Incense: Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents [2nd ed.] 9780738743769

Table of contents :
About the Author......Page 3
Copyright Information......Page 5
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
Chapter One......Page 32
Chapter Two......Page 45
Chapter Three......Page 65
Chapter Four......Page 76
Chapter Five......Page 95
Chapter Six......Page 104
Chapter Seven......Page 137
Chapter Eight......Page 193
Chapter Nine......Page 203
Chapter Ten......Page 208
Glossary of Terms......Page 249
Bibliography......Page 256

Citation preview

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.

Llewellyn Publications Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information 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 matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means. Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the author’s copyright and is illegal and punishable by law. First e-book edition © 2014 E-book ISBN: 9780738743769 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 an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public. Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publisher’s website for links to current author websites. Llewellyn Publications Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd. 2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125 www.llewellyn.com Manufactured 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

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: THE IMPORTANCE OF FORM CHAPTER TWO: INCENSE COMPOSITION CHAPTER THREE: HOW TO USE INCENSE CHAPTER FOUR: SELECTING MATERIALS CHAPTER FIVE: TOOLS AND WORKSPACE CHAPTER SIX: MAKING INCENSE CHAPTER SEVEN: RECIPES CHAPTER EIGHT: EXPERIMENTATION CHAPTER TEN: PHILOSOPHIES APPENDIX ONE: INGREDIENT CHART APPENDIX TWO: MAKING GROCERY STORE INCENSE APPENDIX THREE: SUGGESTED RITUAL USES APPENDIX FOUR: LISTENING TO INCENSE Glossary Bibliography

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

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 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.

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 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 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 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. 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. 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.

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. 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 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.

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 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.

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. 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 highquality 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 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.

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. 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.

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 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 two).

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 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!

[contents]

Chapter One

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. 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. 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 Four). A second method to avoid self-burning charcoal is “trail burning” (discussed in Chapter Eight) 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 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.

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 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 firsttime incense makers to create. The shape can be formed very roughly and still burn or it can be 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. 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 Six). 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!

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—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 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 Three.) If you normally use a censer and loose incense, you might consider leaving at least a portion of your dry-mixed 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. 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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Chapter Two

INCENSE COMPOSITION

THERE ARE MANY different ways to look at incense composition. I am certain that many traditional views of how incense is made might see the subject in a different light, but this is a method that I have taught in workshops for nearly twenty years. It works well and is very simple. For the purposes of this book we’ll look at combustible incense as made up of three (dry) physical parts: aromatic, base, and binder. There is also a liquid component (usually water). The final, nonphysical component is its energetic/magickal aspect.

Aromatic The aromatic is the part of the incense that primarily supplies the scent. Almost any plant, resin, or wood can be used as an aromatic as long as it has a distinct scent when it is being burned and you can be reasonably certain it is not harmful. Many incense blends that claim to have an ancient or mystical heritage (although they may actually be very modern creations) call for unpleasant materials as aromatics, so I offer this important guide if you are making incense purely for enjoyment: if it stinks, you don’t have to use it. If you find an incense recipe that calls for patchouli and you don’t like patchouli, you don’t have to use it. If you find a recipe that calls for lavender flowers and you are allergic to lavender, don’t include it regardless of its magickal properties.

The Scents You Desire Does that mean you should only use aromatics that smell wonderful by themselves? Not at all. It is sometimes surprising that an aromatic with a very strong or unusual scent alone may add well to another scent when used carefully. Many aromatics don’t smell all that great when burned alone (turmeric, for

example) but can add a wonderful scent when used in combination with other aromatics. Some aromatics are very strong and need to be used only in small quantities (dragon’s blood, for example). They smell wonderful when used in the proper proportions but can be overwhelming if too much is used. Sometimes with careful blending you can even simulate one scent with a combination of totally unrelated scents. I have a blend with red cedar and myrrh that smells surprisingly like cinnamon. You should also consider that, magickally speaking, incense does not need to smell good. There are even instances where bad-smelling incense is desirable. Incense serves several purposes in magick. One important purpose is to shift us into a more appropriate frame of mind for the work at hand—a “magickal state of mind” if you will. Incense also serves as a kind of magickal announcement that previously mundane space is now marked as sacred. For both of these purposes, incense need not smell wonderful. One way you can think of incense is as a cleaning tool. You can use a cleansing blend like sandalwood and sage that smells wonderful. It’s like using a leaf blower to get rid of negative energy, driving it away. Nasty-smelling incense (like wormwood and sulfur) can be used in the opposite way—the bad smell attracts negative energy like a sponge. As the nasty smell dissipates, the undesirable energy disappears along with the odor. You may also want to invoke a deity or spirit that would be drawn to a particular aromatic. That aromatic may not appeal to your nose, but if it is an offering for a deity, it isn’t your nose that it needs to please. Scent is deeply linked with memory; even unpleasant ones can bring positive memories to the surface. Although we generally make incense that smells wonderful, that isn’t the best approach in every situation. To test an aromatic, always burn it. When you open a bag of frankincense you are greeted with a wonderful rush of fragrance, but that’s no guarantee of the scent you’ll have when it is burned. By the same token, if you open a bag of myrrh granules you’ll smell very little. Even in powder form myrrh has very little scent. Once you add heat to it, however, you are greeted with a warm scent hidden in the resin. This is releasing the Goddess in the smoke. Testing by burning is the only way to know with certainty how an aromatic will smell while

being burned in your incense. It’s a good idea to test your incense blends before rolling too, but it certainly isn’t mandatory. There are a couple of ways to burn your aromatics. The traditional way to do this is by burning the aromatic on charcoal. This is an excellent method, but don’t forget the warnings about self-lighting charcoal from chapter 1. Use a high-quality charcoal for your testing (see Appendix Four). This is the most common way that incense is burned in rituals, so the tools to do this are very easy to find (or even make for that matter). If you don’t want to use charcoal, you can also use an old pan or skillet (don’t forget, once used for incense you should never use it for food again) over a very low heat on your stove. Alternatively, you can hold a small strip of metal over a candle flame and test aromatics that way. Make certain that you hold the metal with pliers or some other tool, otherwise you could easily burn yourself on the hot metal. Once heated, add an aromatic to the metal. A less extreme approach is the use of an aroma lamp. These lamps normally have a dish filled with water and a candle held below. Water is put into the dish and then warmed by the candle. When oils are dropped into the warmed water, the scent is dispersed. You can easily adapt these lamps for incense burning and they are an excellent way to test your aromatics. Rather than adding water to the dish, line the bottom with a bit of aluminum foil. The foil protects the bottom of the dish from the aromatic—you don’t want resins getting stuck to the bottom of your aroma lamp. You can then place aromatics on top of the foil and use the candle to gently heat them. This is also a great method for heating noncombustible incense. If the incense isn’t warm enough, move the candle closer to the bottom of the dish. If it is too warm (which is more likely), then move the candle farther away. If you become an incense fanatic, there are also electric incense heaters available with even more precise temperature controls. No matter which method you use, once the aromatic is burned, remove it from the heat. You can leave ashes on charcoal and continue to heat them long after they have burned. The resulting smell can be very unpleasant. You don’t have to worry about that happening with your self-burning incense. Charcoal continues to supply heat to your incense even after it is completely burnt while self-

burning incense will go out as soon as the incense burns. Either scrape the material off the charcoal or remove it from the heat once it has burned. When making incense for use in ritual, or for any magickal purpose, you also have to consider the magickal properties of all ingredients used in your incense. It complicates your task as an incense maker, but it also makes your rewards much greater. I’ll discuss that in more detail later. Aromatics need not be expensive or incredibly rare, although those can be considerations for incense made for some purposes. Spices from your kitchen, ingredients from your garden, and materials you can gather yourself can all be used to make wonderful and powerful incense. You can invest an almost infinite amount of money into incense making. You can also spend a lifetime making incense while spending almost nothing on the adventure. Aromatics generally fall into one of three categories: resins, plant materials like leaves or flowers, or woods. There are some aromatics that won’t fit into these categories, but most will. Each individual type of aromatic will behave a little differently in your incense, so it’s important to understand the differences.

Resins Resins are the dried sap or fluid from plants and, more often, trees. Frankincense, myrrh, and dragon’s blood are all resins. Resins are often sticky (more so when heated), so use care when grinding them. If you overheat them inside your grinder you’ll have a tough time cleaning them out afterward. Most resins can be ground to a powder fairly easily, although some retain enough moisture that they can get messy (this is especially true of resins like myrrh or even softer resins like galbanum). Resins are usually very powerful. As a result, they should be used sparingly. When using a resin for the first time or when experimenting with one, use caution and only add a small amount to your blend. On many occasions I’ve been able to cut the amount of resin in a recipe in half without a significant impact on the scent, so don’t underestimate their strength. Resins also tend to produce more smoke than other types of aromatics. This is primarily due to their moisture content. Smoke is caused by incomplete combustion. Knowing this, incense makers strive to make incense that smolders

and produces the least amount of smoke possible. Generally speaking, the longer resins are aged the less moisture they will contain. Fresh (“green”) resins will often produce significant amounts of smoke. That freshness will also have an effect on the scent, so understand that a green resin may not accurately represent how it will smell once aged. I’ll talk more about that when covering ingredient preparation but this is something important to remember when planning ingredients for an incense blend. Resins are often the cause of softness in incense (although binders are also a frequent candidate). This is a factor to consider when adding resins to a blend. There are other options, of course. Choosing to make your blend into masala sticks is one way to work with incense that is soft due to its resin content.

Plant Materials Although most aromatics are taken from plants, by this category I refer specifically to leaf, stem, or root material. Wood is in a category all its own, but plant materials would include the roots or the leaves of trees. Patchouli, sage, lavender, and many other aromatics are plant materials. This category of ingredients runs the full range from very easy powder (lavender flowers) to very difficult (sage leaf). Their burning properties also range from eager-to-burn (pine needles) to very difficult (parsley). Most of the items you grow yourself for incense making will fall into the plant material category. Alas, the vast majority of the plant matter in the world does not produce a distinct (let alone pleasant) scent when burning. Luckily for us, there are hundreds of plants that work very well and produce great scents. Just don’t be too disappointed when the wonderful-smelling flowers you grew this summer turn out to smell like a wet dog when your incense is burned. That’s why it’s so important to test a new aromatic before rolling it into incense. Of course, as discussed earlier in this chapter, a pleasant scent isn’t necessarily the goal with some magickal incense.

Woods This final category of aromatics refers primarily to very fragrant woods. Sandalwood, pine, and cedar are all examples of fragrant wood. Woods are, not

surprisingly, the easiest aromatics to burn. If you have any trouble burning a wood, it probably has some moisture trapped in it and should be thoroughly dried before being used again. Woods are generally the hardest aromatic to powder, and I generally prefer to purchase them in powdered form when possible. As long as the wood has a strong fragrance, it can be used as an aromatic. If a wood has a weak scent, it can be used as a base. Regardless of scent, woods can be included for their magickal properties. I have often wondered if the use of fragrant woods isn’t the true origin of incense use among humans. Even in the twenty-first century people burn woods like cedar and piñon specifically for their scents. Consider what is possibly the most prized of all incense ingredients—aloeswood. It is a wood valued not for its burning properties but for its scent.

Bases A base material is most often wood powder. The key to a good base wood powder is scent. You either want a base that produces as little scent as possible or one whose scent complements your blend. A base material with a strong scent can be used (such as pine), but you then have to think about it not only as a base but as an aromatic as well. You might not want to use pine as a base if you are trying to create a floral scent, for example. Conversely, for some blends you may seek out a base material with a strong scent (such as sandalwood, the most frequently used base for natural incense). A well-scented base can serve to balance out your blend by helping to “mellow” strong scents like dragon’s blood or wormwood. Base materials serve two basic purposes. The first is to improve the burning properties of the incense. Many aromatics are difficult to burn and the base aids in the burning process. Leafy plant materials in particular can be very hard to burn. The base material that you use can improve the burning qualities of your incense overall. One of the first ways to improve the burning properties of an incense mixture is to increase the amount of base material. Although it is not a wood, clove is also an important base material. Adding clove to an incense blend causes it to burn hotter and thus helps you use aromatics that are harder to burn.

I like to think of it in this way: the base material in combustible incense replaces the charcoal used to heat noncombustible incense. There are ways to adjust your recipes to increase or decrease the amount of heat produced by your base. It’s a bit like moving the candle in an aroma lamp up or down. If you need more heat, you can increase the base materials. To lower it, you can reduce the materials or change their composition. The base is really the “heat engine” that drives the combustion process for the other ingredients. The second purpose of a base material is to improve its scent. It can do this by “mellowing” the scent, or “muting” it. If your aromatic blend produces too strong a scent when burned, increasing the amount of base material will help a great deal. That’s especially true if you use a base material with a very low scent. It’s like “turning down the volume” on the scent. Because of this you should use the least amount of base possible that still produces a blend that burns well and smells good. Adding too much base could result in incense that burns well but doesn’t have the desired power. Base materials can also improve scent through “enhancement.” Some complimentary scents can bring out additional depth in other ingredients. For example, I love both golden copal and piñon, and putting them together seems to bring out the best in both of them. Much like complimentary colors, complimentary scents enhance each other. Another way that a base can enhance your blend is by acting as a fixative. The purpose of a fixative is to preserve the more volatile chemicals in your blend. These are usually referred to as a scent’s “top notes” and they are usually short lived. An appropriate fixative can help to “hold” those top notes a little longer in the blend so that you can enjoy them. This is a reason that the scent of incense can seemingly change as it burns—the top notes (and over time, the middle notes) dissipate faster than the bottom notes.

Binders The final dry component of natural incense is the binder. The binder serves as the glue that holds your incense together and allows you to shape and form the incense as you please. Binders range from plant gums to (according to popular legend anyway) animal dung. I’ll focus on easy-to-use binders that can be

reasonably, easily located. I say “reasonably, easily” because finding a binder may be your most difficult task. I’ll discuss locating binders in detail in chapter 4.

Gum Binders Gum binders are not generally found in recipes dating from the nineteenth century or earlier. Their use in incense really came to prominence in the twentieth century, although you may find a few older recipes that call for gum acacia (gum arabic). Gum binders are very powerful and create pliable incense dough that can hold almost any shape. That strength is also a weakness because it is easy to use too much gum binder, resulting in incense that will not burn. I call this “overbinding” incense. You can actually make incense that is so tough you can throw it against a wall without damage to the incense! However, that incense will never burn, so always err on the side of caution when adding gum binders. Gum Arabic/Acacia You’ll see this as a recommended binder in many traditional recipes as well as many new ones. It was one of the first incense binders used in the West, but it is my least favorite of any of the gum binders. It used to be a little easier to find than many of the other binders, but this is no longer the case. Several of the gum binders are now readily available, but for the sake of history I will talk briefly about gum arabic. Gum arabic (or gum acacia) is a white powder sometimes with a mild minty smell. When mixed with water, it forms a glue. It is often used to thicken sauces and soda. Although I know that much of the publicly available information on incense making uses gum arabic as a binder, I truly can’t recommend it. In general, it’s tough to work with, and I don’t recommend it for beginning incense makers. As an incense binder it will hold your incense together but it has some significant drawbacks. First, it is very sticky. That makes it hard to handle since it tends to stick to your hands and your tools. It can also crystallize on the surface of your incense and in extreme cases flake off. Incense made with gum arabic tends to break easily. It isn’t well suited for molding or extruding. If you find a recipe that calls for gum arabic, I recommend you replace it with one of

the other binders listed in this book, although I would significantly reduce the amount of binder (by 50 percent or more). Gum Tragacanth Gum tragacanth is used in the food industry to thicken soups and gravy. It’s also used to make pills and icing for baked goods. A great deal of the colorful icing you see in the bakery is sugar, water, and gum tragacanth. It is also an excellent binder for incense. It is a light-tan- to cream-colored powder. It has a very mild scent that is reminiscent of sweetened flour. It is strong and pliable. It’s also fairly forgiving for the novice incense maker. It works well for hand rolling, molding, and extruding. Guar Gum Guar gum is very similar to tragacanth. It is a white powder with virtually no scent. It is also used in making food and pharmaceuticals. As a binder it also works well for rolling, molding, and extruding. Currently, guar gum is usually the least expensive of the gum binders in the US. You can substitute guar gum for an equal amount of tragacanth or xanthan gum (or vice versa). You can sometimes find guar gum in the bulk sections of larger or specialty grocery stores, or in the baking supplies section of the “gluten free” area of some grocery stores. Xanthan Gum Xanthan gum is used in much the same way as the other gum binders I’ve mentioned. It is commonly used for thickening cake frosting, so you can often find it in craft shops. A less expensive alternative is in the bulk foods or glutenfree baking sections of a grocery store. I have often seen xanthan gum is small packets that look like packets of yeast. They are very inexpensive if you buy those little packets; so little binder is needed that one packet will make several batches of incense.

Wood Binders This category of binder is more traditional in its approach to rolling incense. Wood binders are wonderful because many wood binders also act as bases. As a

result, you are far less likely to overbind incense if you use a wood binder. Most wood binders are scraped from the inner lining of tree bark. The binder is essentially the glue that holds the bark to the tree. Wood binders are generally not as strong as gum binders, which is both a positive and a negative. It is a negative because incense made with wood binders might not be as strong. On the bright side, you rarely have to worry about using too much binder. Makko More properly called tabu no ki; the term makko (Japanese for “incense powder”) is commonly used in the West. Asian incense masters have incorporated it into their recipes for a thousand years, but it was only introduced to the Western market at the end of the twentieth century. Also known as tabu, it is a light brown powder of medium coarseness. It is the bark of a tree (Machilus thunbergii) and it’s simply an amazing material. It not only has very little scent of its own, it also has a wonderful capacity to absorb the scents around it. When mixed with your aromatics, it easily takes on their scent. Due to this characteristic, it is important to keep your makko in a sealed container and away from aromatics. It isn’t perfectly suited for molding, although it can work when mixed specifically for that purpose. It is excellent for extruding. Some people call tabu no ki a “burning agent” because it so greatly improves the burning properties of any blend. You can use it in place of other bases or use it in addition to other base materials if you wish. You’ll find that its wonderful properties will make it worth seeking out. You’ll also have no doubt as to why Asian incense masters have used it for a thousand years. Although once it was difficult to locate in the US and Europe, it has become fairly easy to find online these days. Be aware that it can be a little pricey in the West, especially compared to prices in Asia. Dar Dar is another wood binder. It is a traditional Tibetan binder that works much the same as makko. Like makko, it has a minimal scent and does an excellent job of absorbing the scents around it. Dar makes a very stiff dough. If can be difficult to coax it into the shape you want, but once you have it, dar is very good at keeping the shape. I like dar and have often used it in place of makko, but I do

not find it to be a good binder for extruding. If you like to hand roll incense, dar is a great choice. Laha I have worked with several different types of laha, another traditional Tibetan binder. When I have worked with laha, I have found that it loves to be kneaded. I tend to knead laha incense a lot more than most other types, in part because it is fairly sticky and kneading seems to reduce that stickiness somewhat. Laha makes very smooth dough that is nice to handle, but it does not do well with hand rolling. Laha is fine for extruding and can even be rolled flat and cut, although I would suggest sprinkling it with whatever base material you use to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin. White Ash You can’t imagine how surprised I was to discover that white ash bark makes a nice binder. In fact, I tried it purely on a whim. I had just discovered a different, quite unexpected binder (the next one I will talk about) and was so excited I started to wonder if every plant everywhere was a binder and I just hadn’t known it. In my excitement I went to my driveway, pried a bit of bark from a dried white ash log, and took it to my workshop where I powdered it and added it to some sandalwood. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a nice, smooth binder. Unlike the other wood binders I’ve discussed, ash does have a distinct scent that is unsurprisingly “woodsy”—much like you would expect from a campfire. As long as that scent can be incorporated into your blend, ash might be a viable choice of binder. I have not tried other species of ash but I imagine they would have similar properties. I was careful to use the bark’s inner lining. I pried off some chunks of well-dried wood, thoroughly scraped the inside of the bark (collecting the wood bits that came off), and powdered them. I then used that powder just like any other wood binder. Sassafras I had long pondered products that are used to thicken foods as possible binders. After all, most gum binders are used to thicken foods. Wouldn’t it be

possible that other materials that thicken food could also be used as binders in incense? While thinking about that one day, I settled on a food product I had eaten many times. Sassafras is the thickener in Southern gumbo. In that role it is usually called filé (thus “filé gumbo”) and looking at what it is made from (variously, the pith of sassafras stems, sassafras leaves, and sassafras bark), I thought it was a strong candidate for a binder. I sought out a container, set it on my incense making table … and promptly forgot about it for about two years! While cleaning the table one day (a rare thing indeed) I found the still-sealed container of filé powder. I opened it up, gave it a try, and was so pleasantly surprised with the results that I scolded myself for weeks about letting it sit on my table for so long. Filé powder ranges in color from a mild brown to a deep green. It has a pleasant, albeit mild, scent that is almost minty. It is not a strong binder, but that seems to impart a feeling that the cones are somehow lighter than they should be once dried. Therefore, cones made with sassafras need to be handled with a bit more care than others. Sassafras extrudes nicely as well. It imparts a very mild scent that is easily overpowered by stronger-smelling ingredients. Unlike the other wood binders I’ve worked with, sassafras doesn’t function well as a base. The way I like to test that with wood binders is to roll a cone out of the binder alone. Once it dries, I burn the cone and use that to gauge the burning properties. Of all of the wood binders I’ve listed, sassafras is the only one that will not burn alone. You can use it as a binder, but do not consider it part of the base materials. Other Wood Binders There are many more wood binders out there than what I’ve listed here. If you wish to test a possible new wood binder, I suggest taking a section of bark, scraping the inner lining, and powdering it. Take a bit of the powder (a teaspoon or so) and add enough water to form dough. If you can roll it into a cone and it holds the shape, allow it to dry. Once dry, test it for strength by squeezing the base tightly between your fingers. If the cone holds it shape, you may have found a good binder. If you can light the cone and it burns completely, you can treat it like a base as well as a binder.

Pellet Binders Incense pellets use a completely different kind of binder. With this style of incense, binders are (in my experience) always aromatics as well. With combustible incense you add a powdered binder and then add water. The binders for incense pellets, on the other hand, already contain water. The binder not only holds the incense together, but over time the incense will cure rather than dry as combustible incense does. When I was first taught about this style of incense, I truly believed it would stink, since all of the binders seem to contain a high quantity of sugar. Well, I have rarely been more pleased to be wrong. These binders create wonderful incense that stands apart from its combustible counterparts. Honey Honey is the most traditional binder for incense pellets. Anyone who has ever handled honey knows it is sticky. Not only does it do a great job of binding the incense, but as the incense cures over time, the stickiness fades away but the incense is still bound together. After curing, the incense can be handled without it attaching itself to your fingers. I encourage people to use local honey whenever possible. This not only supports your local producer but also reduces the stress on the environment from transportation and gives your incense unique local flair. When buying packaged honey, take care to review the label closely. More and more “honey” on the market is actually corn syrup with honey flavoring. Avoid things like honey syrup and look for pure honey. Incense made with honey needs to be stored in an airtight container, especially during the curing process. A primary reason is that honey readily absorbs the moisture in the air around it. Exposure to air can dramatically affect the curing process, so keep it sealed until you’re ready to use it. If the honey in your incense has too much water in it, it might ferment rather than cure. There might be a new style of incense hidden in this information somewhere, but I think avoiding air during curing is the best approach. A traditional way to do this is to put the incense in a waterproof container and bury it. Jam

Plum jam is a traditional binder for Japanese nerikoh incense pellets. Over many years, I have experimented with other jams and preserves and have found good results with many. The scent is distinctly different from honey, but that’s part of the joy of this type of incense. You could make it every week for the rest of your life and never make the same scent twice by varying the combination of aromatics and a variety of jams. I personally do not use any jams that contain visible seeds (such as strawberry) simply because I don’t care for the way it looks, but that’s my personal choice. Once again, I encourage the use of local materials when possible. This is another great way to take things from your own garden and incorporate them into your incense. Berries and fruits you could never include in combustible incense can be turned into jam that can be used as a binder for incense pellets. Agave Agave is a popular sweetener used as an alternative to refined sugar. It can also be used in making incense pellets. Agave syrup has a lower viscosity (it isn’t as thick) than honey. That is partially because agave syrup contains more moisture than honey. Honey is around 18 percent water; agave syrup is closer to 21.5 percent. What this means is that it may take longer to cure your pellets. You also need to be cautious about how much you use. Since agave syrup is thin, it is easier to add too much and turn your incense pellets into incense mud.

Liquids When you use a powdered binder (a wood or gum binder), it doesn’t go to work until you add water. The water activates the binder and glues your incense together. You don’t have to limit yourself to only using water, however. Experiment with liquids by using the same dry ingredients but make batches using a variety of liquids. You can even mix your dry ingredients and then use just a teaspoon of that mix. Add a small amount of one liquid and roll two to three cones. Then use another teaspoon of the dry mix with a different liquid. Just make sure that you either mark the cones or put them in labeled packages so you can tell them apart when they dry. Then burn the incense and see if you can detect a difference.

Water Water is always a good choice. For consistent batches of incense, use distilled water (or if you’re like me, take joy in the uniqueness of every batch). I suggest that tap water be allowed to sit for an hour or two to allow the chlorine to dissipate. For magickal incense, you might want to use water blessed in a magick circle or water you’ve collected from a place sacred to you. When I camp and backpack, I often collect water from the special places I visit. When I return home, I incorporate that water into my incense. It is a great way to take just a tiny bit more of that special energy with you when you are surrounded by concrete and glass. Wine Stale wine never goes to waste in my home! I’ve made a lot of fine incense using wine. I am unable to smell the differences in incense made with similar types of wine, but a sweet white can sometimes be differentiated from a dry red in incense. Wine is also a common component in incense made for ritual use. Using wine that has been blessed or used in an important ritual will impart significantly different energy than wine simply purchased from a store, although your nose is unlikely to be able to tell them apart. There are many wonderful Pagans out there who make delicious mead (honey wine), and it makes a great liquid for incense making. Tea I refer here to both traditional teas (made with tea leaves) and herbal teas (tisanes). Tea is a wonderful incense liquid. As with most liquids, tea makes only the most subtle changes to scent. On an energetic level, teas are a great way to add energies from plants that are otherwise difficult to use in incense. You can experiment and create an almost infinite variety of incense from a few simple ingredients if you have a good tea collection. Soy Sauce I’ve seen some recipes that use soy sauce. I’ve experimented with it and didn’t find it to be to my taste. It is mostly water, so you can certainly use it. Try it yourself and you might find that you love the effect.

Alcohol You can use alcohol, but I don’t recommend it. A lot of commercial incense is made using alcohol to “extend” the fragrance oils they use. It certainly has an effect on the scent. If you do use alcohol, keep in mind that the higher the alcohol content, the less water it has. You’d want to avoid anything over 80 proof (that’s 40 percent alcohol by volume). I don’t know why you’d want to go that strong, but you could. You might get interesting results from using lowproof schnapps of various flavors. This wouldn’t be something I’d favor in magickal incense, but if you do, by all means try it out. Honey Honey can be used in incense making (as seen in the last section), but it isn’t well suited for the “liquids” category. Because honey has such low water content, it isn’t a good choice to activate binders. You can add honey to your rolled incense as an aromatic, but just be sure to include a proper liquid with it to activate the binder. That can be as simple as mixing the honey in a 1:3 ratio with water (1 tsp of honey for every 3 tsp of water). Other Liquids You can use virtually any liquid that is mostly water. Fruit juice, soft drinks, coffee, tea, or anything else that is primarily water will work. The only drawback is that many of those liquids will make your incense stink. Don’t try to use essential oil to activate your binder. Oils don’t contain water and will not activate dry binders. Experiment with different liquids if the mood strikes you, but you’ll get wonderful results from water every time. If there is any type of herbal brew you use in your rituals, you might want to use that as your liquid for magickal incense. Temperature It might not seem important at first thought, but the temperature of your liquid can have a big effect on the incense making process. It’s critical to remember the dangers of handling hot water. Speaking as one who has had a severe burn from water, it needs to be handled with care. Never let children handle hot water.

That said, the advantages of using hot water might be worth the discomfort. Hot water generally makes your incense softer, easier to handle, and much easier to extrude. Another major advantage is drying time. Joss sticks rolled using hot water are often dry in less than twelve hours, while those made with cold water might require seventy-two hours. Using hot water is the only good technique to hurry the drying process. A final benefit to using hot water arises if you accidentally add too much water to your blend. Too much water can make it impossible to shape the incense. If you’ve used hot water, you can cool the overlywet mixture and it will improve the pliability significantly. The strengths of using hot water are also its weaknesses. Incense made with hot water will dry out quickly, so you either need to roll it very fast or you will have to add more liquid to it frequently. Since hot water dries far faster, cones and masala sticks are more likely to crack, and joss sticks are more likely to warp. If you are rolling incense in cool weather, the hot incense will quickly cool and may require additional water to remain pliable. Incense made with cold water has its advantages, too. First, it is more comfortable to handle and you don’t have the dangers of handling hot water. Cold water will also slow the drying time of your incense. While you might think that’s a bad thing, it is actually much better to dry your incense slowly as you’ll see later. The fact that it dries slower also gives you more time to work with the incense dough before it dries out. Different binders also act differently with changes in water temperature. Makko, for example, prefers water at room temperature or colder. Guar gum is usually easier to handle and extrude when made with warm or hot water. You might want to experiment to find the best temperature for your binder, but if you are unsure, use room-temperature water.

The Science of Incense I’m no scientist but science definitely plays an important role in incense. Chemistry in particular is important. There is a basic physical problem that has to be overcome with any incense you make: plant matter doesn’t always want to burn. This is the first hurdle the incense maker has to overcome. I discussed the importance of the shape of your incense in the last chapter, but it bears repeating.

It is a good idea that for any batch of incense you make with a new recipe, make at least a few thin joss sticks. Test those first when your incense is completely dry. If your joss sticks won’t burn, then you will likely have to reformulate the recipe (see Chapter Nine for detailed troubleshooting and ideas on using incense that doesn’t burn properly). If the joss sticks burn but larger sticks or cones won’t burn, you might want to reformulate the recipe or just be happy to burn the joss sticks. Another important aspect of the science of incense making is avoiding dangerous materials. Science and tradition have identified many problem materials. You should never add anything poisonous to your incense. European mistletoe (Viscum album), for example, is called for in some recipes but this is a poisonous plant I would avoid for incense making. Materials such as saltpeter are also known to give off potentially dangerous fumes and should likewise be avoided. In a related area, science has also shown us that burning some substances can have a significant effect on brain chemistry. Just as smoking tobacco or cannabis has a significant effect upon people, so do the burning substances in our incense. In fact, this is one of incense’s basic purposes. It certainly isn’t the same profound effect that smoking has, but if you are concerned with remaining free of mind-altering substances, you need to be careful what materials you put in your incense. Damiana, skullcap, wild lettuce, frankincense, sandalwood, aloeswood, and others are known to alter people’s state of mind. In fact, many people use incense as an aid to meditation with just this fact in mind. Some incense is formulated to aid the brain during meditation through chemistry.

The Art of Incense Although there is a fair amount of science involved in incense burning, incense making is at least as much art as science. I often call incense “combustible art” due to a couple of aspects. First is the art of the blend—the aromatic art. Finding a blend that doesn’t smell bad is often a new incense maker’s first good result. Creating a blend that smells nice is a wonderful experience, and it’s quite common to continue making that first good recipe again and again. Creating a

great scent is truly art. We’re used to seeing art or listening to it, but to smell art is rare. It’s overlooked as an artistic medium. There is also magickal art in incense. Blending all of the perfect aromatic notes to bring forth the precise energy you desire is magickal art at its finest. This skill can only be developed by listening to your ingredients and practicing your art regularly. Incense can also be art in its form. Incense dough is a wonderful medium for an artist to use. It can develop deformations during the drying process if not properly handled, but aside from that it is fun and very flexible. From coils to hand rolled cones, simple incense is beautiful to look at and touch as well as smell. You can also get quite creative. From simple things like writing words using incense dough all the way to complex impressionistic shapes, the incense clay will offer you lots of opportunity to express yourself with form. Look in your local hobby or toyshop for tools meant for working clay. They will serve you wonderfully and may open up your creative abilities. See Chapter Five for more information. If you design your art properly, it can also be a display to be burned, offering entertainment to the eye while pleasing the nose.

The Magick of Incense Incense used for magick is always strongest when properly empowered. By making the incense yourself or at least being involved in each step, you can assure that the incense is totally empowered for your purposes and that no stray, outside influences have affected it. In addition to the intentional empowering that you do as you make the incense, you also passively empower it simply by the process of mixing, blending, and kneading. The fact that your hands shaped the incense and it was squeezed between your fingers while still wet is an empowering act. It is an intimate involvement with incense that you couldn’t possibly get from incense made by someone else. Magick is also key when selecting the components for your incense. Components you’ve grown or collected are powerful elements in your incense. By making your own you’re also able to avoid components that might pose karmic or ethical concerns. Who knows what’s in the incense you’ve been buying? Any incense might work for mundane purposes, but when it comes to

incense used in ritual, you can never surpass the power of incense you’ve made or helped make. Incense composition is more than just a combination of aromatics, bases, and binders. It is also an expression of the incense maker and the person’s use of the tools and materials available. Proper combination of materials is the start of the process, and then the opportunity for physical art begins. Considering the amount of aromatics available, you can make a nearly endless variety of works of art for the nose. You can look at ways to formulate incense from many perspectives, but I think this model is perfect for the home incense maker.

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Chapter Three

HOW TO USE INCENSE

UNDERSTANDING HOW TO use incense is obviously valuable knowledge for the maker of incense. Even if you never make incense yourself (which would be a true shame), this is important information for everyone who uses incense. Before making your first batch of incense, at least skim over this chapter. Which form of incense you choose to make could be heavily influenced by how it is burned.

Incense Burners An incense burner can be as simple as an old can or as elaborate as an ornate temple burner. Some incense users are content to own one or two simple burners. Others have giant collections of burners from around the world. It’s important to buy the right burner for the type of incense that you make, especially for safety.

Cones (and Cylinders) Choosing a good cone burner is important. While nearly anything can catch the ash from a masala stick, cones and joss sticks burn completely. That means anything you use as a burner for those forms has to be able to withstand the heat. Never burn cones on wood. The most common form of cone burner is the small brass burner. It is a raised brass “bowl” with a lid. Brass burners of this style are wonderfully functional and will last forever if you buy a good one and take care of it. Don’t buy a burner that’s too small. If you only see one size at a store, you probably need to find a different store. A good brass burner should have a mouth at least an inch and a half across (two to three inches is best). If you can’t put three fingers in the mouth at once, it’s too small. It is best to light cones and then put them in the burner. If the mouth is too small you’ll burn your fingers. Ideally, the walls of

the dish should be at least one inch tall, to ensure the cones can’t fall out. Never use a brass burner on a wooden surface. Brass conducts heat pretty well, and even raised burners can burn the wood they sit on. A ceramic tile or ashtray works fine. I’ve heard many complaints about cone burners that cause incense to stop burning when the lid is in place. This is usually caused by one of two things. It is possible the burner is too small and is physically touching the incense, causing it to snuff out. Alternately, there may be insufficient airflow around the incense, which would also cause it to go out. Seek a properly sized and ventilated censer, and incense will burn with the lid in place. If your incense burner extinguishes your cones, you need to buy a larger one or one with more vent holes. If a clean censer important to you, you’ll have to clean the lid frequently to keep oils and resins from ruining the finish. Without cleaning, the lid will gradually take on a fragrance all its own. That scent will be released when the lid is heated, so it will become a part of any incense you burn. Some burners can become nicely “seasoned” in this way over time. It’s a very good idea to use a “fill material” in the bottom of cone burners. I recommend using ash, but some people prefer sand, gravel, or other fill materials. Ash will especially improve the airflow under the cone (helping the entire cone burn) and help to protect your burner. You should replace sand after every four or five uses. If you use ash it can be sifted and reused indefinitely. For the serious burner of cones, I recommend soapstone burners. Most forms of burner and ash catcher are available in soapstone, and they are the best for cone burning. You’ll usually pay a little more for the soapstone, but it is well worth a few cents. Most soapstone cone burners can be used on a wooden surface (don’t chance it with a new burner—use it on tile or in an ash tray the first time and see how hot it gets before using it on wood). Fill material in the bottom is still an excellent idea.

Loose Incense One approach is to use what is essentially a tiny charcoal grill. Often they are made of brass, like overgrown cone burners. They are large brass bowls (some with lids). The mouth of your burner should be at least three and a half inches

across (four to five is better). You can use a fill material in the bottom or use a piece of metal screen that is bent around the edges to let it stand an inch or so off the bottom. You can also find burners with a mesh wire top. Those work well for charcoal, although I recommend that if the mesh top is convex that you flip the top and use it upside down. That way the mesh curves downward (concave) to hold the charcoal securely.

An assortment of incense burners

Holding the charcoal brick with a pair of pliers (or tongs or large tweezers), light the edges of the brick with a lighter or over a burning candle (natural charcoal, which is preferred, may require an extra effort to light). Place the charcoal into the censer and wait until the entire brick is glowing with a light layer of ash across the top. It is now ready to use. Be sure not to touch the sides of the censer when in use no matter what material it is made from. It is very hot! Never use this style of censer on a wooden surface.

Masala Sticks The most common masala stick burner is known as a “boat.” These are long, flat wooden pieces that usually curve upward at one end. There is a small hole drilled into the burner and the uncoated end of the masala stick is inserted into the hole. This is the most basic form of ash catcher. You’ll find these virtually anywhere that sells incense. They are also made of bone, ceramic, glass, clay, metal, and stone. Some have an enclosed box beneath the burner intended as a storage area for unburned sticks, but I wouldn’t normally keep incense in a

wooden box unless the sticks were bagged in plastic or similarly sealed. The unsealed wood can absorb oils from the incense, and this style of box is unlikely to be airtight. Many of these catchers are inlaid with brass or are hand painted. It’s also nice to buy a cheap plain one and paint it yourself. There is another category of masala stick holders I call “trees.” These holders are usually wooden or stone centerpieces with a series of holes drilled into the top. They will hold several sticks at once and hold the sticks nearly straight up and down or at a variety of angles. They require less space and hold more incense than boats, so they are a good investment if you have a need to burn many sticks at the same time. Personally, I think that quality natural incense should be enjoyed one stick at a time, so I would never make good use of this style of burner. Masala sticks can also be inserted into the ground. Push the uncoated end of the stick into dry ground, clear away any combustible materials from underneath the stick, and light it up. Take care not to burn incense outdoors if the wind is strong, as it might blow sparks off the end that could start a fire. Also keep burning incense away from paths where anyone might walk next to them.

Joss Sticks Joss sticks, cylinders, and cones burn completely, so they shouldn’t be used in wooden incense boats. They are usually safe to use in soapstone or metal boats. A joss stick can be burned in practically any burner that is fireproof (like metal or stone). Many brands of commercial joss sticks come with a small ceramic tile with a single hole drilled in the center. Joss sticks are most traditionally burned by lighting one end and inserting the other end into a censer filled with ash or sand. Many years ago I learned a great trick that eventually led to a major section in my second incense book: if you use ash to fill your censer, joss sticks will burn lying flat on the surface of the ash. That means that the incense will burn completely, without leaving a little nub of unburned incense behind.

Combination Burners Some manufacturers make burners that can handle several types of incense. Usually they are ceramic or made from soapstone. Most are large cone-burning

dishes with special lids or holes drilled in the bottom for sticks. Cylinders and even loose incense can be burned in ones with a large enough mouth. Joss sticks can also be used in them. Sand or ash is also a great idea in the bottom of your combination burner, as long as it doesn’t block any of the holes or other special features.

Censers I use the term “censer” to differentiate the traditional, all-purpose censer from the variety of more specialized incense burner. The censer is the best tool for anyone serious about incense and is the typical incense burner used in rituals. It’s also the ultimate type of combination burner. A filled censer is a dish, bowl, ashtray, or similar object. Sticks and cylinders can be inserted into the sand or ash. Cones, coils, and charcoal for loose incense can be burned on the surface of the ash (coils will usually put themselves out when burned on the surface of sand). They can also be used for koh-do style or trail burning. A good censer will handle all of your incense burner needs.

Lighting Incense To light stick, cone, or cylinder incense, hold the tapered or coated tip of the incense (or either end of a joss stick or cylinder) just above the flame of a burning candle or butane lighter. Hold it there for ten seconds (more for some), then take the flame away. If everything is perfect, the incense will continue to flame for a second or two and then the flame will go out and the end will continue to glow and slowly burn. Some incense will not go out on its own. If it flames for more than a few seconds, blow or fan the flame out. The scent you detect just after the flame goes out is not necessarily the way the incense really smells. Incense is made up of materials that smolder at different rates, so all you smell in that first few seconds are the materials that didn’t vanish in the flame. Give it twenty or thirty seconds, then the true scent will start to come through. When it comes to dipped incense (as most commercial incense is), you might notice that long after the incense is lit, long wisps of black smoke hang in the air. If you reach up and touch one, you’ll discover that it’s not smoke at all. It is

actually a long chain of oil molecules. When they use such high quantities of synthetic oil that it doesn’t all burn; these chains of oil are also spewed into the air. One of the most popular brands of incense in the USA is notorious for doing this, and it’s one of the reasons I recommend sticking with natural incense instead of synthetic for magick. Remember, your incense should give off a pale white smoke—that’s the sign of good combustion. If your incense gives off black smoke, it’s not burning efficiently and needs to be reformulated (reducing the amount of oil in a recipe usually helps). As you make incense, you might roll cones (or other shapes) that won’t burn. This is also a problem with commercial cones, both rolled and dipped. Although I will discuss this in depth in Chapter Nine, I wanted to mention a clever little trick when you encounter this problem. Try burning the cone upside down. You can construct (or occasionally purchase) a cone burner that holds cones upside down in a wire holder. You can also insert a cone upside down into your censer’s fill material and light the wide end of the cone rather than the thin one. Try it—it really works!

A wire incense burner can hold inverted cones

Hazards There are a number of factors you need to keep in mind when it comes to safety. First is fire safety. Since incense must be burned, you should always be conscious of where it is and what might come into contact with it. Here are some important fire safety guidelines:

1. Make certain that no part of burning incense comes into direct contact with wood or other flammable materials. 2. Never burn incense inside cupboards or with anything hanging above the burning incense. The rising heat from the incense (along with the smoke) can cause discolorations and is potentially a fire hazard. If you want to use incense smoke to scent clothing or bedding, hang it at least 18 inches above the burning incense. 3. Incense burners can heat up. Even soapstone burners get hot. Always be careful where you place a burner. A hot burner can damage or discolor wooden surfaces. They can also burn you if you try to move them while they are in use unless they have a chain or a handle. 4. Never leave burning incense unattended. If you have to leave while your incense is still burning, put it out. If you have to, you can put it out under water. A better method, if you use a censer, is to turn the incense upside down and bury the burning end deeply into the sand or ash. That will put it out but still allow you to relight it at some future time. To put out a coil of incense or joss stick you can break off the glowing tip and discard it in water. 5. Although this seems obvious, burning incense is hot. Just grazing the glowing tip of burning incense can cause a significant burn on skin and damage to clothing. It really smarts! 6. Watch burning incense and make certain the ash is dropping where it should. If the ash is falling outside its container, you might need to reposition it or use a different burner. It’s a very good idea to contain the ash. It can discolor furniture and might even be hot enough to be a fire hazard itself. 7. Remember that the element of Fire is powerful and deserves reverence. Out of respect for the power of Fire, do not be careless with burning incense or charcoal. Another important consideration with incense and safety is the material you burn. Burning loose incense over charcoal may pose a hazard, according to some

experts. Burning charcoal in a well-insulated, poorly ventilated or enclosed environment may cause dangerous levels of carbon monoxide to collect. This is especially true when you are using the self-lighting type of charcoal or incense that contains saltpeter, but even the finest charcoal might have this effect. Of course, burning anything in an enclosed space without adequate ventilation is a potential health hazard due to the carcinogens present whenever materials are burned. You should only burn incense in an area with good airflow.

Allergies Any type of smoke can trigger breathing problems in people who have respiratory or certain types of allergies. Keep in mind that smoke is a sign of incomplete combustion, so smoke contains unburned and partially burned materials that can really irritate some people’s lungs. Be courteous of others around you, because you never know who might have breathing problems. I don’t think I can say too many times that you should never include any ingredient in your incense to which you have an allergy. If you break out in a rash any time you handle lavender, you shouldn’t ever include lavender in incense. If you can imagine getting a rash on the inside of your body, you can see why allergens need to be avoided. This is true for anyone who may smell your incense burning, so again, be courteous and ask people before burning incense around others.

Smoke and Detectors Not only can smoke damage walls and curtains over time, any kind of smoke can cause a more immediate problem. A smoke detector with a weak battery, one that is poorly placed, or (as can often happen with new incense makers) simply burning too much incense without excellent ventilation can all lead to unpleasant and even embarrassing problems. Let me cite a personal example I have shared with many students over the years. It was my first Samhain after becoming a professional incense maker. At that time I owned a shop on Route 66 (still a tourist draw even in the 1990s), and I lived in an apartment above the shop. I shared this shop with another person who was neither Pagan nor particularly Pagan-friendly (and whose father was

very much anti-Pagan). As a result, I decided to hold my Samhain ritual downstairs in my office at the back of the shop. I had spent weeks making a multitude of special incense blends to use throughout the elaborate ritual. About fifteen minutes into the ritual, I had burned five or six different kinds of incense and had a stick burning at each quarter when it happened. The smoke alarm in the front of the store started to sound. I didn’t want to draw the attention nor the ire of my roommate, so without hesitation I opened a gap in my circle, sprang to the front counter, climbed up, and began to try to remove the alarm’s cover. In the focus of trying to shut the alarm off I forgot two key bits of information. I was performing a skyclad ritual, and my shop had a complete glassed-in storefront. So there I was, standing naked four feet above the floor on top of my store counter, surrounded by nothing but clear glass, while heavy traffic flowed down Route 66 on Halloween night. It was the first car horn that caused me to recognize my predicament. Honestly, what more could I do but pull the battery from the alarm, wave politely at the very entertained passersby, and return to my ritual? It took several minutes to regain my composure enough to resume my ritual, but it lost its serious edge in that moment. When you are preparing to burn incense, please remember to check your smoke detectors and take care not to place incense where it might set one off. Just think of me that night and you should be able to remember!

Magickal Incense Uses Although most practitioners of ritual magick know about using incense on their altars, you don’t have to limit yourself to that single use. Incense is also perfect for the time before your rituals. Do you enjoy a cleansing bath before your rituals? That’s another perfect time to enjoy your incense art. Some people like to burn a nice cleansing incense during this process. Others prefer to burn the same incense they will use during their rituals to shift their mindset to the forthcoming spellwork. Experiment and discover what type of incense you like during this preparation stage and you’ll further the value in your art. Incense is also a perfect tool to help create sacred space. If you’re like me, you don’t have the space to devote an entire room to ritual use. In that case, it is

paramount to differentiate between space normally used for mundane purposes (such as your bedroom) and the same space being used for ritual. Cleaning is the most basic way to accomplish this; setting up an altar and tools is another. Nothing imparts the fact that the space is being used for sacred purposes more than the scent of incense. I like to use a cleansing scent like copal to prepare my sacred spaces, but you should use the incense you’ve made for that purpose. Incense is an excellent tool for use during most spellwork. Not only can it be used for cleansing, it can also be used to energize your ritual space. The amazing scent of aloeswood, for example, can palpably raise the energy level in a room. Incense is also a wonderful offering to invite specific spirits or deities into your circle or sacred space. That is the most basic use of incense: an offering that brings joy to you as well as the spirits. Incense is a wonderful sacrifice to offer to the spirits of your path. You get to share in its energy along with the spirits, and it acts as a true sacrifice—you take precious materials and burn them in the spirits’ honor. Incense is also a great tool for banishment. Using incense made for this purpose can provide an instant effect in banishment rituals. Specific incense can be made for any spellwork you plan to do, and you’ll be amazed at how it enhances your work. Practitioners who commonly use loose incense and charcoal in their rituals are very familiar with using different aromatics or blends during different spells (or different parts of a single spell), but users of self-combustible incense usually just light up a stick at the start of the ritual and let it burn out. You don’t have to be limited in that way. If you make joss sticks or cylinders, they can be easily cut to any length and used just as different aromatics are used in loose incense. You could have a short stick of cinnamon, a long stick of lavender, and a short stick of sage. When one burns out, light the next one from an appropriate candle on your altar. This is a safer and easier alternative to using charcoal and loose incense. You can also “program” the timing of your rituals or spellwork and use incense as a timing device. When one stick burns out, you know it’s time to move to the next stage of your ritual. Once you become practiced at making incense you can even learn to make one long coil with different types of incense.

That way you need only light the one coil, and as the scent changes it acts like a clock for your spellwork. Detailed examples of using incense on your altar or in your rituals can be found in Appendix Three. Never limit yourself. You can use your incense making skills to enhance your spiritual life in many ways. Use incense creatively not only in ritual, but before and after it as well. It is also a perfect type of “little magick” all by itself. Just lighting the right stick of incense at the right moment can totally change the energy of your day.

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Chapter Four

SELECTING MATERIALS

JUST AS A cake is only as good as its ingredients, the scent and the energy of your incense is directly dependent upon the materials you use to make it. For new incense makers, just finding ingredients can be challenging. As time goes on, you may begin to seek out higher-quality materials. Whether you’re buying over the Internet, in person, or are growing or gathering materials, you need a little basic knowledge to begin choosing incense ingredients.

Purchasing Aromatics You’ll find that buying incense ingredients is very much like buying food. You can buy the finest meats, cheeses, and oils to prepare a gourmet meal. Similarly, you can make incense using ingredients from the far corners of the world; ingredients that cost more than gold. On the other hand, you can make a perfectly wonderful meal from a bit of potato, butter, salt, and pepper. Likewise, you can make very nice incense using materials from your local area or materials that are quite inexpensive. One factor is your budget. This is an important consideration for many of us. How much do you want to spend? Some aloeswood costs hundreds of dollars per ounce, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to make excellent incense in most cases. Personally, I enjoy incense enough that I don’t mind spending a little extra money to get a higher-quality product, but very nice incense can be created on a budget. There are occasions where, for scent or magickal reasons, you may want to include materials that are more expensive. Keep in mind that one function incense serves is as a sacrifice. One concept of sacrifice is to take something of value and through its destruction, provide it as an offering. You may want to

incorporate valuable materials in incense for this very reason. Expensive materials are not the only things that may qualify as a sacrifice for you, but it is one consideration. A second key factor in choosing ingredients is selection. Just like when buying produce, it is important to select ingredients that are of good quality. The most important aspect of that can be choosing suppliers who are reputable. If a company has a hundred different aromatics for sale and they all cost the same amount of money per ounce, that’s a red flag to consumers. The price of sage, for example, is far lower than dragon’s blood. Anyone selling them for the same price may not be selling real dragon’s blood resin. Sometimes these substances are merely wood powder with some synthetic oil added to them for scent. It is also important to inspect your incense ingredients. Realistically, a lot of incense ingredients are sold in small, sealed packages, so your ability to inspect ingredients might be limited by packaging. If you can purchase a small amount, you can at least open and inspect it with minimum financial risk. Whether powdered or in whole form, materials should be dry and free from any mold or mildew. There also shouldn’t be a lot of foreign matter (wood chips, rocks, etc.) mixed in with the aromatic. Some unscrupulous sellers will add that sort of material in order to reduce their costs. As with food, it’s important to become familiar with what you are buying. Before investing a lot of money in a high-quality ingredient, do some reading and make certain that you are getting what you pay for. A high price is not a promise of high quality. Purchase only small quantities from new suppliers whenever that is an option. That will give you the chance to sample the quality before investing a lot of money in larger quantities. There are a few other general tips I like to follow. Buy resins in whole form when you can. Most resins are easily powdered, even with just a mortar and pestle. Purchasing them in their whole form makes it far easier to inspect the material. There are a few resins that remain soft over time (such as labdanum) but most resins should be purchased in as solid a form as possible. The more pliable a resin is, the more water it is likely to contain. Water retained in resins leads to incomplete combustion and therefore smokier incense. If someone offers

you pliable frankincense or copal, it is likely still “green” and won’t be ready for incense making without further drying or processing. Powders are a bit trickier to judge by examination, but there are still some steps you can take to minimize potential problems. First, powders should be of a uniform color and consistency. If you find a powder that is one color on the surface but a different color underneath, it may have been exposed to prolonged sunlight or heat while in the package. Many powdered ingredients, especially resins, might contain several distinct colors (such as dragon’s blood which when powdered, will have both red particles and specs of dark red that almost look black), but those colors should be evenly distributed throughout the powder. Caking or clumping of powdered materials is common with many different ingredients. It is one of the drawbacks to storing materials in powdered form, but it is not a reason to automatically consider the powder to be inferior. Usually if you purchase powdered materials that then clump or cake they should be easy to re-powder. When examining herbaceous ingredients that have been powdered you should also check that the powder is consistently fine and free from particles that did not powder. Bay leaf/laurel is a good example of material that has soft and hard parts. The basic “framework” of the leaf is tough and harder to powder than the rest. The result can be powder mixed with these larger, tougher pieces if the material wasn’t properly sifted. While that isn’t a judgment of the quality of the leaf itself, it does indicate the care with which it was prepared and indicates the producer’s attention to detail. Perhaps the best advice when it comes to selecting materials is to stick with reputable merchants. The vast majority of people who sell incense making supplies aren’t in the business to get rich; most are people who love incense and will do all they can to help you locate the finest materials. Sadly, there are exceptions. Although I have been in this business for many years, I have only dealt with a handful of sellers who weren’t as honest as they should have been. Dishonesty is rare, but I’d like to offer a few tips for spotting them. First is looking for those who sell a wide assortment of aromatics at the same price (as discussed earlier) or who add foreign objects to their aromatics. Another way for detecting fraud is by testing the aromatics. Oftentimes, adulterated powders will

smell nice until they are burned. If you find a sweet-smelling sandalwood powder that stinks when burned, it is almost certainly not the real thing. The odds are that you’ll only buy from a bad vendor once. As soon as you see that the material is suspect you’ll know not to buy from them again. A final tip for avoiding fraud is to never buy extremely expensive materials until you are very familiar with all of the material’s characteristics. Fraud is far more common with very rare and expensive materials. See Chapter Ten for a more detailed discussion of this problem.

Buying Binders Binders were once the most difficult ingredients for new incense makers to locate, but that has really changed in recent years. Although gum arabic is an easy binder to find, I would urge you to look a little harder and find a better binder. While it is less likely that you will find a local vendor who sells wood binders, if you type the binder’s name into any Internet search engine, you should find several options for purchasing. As always, try to locate a local supplier if you can. If you live in a major city, you might be able to find all the binders listed in this book locally. Even if you don’t live in one of those cities, you can still find some of the binders. Local herb shops might offer some binders. Many cake decoration suppliers sell a variety of gum binders. You might try your local hobby shop as well. Some hobby shops have a cake decorating section where you might find gum powders. Most chemical suppliers stock or can special order both guar gum and tragacanth, but you will usually pay top dollar when purchasing from chemical suppliers. Surprisingly, your local grocery store is often your best resource for gum binders. Bulk food sections often offer one or more gum binders in large grocery stores. You should also check to see if the store has a “gluten free” section. Gums are used in gluten-free baking and are often available in small packets (like packets of yeast), which are extremely affordable. If you have no luck finding binders locally, you will find an almost endless list of suppliers on the Internet. While the list of suppliers for most wood binders is shorter, there are still many from which to choose for makko.

Growing Incense Materials Many crafty people are also avid gardeners. Incense making offers you another wonderful outlet to use the plants you grow. Although garden plants are most often used as aromatics, you can grow plants useful in other ways as well. Best of all, once made into incense, your garden plants can bring you joy long after the garden is gone. Carefully wash all plant materials before drying. Shake as much water from the plants as possible and towel dry them if necessary. Avoid using material that has been recently sprayed with insecticide or chemical products. This is especially true for material used in magickal incense.

Selection of Plants Just as in nature, the bulk of garden plants isn’t properly aromatic for use in incense making. In general, flowers from your garden won’t be of much use. Sadly, even fragrant flowers often have little smell, or smell unpleasant when burned. Thankfully, there are some notable exceptions. Tea roses, honeysuckle, and lavender are all flowers that work well in your incense, although none have particularly strong scents. Of course, different cultivars (different varieties of the same plant species) will yield different results, so you always need to test your dried flowers on charcoal or an incense trail. I’ve never found a lavender flower that didn’t work well in incense, but it is possible that some cultivars might not smell good. That’s one of the reasons you need to test your aromatics before adding them to your incense. In addition to flowers, many other items from the garden can be used in incense making. Your herb garden in particular will be very useful. Sage, oregano, cilantro, basil, and many other herb leaves are perfect for incense making. You’ll also find seeds such as coriander (the seeds from your cilantro plants), cucumber, dill, and others to be great for incense. In addition to using plants from the garden as aromatics, you can find other uses as well. I was once contacted by someone who wanted to roll incense onto a lavender flower stem. I didn’t understand why until I learned that lavender stores the bulk of its oil in the stems rather than the flowers or leaves. This is a much better approach than using a bamboo rod, although you need to expect the lavender stem to be aromatic, so it wouldn’t work with all scents. You can also

find base materials in your garden. While you’re testing the seeds, flowers, and leaves from your garden, test the plants stems as well. Lavender is a good example, as its powdered stems also make a wonderful base, albeit a very fragrant one. A key factor with bases is their burning properties. You can test a potential base material in an incense trail. You can learn more about incense trails in chapter 8. For an even more in-depth examination of trails you may want to read the companion to this book, Incense Magick (Llewellyn, 2012). A good base will burn evenly and completely in the trail. Often you’ll find that stems will have a scent similar to, although less pronounced than, the leaves. If the stems burn well and their scent compliments the aromatic parts of a plant, try them as a base material.

Wild Crafting Incense Materials Collecting materials can start right in your own yard. If you trim trees in your yard, the wood might make a great base. The wood might even be a good aromatic—test it with charcoal or in a trail. Wild honeysuckle, dandelion root, and clover are all incense materials you might find growing wild in your yard. If you leave your yard and begin to collect in the wild, you have to use tremendous care. There are wonderful aromatic plants that grow in the wild, but every day some become rarer. Although wild collecting is a wonderful spiritual as well as physical adventure, you need to be very mindful of the needs of the plants. No matter how wonderful or powerful a wild plant is, collecting it could damage the chances of the species in the wild. Sometimes we have to put the needs of the plant above our own desires. Many wild plants grow abundantly and can be safely gathered. If you have any doubts about the rarity of a wild plant, check with your local agricultural extension office. Use your senses as well. If you see very few, or only one, plant in the area, please leave it where it is. You should also be aware that it is illegal to collect materials from most state and national parks without the appropriate permit. It is surprising to a lot of people that such permits do exist. There is a national forest about fifteen minutes from my home and there are over a dozen different plants that I can collect, some in significant quantities, with an

appropriate permit. Even so, you still need to keep the plants in mind when you harvest and not overdo things even if your permit will allow you to. You also need to keep the needs of Mother Earth in mind if you collect in the wild. If you find a plentiful aromatic growing wild in your area, use your gardening skills. Don’t take a bunch of plants from one area and none from another. Collect only a few here and there to thin out the plants, not deplete them. Doing so can encourage the ones you leave behind to grow further. When selecting which plants to take and which to leave, consider the effect on the surrounding plants. Are you taking a plant that offers important shade to other plants? Try to collect from the centers of plant groups and leave the fringe areas as they are. It’s even possible to use wild gathering to help Mother Earth in some rare cases. Across the world there is a problem with invasive, nonnative plants in the wild. These plants often begin as imported garden plants that “escape” into the wild. Many parts of America have this problem. You might even find that your state’s agricultural department has a program to eradicate such problem plants. In Oklahoma, for example, there is a volunteer program where members go out, cut down, and remove a nonnative invasive cedar tree that threatens rare groves of trees in the Oklahoma plains. Cedar also happens to be a good base material (and aromatic in the case of fragrant species of cedars). You can help Mother Earth and gather incense ingredients at the same time.

Drying Materials It is critical to dry all of your materials completely. There are several techniques for drying plant materials; any of them will work fine. You should, however, take care not to try to rush the drying process through the use of high heat or sunlight. Never dry plant materials in direct sunlight. Sunlight can cause chemical changes in the material as well as discoloration and dessication of the desired oils. Never dry plant material in an oven or near a heater. It’s tempting to hurry the drying process this way, but it is much better to allow the process to take whatever time it needs to minimize the loss of valuable oils.

Bag Drying This is a good technique for drying material that can be bundled, such as material on stems, large root parts, or evergreen needles. You can bundle the material together using a string or thread. Avoid using rubber bands as they can break before the drying process ends, causing your bundle to fall apart. Using only one bundle per bag, insert a bundle into a paper bag large enough that the stems don’t touch the sides. Close the top of the bag around the base of the stems and tie it closed with a long piece of string. You can then hang the bag using this piece of string. Pick a location that doesn’t have a high humidity and that avoids direct exposure to sunlight (or large amounts of artificial light). If you don’t have a location to hang the bags, you can dry them flat, although I really don’t recommend it. Be certain to turn the bags a quarter turn every few days if you can’t hang them. There are a couple of advantages to using the bag method. One advantage is the protection the bag offers. It helps shield the plant material from light and helps keep it free from dust and insects as it dries. Should any flowers or leaves come loose during the drying process, the bag is there to catch them. Another advantage is ease of handling and labeling. You should write the name of the material and any special details (where purchased or harvested, when collected, etc.). This is important because different dried plant materials can often look very similar. Without those labels you might forget which plant is which. You might also find that the same species of plant harvested from different places can have different scents. Labeling is the only way to track that information.

Screen Drying Bag drying is great if you can do it, but it isn’t well suited for drying large amounts of material or for individual leaves or wood. Wood will dry faster when chopped into smaller pieces, but if working with large pieces I will usually allow them to “season” just as I would with firewood before processing them any further. You can use many materials for a screen. Something as large as chicken wire or as fine as nylon hose can be used. I have used simple wooden frames with

contractor’s fabric (a metal screen with ¼-inch holes) stapled to it. I have also used old screen windows, and for some large items a baker’s cooling rack was enough to allow air to circulate beneath the material. You can make a simple screen by using a wire coat hanger. Straighten out the hook of the hanger and use it as a handle. Reshape the looped part of the hanger into a circle. You can then stretch out an old pair of nylon hose over the loop and staple around the edges. You can even use a screen door laid over a pair of sawhorses. Anything that will allow air to circulate completely around the plant material can work for the drying process. When using a screen to dry, be certain that each individual piece of material (each leaf, plant, etc.) is isolated. Don’t let different bits touch anymore than necessary, because that will slow the drying process. Put only a single layer on the screen and make certain there is good airflow all around the screen. Also, don’t use a fan on a high setting while screen drying since your plants might blow away as they dry. Screen drying is the best way to deal with a lot of plant material, including large leaves. You can also construct many different screens and use them all in a relatively small area by stacking them. So if you really want to harvest a lot of material from your garden, you’ll need to devote some space to screens for drying. Most plant materials will dry completely in a few weeks so you won’t need to leave your screens up all year.

Food Dehydrator In years past, I taught students not to use food dehydrators to prepare materials for incense making. While preparing to write this second edition I reexamined this opinion. I have to confess that although I had concerns that dehydrators would cause an excessive loss of essential oils, when I actually tested materials dried this way, I could not determine which were dried with a dehydrator. I think this is a viable option for drying small amounts of material. The food dehydrator itself will protect the material as it dries, just like drying in a bag, and drying time is considerably reduced, so if you use wild plants or grow a lot of incense materials, a dehydrator might be worth the investment.

Powdering This is a critical step for incense making, although actual powdering isn’t always the goal when processing materials for use in incense. Powdered materials tend to burn the best, but many materials you use will actually be very finely chopped rather than truly powdered. If you grind your plant materials with a mortar and pestle or a true mill, the material you get will be powdered. If, on the other hand, you use a coffee grinder or a blender, you are actually chopping the material rather than powdering it. Although you can chop it quite finely, most particles will never be as fine as a ground powder. Some incense makers feel that chopped materials preserve more of the natural oils and so prefer not to powder any ingredients if it can be avoided. This approach is embraced by most Asian incense makers and one I embrace as well.

Powdering Tools As with many other tools used in incense making, you can often find the tool you need in your kitchen. What follows is a short description of the powdering tools I most often use. Powdering can actually be the most challenging step for incense makers. Sifter A lot of kitchens have a sifter with a handle that you crank, forcing a metal arm over the screen in the bottom. The arm forces the material through the screen. I do not recommend these for powdering most incense ingredients, especially resins. When sifting incense, I prefer to use a screen sifter. Put the material inside (powdered or chopped) and gently shake it. That filters out any large bits, hard bits, or foreign matter. The finer the sifter, the finer the incense powder it will produce. Glass makers use very fine sifters, so you might want to consider purchasing one of their sifters if you wish to make the finest powder.

A fine mesh sifter is essential for powdering ingredients

Mortar and Pestle This is a good basic tool for all incense makers. Often, especially when working with resins, powdering begins with the mortar and pestle. Large chunks of material need to be broken into small pieces before processing them further, and the mortar and pestle is a great way to do that. You can continue to powder using the mortar and pestle if you wish. You can use the pestle first to pound the material in the bottom of the mortar. Once you have the material broken down into small pieces (pea-sized or smaller) you can begin to grind with the pestle by pushing down gently and stirring the material. Pressing down on the pestle and pressing it tightly against the side of the mortar will gradually powder the material.

Mortars and pestles come in every size and shape imaginable

This is a time-tested method for powdering ingredients, but it is also very time consuming. On the positive side, your arms will eventually get stronger because it requires a lot of muscle power to use the mortar and pestle for all of your grinding needs. In general, resins are easy to powder using a mortar and pestle. Frankincense, for example, can be ground to powder fairly quickly. Tough plant materials, like sage leaves, can take an immense amount of time to powder with a mortar and pestle. (True) Mill A true mill uses a pair of flat stones or steel plates to grind material to a very fine powder. Some are motorized, and others are hand powered. If you use a mill to powder your ingredients, you simply feed your coarsely ground material into the hopper. Crank it out the other side and a fine powder will result. Most mills allow you to adjust the coarseness of the material. The finer the grind, the better for incense making, but the longer it will take. Resins can make quite a mess when run through a mill. Since it is easy to powder resins other ways, I’d avoid powdering them with a mill. A mill can be as expensive as a thousand-dollar motorized machine or as simple as a ten-dollar pepper mill. You can often find a pepper mill for far less than that at garage sales or thrift stores. The biggest drawback to pepper mills is that they are very slow. My pepper mill takes about an hour to grind half a teaspoon of red cedar powder, so needless to say I use it only for special items (like saffron) that I keep in very small amounts. A coffee mill is also a good choice; just make certain that it has grinding stones or plates. Many companies sell “mills” that actually chop rather than grind. Those are good too (see the next section), but they will never produce the fine powder of a true mill. If you plan to powder more than tiny amounts of wood, you may eventually want to get a mill. You can make incense for the rest of your life and never need this type of mill unless you plan to make incense on a commercial scale.

“True” mills use grinding plates or stones

Blender or Grinder Many devices labeled “coffee mill” or “herb mill” are actually grinders that use spinning blades just like a miniature blender. Remember, a true mill has plates or stones; a grinder uses spinning blades. If you use a blender or a coffee grinder to powder materials, try to ensure everything is chopped or broken into small pieces prior whenever possible. Large chunks of material, rocks, or large bits of wood can all damage your blender or grinder. With wood especially, you need to chop or break it into small pieces before placing inside the machine (sawdust is the ideal form to start powdering wood). Resins should always be checked for bark and rocks that need to be removed, although care must be taken when powdering resins this way. With hard materials like wood bits, you can add a small amount to your grinder or blender and allow it to run for a while. On blenders you can start with a low setting and then as the material becomes finer you can move it up to full speed. Most grinders only have one speed. If powdering soft materials, like resins, you’ll want to pulse the machine rather than just allowing it to run constantly. Grind resins for three to four seconds, then stop. Check the material and grind again for another three to four seconds if needed. If you allow your machine to run continuously, the resin may begin to heat up, which will lead to a sticky mess in the bottom of the machine that is torture to clean—I once had to spend three hours cleaning dragon’s blood resin out of my blender. Keep resins cool and you’ll find them easy to powder with

any method you choose. Some incense makers even freeze resins before grinding to both make the resin harder (thus easier to grind) and to keep it cooler during grinding. Hammer Yes, you saw that right. A good hammer and thick, sturdy bags are also good tools to use for powdering. These are especially useful when working with large pieces that need to be powdered.

The Powdering Process Once you’ve ground or chopped the material to the finest powder you can reasonably make, you’ll need to sift it. Transfer the coarse powder into the sifter and shake from side to side. Never try to force anything through the screen. If it won’t flow through, it usually needs more powdering, although very soft materials may clump and can be gently pushed through the screen. There are two basic motions with a shifter. You can shake it from side to side and it will tend to allow slightly larger pieces to pass through the screen. If you shake it up and down it tends to cause the finer pieces to go through first. The drawback is that it’s a lot easier for material to escape by falling out of the top of the sifter as you move it up and down. You can coax more material through the sifter by tapping it. I get the best results from this approach by shaking from side to side and knocking it against a table or even the knuckles of my other hand. The drawback to any method that forces material through the screen faster is that it also tends to force larger pieces through. After shaking the material through the screen, you can return any large bits to your grinder and try to powder further. Sift that material as well, and add it to the first batch sifted. Continue this process until all the material has been sifted or you end up with bits that are too tough to powder. I try to never waste any incense ingredient. The finer the mesh in your sifter, the finer powder it will produce and the longer it will take to sift the material. One approach that I have used is to begin with a coarse mesh screen. After all of the material is chopped finely enough to go through the coarse sifter, I sift with a finer sifter, grinding any materials that

remain after sifting. Lastly, I move to a fine sifter if I want a truly fine powder, although the medium sifted material is often acceptable for most incense. You can even create quite a fine powder using this method if you make a final sift with a super-fine sifter. It is very, very time consuming to do this with most plant and wood materials, but it does produce exquisite powder for incense making. As you sift materials you want to capture as much of the powder as possible. If you shake your sifter over a bowl in order to sift powder, you will often release a cloud of particles. Try not to let that happen, as that cloud is composed of many of the finest particles. Not only is it wasteful, it can also be unhealthy to breathe in those particles. If you sift like this I recommend wearing a simple face protector (such as many people wear during flu season). To combat this waste I like to sift directly into a plastic bag. I use gallon bags with a zipper-style closing. I seal the top of the empty bag, leaving an opening just large enough to for the sifter to slide into. Once the sides of the sifter are inside the bag, with the sifter’s opening still above the top of the bag, I will seal the bag as tightly as possible against the side of the sifter. Then, as I shake the shifter, all of the material is captured in the bag. That cloud of particles that would otherwise have drifted away clings to the inside of the bag. This solution is cleaner, healthier, and less wasteful than allowing any powder to escape. Regardless of your grinding and sifting approaches, you will find that the finest powder you produce will be in the most unexpected places. If you use a blender or grinder, the finest particles tend to stick to the top of the container. The lid and the upper walls of the blender jar accumulate these fine particles, so always carefully scrape those areas. Similarly, when you sift materials into a bag, the finest particles tend to stick to the sides of the bag near the top.

Sifting directly into a bag reduces dust and waste

Some resins can be difficult to powder, especially if they are still “green” (contain a lot of moisture). You can still powder those resins, but a trick or two will be helpful. This is where a hammer and a thick plastic bag come into play. Put the resin you wish to powder into one or more thick plastic bags. Put the bag in the freezer overnight. The next day, place the bag onto a solid, sturdy surface and hit it several times with the hammer. That will break the frozen resin into manageable pieces. Immediately powder the small pieces. If they begin to become sticky or pliable, return them to the freezer for a while and then continue.

Buying Powdered Ingredients Although most incense makers agree that aromatics store best in their “whole” form, powdered just before use, buying ingredients that are already powdered has advantages. A beginning incense maker may not want to invest in a grinder or blender just for making incense. You can easily purchase many aromatics and bases already powdered. Binders are generally found only as powder. Most wood powder will be milled, and some incense experts believe that affects the scent, but most wood is so difficult to powder, especially to a fine powder, that buying it already powdered is often the only practical approach.

Storage

Once you’ve gone through all this effort to dry your materials, make sure to store them properly. You should store everything in airtight containers. A thick plastic bag might be acceptable, but a sealed jar is much better—and using both is better yet. Even an old jam jar will work. You should also protect the powder from light and humidity. If you use a clear container, try storing the powder in a paper bag inside the container to protect it from the light. You can also paint clear jars or add opaque decorations to block sunlight from reaching the materials in the jar. Barring that, clear containers can be stored in a cupboard to protect from light and heat. I have a collection of darkly colored glass containers and some earthenware as well and those work very well to protect from light. Don’t store your containers in an area with high humidity (such as under a sink) unless they are truly air- and watertight. Once powdered, no matter how well stored, the material will start to lose some of its oil, so use it as soon as you can. I truly believe that no incense making material should ever be thrown away simply because it is old.

Magickal Considerations In addition to all the other factors for consideration, when making incense for ritual or magickal use you need to think about the magickal attributes of your ingredients as well. If you were making incense to honor the element of Water, for example, you wouldn’t want to use any dragon’s blood, as it is strongly aligned with Fire. It is possible to design incense that honors both Fire and Water (see the recipe for “Fire Water” in chapter 7 for an example), but I think it’s best to do those kinds of combinations with intention. Doing so accidentally could result in magickal surprises, which aren’t always pleasant (as many of us know from experience). Think about the properties of every ingredient that you use in incense intended for magickal or ritual purposes. This concept has been criticized by some incense makers who believe that all incense represents Fire and no other sign regardless of the ingredients used. As I mentioned in the beginning of this book, I respect their beliefs but do not agree. I therefore think it is important that you keep the properties of all of your ingredients in mind when you formulate your own incense. There are times when I have intentionally included an ingredient that might not typically be

employed for its magickal properties but for mechanical or scent reasons. For example, I might include clove in a blend that wasn’t burning well. Before I do that, I have to consider clove’s scent and magickal properties. The general guideline I use is not to include anything magickally opposed to the goal of a blend, but if the magickal purposes neither support or oppose the goal of the incense (magickally neutral) I will use it if there is good justification. If I find that making such a change would negatively affect the purpose of the incense, I have to look for other ways to improve the blend. Listen to your ingredients; sometimes they will tell you if there is a conflict. You can’t count on that, however, so as you design a blend keep all of the ingredients’ properties in mind.

How to Choose The first factor I like to consider is local availability. It is always preferable to me to use materials I find locally. Doing so not only saves money (no shipping charges) but it is also more ecologically sound to use materials grown in your part of the country. Using materials you’ve grown is fantastic if you can do it. I find the extra energy from the process of growing the plant adds to the power of the incense. Next, if buying materials, you need to consider the price of the material versus the quality. You can spend as much money as you’d like to buy aromatics. A higher price doesn’t necessarily bring you a higher-quality ingredient, but some high-priced materials are quite amazing to use. The question is do you want to buy materials that cost more than gold? Always buy the best ingredients you can find that are affordable, but focus on the incense you make that works well for you. You don’t need five-hundred-dollars-per-ounce sandalwood to make wonderful sandalwood incense. Truthfully, you can make fantastic incense and never use a rare material like sandalwood at all. As mentioned earlier, you also need to consider what form of material you want to buy (or collect). Buying ingredients in powdered form saves a great deal of time and effort, especially for the novice incense maker. But buying and storing ingredients in their whole form gives them a much longer shelf life and maximum power. I recommend buying powdered woods when possible, but any

material you are confident you can powder should be bought or stored in whole form whenever possible. The final and often most important factor to consider are the magickal goals you might have for your incense. Not only do you need to be aware of the magickal associations of the materials you use, but you also have to keep in mind the ethical aspects of the material. Using materials that were unethically obtained (stolen, poached, taken in a way that greatly damaged the earth, etc.) can add negative energies to your incense. This is a difficult factor to control, as you often don’t know where your materials have come from. This is another good argument for using local materials; it is much easier to assure yourself about the karma associated with the material. Selecting incense ingredients is an important—and fun—part of the incense making process. Locating ingredients, buying, growing, or collecting them are all steps that give you another chance to connect with your incense on a deeper level. You can’t understand any of these aspects with incense you buy. Making incense yourself is the only way to make these deep connections.

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Chapter Five

TOOLS AND WORKSPACE

INCENSE MAKING REQUIRES very few tools. Actually, if you have all of your ingredients ready to roll, you are the most important tool. Your hands and your brain are the primary tools in incense making. Nevertheless, there are other tools that make the process both easier and more fun. Your workspace, even if only temporarily used, is important and deserves some careful consideration.

Tools Gloves I consider gloves to be very important. You can use any kind of latex or vinyl glove. Even plastic food service gloves will work, although they tend to slide off your hands easily. I don’t like using this kind of disposable material under any circumstance, but I believe it’s important for incense making. The best solution is to buy a pair of sturdy dishwashing gloves. They can be washed and reused again and again. Once you’re done rolling incense you can wash the gloves just by washing your hands. A sturdy pair of such gloves will last years if well cared for. One factor you need to consider when choosing a glove is texture. Some gloves, especially dishwashing gloves, have raised ridges on the fingertips and/or the palms of the gloves. Those gloves are fine if you’re molding or extruding incense, but if you’re rolling the incense, the ridges will leave impressions. It shouldn’t have any effect on the burning properties, but it might affect the smoothness of the surface. Some incense makers enjoy working incense with their bare hands. Some believe they can better align the energies in the incense and add their own energies through direct contact. You can certainly do that, but take care to wash

your hands well when you’re finished. If you’re going to be using any oils or other materials you are sensitive to, always wear gloves. Whether you wear gloves or not, there are a few important caveats to remember. Once you have touched the incense powder or dough, you need to avoid rubbing your eyes. You can easily transfer incense materials to your eyes, and that is not only unhealthy but it can be quite painful. You may chuckle when you read this next part, but you also need to avoid picking your nose. I try to warn everyone in every workshop about this hazard. You see, when you pick your nose with incense on your finger, you run the significant risk of leaving some incense behind. Incense shrinks when it dries. Incense will glue every tiny little hair in your nostril together. As it dries, it will slowly pull out each hair. Sometimes when it dries and you sneeze, you might rip out all those hairs at the same time. If you forget this important rule, I suggest you rinse inside your nose with a damp cloth as soon as possible. This is the voice of experience talking. Just writing these words makes me wince as I remember how it feels to sneeze out incense! Okay, stop giggling and get back to the book. Anytime I’m handling wet incense, I prefer to wear gloves. This is particularly important if you’ve added any oils to the mixture. Wet incense is sticky and will cling to your skin. Any oils you’ve added (or even natural oils in the materials you’ve used) can enter your body through the skin. But mostly it is a big mess. I must admit that on occasion I do mix incense with bare skin for a more intimate connection with the incense, but I wouldn’t make a regular habit of it. There are also times in workshops and classes where I am so eager to demonstrate something that I grab wet incense with bare hands. I admit it’s a terrible habit, and if you’ve ever seen me do it I hope you will overlook it and not imitate me!

Measuring Spoons Although incense recipes are presented in a lot of different formats, many modern incense books use teaspoons and tablespoons for measurement. This book uses that method in addition to offering recipes by weight and by ratio. Any measuring spoons can be used. Some incense makers prefer metal spoons to avoid static, while others prefer the durability and easy cleanup of plastic. The critical aspect in my experience is to consistently use the same set of measuring

spoons. Using different sets of spoons could make minor variations in the measurements. For the recipes in this book you need a set of spoons that includes an 1⁄8 teaspoon measure.

Scales A more precise method is to use scales and measure your incense ingredients that way. In order to make incense in the small batches of the home incense maker, you need fairly sensitive scales. Inexpensive postage scales just won’t work. A sensitive kitchen scale might be used, but few can accurately measure the tiny amounts used in the recipes in this book. Digital scales are much easier and can now be found at very reasonable prices. When purchasing a digital scale, carefully check the package to see what range it can measure. Get a scale that can measure tenths of grams. Good old-fashioned triple-beam scales also work great.

Bowl In my workshops I use paper bowls that can be recycled, but in my home workshop I use ceramic bowls for mixing incense powder and dough. I personally like a medium-sized bowl with a handle on the side, but any bowl that is easy to wash and can hold at least two cups of liquid is about perfect for small incense batches. I avoid bowls with textured interiors since incense dough can hide in those spaces and be very difficult to remove short of washing the incense away.

Mixing Sticks You can use about any kind of stirrer or spoon for mixing, but I prefer wood. Wooden craft sticks are available at most hobby or craft stores. They are very inexpensive and work well. If you plan to use a wooden spoon or other stirring tool repeatedly, make certain to wash it well before any incense dries on it. It can still be cleaned after the incense dries, but it is more difficult.

Drying boards

Drying Board While not mandatory, I like to use drying boards that aren’t used for anything else. Over the years I’ve constructed several different styles of drying boards, but honestly you don’t need anything more elaborate than a piece of unpainted wood with a level surface. I have boards that are smooth with a tall lip on one edge to allow me to cover the board with wet joss sticks that are held in a straight line by the tall lip. I also have boards with bamboo skewers glued to the surface with gaps between them to hold individual joss sticks. I started using those in an effort to keep sticks straight as they dried (it turned out that a different approach was needed for straight sticks), but I discovered that they are really handy for keeping sticks straight as they are extruded. You can use many different surfaces or shapes for your drying board. Bare wood works the best, although laminated surfaces can work. Just make sure your board is small enough to easily move and sturdy enough that it won’t flex when you pick it up. In a pinch, you can even dry incense on cardboard. You might end up with a bit of paper stuck to your incense, but that’s easily removed. Above all else, make sure that your drying board is clean and dry.

Extruder An extruder is a tool (often based around a metal tube) that forces incense dough through a small opening to form incense sticks. Details on how to make

and use an extruder are found later in this chapter.

Clay Tools There is a dizzying array of tools on the market for working with clay, and most of them are perfect for incense makers as well. You certainly don’t need to buy any of these for incense making, but you might find them useful. Tools for working clay are usually quite sturdy and won’t break when working with stiff incense dough. This category does not include tools design for plastic clays (like nonhardening children’s clay or polymer clays, both of which are much softer than natural clay). Tools for these clays can work, especially if they are made of metal, but those that are made from plastic might well break under the strain of incense making. Clay tools offer a wide assortment of drilling, cutting, trimming, and scraping tools that can all be put to use in making elaborate incense shapes.

A simple incense extruder made from a “clay gun”

Ritual Tools In addition to tools used to mix and shape your incense, magickal tools are quite useful, especially when making incense for ritual use. Pentacles, athames, and crystals can all be used to empower your incense. You can store the liquid you use for incense making in a chalice or a cauldron and empower it as well. Assuming you use them, keep in mind that your ritual tools are an important part of your craft. They should be handled with care and respect at all times. Make sure to clean them carefully once you are done using them for incense

making. Dust from powders and even wet incense can get on your altar tools and should be removed at once.

Notes on Cleaning Although you can remove dried incense from your tools, it is much simpler to clean your tools before incense dries on them. As soon as you finish rolling incense, take a few minutes to clean everything. Mixing spoons and bowls should be cleaned right away. Any clay tools, incense molds, and hobby knives also need to be cleaned carefully. Most importantly, if you use an extruder be certain that you clean it as soon as you finish with it. Disassemble it completely and wash each part. It only takes a few minutes and can save you a lot of headache later. If you just don’t have the time to clean your tools immediately, at least disassemble your extruder and submerge it in water. If you let the incense dry inside the extruder while it is assembled, the incense tends to glue the whole thing shut. If this happens, soak the extruder in warm water for thirty minutes; it should come apart.

Preparing the Workspace You don’t need a large workspace, and it doesn’t need to be devoted to incense making all the time. It does need to be a place you can isolate if you have children or curious pets. Kitchens are often convenient to use, but any clean space will do.

Children and Pets The first step in preparing your workspace is planning around children and pets. Many incense ingredients smell interesting to children and pets, but incense is not meant for eating. It often contains things such as wood powder that aren’t healthy to eat. Not to mention that you don’t want anyone to touch the incense while it dries. For example, if you have cats and you plan to use catnip or Palo Santo in some incense, be certain to dry it where the cats cannot reach. Even if the cats come to no harm from the incense, all your work can be destroyed in moments. Keep drying incense and incense ingredients out of the reach of little hands, paws, and beaks.

Ventilation I’d avoid making incense in an area without ventilation. You certainly want to keep the airflow to a minimum, but some of your powdered material will end up in the air, so it’s a good idea to have a limited amount of airflow. If ventilation is a problem, consider a small air filter/cleaner. They are inexpensive and greatly reduce the amount of powder in the air, but you should only do that if needed. You definitely need to avoid areas with a high flow of air. Avoid air vents, intakes, or fans. All of those can help keep the air clear, but they will cause your incense to dry before you’re done working with it. You really only need to worry about keeping the air clear if you’re handling large quantities of powdered materials. For most home incense makers, it isn’t a problem. Remember that ventilation is important for you, too. If you are uncomfortable when you make your incense, it not only detracts from the fun but might manifest unanticipated negative energy. Always pay attention to your comfort when preparing an incense making area.

Noise Keep in mind that blenders, grinders, and mills are noisy tools. You may want to use them in an isolated area or only at certain times of the day to avoid disturbing others. Whenever possible I like to get all of my preparation done ahead of time. Before it’s time to roll incense, every item is prepared and set out so all I have to do is create. Stopping in the middle of blending incense to grind a forgotten ingredient is distracting to say the least.

Magickal Considerations You have to give a little extra thought to your work area if you are making incense for magickal use. Clearing negative energies, imbuing the area with positive ones, and creating a safe place are all important factors. Don’t forget that whatever energies are present as you blend and form your incense can affect your final product. Cleansing is needed in two senses of the word. You need to clean the area physically as you prepare it. You also need to clean it in a magickal sense. Any negative energy present in your workspace could become part of your incense.

Incense itself can be used to cleanse the area. Many people like to cleanse the area with sage incense, but use any scent that you feel is appropriate. If you normally use a besom around your altar, use it in your incense making area as well. As you prepare the area, “shoo away” the negative energies present. These negative energies can arise from simple daily life (arguments, worries about money, etc.), so always cleanse your workspace. When making magick incense it is especially important to be able to work uninterrupted for twenty to thirty minutes. Don’t forget to turn off that phone. Once the negative energies are removed, try to add positive energies to the space. This can be accomplished by burning incense or candles that bring you happiness. You can call upon positive energies, deities, and spirits to join you in your work. To put it simply, “keep a happy thought.” Dress in comfortable clothes or in ritual garb that adds to your pleasure in the experience. Once your workspace is ready, take a moment and do something small that brings you joy. It can be as simple as taking a deep breath or recalling a happy memory. It’s a quick way to improve your frame of mind and thus your own energy. Finally, it’s important to keep your workspace safe not only from physical hazards, but from outside influences as well. That’s why it’s a good idea to turn your phone ringer off. Keep distracting items out of sight. If you are making incense for a specific purpose, it’s a good idea to keep something in sight to remind you of that purpose. If you are making incense for a friend, for example, you might want to keep a photo of that person where you can see it while you make incense. The more you stay focused on your intent, the more easily you can align the incense’s energy to your purposes.

Music A final optional, but helpful, element is music. Music lightens the heart and can have a major effect on the energy that exists within a space. It’s also useful to assist you to maintain positive energies. Will your incense smell different when made with music versus no music? No, but you might sense a different energy from incense made those two ways. The effect might be too subtle to

consciously notice, but it can be there nevertheless. It’s not critical, yet it can make the process even more enjoyable.

Preparing the Drying Area Almost any area that isn’t too dry (a low humidity will cause your incense to dry too quickly) will work. You just need to remember a few key factors. First, make certain that you don’t dry incense in sunlight (or any direct light for that matter, but sunlight does the most damage). Second, you want to avoid a place that is too warm. Although you might be tempted to pick a warm spot to make the incense dry faster, you need a place that is cool but not cold. You want a place that is reasonably free of dust with little air movement. The tools and workspace for incense making are not complicated. You just need to look around your house; you’ll find most of the tools you will want. A little thought needs to go into your workspace, but every home has a few great places. Although on the surface preparing the area for making ritual incense seems to be complicated, it really isn’t. Just keep positive energies around you and you’ll do fine.

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Chapter Six

MAKING INCENSE

THE MECHANICAL PROCESS of making most forms of incense is very simple. It only takes a few minutes to blend the ingredients and roll a batch of sticks or cones. You might wonder why these instructions aren’t right in the front of the book. The reason—which I hope is clear—is that there is much, much more to making incense than these simple actions. If you used the “quick start” instructions in the introduction, I urge you to go back and read earlier chapters when you have time. The physical aspects of this process are deeply enhanced by understanding the nonphysical aspects of incense making. The few minutes you spend rolling incense should be the result of study, understanding, contemplation, and instinct rather than simply tossing ingredients together like you are baking a cake, which is actually a good analogy. Have you ever had a cake that certainly wouldn’t win any awards at the state fair but tasted awesome to you because your child or a loved one made it for you? In many ways, that is what I am trying to express. The intent and the energy that goes into every aspect of your incense can bring you benefits and pleasure beyond what others can detect. While this chapter is focused on the mechanical aspects of making incense, I hope you will keep all of those nonphysical aspects in mind throughout the process.

Selecting a Recipe Probably the most important aspect of selecting a recipe is the purpose behind the incense. Is it for magickal purposes or purely for enjoyment? Although incense can serve both purposes simultaneously, this is often the most important distinction. This decision can have an impact on your choice of recipes and ingredients, especially when substituting ingredients. Once this decision has

been made, I often begin the recipe selection process by doing a quick inventory of the ingredients I have on hand. Although the materials you have at hand can be a good guide when selecting a recipe, that shouldn’t be your only guide. There will be times, especially early in your incense making career, when you may want to add the missing ingredients to your inventory rather than substitute or look for a different recipe. In my experience, the journey to find a new ingredient often leads to many other surprising discoveries. One important factor to consider when choosing recipes is the form of incense you want to make. Cones? Sticks? Pellets? The form you want to make can dictate the type of binder you will use, although it could also affect the aromatics and bases available to you. The type of binder used in a self-combusting recipe is also a factor when choosing a recipe. Although it is possible to substitute one gum for another or substitute one wood binder for another, it is more difficult to change a recipe to replace a gum binder with a wood binder (or vice versa). Usually the binder type is something I won’t alter in a recipe without a very good reason. There are more recipe selection ideas in the introduction to the recipe section.

Mixing the Dry Ingredients At the most fundamental level, there are two basic approaches to blending incense. Different incense makers and teachers may prefer one over the other, and I certainly have a personal preference. The first method is called “wet mix.” With this approach the binder and liquid are combined first, and then other dry ingredients are added to this wet mixture. The second method is called “dry mix.” With this approach, all dry ingredients are mixed thoroughly before the liquid ingredients are added. These methods apply both for combustible incense and for incense pellets. My personal preference, and the technique I’ve taught for nearly twenty years, is the dry mix approach. I find this approach allows for easier and more complete blending. It’s also a lot less messy. The wet mix method also makes it more difficult to judge the amount of liquid you will need, so it’s much harder to get the blend “just right” on the first attempt. The recipes in this book, unless otherwise noted, can be created using whichever method you

prefer. However, in this book I only provide detailed instructions for the dry mix method.

Blending Begin by combing all of your powdered ingredients in a bowl. Mix them carefully with a wooden (craft) stick or spoon. This is an important step and shouldn’t be rushed. Carefully stir and blend until the powder is a single, consistent color. If you notice any lumps in the mixture, take care to break those up and mix them into the powder. Lumps like that can impair your incense’s ability to burn. Lumps often form in powdered material, especially resins, when they are stored. If you notice a lot of lumps while you are mixing, sift your mixture before proceeding. When making self-combusting incense, it is a good habit to sift the entire blend before adding liquids. Sifting can separate your ingredients a bit, so mix again after sifting. Some incense makers go so far as to mix their powdered ingredients in a mortar and then crush and mix them at the same time. This is an extra step that isn’t required, but it is an interesting method from an energetic perspective. This approach takes each ingredient (or at least the majority of the ingredients) in its whole form and transforms all the ingredients to powder together. Although often physically difficult to accomplish, I do think that this approach provides a deeper connection between the energies of the ingredients. In some cases it might affect the scent due to the unique way the ingredients are pressed together. This is a part of the process you can control when you make your own incense and is one of the great things about doing it yourself. Another way to improve the quality of your incense is to carefully blend your powdered ingredients but leave the binder out. Once blended, put the mixture into a sealed container, preferably one that is dark colored or blocks out light altogether. Allow the mixture to sit in a cool (but not cold), dry place for one to three months. You can let it sit for even longer if desired. This allows the various scents to blend. This is another extra step that can really improve your incense. Just don’t forget to add your binder before adding the liquid. It’s best not to add in the binder from the start because gum binders can cause clumping, although if you use a wood binder it should be aged along with the rest of the mixture.

Visualization All natural materials contain energy. Releasing that energy is one important role incense plays in magick and worship alike. Most of these natural energies have tendencies (we often call those “correspondences,” thus correspondence charts are found in so many Pagan books) to act in a certain way. Some of the released energy may not have a particularly strong inherent orientation, or it may be easily influenced by the energies around it. Because of this, I like to take a few moments to orient the energies in the incense I am making. During the mixing process you have an excellent opportunity to direct energies. You can do this through visualization throughout the incense making process, but especially in the mixing and kneading steps. As you mix your ingredients, imagine the desired result from your incense. If you are making incense for a prosperity spell, visualize (see with your mind’s eye) the outcome you need. If making incense for health, imagine the ill person in a state of excellent health doing things that were impossible during illness. Even when making incense for mundane use, imagine the happy life you cherish or the love you have for the person who will receive the incense. The process of visualization gives shape to the incense’s energy. Without it, the energy in your incense will still be released, but it just won’t be strongly focused. Unfocused energy is usually a waste, at best. Personally I don’t like to release unfocused energy too often—you never know where it might go or what it might do. It might be fine if you simply want to energize a space, but to achieve specific goals with your incense, visualize your goals throughout the incense making process. It’s a great way to share your love.

Empowerment Incense itself contains power. The power in the plants you have used also exists in your incense. The many days of sunshine and rain, the seasons of many years, and many full moons passed are all stored in your incense ingredients. This is one of the reasons that it is so important to use natural ingredients in your incense and to handle them with respect and love. These plants and trees have in some cases given their lives for you to make this incense. Cherish that energy.

Respect it and the plants that have helped you. Never be careless or wasteful with that energy. In addition to using visualization to orient the energy inherent in your incense, you can also add to that energy. This process occurs naturally to a limited extent as you mix the incense. Blending and kneading transfers energy from you to your incense. You can also add even more by channeling energy from yourself into the incense as you mix. Energy can also be transferred from ritual tools. Place your mixing bowl above the tool, and using visualization, see the energy in your tool moving into the incense. You wouldn’t want to do this routinely (or your tools will never get the chance to build up more energy), but it is a useful method for maximizing your incense’s power. Other important factors in the empowerment of your incense are when and where it is made. Mixing incense under a full moon or within a magick circle often affects the energy within. I’ve also found that incense is far more energized when mixed and even rolled in places of power. The next time you venture into the woods, take some incense making ingredients with you and blend the powder in some special little spot. If possible, add something from the place where you mix it, be it a bit of leaf or bark or (especially easy) collect some water from that location and use it later to roll the incense. We all have places where our energy is maximized. Mix your incense there and it will receive some of that energy as well. Is it mandatory to make incense under such special conditions? Certainly not; you can make incense any time of the day or year. It is simply a way to provide maximum energy to your efforts. Incense essentially acts as a magickal battery. There are many ways to maximize that energy, but maximizing it isn’t nearly as important as focusing it. A great deal of energy with no purpose can do as much harm as good, so be certain to use your visualization skills when making any incense blend, even for mundane use.

Adding Liquid Whether you’re using a traditional recipe, a recipe from this book, or even one you’ve created yourself, it’s important to always begin with less water (or other liquids) than is called for in the recipe. Such subtle factors as the temperature of

the room, humidity, or water temperature can have an effect on the amount of water needed. It is easy to add more water if the mix is too dry, but it’s difficult to remove water if you add too much. To be honest, I have often debated the merits of including a liquid amount in any recipe because of all of these variables. I think that “add enough water to make a dough of the correct consistency” is really the best instruction for most incense recipes. However, students have told me again and again that even just having a vague idea of how much liquid to use is comforting, even if it’s impossible to make that information particularly accurate. Please notice that I most often use the term “water” rather than “liquid,” but as discussed earlier, you can use many liquids other than water. Once you’re ready to add the water, begin by adding about two-thirds of the total amount called for in the recipe. Carefully blend and mix the water in. Mix with a mixing stick for several minutes. At first it may look like you have a lot of dry powder and not enough water, but keep mixing. As you mix, press the mixture together to help force the water into dry areas. You’ll be surprised how little water some recipes require. As you stir, the mix will pass through a “mealy” stage, much as pie dough does. It will often break into small balls of material. Once it reaches this stage, or if you’ve mixed the blend for several minutes, put on your gloves and use your hands to gather the incense “dough” into a single lump. If the ball won’t stick together, add a little more water. Even if the mix is too dry, you should be able to gather it into your hand. Once you can do that, begin kneading the mixture with your hands. After kneading for several minutes, try rolling the dough into a single large ball in your hands. If you can form a ball, look at the surface of it. Is it smooth and reasonably free of cracks? If so, then you’re ready to form your incense. If not, add another 1⁄8 teaspoon of water (or just a drop or two) and knead again for at least thirty seconds. You never want to use too much water, so only exceed the amount of water in the recipe if you are absolutely certain you need it. Patience is very important at this stage. Always make sure you knead the dough thoroughly after each addition of water. It is surprising what a difference a tiny bit of water will make in your mixture. Kneading disperses the water throughout your mixture. Adding too much water makes your incense hard to

handle and shape. If you do accidentally add too much, check chapter 9 for tips on salvaging your dough.

Adding Oils I prefer to add oils to my incense after I have the dough at the exact desired consistency. If adding more than one oil to incense dough, better results are achieved by blending the oils before making the addition. It’s a good idea to blend the oils a few days ahead of incense making and shake or stir the oil several times a day until used. That will help the oils to unify in their scent rather than producing each scent distinctly. Keep in mind that essential oils are literally the essence of these botanicals. That means that they are very powerful and must be treated with a great deal of respect. It is quite easy to overpower even strong resins by adding too much oil. Unless you are making huge batches of incense, you should always measure your added oils in drops. A typical batch of incense should rarely use more than three or four drops of essential oil. Although I do strongly believe that incense used in ritual, meditation, or magick should be natural, there are a few occasions where synthetic oil might be a better alternative. Usually there are natural alternatives, but if those alternatives are ethically objectionable (such as using real civet oil in incense) and you are unable to replace it in any other way, you might consider using synthetic oils. Personally, I have never found a need to make that compromise; I simply avoid those kinds of ingredients altogether and never worry about needing substitutes.

Handling Wet Incense Once you have your dough ready to roll, there are a few basic things you need to keep in mind while your incense is in its wet form. Once your incense dries, it will reflect how it was handled when it was wet. You’ll be greatly rewarded from having a well-prepared work and drying area for your incense.

Clean Environment It’s important to work with your incense dough in a generally clean area. It’s really a good idea to work over a floor that can be mopped. Clean the floor around the area where you’ll handle the dough. This is to protect your incense in

the event that you drop it. Dropping wet incense on a floor that is less than completely clean will result in every hair and even the tiniest of lint balls being magnetically drawn to your incense like iron filings! It’s virtually impossible to clean these things off your wet incense, and hair and lint are never good aromatics. Another important tip on cleanliness is to always clean your drying and work surfaces between batches. If you’ve dried incense on a board, there are often small bits of incense leftover on the board. If you lay wet incense on that material it might bond to the surface of the incense. That may not be a problem if you are making another batch of the same scent, but if you’re using a different blend you don’t want the leftovers from the last batch clinging to the new one. Those loose bits won’t always stick either. They may distort the shape of your incense and then drop away later, leaving an undesired impression on the surface.

The Care of Wet Incense Once you’ve activated the binder in your mix by adding water (or other liquids), you have a limited amount of time to make your incense. Since you’ve added the least amount of water possible, your incense will start to dry at once. If you don’t shape it yourself, it will dry in whatever shape you leave it in. That’s why it’s a good idea to unplug the phone and close the door and give yourself thirty minutes to make your incense. Alas, life doesn’t always cooperate with our plans. If you have to leave your wet incense for more than just a few minutes, cover it with a damp paper towel. If you’re going to be away for more than just a few minutes, you should also consider putting your covered dough into a sealed container, like a glass jar. Even sealed like that, you shouldn’t let it sit for more than a few hours. Oftentimes, mold begins to grow on the wet incense in as little as an hour. Even if you can’t see it, the mold on the surface of your incense will get mixed into your blend when you return to rolling or extruding it. Worse yet, some blends will mold visibly as quickly as overnight. It’s a sad loss to something that required a lot of care and effort. If you are going to leave your wet dough unrolled for more than a few hours, you should not only seal it in a container, but

also place it in a refrigerator. Allow the mixture to come back up to room temperature before you resume working with it. It’s also important to remember to visualize throughout the process. If you have a problem or drop something, don’t allow yourself to become upset. Negative energy could channel into your incense and then be released when burned, just like positive energy. Listen to music that makes you happy, keep a positive thought, and enjoy the incense making process. The end result will be incense with power impossible to find in any off-the-shelf incense.

Rolling Incense There is a compromise you have to make for all types of self-combusting incense. There is a direct relationship between how long incense will burn versus how much smoke it produces at any given moment. An easy way to imagine this is each piece of incense will produce a certain amount of smoke regardless of its shape. The shape and form of the incense only determines how much smoke it releases at any given moment. For example, using my standard cone measure of a quarter teaspoon of dough, you could make a tall, thin cone or a short, thick cone. When you burn the cones, they both make the same amount of smoke. However, the tall, thin cone will burn longer and produce a thinner stream of smoke (in other words, less smoke but for a longer time). The short, thick cone will produce a much thicker stream of smoke for a shorter amount of time. That’s why I recommend tall, thin cones. The same holds true for sticks. A thick stick of incense will produce more smoke than a thin stick. It doesn’t matter if you make masala or joss sticks; you will always have to address this with any self-combusting incense you make. Ultimately you should strive to make incense that produces as little smoke as possible. Remember, smoke is a result of incomplete combustion.

The Basic Cone The most basic, and undoubtedly most ancient, technique for shaping incense is using your hands. You can roll a simple cone with this easy method. First, pinch off a bit of incense dough (I think a quarter teaspoon is usually the perfect amount).

You can use the thumb and index finger of both hands around the dough to form it into a tall, thin, four-sided pyramid. If it is thin enough, this shape will work for many recipes.

Use the thumb and index finger of both hands to form cones

Applying slightly more pressure at the top will produce a four-sided pyramid

You can refine this simple shape very easily by taking the pyramid and rolling it on a flat surface with your index finger. Put your finger over the cone (parallel to it) so that your finger totally covers up the cone. Then roll the cone back and forth quickly, pressing lightly, and it will round off the edges, making the cylindrical cone shape we all know. If your incense falls apart during this rolling

process, the most likely cause is dryness. Try adding a few drops of water to your dough and kneading again.

Rolling the pyramid will produce the traditional cone shape

This method will also make the cone taller and thinner (which will improve its burning properties). Optionally, you can pinch off the top fourth of the cone (which is usually very thin) and leave the top flat. You can leave the thin tops (I usually do) in place as long as you understand that they are a bit more fragile than the thicker parts of the cone. Pressing the thick end of the cone down on your drying board (as if you were setting it down to burn) will provide a flat, stable base. Once the cone is standing on the drying board, you should straighten it out if needed. This is your final chance to shape the cone, so I like to lean down and get to eye level with the cone so I can see if it is leaning. I will also look at it straight down for the final adjustment. This might sound time consuming, but it actually only takes a few seconds per cone. Pressing the wet cone down on the drying board will often cause the bottom to flair out a little. That probably won’t have much of an effect on the way the incense burns, but if you don’t like the way that looks there are some options. First, you can reroll the cone and make the base taper slightly so the base is not quite as thick as the cone just above it. Then when the bottom flairs it will be in proportion. If you grip the base of the cone firmly and press the cone onto the drying board slowly, you can minimize flairs. As a last resort, you can use a razor blade or hobby knife to cut a nice, flat bottom for your cone—simply slice

the bottom 1⁄8 inch from the cone with the blade. You will still need to carefully look at the cone to ensure it is straight. It is worth repeating that a crooked cone will burn just fine. Making straight cones is only important if it matters to you personally or if you are making cones to sell. In most cases, your cone should have a base no thicker than an unsharpened pencil and be 1 ½ to 2 ½ inches tall. Larger cones can be made, but I like to keep the base as small as possible. Hand Rolling Cones versus Cone Molds There is a second method for making cones that bears discussion. I personally think the fastest way to make beautiful, consistent incense cones is to roll them by hand just as I have described here. Alternately, you can use an incense mold. Large incense manufacturers often employ a two-piece mold for cone making. That type of mold is usually made by connecting the two halves of the mold with a hinge on one end. Handles are attached to the other end so the incense maker can quickly close the mold, fill the holes for each cone with incense dough, pack the dough down, and then open the mold and drop the cones to a drying board. For the home incense maker, I am unaware of anyone who sells cone molds. They are not difficult to make, however, and instructions for making one are included near the end of this chapter. Before you flip forward to look at those instructions, I would suggest that molds are not needed. After hand rolling a couple of batches of cones, you will be able to produce cones every bit as good as molded ones. You’ll also discover that you can roll faster by hand than by producing cones of equal quality using a homemade mold. Even with a mold you’ll have to adjust the cones to make them straight. Sometimes removing the cone from the mold distorts it so much that you have to roll it again anyway. All my cone molds are gathering dust in a box somewhere. Drawing on Cones Finally I must pass on a tip that I learned years ago from a friend online. Incense cones (and even very thick joss sticks/cylinders) offer a special property you won’t easily find on thinner incense. A quick explanation of how an incense cone burns is in order. When you light a cone, the tip will burn quickly. As the burning line moves down the cone, the outer part of the cone burns first and leaves a layer of ash. The inner core of the cone burns a little slower. As a result,

as the inner core burns, it is burning through a layer of ash on the outside of the cone. If you make deep impressions into the surface of an incense cone, as that inner core burns down past the area with the impressions, it can be seen glowing through the impressions. As a result, you can press shapes into the surface of a cone that when observed in a dim room will actually glow as the incense burns. You will also notice that if the ash is left undisturbed, you will still be able to see the shape impressed into the ash.

Using a toothpick to draw on a cone

This is a very cool technique that has some obvious magickal uses. You can add any sort of magickal symbol you wish. Runes, numbers, and even letters or original designs can all be impressed into incense cones or very thick joss sticks. These symbols can tie directly to the magick you plan to work or to the composition of the incense itself. Let’s face it, this is also something that is just plain fun. You can write your name on cones or even draw smiley faces. There are two basic techniques I use. First, I like to use the trusty toothpick as a writing/drawing instrument. You can press the toothpick into the surface of some incense blends and actually write into the surface of the incense. Many blends, however, will not tolerate this approach and will tend to split or “bunch up” as you draw. For those blends, I recommend using your toothpick like an old-fashioned dot matrix printer. Draw on the cone by making a series of dots in

the surface with the tip of the toothpick. By putting those holes close together, you can easily create the illusion of one continuous line. If you find this to be a technique you truly enjoy, you can take it one step further and make a stamp. You can occasionally even find a commercial stamp in a craft shop that is small enough for stamping incense. Barring that, I once had a student make me a tiny stamp from plastic clay, which she then baked to harden. I have it many years later and still use it. When you make your own stamp, remember that the image should be the reverse of the desired shape because it will be reversed on the surface of the incense. This is also a valuable technique for labeling your incense. Natural incense in particular has very little scent before it is burned. It is easy to make several batches of incense and forget which is which. Using this technique, you can mark your cones so you can identify them later or simply put your own personal mark on them, much like a brand. I like to do this to the bottom of the cones after I have adjusted the wet cone. I will turn it upside down and make a quick mark on the underside. Sometimes I will mark the cone with a specific number of dots (for example, I put four dots on the bottom of cones made using the Four Quarters recipe found later in the recipe section).

Joss Sticks/Cylinders/Coils The only difference between a cylinder and a joss stick is the thickness. You can think of joss sticks as thin cylinders or think of cylinders as thick joss sticks. I can’t tell you precisely when a joss stick becomes thick enough to be called a cylinder, so I really use the terms interchangeably. Virtually anything you can do with one you can do with the other. The same concept applies to coils of incense too. They are simply spiraled joss sticks (or cylinders), regardless of their thickness. There are several different approaches to making joss sticks, but the final results are all more or less equal, so it is more a function of the tools you have and your own personal preference. Perhaps the simplest way for new incense makers to create joss sticks is to use the “baker’s approach.” Roll your incense dough out just like pie dough and roll it to the desired thickness for your joss stick. You can then use a razor blade or hobby knife to cut long strips exactly as

wide as your dough is thick. The result will be square joss sticks. The square shape will not inhibit their ability to burn. You can roll the square edges off the sticks if you insist that they be round, but that’s more trouble than it’s worth as far as I’m concerned. I have found a kitchen tool that’s even better than a razor blade or knife—a rolling pizza cutter. It’s a perfect tool for making this style of incense. Just like with baking, incense dough might stick to your rolling surface, so it is a good idea to use a tiny amount of base material spread on the surface, just like you flour a surface for bread dough. The dusting of base powder will keep the dough from sticking, but try to keep the powder to a minimum or it can dry your dough prematurely. You can also roll joss sticks. Pinch off some wet incense dough and begin rolling a cylinder on any flat surface. Simply by rolling a bit of dough back and forth you can create a round joss stick, although this simple approach makes it very difficult to achieve a consistent thickness, especially with thinner sticks. This is an easy way to roll joss sticks without the need for additional tools.

Extruding The easiest way to produce very consistent joss sticks with a minimum of fuss is to use an extruder. All commercial joss sticks are made with extruders. Commercial extruders often use strong springs or hydraulics to force incense dough through an extruder that makes dozens of sticks at a time. The machines are fascinating to see in operation. It’s definitely worth the effort to find some videos of these machines in action on the Internet. I have seen a huge variety of homemade extruders over the years. I will only cover the most practical ones here. First, however, let me offer some cautions. You might be tempted to use a dough bag or frosting extruder from your kitchen —maybe even a cookie press. I would remind you first to not use plastic tools for extruding (or in any other role where you will put pressure on the dough), especially tools taken from your kitchen. Pastry or dough bags will almost always split very early in your incense making session. All of the best homemade incense extruders I have seen had a tapered tip, so keep that in mind when looking around in your kitchen for an extruder.

Rather than looking for extruders in your local kitchen supply shop, I would recommend looking in your local craft or hardware store. The most widely used homemade extruders are made from clay guns found in most craft stores. These are basically metal syringes that have a hole in their faceplate rather than terminating in a needle. This type of extruder is used with soft plastic clays you can bake to hardness in your oven at home. Because these clays are generally much softer than incense dough, many are now made from plastic. I advise against buying those. Metal extruders are easy to locate online if you can’t find them in your local shops. The clay extruders come with a series of flat metal plates that fit in the bottom of the extruder. Each plate has a different size or shape of hole cut in the center. When the plunger is pressed, the clay is extruded through the hole in the plate.

Using a simple extruder with a drying board

That approach works well with plastic clays, but incense dough is tougher to work with. As a result, those flat plates rarely work well with incense. The hole in the plate is almost knife-thin, and when incense is extruded through it, the edges come out very rough. To me that detracts a great deal from the look of the incense. It can also cause your sticks to be very thin in sections, making the sticks weaker. It is possible to find a flat plate that will make passable incense, but I prefer to add a tapered tip. A tapered tip makes smooth joss sticks of a perfectly consistent thickness. It takes a little bit more ingenuity to add this extra bit to your extruder but it is very

worthwhile. The best source I have found for a tapered tip is a plastic syringe used to give liquid medications to infants. You will find them in the baby care section of many stores. You can sometimes ask your local pharmacist or veterenarian for one. I prefer those with the tapered tip that is not offset (the tip is perfectly centered) but either type can be used. Tapered tips can be found from other sources as well. I’ve never had a problem using plastic tips. They are generally made of very thick plastic and are only an about an inch long, so splitting has never been a problem for me. The tapered tip also gives you excellent control over where the incense goes as it is extruded. Using this type of extruder is a perfect match for the drying boards I described earlier that have skewers glued on the surface. Holding the tip of the extruder a few centimeters above one of the channels created by the skewers, apply steady pressure to the plunger. The key to this approach is to move the extruder at the same speed the incense comes out. If you do, you will get a straight, smooth stick. It is normal for most incense blends to be brittle enough that sticks occasionally break while being extruded. The most common reason for this is air bubbles trapped inside the extruder. To combat that problem, I use a wooden skewer that is thin enough to easily fit through the tapered tip of the extruder. Each time that I load incense dough into the extruder, I will depress the plunger until a tiny bit of incense comes out of the tip. I will then insert the pointed end of the skewer through the plastic tip and into the extruder until it touches the end of the plunger. That will puncture most of the air pockets in the dough. I will then extrude a few inches of dough to make sure all of the air is pushed out. Following this process routinely will significantly reduce breaks due to air bubbles. Remember that any dough you extrude but don’t use (like the bits that come out when you force out the air bubbles or any sticks that break) can be put back into the extruder. If you make a stick that doesn’t meet your standards, it is easy to immediately recycle it into a better stick. The major drawback to this style of extruder is the difficulty of pressing the plunger. Stiff incense dough is extremely difficult to extrude by pressing the plunger. One way to reduce this problem is to add additional water to your blend.

Generally you want to add only as much water as needed to roll the incense. Since you are making thin joss sticks with your extruder, their faster drying time will offset the additional water in most cases. The additional water acts as a lubricant and makes pressing the plunger easier. There are other ways to overcome this problem. The simplest approach I’ve seen is to insert this style of extruder into a caulk gun. The arm of the caulk gun can be put against the plunger on the extruder. Squeezing the handle of the caulk gun will force incense out of the extruder while requiring far less hand strength.

A simple extruder can be inserted into a caulk gun for easier use

Taking that concept one step further, some incense makers have created extruders based on caulk guns. I built several that used a caulk gun that held a long section of electrical conduit (a type of metal pipe used to house electrical wires) that is inexpensive and can be found at any home improvement store. It is easy to cut (use a small pipe cutter for perfectly flush cuts) and fittings are widely available. Using an open-ended fitting, you can attach a standard metal cake decorating tip (available from cooking supply shops and at many craft stores). Those tips are very strong and come in a wide assortment of sizes and shapes. With the open-ended fitting you can quickly change the tip just by unscrewing the fitting and replacing the decorating tip, then replacing the fitting and tightening. Standard round tips are available in many sizes for making traditional joss sticks. There are also square and triangular tips. Some manufacturers also offer more novel tips. One that I enjoy using is for making “leaves” from

frosting. Following the directions for frosting, I am able to use that tip to make “incense leaves.” They really look like leaves and are thin enough that they burn nicely. With tools you can really expand your ability to create unique incense.

Caulk gun extruder with a cake decorating tip on the end

If an extruder based on a caulk gun isn’t for you, you might want to invest some extra money in the clay gun that you purchase at the craft store. I recently purchased a clay gun with a small crank handle in place of the normal plunger. Turning the crank in one direction turns a threaded screw that forces the plunger inside the tube to press on the incense within. Turning the crank the opposite direction raises the plunger back up. It takes a bit more hand control than the syringe-style because you are turning the crank in a circle while moving the extruder in a straight line above the channel in the drying board. It does make it easy for almost anyone to extrude joss sticks without needing a lot of hand strength.

Coils Incense coils are essentially joss sticks that have been spiraled. There are several approaches to making your own coils. If you look at commercial coils (especially mass-produced ones like coils designed to repel insects), the incense is thin and wide rather than made of a round joss stick. This style is sometimes made by stamping the shape into the incense dough rather than spiraling a joss

stick. I know of a few incense companies that produce coils that appear to be stamped. For making your own, the easiest way I’ve found is to create a spiral as you extrude a joss stick. Holding the tip of the extruder a few inches above the drying board, start in the center and gradually form the coil as the incense comes out of the extruder. It is possible to take a joss stick, while still wet, and shape it into a coil, but personally I seem to break fewer coils by spiraling directly from the extruder.

Making an incense coil with an extruder

Masala Sticks Before making masala-style incense, you will likely want some wooden skewers. There are, to my knowledge, only a few suppliers who sell skewers in the appropriate thickness for incense makers, but bamboo skewers are commonly used in cooking and grilling, so they are available in many grocery and variety stores. The skewers are too thick for most incense applications, so you will need to split them into thinner pieces. Careful use of a razor blade or hobby knife is the best way I have found to do this, although it is still a very time-consuming process. There are a couple of different approaches to making masala sticks. The simplest technique is to make a joss stick as discussed in the last section and then add a wooden stick (or core) through the center. Bamboo is the wood generally used for masala sticks. It is plentiful, easily renewable, inexpensive,

and produces a minimal scent when burned. An alternative to this is to go back to our reliable friend, the toothpick. You can insert a toothpick (or even half a toothpick) into one end of a joss stick and allow it to dry. As long as the incense is strong enough to support itself, you only need that tiny bit of wood to allow you to use the stick in any masala stick holder. Alternately, you can roll incense directly onto a wooden skewer. This approach can be difficult, especially with dryer mixes. Starting with the bare wooden skewer, press the incense dough around the stick. Working from bottom to top, press the dough firmly against the wood while trimming it to the desired thickness. Thinner incense doughs are often easier to use for this process. I still have not had great results from this approach. It sounds simple, but getting good adhesion to the stick is often difficult. This next method makes very pretty masala sticks but is painfully slow. It is a hybrid approach that incorporates elements of both the dry mix and the wet mix methods. Using your favorite gum binder, you can make a weak glue solution by adding a tiny amount to some water and mixing. This is, in essence, incense glue. Using a small paint or nail brush, coat the wooden rod with the glue. You can then roll the rod in incense powder. Allow it to dry for five to ten minutes, shake off the excess incense powder (back in with the rest of your incense powder), then repeat the process. You may have to repeat this process twenty times or more to build the stick to the desired thickness. After the final application of incense powder, I like to let the stick dry for an hour or two and then add a final coat of glue over the top. Allow the sticks several days to dry with additional time for particularly thick masala sticks. Inserting a toothpick into a thick joss stick seems like a much easier solution to me.

Other Forms There are lots of other fun and crafty things that you can make from incense dough. After you have made a few batches of incense, your imagination may well suggest some new forms to you, and I hope you will let the rest of us know the results of your brainstorm! All of these forms are the result of experimentation, trial and error, or (occasionally) a weird conversation after an incense making workshop.

Incense Circles One of my favorite ways to make very cool incense quickly is to make incense circles. All you need is a nice batch of incense dough and a pair of biscuit cutters (one smaller than the other). Simply roll flat a small amount of incense dough and then cut a circle from it with the larger biscuit cutter. Then use the smaller biscuit cutter inside the circle of dough made by the first cutter. Peel away the dough outside the large circle and the dough inside the smaller one. The result is a perfect ring of incense. The greater the size difference between the two cutters, the ticker the resulting circle of incense. Most of the time, I will cut a gap in this circle while it is still wet. I usually remove a thin wedge of incense so that I can control how it burns. When you light an incense circle, you can choose which direction it will burn (clockwise or counterclockwise) by which side of the cut you light. Lighting the incense to the right of the cut will cause the circle to burn counterclockwise, the left side, clockwise. If you do not cut a wedge from the circle, you can light it at any point you wish. The circle will burn both directions simultaneously. The easiest way to burn an incense circle is on a bed of ash. Cookie Cutters Another great technique when rolling out dough is to cut it with a cookie cutter. You can make an almost endless assortment of shapes this way. I have made many reindeer incense shapes at Yule. Better results are achieved from smaller cookie cutters, but if you don’t mind an unpredictable burn, these are a really fun tool. If you want a shape that will burn more reliably, after using the cutter to create the outer edge, use a hobby knife or razor blade to cut away the inner part of the design, leaving only an outline of incense a quarter inch or so wide. Like circles, these shapes do best when burned on an ash bed. You can use these shapes in other ways as well. If kept dry, incense makes a decent medium for art. You can add a hole somewhere in one of these shapes that, when dry, can be used to tie on a line. The shape can then be hung like an ornament or even worn like a necklace. This is a great project to do for groups large and small. If you gather and make incense shapes at the new moon, they

can be dried and worn a week or so and then burned at the full moon—or in any variation you can imagine. Braided Incense Sticks This technique will work with incense using gum or wood binders, but the wet dough needs to be flexible and relatively strong because the incense has to be handled a great deal. I recommend using incense made from fine powders. Coarsely powdered ingredients will reduce flexibility. Also, the dough cannot be too wet. It needs to be able to hold its shape well.

A braided incense stick

Roll at least three joss sticks (an extruder is extremely useful.) For this technique you can use three sticks made from a single recipe, or you can use three different scents. Using more than one scent is a little tricky because it requires you to have more than one batch of incense dough ready to roll. Since it is easy for one batch of dough to dry out while you are creating another scent, remember to cover your dough with a damp paper towel when you are not working with it. Joss sticks dry quickly, so your work will need to be swift. Lay three joss sticks of the same length next to one another, making sure that they are lined up parallel. If they are not all the same length, cut them to length once you have them lying side-by-side. Using the thumb and forefinger of one hand, gently press the tops of the sticks together. This will help to hold them in place as you braid them. Now carefully braid the sticks just as you would

someone’s hair. Continue braiding until you reach the bottom. You can press the bottom together as you did with the top, but I prefer to let the braids dry with the bottom “strands” parallel instead. When dry (be certain to dry slowly to avoid warping), light the top where the three sticks were pressed together. You can burn on a bed of ash or inserted upright into a censer. These incense braids can be as long as you can make them without breaking the joss sticks. I think they look the best when made from incense of three different colors. Mixing Scents Unlike “air mixing” of scents, this refers to physically combining two or more types of incense dough into a single piece of incense (usually a cone). For this technique it really is best to make two small batches of incense dough using two different recipes. This approach isn’t too useful with two batches of identical incense. Lightly roll both batches of dough. You can then either slightly overlap the two batches and roll them flat as if they were a single batch or, as I prefer, you can take one batch of dough and break off pieces to place randomly on top of the second batch. However you choose to combine the two batches, roll the combined dough to a thickness of about a half inch. You cannot knead the dough once the batches are combined. You need to roll the dough once and then begin making cones. I use a hobby knife or razor blade to cut the dough into strips about an inch wide. I try to make my cuts so that each strip clearly has pieces of both types of dough. Cut off about half an inch of the end of the strip (so you now have a piece of incense roughly a half inch wide, a half inch thick, and an inch tall). From this you can quickly roll the piece of dough into a cone. If using a mold, you can press each piece of dough into the mold to get the cone shape. The finished cone should have obvious sections of each type of dough used. This type of incense has an unpredictable quality I find charming; you can never be certain how it will smell from one moment to the next. Incense Construction Incense is a good medium for physical art as well as the art of scent. Much like clay, you can actually make three-dimensional artwork using incense dough.

Think of making a gingerbread house … with incense! You can roll out dough to make walls of buildings (if you are artistically impaired as I am), and go from there. Really, you are limited only by your imagination. You can make a thick paste with a little gum powder and water that you can use to glue different pieces together. When the time is right, light one point and see what happens. Just remember that large incense constructions should obviously be burned outdoors.

Latex Molds Although I have found a few incense molds for sale over the years, none have been really suited to the home incense maker. Perhaps one day a good quality mold for home incense makers will be available for sale. (Any entrepreneurs out there?) It is much more likely that if you want a mold, you’ll need to make it yourself.

Making a Mold Even someone who’s never made anything like this before will find it fairly simple. One of the advantages of making your own mold is that you can make incense in the exact shape you want. It’s a little extra work, but it will pay off for you for many years to come as you make more and more incense with your own molds. This type of latex mold won’t work well for making masala sticks, but you’ll find a neat little trick for making those at the end of this section. To make this type of mold, you will need: A small container of liquid latex A small paint brush 12–18 inches of gauze (at least 1 inch wide) Small piece of sturdy cardboard Talcum or baby powder (Optional) A small amount of bake-at-home clay (for making a clay prototype) 1. Make a prototype The first step is to make a “perfect” cone (or other shape). You’ll want to either roll it with incense by hand or, even better, make it from clay. You need to

use clay that will dry, so nonhardening children’s clay won’t work. There are many colorful brands of clay available that can be baked in your oven for rapid drying. Make your cone and dry or bake it completely. If you wish, you can use a commercial cone you’ve purchased as your prototype. The drawback is that most commercial cones are too short and too thick. There are a couple of commercial brands that are tall and thin. They will work best. You also need to check the cone for seams. Many commercial cones are made in two-part molds that leave a seam line. You should trim or sand those off before proceeding to the next step. Once your cone is ready, you need a bit of scrap wood or heavy cardboard. A piece of wood about two inches square is perfect. Using ordinary white glue, attach the bottom of the cone to the center of the board. If you’re using actual incense as your prototype, also apply a thin coat of glue over the surface of the cone in order to seal it. If you used clay for your prototype, this step shouldn’t be needed. Allow the cone and wood to dry completely (at least twenty-four hours, maybe more). If you are making a shape other than a cone, you may need to modify this approach for your needs. 2. Liquid latex There are several brands of liquid latex on the market today. You can find it at your local hobby supplier or on the web. If you’re only planning to use it for this one project, buy the smallest container you can find. It will take very little latex to make a single cone mold. You’ll also need a small, soft paintbrush but don’t buy an expensive one. A cheap one will work just fine. Always follow the directions on the latex that you buy. The following instructions will work with any latex that I’ve seen, but if what I say disagrees with the label on your latex, follow the label. Brush a thin coat of latex over the entire cone and on the surface of the wood or cardboard. If you’re using a piece that is two inches by two inches, brush the latex over the entire top surface right up to the edges. Don’t brush any latex beyond the top of the board. Immediately wipe off any latex that might run down the sides of the board with a damp cloth. Wash your brush according to label directions.

Allow the first coat to dry completely, checking the label to see how long it might take. Apply a second and third coat in the exact same way. Once the third coat is completely dry, you can proceed to the next step. It only takes a minute or two to apply a coat, although it might take an hour or more for each layer to dry. 3. Support with gauze After the third layer is dry, you need to measure a little gauze. Lay out a flat strip or two onto the surface of the wood. You’ll need to make a small cutout on the gauze to allow room for the cone that is mounted on the board. Also wrap a piece of gauze around the entire surface of the cone. You don’t want to use any more gauze on the cone than is needed to cover it completely. The gauze on the bottom should be a little longer than the wood itself so that some hangs over the edge. Once you’ve cut the gauze, apply another thin coat of latex. As soon as that coat is on, carefully press the gauze in place into the wet latex. Don’t worry if there’s a little extra gauze during this step. Once the gauze gets wet, it might stretch more than it did when dry. That’s easy to fix later on. After the gauze is pressed into the latex, apply another very thin coat over it to make certain all the gauze is wet. After the gauze layer dries (give it twenty-four hours to dry completely), apply two more thin coats of latex. All of that latex combined with the gauze layer will give you a strong mold that will last a long time. After the final coat of latex has completely dried, dust it lightly with some talcum powder. That will keep the latex from sticking to itself later. You don’t want to leave any loose talc on the mold, so blow or wipe off the excess powder. Firmly grasp one of the overhanging pieces of gauze. Carefully peel the mold away from the wood. Do this all the way around the mold until the base is totally free from the wood. Then gently and evenly loosen and remove the cone. 4. Slit the side Your mold is almost ready! Hopefully you were able to remove the mold from the cone without turning the mold inside out. But if it did flip around, you can poke it back the right way. That’s why the dusting of talcum powder is so important. The final step is to take a pair of sharp scissors and cut a single slit.

Begin on the center edge of one side of the base and make a single cut straight up to the tip of the cone. The slit will allow you to open the mold later and remove the wet cone. If the shape you used is relatively shallow, you will not need to cut a slit. It seems like a lot of work when you can just roll cones by hand, but the whole process can be done in three days. And you won’t need more than an hour or two during those three days since most of the three days is needed for drying time.

A completed latex cone mold

Using a Latex Cone Mold If you’ve gone through all the trouble to make a mold, you’ll want to use it to best effect. Your mold will be unique, so you might find your own tricks to using it, but these instructions will give a great idea of how to make it work best for you. 1. Taping (molds with slits only) This first step is optional but a really good idea for the first few times you use it. Use a piece of cellophane tape and wrap it around the thickest part of the cone section to hold the slit closed. Once you’ve made some cones with the mold, you might want to skip this step, as it slows the process down quite a bit. 2. Water Add a drop or two of water to the inside of your taped mold. Use the tip of your finger or a cotton swab to evenly spread a thin layer of water around the

whole inside of the mold. This will help the incense come out of the mold a lot easier. If your incense mix is particularly wet, you can skip this step. 3. Packing The next step is to pack the mold. Hold the mold with your thumb over the slit in the side. Even when taped, the mold can open slightly as you pack it; having your thumb in place helps hold the seam closed. Press your wet incense dough into the mold. It’s best to make the rough four-sided pyramid shape covered in the rolling section and insert that into the mold. That will create the fewest air spaces. Press dough into the mold until it is full but not overfilled. An overfilled mold will distort the shape. Any excess dough sticking out past the base of the mold can be scraped or cut off to form a flat bottom. 4. Releasing The final step is to remove or release the incense from the mold. Remove the tape from the mold, if used, and open the mold at the slit. Open the mold as far as you can. You can then turn the mold upside down with your free hand beneath it and shake the cone out of the mold. You may get better results by opening the mold and carefully removing the incense by its base. Once removed from the mold, place the cone on your drying board.

Open the mold widely before attempting to remove the cone

Straw Molds

This is a simple way to make a mold for either joss sticks or sticks with bamboo rods. Take a clean plastic drinking straw and split it all the way down the edge. You can then load the inside of the straw with your wet dough. Pack it in well and make sure to get all the air bubbles out of the straw. At this point you can add a bamboo rod or toothpick if you wish (for masala sticks.) Then, with the edges of the slit slightly overlapping, press the outside of the straw firmly and evenly so that the dough is tightly packed. Let the straw sit for five to twenty minutes and then peel the straw off the incense. If it has set up well enough, you might be able to slide it out of the straw. If not, you might cut a second slit along the entire length. Then you can remove the straw in two halves. You might be tempted to dry the sticks inside the straws, but don’t. Without airspace around the dough, it may not dry and mildew will eventually form. If you wish to dry it in a straw, remove it from your straw mold and insert the incense into a larger straw so air is circulating around it. It’s tough to find straws of a good size, but it is an inexpensive and easy way to mold joss sticks, cylinders, or masala sticks.

Drying Incense This is the most important and difficult aspect of the incense making process. Incense dried too quickly may severely distort, crack, or simply fail to burn. Incense dried too slowly can mildew. Drying your incense is critical to its success; it is a balance of three key ingredients: temperature, humidity, and time.

Temperature You might be tempted to put your wet incense in a hot room, direct sunlight, or even into the oven to dry it. These are mistakes often made by new incense makers. The drying step is one that shouldn’t be rushed. One of the popular incense books on the market actually recommends drying your incense in a closed car. It may dry faster, but the result will be inferior and might even fail to burn. One of the common effects of drying incense too quickly is cracking. When a cone cracks, it often fails to burn. You can light it and it will send out smoke through the crack, but once the burning surface reaches the wide point on the

crack, the cone will usually go out. There can be other causes for cracking (see Chapter Nine), but fast drying is one of them. Cracked incense won’t burn properly. Drying too fast can also cause severe distortions in your incense. All incense shrinks as it dries and this can lead to distortions in the shape, but fast drying can exaggerate the problem. Slow drying will help to minimize distortions. If you have put oils into your incense, drying at a high temperature or low humidity can cause the oils to evaporate more quickly. That’s not only wasteful but will keep you from achieving the desired effect with the oil. If you’ve used a special liquid in place of water in your recipes, its benefits can also be evaporated right out of the incense in a hot environment. It’s unlikely that your drying area would be too cool. Around fifty degrees Fahrenheit is an excellent temperature. Cooler than that will still work, but you obviously can’t dry incense below freezing. Never dry your incense in direct sunlight. That will change the chemical properties in your incense and might radically affect the scent.

Humidity Again, you might be tempted to dry your incense in an area with as little humidity as possible. Too low a humidity may cause your incense to dry too quickly, just like a high temperature. Loss of oils, cracking, and all the other problems mentioned earlier can occur with low humidity as well. Although humidity is only a serious problem in extremes (very low or very high), 50–60 percent works great. Don’t worry too much if your humidity is not in that range, but avoid the extreme ends of the scale.

Time This is the single most important aspect of the drying process. I know your urge will be to dry your incense as quickly as possible so you can try out the fruits of your labor. Don’t give in to that temptation! Be patient and let your incense dry slowly. Give your joss sticks a minimum of two days to dry (dry them even slower than that if you can). Allow cones a minimum of three days to

dry; a week is ideal. Be aware that you will have to closely monitor the temperature and humidity if you want to dry incense that slowly. Your patience will be rewarded. If you try to burn your incense before it dries completely, it will go out soon after you light it. Also once you’ve lit it, you might never be able to dry it properly, and all that work will have been wasted. If you try to burn one stick and it goes out, it might not be finished drying. Give the rest of the batch another twenty-four hours to dry before testing again. Preparing your drying area can be a little tricky, but don’t sweat the details too much. Most incense will dry just fine on your kitchen counter (keep it away from sinks and heat sources) or in a clean kitchen cabinet. Humidity and temperature are relatively easy to control, but patience is a skill that incense making will teach you if you haven’t learned it already!

Box Drying When I teach incense making workshops I give attendees a paper bag in which to take their wet incense home. The bag is a decent environment for drying incense as long as you follow the guidelines offered earlier. When I want to dry incense as slow as possible, I like to use plastic boxes. I developed this technique as a commercial incense maker and it has served me well for many years. I have never felt the need to use this approach for drying masala sticks or cones. This is a technique primarily for joss sticks and coils. Use an inexpensive plastic box with a lid that fits tightly. Plastic “shoe boxes” from a discount store are a great choice, but a lot of plastic food storage containers will work as well. Make certain to put your wet incense onto a drying board that will fit comfortably inside your plastic box. With the drying board inside, add a damp paper towel or small sponge (just damp, not soaking wet) to the box, not touching the incense or the top of the drying board. Close the lid tightly and leave the box for twenty-four hours. After the first twenty-four hours, the incense should be set in shape. Remove the damp paper towel or sponge and reseal the lid. After another twenty-four hours, open the lid just a crack. Leave the box like this for three days. At the end of the three days, most incense will be dry. If not, remove the lid and allow the incense to finish drying. This process isn’t needed for most incense, but if you

need straight joss sticks or if you are having trouble with your incense coils distorting as they dry, this is a good solution.

Your First Batch of Incense You’ve studied hard and now it’s time for that effort to pay off. Is your incense making area prepared? Have you gathered your ingredients and tools and unplugged the phone? All right, let’s put on the gloves and roll some incense! Here’s the simplest incense recipe you could ask for, and it yields wonderful results. Mix together 7 ½ teaspoons of powdered sandalwood (or other fragrant wood powder) with ¼ teaspoon of guar gum or gum tragacanth or 1 tablespoon of makko. The total amount of water called for in this recipe is 4 ¼ teaspoons, so add only ¾ of that amount to your dry mix and add the remainder of the water 1⁄8 teaspoon at a time until your dough is the right consistency. If the mix is still too dry to roll into a ball, add aditional water two to three drops at a time. Once you can roll the dough into a ball with no significant cracks in it, you can roll the incense out. You don’t need a mold or an extruder; you can just roll your sticks and cones with your hands (the most fun method anyway). Once you’ve tried this very simple but wonderful recipe, I bet you’ll be eager to find some more elaborate recipes. In no time you’ll have the most wonderful smelling house on the block and tons of handmade gifts for your friends and family.

[contents]

Chapter Seven

RECIPES

RECIPES ARE A mixed blessing. On one hand, they allow us to remember how we composed something and increase the likelihood of duplicating the scent or energy in the future. On the other hand, if you adhere too slavishly to any recipe —including the ones in this book—you will miss out on the wonderful variations available to you. I consider many recipes, especially those I did not design myself, to be guidelines rather than precise instructions. I trust my intuition and make variations in my incense, even ritual incense, as I feel is needed. Sometimes I don’t even know, consciously, why the change is needed. I also want to say a quick word about sandalwood. This is a precious resource that is endangered in some regions. Sandalwood is the most traditional of all bases, and you will see it used in many recipes here. You can absolutely substitute other wood powders for sandalwood if you wish, but Indian sandalwood is the base material of choice for most incense makers. I want to clarify what can be a confusing issue. Sandalwood is endangered in India. That doesn’t mean that Indian sandalwood as a species (Santalum album) is endangered. Indian sandalwood is grown in Australia and is perfectly legal to export. Australians also export incense-grade sandalwood from Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum). I urge incense makers to seek out incense from Australia as a great way to maintain use of a traditional incense base and to support a growing (pun intended) trade in sustainable sandalwood. As time goes by I predict that all of the sandalwood we import into the Americas and Europe will come from Australia. Please read chapter 10 for more information on this topic.

Naming Incense

As you begin to design your own incense blends, you will find that one unexpected challenge is naming them. In the West we tend to be pretty literal in our attempts at naming incense. Most incense is named for its aromatic, usually a single ingredient. That gives us “cinnamon,” “frankincense,” “sandalwood,” and so on. The other common naming schemes we see is naming incense for its use. Incense to honor Isis is like to be named “Isis.” Incense to be used in protection magick is likely to be called “Protection.” We sometimes see more imaginative names, but this seems to be the dominant choice. Asian incense, on the other hand, tends to be named for the impression the incense leaves on the user’s mind. So when you see a scent called “Cherry Blossoms in the Wind,” many of us would expect it to smell like cherries when in fact the person who named it may have envisioned gently floating blossoms when smelling the incense. So the incense might really have no relationship to the smell of cherry blossoms at all. The names you give your incense should be a reflection of the nature of the incense as well as your own nature. When I wrote the first draft of this book eleven years ago, I followed the standard naming conventions I had seen in other Pagan books. So I ended up with recipes named “Purification 1,” “Purification 2,” etc. When I began to polish the manuscript, I found I was dissatisfied with that approach (and actually found it to be really boring). So I renamed some of the complex blends with more imaginative names. After all, how could I tell you to get creative and then give you recipes with names like “Prosperity 3”? Some of the recipes are named for their ingredients, although it might not be obvious. For instance, the recipe for “Fire Water” contains sandalwood, eucalyptus, and catnip, which are associated with the element of Water. It also contains clove, dragon’s blood, and pennyroyal, which are associated with the element of Fire. Thus the name is descriptive, but only if you think about it. Another good example is the recipe “Four Quarters.” At first glance it doesn’t seem descriptive at all. When you examine the recipe you will find that it contains red sandalwood (Air), myrrh (Water), patchouli (Earth), and copal (Fire). That’s why Four Quarters is my favorite altar incense; it wonderfully combines representatives of each of the four quarters of the magick circle, so the name is descriptive although it might not look that way initially.

Selecting a Recipe Rather than expecting to see an explanation of what each blend is used for (although many incense is named in a way that makes the original use obvious), I want you to look at the ingredients themselves to determine how you think they should be used. There are essentially two basic methods for selecting a recipe. The first is to inventory your incense making supplies and pick recipes for which you have everything required. The second is to look for a recipe with properties that you want for a particular purpose. That purpose might be as simple as smelling good or as complex as helping you resolve a difficult problem at work. When you select a recipe that will fit your needs, you can then make the effort to collect the ingredients instead of relying on what you already have on hand. When you look at the names of the recipes in this book, you will see a good cross section of different naming approaches. Some are named for the aromatic (for example, sage, frankincense, sandalwood). Some are named for their purpose (for example, business blessing, visions of love, cleansing). Some recipes weren’t particularly designed for magickal purposes but can certainly be used for magic (for example, “Twilight”—published many years before the novels/movies that share its name—“Scarborough Faire,” “Monk’s Blend”). Some—like “Fruit Salad”—are just for fun. Don’t rely on the name to determine how to use the blend. Look at the ingredients and make an informed choice. I want to remind you again not to be a slave to recipes. Just like when cooking, you always have the option of substituting an ingredient that you are missing for something you have available. There is more information about substitutions in the next chapter but keep in mind that you don’t have to perfectly imitate these recipes to make incense that is powerful, useful, and enjoyable. You will see that the gum binder recipes call for a variety of different binders. The truth is that it makes essentially no difference if you use guar gum, tragacanth gum, or xanthan gum. You can substitute any of those for any other in all of the recipes in this book. I only vary the binders in the recipes to remind you that other options are available.

How to Use the Recipes

The first section is simple incense using only a single aromatic. The second section contains complex recipes that use gum binders. The third section is complex recipes that use wood binders. The final section contains recipes for incense pellets. The recipes are in an easy-to-use format. Each recipe is given in three different ways. The first way is by volume. To use that column, you will need a set of measuring spoons. By looking down that column you will see how many teaspoons or tablespoons you need of each ingredient. Personally, this is my preferred method. The second way is by weight. To use that column you will need a set of scales that can measure tenths of grams. Just weigh out the appropriate amount of each ingredient. The final method is by ratio. Many incense makers prefer to write their recipes in terms of a ratio. The ratio version of the recipe is given in “parts.” To use that version of the recipe you can select any measurement you choose as your “part.” The recipe for allspice incense is shown with this ratio: red sandalwood 2 parts, gum powder 1 part, water 15 parts, and allspice powder 20 parts. If you have a teaspoon, for example, you could use the teaspoon as your “part.” So using your teaspoon, the recipe would be 2 teaspoons red sandalwood, 1 teaspoon gum powder, 15 teaspoons water, and 20 teaspoons allspice (this example is for illustration purposes only—that recipe would make a huge amount of incense!). If instead you wanted to use a thimble as your part, the recipe would be 2 thimbles of red sandalwood, 1 thimble gum powder, 15 thimbles water, and 20 thimbles allspice. This is especially useful for people who live in a country that doesn’t use either of the other two measuring systems. It is also useful for making very small or very large batches. You could use a very tiny measure as your part (1/10 of a gram, for example) or something very large (such as a gallon). Whichever of the three methods you choose, you should get equally good results. If you use the ratio recipe to make a large batch of incense, you might reduce the ratio of binder slightly. You never want to use more binder than is absolutely needed. You might notice that the different versions of the recipes (volume, weight, ratio) may not all give you the exact same result. The recipe “Four Quarters,” for example, might come out with slightly different results

when made using the volume recipe as compared to the weight recipe. The results will be wonderful no matter which method you choose.

A Note on Using Measuring Spoons If you use measuring spoons, it’s important to use them consistently. Select the appropriately-sized spoon and use it to scoop the powdered ingredient. The spoon should be full, with powder piled above the top of the spoon. You then need to use something with a level edge (a mixing stick, note card, ruler, business card, etc.) to scrape the excess material from the spoon. Place the straight edge on the top of the spoon and drag it across the top, scraping the excess material down to the same level as the top of the spoon (in cooking we call these “level spoonfuls”). This ensures that you measure the exact same amount every time. If you don’t fill the spoon completely, you won’t have enough material. If you fill the spoon above its top, you will have too much material. By leveling the powder down, you will get the same amount every time. Finally, understand that these recipes are only a guide. Feel free to modify the recipes to fit your needs or the ingredients you have available. Just be aware that changing the ingredients might result in recipes that won’t work. See Chapter Nine for details on modifying recipes and experimenting. You may also find that you need to adjust the amounts in the recipes slightly to better suit your own ingredients. The amount of moisture in your powdered ingredients can affect both the weight and volume of the powder, so be sure to keep your ingredients as dry as possible. Keep in mind that joss sticks are the most forgiving of all combustible incense forms. If you have any worries about your incense working properly, test it first as an incense trail (see Chapter Eight). If the trail burns well, you can extrude the incense as a joss stick. Because joss sticks, especially thin ones, have a tremendous amount of surface area relative to their volume, they burn better than other forms. That makes the joss stick the most forgiving type. Note: When an ingredient doesn’t list the specific variety (for example, if a recipe lists “sandalwood” but doesn’t state if it should be red or yellow), it means that any variety may be used.

Simple Recipes Allspice

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Red sandalwood

½ tsp

.6 g

2

Binder

Guar gum

¼ tsp

.8 g

1

Liquid

Water

3 ¾ tsp

17.5 g

15

Aromatic

Allspice

5 tsp

10 g

20

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Bay

Base

Sandalwood

1 Tbsp

5.4 g

12

Binder

Tragacanth

¼ tsp

1 g

1

Liquid

Water

4 ½ tsp

19.5 g

22

Aromatic

Bay leaf

1 ¼ tsp

2.2 g

5

Cedar

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

White cedar

5 ½ tsp

6.2 g

42

Binder

Guar gum

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Liquid

Water

1 Tbsp

14 g

12

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Cinnamon

Base

Red sandalwood

2 tsp

2.5 g

8

Binder

Tragacanth

¼ tsp

1 g

1

Liquid

Water

4 ¼ tsp

18 g

17

Aromatic

Cinnamon

Copal

4 tsp

10 g

16

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Red sandalwood

10 tsp

14.5 g

20

Binder

Guar gum

½ tsp

1.6 g

1

Liquid

Water

10 tsp

44 g

20

Aromatic

Copal

2 ½ tsp

6 g

5

Damiana

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Sandalwood

½ tsp

.9 g

2

Binder

Tragacanth

¼ tsp

1 g

1

Liquid

Water or herbal tea

3 ¼ tsp

15 g

13

Aromatic

Damiana

5 tsp

7.5 g

20

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

4 tsp

6.6 g

32

Douglas Fir

Base

Douglas fir (wood)

Binder

Guar gum

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Liquid

Mulled wine

2 ¼ tsp

8.5 g

18

Aromatic

Douglas fir (tips)

1 tsp

2 g

8

Dragon’s Blood

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Red cedar

2 tsp

2.5 g

16

Clove

½ tsp

1.1 g

4

Bases

Binder

Tragacanth

1⁄8 tsp

.5 g

1

Liquid

Water

2 ¼ tsp

8.5 g

18

Aromatic

Dragon’s blood

½ tsp

1 g

4

Eucalyptus

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Eucalyptus

7 tsp

12.6 g

56

Binder

Xanthan gum

1⁄8 tsp

.5 g

1

Liquid

Water

3 ½ tsp

16.8 g

28

Frankincense

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Sandalwood

2 Tbsp

10.9 g

24

Binder

Tragacanth

¼ tsp

1 g

1

Liquid

Water

1 Tbsp

13 g

12

Aromatic

Frankincense

1 tsp

3.2 g

4

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

2 tsp

3.7 g

16

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Galangal

Base

Sandalwood

Binder

Guar gum

Liquid

Water

2 tsp

7 g

16

Aromatic

Galangal

¾ tsp

1.5 g

6

Goldenseal

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Sandalwood

2 ¼ tsp

4.5 g

17

Base

Binder

Tragacanth

1⁄8 tsp

.5 g

1

Liquid

Water

2 ¼ tsp

8.5 g

17

Aromatic

Goldenseal

1 tsp

2.5 g

8

Hickory

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Hickory

2 Tbsp

10.8 g

48

Binder

Guar gum

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Liquid

Water

2 ½ tsp

10 g

20

Hops

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

1 Tbsp

3.6 g

24

1 tsp

2.2 g

8

Bases

Red sandalwood Clove

Binder

Tragacanth

1⁄8 tsp

.5 g

1

Liquid

Water

2 ¼ tsp

8.5 g

17

Aromatic

Hops

½ tsp

.5 g

4

Lavender

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Red cedar

1 Tbsp

3.6 g

12

Binder

Guar gum

¼ tsp

.8 g

1

Liquid

Water or herbal tea

4 ½ tsp

19.5 g

18

Aromatic

Lavender

5 ½ tsp

7.5 g

22

Lemongrass

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Makko

2 tsp

3 g

8

Clove

¼ tsp

.6 g

1

Liquid

Water

2 ¼ tsp

8.5 g

9

Aromatic

Lemongrass

¾ tsp

.5 g

3

Marjoram

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

2 tsp

1.2 g

16

1⁄8 tsp

.5 g

1

Bases

Base

Pine

Binder

Tragacanth

Liquid

Water

2 tsp

7 g

16

Aromatic

Marjoram

1 tsp

1.5 g

8

Mugwort

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

2 tsp

3.7 g

16

Base

Sandalwood

Binder

Guar gum

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Liquid

Water

1 Tbsp

13.5 g

24

Aromatic

Mugwort

1 tsp

1 g

8

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Myrrh

Base

Red sandalwood

5 tsp

6.5 g

20

Binder

Guar gum

¼ tsp

.8 g

1

Liquid

Water

1 Tbsp

13.5 g

12

Aromatic

Myrrh

2 tsp

4 g

8

Patchouli

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Sandalwood

½ tsp

.9 g

2

Binder

Guar gum

¼ tsp

.8 g

1

Liquid

Water or herbal tea

3 ½ tsp

16 g

14

Aromatic

Patchouli

5 tsp

7.5 g

20

Rosemary

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Base

Pine

2 ½ tsp

1.5 g

20

Binder

Guar gum

1⁄8 tsp

.4 g

1

Liquid

Water

1 Tbsp

13.5 g

24

Aromatic

Rosemary

½ tsp

.5 g

4

VOLUME

WEIGHT

RATIO

Saffron

Base

Sandalwood

2 tsp

3.7 g

16

Binder

Makko

1 tsp

1.5 g

8

Liquid

Water

2 tsp

7 g

16

Aromatic

Saffron

1⁄8 tsp