and fireworks. You can’t legally send it through the mail or ship it with most package services without paying large hazardous materials fees. I know that some companies sell it without taking this extra precaution, and it poses a hazard to the carriers. It’s dangerous to have in your house, and so I urge you never to include it in your incense without very carefully weighing all of these factors. Saltpeter works because it is an oxidizer. That means it helps to supply more oxygen to the combustion of the incense.

That makes it burn hotter and faster, which generally is not desirable. If you need such an accelerant, I suggest using clove instead (this process is discussed in more depth during the review of base materials in chapter 2).

Experimentation The final philosophy that I want to explain is about experimenting. There are many incense “experts” who believe that experimentation should be left only to the most skilled incense makers. They think that, first, experimentation will never yield as good a result as incense you can purchase from high-quality suppliers. Second, they believe that incense making is quite powerful and in untrained hands could be a hazard. While these might be xxxviii

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valid concerns, I personally have found that experimenting is the only way to learn and explore, and incense is a subject that merits exploration. It’s also the only way to make use of local incense ingredients that aren’t discussed in any books. If you feel uncomfortable with experimenting, that’s fine too. The recipes in this book will offer you a wide enough range of recipes to keep you entertained for years.

Incense making is an ancient tradition that extends well beyond the memory of humans.

Becoming an incense maker is as simple as continuing to read this book. You will then be part of a legacy older than the written word. Most importantly, making incense offers you a chance to make a spiritual connection with nature that can’t be found any other way.

The ability to empower your incense from start to finish, make incense that is natural and pure, and to make an intimate connection with your finished product (a connection that isn’t possible with commercial incense) are all great reasons to make incense. Just don’t forget—it’s fun, too!

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The Importance of Form

Although many in the West are only familiar with incense cones and sticks, incense comes in a variety of other forms. It might not seem that important at first thought, but the shape will have a definite effect on how well your incense burns and the required tools. You will need to carefully consider the form of your incense not only to improve its combustibility but also to properly incorporate it into your rituals. The same recipe can be used to create many different forms of incense, so you can potentially use a single batch of incense to create several different forms.

A Word about Charcoal Charcoal tablets are a common way to heat noncombusting incense.

Charcoal is also an ingredient in some recipes. Burners for loose incense (called “censers”) will be discussed in detail in chapter 3, but charcoal deserves some comment here. “Self-lighting” incense tablets are probably the most well-known method of burning noncombusting incense. These are round charcoal tablets that usually have an impression in the center.

The impression is used as a crude bowl to hold the aromatics placed on the charcoal. Manufactured by several different companies, they bear a variety of brand names.

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Although this type of charcoal is widely available and commonly used for incense, I would urge you not to include it in your practices. This type of charcoal is called “self-lighting” because it is full of saltpeter (I discussed including it in incense at the end of the last section). After holding a flame to one edge of the charcoal for fifteen to twenty seconds, the charcoal will begin to spark and sputter. A burning line will move over the surface of the charcoal and then the tablet begins to glow. That’s the saltpeter. It makes it easy to light but also makes it burn too hot and smell very bad.

If you use this type of charcoal, try this experiment. Light your charcoal as you normally would but don’t put anything on it. Don’t use a lid over your censer and make certain the censer is clean. Allow the charcoal to burn by itself for two to three minutes while you sit far away from it. Go back to the censer and smell. If you smell a pleasant aromatic, your censer probably has some leftover oil or resin on it. More likely you will smell a subtle but quite foul odor. That is your charcoal. That scent is added to anything you burn on that charcoal. The saltpeter in the charcoal accounts for a lot of that bad smell, although I have been told that some brands actually contain high-tar coal in addition to charcoal, so that may also be part of the smell from some brands of charcoal.

Not only does the saltpeter make the charcoal smell (ideally, you want no scent from your heat source), it has another, possibly worse, effect. Because saltpeter is an oxidizer (meaning that it helps the charcoal burn by providing more oxygen to the incense, sort of like stoking a furnace), self-lighting charcoal burns very hot. That’s fine if you are forging metal, but for incense you want the lowest heat practical in order to enjoy the material at its most fragrant and for the longest time possible. If you place a tear of pure frankincense onto self-lighting charcoal, the frankincense melts almost immediately and within less than a minute it has turned dark brown and begins to emit a burnt smell.

This is due to the charcoal’s high burning temperature.

Also keep in mind that saltpeter has its own magickal properties. It is obviously strongly associated with Fire, so that should also be considered before using it. You don’t want your charcoal to put your magick at cross-purposes.

Does this mean that you shouldn’t burn incense on charcoal or use it in recipes? Definitely not! As you’ll see later, this form of heat is useful to all incense makers. It allows you to test new aromatics and new blends without devoting the resources to rolling incense.

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The Importance of Form

The good news is that there are two different solutions to this problem. The first, and in my opinion the best, solution is to stop using self-lighting charcoal. Instead, switch to a pure charcoal (such as incense-quality bamboo charcoal). This type of traditional Asian charcoal is made without the use of saltpeter. It is a little more difficult to light than the self-lighting type, but you’ll find the results well worth the effort. This charcoal has only the faintest scent (with some ceremonial forms having no perceptible scent at all) and will have a minimal impact on the scent of any aromatics you might burn on it. To totally eliminate the smell of the charcoal you can burn “koh-do style” (see Appendix 4). A second method to avoid self-burning charcoal is “trail burning” (discussed in chapter 8) and that technique is perhaps the best way to test new blends without rolling.

Loose Incense This is almost certainly the oldest form of incense burning. Born in the campfires of the ancients, the practice of adding aromatic plants and woods to smoldering coals likely marked the birth of incense. “Loose” incense, unlike sticks or cones, is not a “self-burning” form. You must supply heat to loose incense or it will stop burning.

Loose incense offers some advantages over other forms. First, in my opinion, is the physical interaction and pageantry of loose incense. The materials in loose incense are often left in large enough pieces to be identified. Because of the size of the particles, loose incense can have multiple discernible colors that gives it a physical beauty not found in other forms.

There is also a lot of pageantry in the use of loose incense. Adding incense to charcoal can be a ritual unto itself. Magick often works through symbolism. Adding loose incense to charcoal offers a physical action that can symbolize many things. The addition of incense to the charcoal also brings a burst of scent and smoke that can be used to great effect.

For some, a theatrical element to ritual adds to the emotional impact of the experience.

Those elements are not a part of “mundane” life, so they reinforce the fact that you are in the magickal realm. This is part of the reason that many people don ritual garb: it is a clear visual indicator that this is not normal life—magick is afoot. Let’s be honest, a cloaked figure adding a mysterious blend of loose incense that releases a puff of fragrant smoke can

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be an emotionally moving sight. That energy helps to take us out of the mundane world and into other realms. No other form of incense has that level of pageantry.

Loose incense is a great technique, but like all approaches it has its drawbacks. The primary one is that it is not self-burning. Even if you switch to high-quality bamboo charcoal, you still need the charcoal, a censer (and fill material), and the incense itself. Conversely, you can drop a cone of incense into your pocket and light it up anywhere you go. That’s much simpler than loose incense. Smoke is another problem. You have less control over the amounts of smoke produced. Novice users in particular tend to add too much material to the charcoal and raise huge plumes of smoke. Charcoal that contains saltpeter burns very hot and will burn a great deal of material very quickly, so you need to keep replenishing the incense if you want continuous burning. All types of charcoal need to be replenished periodically if scent level is to be maintained.

All incense makers can benefit from learning to burn loose incense. It was the first form and is still quite useful; it just isn’t convenient to use. It is far easier to carry a little self-burning incense with you than everything required for loose incense. Since the focus of this book is self-burning incense, I won’t talk much about the composition of loose incense in this book. If you want to learn about loose incense in depth you might want to read a copy of my book Incense Magick (2012.)

Powder Powder incense comes in both combustible (burns on its own) and noncombustible (needs an outside heat source) forms. Many types of noncombustible powders can be changed into a combustible version with some modifications in formulation (generally by increasing the percentage of base material). Noncombustible powders function very much like loose incense. Combustible powders offer a lot of very interesting possibilities, including incense seals and trails. The technique of using incense trails to test new blends is covered in chapter 8.

This book is focused on stick cones and other “formed” incense, and not on trails, but you can use any of the combustible incense recipes in this book as powder for incense trails. Simply leave the binder out of the recipe (since it serves no purpose in powder) and you can use the blend in trail form. For a lot of detailed information about trails, please check the book I mentioned earlier, Incense Magick.

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The Importance of Form

Masala Stick (with Wooden Rod) This is the form most Americans think of when you mention incense. These days, even grocery stores and pharmacies carry nationally known incense brands. As with all forms, the masala stick has benefits and drawbacks. Have you ever wondered why the incense has that stick up the middle? Over the years I’ve read a lot of creative explanations for that stick, most of which are silly if you give them more than a casual glance. The true purpose of the stick is to provide strength to the incense. Sometimes this is because the incense is weakly bound and can’t support its own weight. More often the stick serves to make the incense durable enough for shipping over long distances. Finer forms of incense are more prone to breakage than incense with wooden rods. Keep in mind that most incense sold in North America is made in India. Even the bulk of incense made in North America is produced using Indian or Chinese incense blanks.

Of course there is also the aspect of “tradition.” Many people have been using masala sticks their whole lives and they prefer this form simply because it is more familiar. There is nothing wrong with masala incense, but I hope that you won’t ever lock yourself into a single style of incense! There are lots of wonderful masala incense burners out there, but don’t select your incense form based solely on the stylishness of a particular censer.

There are two basic ways that masala sticks are made. The first is the way you would make them based on the information in this book: incense is rolled onto a thin wooden rod by hand. This is the more traditional version of the masala stick but it is by far the rarer.

While there are several ways to roll a masala stick by hand, few sticks of this style are hand rolled in the twenty-first century.

Masala incense is much more commonly made by machine. It’s an interesting process to watch. The wooden rod (core) is inserted into a small opening in the machine. The stick is pulled through the opening by the machine, and as it moves through, the stick is coated with the wet incense mixture. There is a setting to determine how much of the stick is coated so that an exposed length of stick is left. The wet stick is kicked out of the other side of the opening and can be laid aside for drying. It is certainly faster than hand rolling.

Of course the really critical aspect of this is not how the incense is applied to the stick.

Rather, the important question is “What is in that incense?” The vast majority of masala incense is made with synthetic materials. If you are looking for natural incense, you will 5

Chapter One

find far more selection in other forms, but there are a few brands of natural masala sticks out there.

Masala sticks offer a few advantages over some other forms. Above all others is their availability in North America, where they are a dominant form. That’s one reason that some people have developed such an attachment—you can find them and their paraphernalia almost anywhere on the continent. They are also very flexible when it comes to incense burners. A masala stick can be burned nearly anywhere. The uncoated length of the wooden rod ensures that the incense will stop burning before reaching the burner, so burners can be made of any material. A masala stick can even be pushed into bare ground and burned outdoors (taking care of any fire hazards and placing far from walkways to avoid injuries).

The masala form also has drawbacks. Those wooden rods don’t want to burn. If you want to test this, light the end of a bamboo skewer and blow out the flame. It will glow for a moment and go out. Therefore your incense has to burn well enough not only to burn itself but the wooden rod as well. Only use your best-burning blends in masala form. Masala sticks are also more wasteful than other forms because of the (often very long) leftover wooden rods. You can save those and then toss into a campfire but leftover cores from natural incense won’t have much scent. The leftover cores from dipped incense often still have quite a strong scent.

Cone The cone is a relatively recent development in incense making. It is just over a hundred years old and was also created for shipping durability. Unlike the stick, however, the cone is a boon to incense makers. Cones are durable and, when made correctly, burn well.

The cones that are available commercially are often of a very poor shape, so I wouldn’t necessarily advise trying to duplicate them. A cone needs to be tall and thin, but most commercial cones are short and stout. That makes them harder to break but also harder to burn. Commercial incense most often overcomes this problem by drenching them in oil (incense “dipping”). If you put enough oil on them, any shape of cone will burn.

Cones are a great form for several reasons. First, they are easy for even first-time incense makers to create. The shape can be formed very roughly and still burn or it can be 6

The Importance of Form

very refined. Cones can also be molded. They are relatively durable, so you can carry them in your pocket. Making a burner for a cone is as easy as finding a discarded soda can or even just putting a coin on a rock. If you roll cones by hand, each one will have a distinctive look. Molding can give you a more commercial uniformity, but in my experience you just as often distort the cone when removing it from the mold, still resulting in a different shape for each cone.

Although I’ll discuss this in more detail later in the book, I also like rolling cones because I form them in the palm of my hand and that makes me feel more connected to this form than most others. The act of forming the cone between my fingers and rolling on the palm of my hand seems to form a stronger bond for me, energetically speaking, than incense that is cut or extruded. You can actually make a “masala cone” if you wish by pushing a wooden rod (like a toothpick) into the flattened bottom of a wet cone. The cone can then be used in most burners meant for masala sticks.

Cones are also a great way to test the viability of your incense blend. If you don’t formulate your incense properly, cones are much more difficult to shape, a quick indicator that you need to adjust the recipe. Likewise, if the formulation isn’t good, cones tend to crack or break apart during rolling. Cracks during drying can be a similar indicator of a bad formulation, but not in all cases. This really represents the biggest drawback of cones: if not well formulated, cones tend to stop burning when reaching the thicker bottom section or the cracks that appear.

Joss Sticks For me, this is the ultimate form to give to your incense. In ancient times, the joss stick actually had a hollow reed up the center, much like the bamboo rod of what we now call a masala stick. Joss sticks (or “incense cylinders” in their large form) in modern times are simply round rods of incense material. These can range in thickness from the size of a pencil down to the thickness of a toothpick. Joss sticks generally offer the best burning properties and maximize your chances of successful incense making. One reason for this, I believe, is that the joss stick has a huge surface area compared to many other forms. As a general rule, the thinner the cylinder, the better its burning properties.

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In the first edition of this book I called cylinders the thickness of spaghetti or thinner “spaghetti sticks.” That term has been eliminated from this new edition of the book.

After using the euphemism “spaghetti stick” in the first edition I quickly learned that readers were sophisticated enough to understand using the more common term “joss stick.” I think they will burn better than any other shape. In fact, you might find that some of your recipes won’t burn as well in any other form. They are easy to light and can be made in any length. The only significant drawback to joss sticks is that they are more fragile than other forms. Joss sticks can be rolled to size by hand or extruded (for details on extruding, see chapter 6). You can also make square “cylinders.” You might even occasionally see commercial sticks that are square. Those are easy to make by rolling the incense dough flat and cutting the sticks rather than rolling them individually.

While masala sticks are the dominant form of incense in North America, the joss stick is the most common form of incense in Europe. It’s far easier to find natural joss sticks than natural masala sticks, but be aware that there are plenty of joss sticks made with synthetic materials.

Coil Incense The incense coil is a slightly modified version of the joss stick. Rather than leaving the stick straight, you can spiral it into a fairly tight coil. This is another very old form, long used in the East. The great advantages of coil incense are both the burning time and the small storage area required. A joss stick can be made quite long, but the longer they are the more prone they are to break. A joss stick that is three feet long is the practical limit (without turning it into a thick incense cylinder). Such a long stick would be extremely difficult to store safely and would need a three-foot-long storage box. A coil, on the other hand, made from a three-foot-long joss stick will only require about nine square inches to store.

By coiling incense, you can make a single piece of incense as long as you’d like. A typical coil is about four inches (10 cm) wide and spirals around four to six times, but I have personally seen coils twelve inches (30 cm) in diameter with the incense over a quarter-inch (5 mm) thick. These are hung from ceiling rafters and may hang down several feet. I have seen photos of coils in Buddhist temples that are over six feet (2 m) wide and hung from the ceiling down to the floor of the temple. They are so thick that they must be lit with a blowtorch, and they are supposed to burn for an entire month!

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The Importance of Form

Incense Pellets (Moist Incense) In the first edition of this book I used the term “moist incense” for this form. I admit to you that I have struggled with that term for over a decade. Truthfully, there is no label I’ve seen that accurately encapsulates this form of incense, but in the final analysis “incense pellets” does seem to cover more of the variety found within this form. It’s still an imperfect name (I have often burned this form in shapes other than pellets), but I think it works better than “moist incense.”

That being said, the characteristics of the incense pellet form are pretty straightforward. At some stage in its creation, this form of incense is moist. In most cases, it retains moisture and remains pliable long after it is made. The pellet is a noncombustible form so you must supply outside heat to burn it. It is made with an entirely different class of binders that includes honey. It is often formulated with a charcoal component to speed curing and improve the burning qualities of “young” incense.

There are many approaches to making incense pellets, but they fall between two extremes. On one hand is the simple approach of Japanese nerikoh (“kneaded incense”) which blends aromatics with a base of charcoal and, optionally, wood powders and a binder, mixed by hand. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the classic Egyptian kyphi.

I’ll talk more about kyphi later, but what is important here is that kyphi is for all practical purposes “cooked incense.” The process of making kyphi includes cooking, soaking in wine, and other complex and time-consuming steps. The final result is quite amazing, but the process is quite different.

Other Forms When wet, incense is a lot like wet clay. It can be formed into virtually any shape desired.

That gives the incense maker a lot of flexibility and allows for some creative efforts. The incense disk is one fun form. I once supplied a Sunday school class with enough material to make fifty incense disks with frankincense. Rather than burning the incense, they made disks and put a small hole near the top. They then slipped a string through the hole, and the kids were able to wear the incense! Later they were able to toss them into a campfire (seems a bit Pagan doesn’t it?). I’ve made disks like this with groups and it was a lot of fun.

Because many incense blends will warp a little during drying, disks don’t always stay flat— 9

Chapter One

but they are a unique way to show off your incense making skills. If made thin enough, most incense will burn in disk form. Alternately, you can break pieces from the disk and burn those instead.

In addition to the simple disk, you can buy inexpensive cookie cutters and cut your wet incense dough into any shape you desire. The shape might not completely burn, but they often do. Most people never even light novelty incense of that nature. They usually keep it intact. You’ll find that you can have a lot of fun with wet incense.

Since incense dough is so easy to work with, you’ll find that you can make most anything from it. You’re only limited by your own artistic skills. From log cabins to abstract sculpture, you can use cylinders as construction material or form lumps of incense dough into a desired shape. There are two important tips I’d offer to the creative incense maker.

First, don’t start out trying to craft sculpture. Learn to make good incense first, then try your hand at sculpture. Second, try to use thin strips of incense if you plan to eventually burn your work of art. If building a cabin of incense, for example, keep the various layers of “logs” separated from the layers above. You don’t want all the logs burning at the same time or you’ll create a mass of smoke. Not to mention that your creation will burn very quickly.

Wax paper works well to keep layers from sticking together while they dry.

Another unusual form that is fun to use is one version of the “incense clock.” I talk about several different types of incense clocks, but this form uses incense cylinders or coils and alerts you by changing scent. You can actually “splice” many forms of incense together. It is easiest with incense cylinders (thick joss sticks), but joss sticks, coils, and even combustible powder can be used. The simplest way to do this is with powder, but using a cylinder gives a more portable result. Extrude (or roll) two different blends into cylinders of the same diameter. You can then cut short sections from each and combine those sections to make a single cylinder. The result is a stick that will change scents. Getting the two sections to stick together can be a little tricky (especially since they are different blends often with different textures), but there are ways to splice I will talk about later in the book.

Choosing a Form In addition to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each form, there are a few other factors to consider when choosing which form of incense to make. You should keep 10

The Importance of Form

in mind that each batch of incense dough can be used to create more than one form. You can divide your dough into parts and create some cones, some joss sticks, and some coils (or whichever combination you prefer).

The first factor you need to think about is the tools and workspace available to you. If you want to make extruded sticks, for example, you’ll need an extruder and drying boards longer than the sticks you wish to make. You can make joss sticks (or even thick cylinders) that are more than twelve inches long, but do you have a drying board large enough to hold a stick of that length? If you want to make molded cones, you’ll need a mold and a large drying board. Coils and cones require the least amount of space both to make and to dry. You need a workspace that can comfortably accommodate all of your tools and drying boards without being too cramped. The form you choose can have a big effect on how long you will need to dry your incense.

The next factor to consider is how you intend to use the incense. Will you require a long burning time or will a short one do? Keep in mind that the burning time of your incense is primarily determined by its length. The longer your incense (or the taller the cone), the longer it will burn. Thicker incense may burn a little slower than thin, but be wary of making incense that is too thick. You also need to think about where the incense will be burned. If you plan to use it outdoors, you might want to consider making masala sticks. If you need a long burning time but only have a small space for the incense, then a coil might be the perfect choice.

Finally, if you’re making incense for ritual purposes you need to consider both your own ritual practices and the specific spellwork you’re planning. How do you use incense on your altar? (For specific suggestions on this topic, see Appendix 3.) If you normally use a censer and loose incense, you might consider leaving at least a portion of your drymixed incense in powder form. Just put some aside before you add liquid to it. If you plan to use cone or stick incense, do you have an appropriate burner you feel comfortable using on your altar? What kind of incense would best suit your planned spellwork?

If your spell calls for only one blend or aromatic you might want to make a single long stick or coil. If it calls for the use of different aromatics at different points of the spell, you might want to make a series of small sticks or cones and then light each one at the appropriate time. With your new understanding of using and making incense, you might even rework your spell to incorporate your new wisdom.

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Chapter One

Incense can be shaped in a wide variety of ways. From the humble cone to the longest coil, it all offers us pleasure and energy. The shaping of incense is a great opportunity to let your creative energies flow. Considering the form of incense you wish to create takes an understanding not only of the forms themselves but also of the intended use and magickal purposes of the incense. Personally, I like to make incense in many different shapes and forms. Try them all and find the ones that suit you best.

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