Articles — incense

Freshen up your life with the cleansing power of herbal incense! Smudging questions are some of the most common ones we get around the shop, so I’ve put them together in little bundle (heh). We cover why and when to smudge, some popular smudging herbs, and other questions people ask about smudging and space cleansing.  Skip to the bottom of this article for a sample smudging ritual that is easy to do and suitable for most situations. What is smudging? Smudging is the practice of spiritual cleansing with smoke, especially from sacred herbs.  You can smudge a person, a place,...

Grown in a Witch’s garden, picked at midnight with a silver sickle, mixed 39 times by hand, and so on. Magickal incenses can be a potent, personal tool with infinite variations. But sometimes you just need an incense that smells good and is in accord with your magickal purposes. An incense that doesn’t require a mortar and pestle, charcoal, or fireproof gloves before you can light up. Sometimes, you’re rushing into the supermarket on the way to a ritual and you need to choose an incense now so you can grab the bean dip and get the hell outta there....

The rich, complex fragrance of amber is a favorite for meditation and love magick. Amber is available as an incense, perfume oil, and solid resin. But what is amber anyway? Is it related to the gemstone of the same name? Read on for all the details on this ancient, mystical perfume. Amber Resin Properly speaking, amber is a solid incense with its roots in the Middle East. Amber is a compound fragrance, meaning it is made up of a mix of ingredients. It is not the same as the semi-precious gem amber (fossilized tree resin) or ambergris (a perfume ingredient...

Myrrh is the sticky, dry resin of a certain forlorn desert tree, Commiphora myrrha. Myrrh is extracted by piercing the bark of the tree and returning later to collect the nuggets of dried sap. True to Myrrh’s reputation as a funerary herb, these pieces are sometimes called “tears.” Ancient Egyptians used Myrrh, along with linen and natron, to embalm the dead. The resin both perfumes and preserves the body of the deceased. The Ebers papyrus (a document written around 1500 BCE contains over 800 medicinal formulas, many of which are based on a mixture of honey and myrrh. The antimicrobial...

Sandalwood is a slow-growing wood with a rich, complex scent. Indigenous to Southeast Asia, Sandalwood is one of the most expensive woods in the world. It has a long history of use in the spiritual practices of both the East and West. Sandalwood is labor-intensive to propagate, as it requires both a host tree and adequate sunlight to nourish itself. Sandalwood trees can take up to 80 years to reach full maturity. The concentration of scent in the heartwood increases as the tree ages. Trees that are planted today will not reach their aromatic peak for two generations. There are...