In Hellenismos, incense (Latin incendere, to burn or kindle) is used purely as an offering to the Gods(1). It is not proper to think of it as a means to create a mood or a tool to conjure some kind of magic. The correct attitude is one of generosity, gratitude, worship, and exchange. You are giving a gift of something fine and precious to the blessed Olympic Gods.
The two most well known resins used for incense are frankincense and myrrh. Most people associate these two with the Christian holy day of Christmas. In reality, frankincense, myrrh, storax, and many other plant resins have been used since antiquity by all religions.
Historically in the West, incense is a mark of Hellenismos. After the Roman Empire espoused Christianity, the use of incense was suppressed by law during the ensuing persecutions. In time, after the church felt confident that the pagan religion had been thoroughly crippled, the practice of burning incense re-emerged and entered into Christian tradition. Nonetheless, the idea that incense is somehow connected with pre-Christian religion persists to this day and there is good reason for it. Every time we offer a pinch of incense, we prove by our action that our convictions persevere and remain relevant.
This page is dedicated to natural incense materials, particularly resins and gums, which is not to say that stick or cone incense is in some way unsuitable as an offering. No, it is only that the author of this article particularly appreciates the purity and loveliness of these naturally occurring substances.
In our contemporary world of artificiality, a world where the ingredients of most perfumes are concocted in the laboratory, resins are an expression of the primal beauty of the earth. Indeed, they evoke thoughts of exotic places and fascinating stories. To give but one example, the labdanum resin is collected from the rock rose bush by shepherds who drive their goats into the cistus thickets. The animals love to graze on these plants. When they have had their fill, their owners comb out the resin which has stuck to their beards and coats. Such substances as this bring us into contact with natural found beauty of often stunning sensuality.
What are resins and gums? They are secretions of plants, generally encouraged by bruising them in some way. The two words, resin and gum, are often used as synonyms of one another, a manner of speaking we will adopt in this very article, but it is not really correct. Resins are not soluble in water, where gums are. Many natural incense materials have qualities of both, so they may be called gum resins. Another term that you will find is oleo, which means oily or fatty. So we have oleo-resins or oleo-gum-resins.
Sometimes other parts of plants are used as incense, such as the bark, the wood, the flowers, or the leaves. It is said that in Hellas, before approximately 900 BC, the use of gums and resins was unknown or rare. But fragrant woods and plant materials were used and therefore are quite traditional. An example of bark used for incense would be storax bark (not to be confused with ancient storax). An example of wood used as incense is sandalwood. Rose, lavender, and jasmine flowers are used as incense. Laurel, oak, and sage are examples of leaves that are used, as well as various needles of conifers.
Using natural materials for incense
Many people are reluctant to use these virgin substances. Perhaps you have had difficulty using them previously or maybe you find using stick incense or cones more predictable or familiar. In truth, it is very easy to offer natural incense.
You will need the following items: incense, charcoal, flame, and an incense burner. You will find sources for these items further down this page.
The greatest difficulty that you will encounter is fully lighting the charcoal and keeping it lit. Most of the available briquettes are impregnated with salt-peter to make them self-igniting (with the help of a flame). This is modestly effective and relatively time-consuming. However, I think you will find that once the salt-peter is exhausted, the charcoal will often die out after burning only partially through. This is primarily due to inadequate air-flow. The solution is to bring in air below the charcoal.
So, the first step is to acquire an incense burner. Before you do anything, simply try it out and see if you the charcoal stays lit. If you use it successfully several times without difficulty, you have purchased an incense burner that is fine "as is." But if the briquette dies out and there is a considerable amount of unburned charcoal, consider my suggestion. I suggest stone aroma lamps like this one or similar:
http://www.somaluna.com/prod/triangular_soapstone_aroma_lamp.asp?m=87
We are not going to use this aroma lamp as they suggest, but instead we will burn charcoal in the cup, so make sure that the aroma lamp is made of a heat resistant material like soapstone. This same technique can be used with other styles of burners, as shown with the antique bronze incense burner in the picture. You will need to use your imagination. Drill many eighth-inch holes throughout the cup, the area where you will place the charcoal. You will be surprised at how easily you can drill through the stone. If you are using a metal burner, you can remove any burrs by twisting a larger bit along the edges of the holes.
I also suggest that you ignore the instructions that came with the charcoal you purchased. You will need a gas stove or a candle. Grasp the briquette with charcoal tongs or a pair of pliers and suspend it over the flame. The salt-peter will sparkle and finally go out. Continue to hold it above the flame until the coal glows red, turning it over to fully kindle both sides of the briquette. Now position it in the cup of the burner. This whole process of lighting the charcoal takes no longer than a minute, maybe two. The holes that you have drilled in the cup below the charcoal will allow enough air to flow, such that the briquette will burn all the way through. Taking the time to drill these holes will save you much
aggravation in the future and you will be able to make your offerings
without being concerned about mundane practicalities.
When you are ready to make your offering, take a piece of resin about a quarter inch in diameter and place it on the coal. It is that simple. If you like, you can crush the resin in a mortar and pestle to make smaller pieces, or even mix it with other types of incense. Most resins and gums will quickly ruin a blender or coffee grinder.
Miscellaneous help with incense
Clean-up: Resins and gums, in particular, tend to be very sticky. Their residue is not so easily removed. Acquire a tin of acetone to clean both the burner and also the mortar and pestle. You can obtain this at any hardware store. Acetone is extremely flammable, so exercise caution. Please take note that acetone melts most plastics.
You will also discover that in due time the smoke will leave a shiny, varnish-like coating on your walls, particularly close by your incense burner. This is an unavoidable inconvenience that you will need to endure if you desire to make fine incense offerings.
Semi-soft resins and gums, such as elemi, galbanum, or labdanum, can be difficult to work with because they never fully harden, are tacky, and get stuck to your fingers.
One technique is to store them in foil or wax paper in the freezer. This will harden them making it easier to break off a piece.
Some of these semi-soft resins and gums combine well with other types of incense and you can take advantage of that. For instance, benzoin Sumatra (not Siam) tends to be quite dry and is easily powdered. You can roll a semi-soft resin in the benzoin powder to make little balls of incense for future use.
Another method: take a wooden toothpick and push it into labdanum or galbanum. Twist the toothpick around, almost as if you were gathering up spaghetti. When you have as much on the toothpick as you desire, start pulling it out while continuing to twist the toothpick. Now roll this in benzoin powder or similar. Rolling it in frankincense/olibanum powder works particularly well (available here: PennHerb, be sure you order "powdered"). Rolling labdanum in powdered rose petals is a very lovely offering for female deities. Once you have coated the resin or gum with powdered incense, you can cut off most of the toothpick if you like, what remains of the wood will burn away.
Essays on various incense:
Benzoin - see Storax
The following types of incense are requested in the The Hymns of Orpheus:
Frankincense (32 times)
Aromatic Herbs (23 times)
Storax (13 times)
Myrrh (5 times)
Et Varia (twice)
Crocus (once)
Firebrands (once)
Opium Poppy + incense (once, for Sleep)
Incense of the Americas:
Being that we practice Hellenismos, a traditional offering such as frankincense is appropriate and obvious. However, in the Americas we have access to a number of magnificent native resins, wonderful gifts of nature that make excellent offerings. From Mexico and beyond there are the great copal resins. You will discover quite a variety, visually ranging from white, to translucent yellow, to black. And quite a range of different fragrance.
I would particularly like to make the case for the pinion resin from the Southwest. This pine resin is incredibly fragrant, amazingly so, like perfume, and very different the more ordinary pine incense one smells at Christmastime.
Sources of Incense:
Soma Luna has the most complete selection of incense on the Internet, very impressive indeed. When available, they carry the wonderful hojary frankincense, the highest quality, as well as several lower grades. But they have everything you can imagine. http://www.somaluna.com/
Scents of Earth carries the fine Yemen frankincense, very similar to hojary, but a bit less expensive. They currently (2008) have the finest olibanum (Boswellia serrata) available. They have an impressive selection of other resins also. http://www.scents-of-earth.com/
Alchemy Works, another source of many varieties. The owner is quite willing to share his considerable knowledge of these materials. http://www.alchemy-works.com/incense_index.html
Wood Finishing Enterprises is an unusual source for resins. They supply craftsmen with resin to make varnish for fine furniture and musical instruments. Many of their resins are of equal quality to any available, but at a much more affordable price. One must be careful, however. For instance, the elemi that they sell is not suitable as an offering. http://www.woodfinishingenterprises.com/varnish.html
Antique 968 is an Ebay seller located in Oman. He has access to the finest hojary frankincense at the best price, despite any shipping costs. Unfortunately, sometimes he has no product.
http://myworld.ebay.com/antique968
Madeuk, another Ebay seller from Oman, sells quality hojary frankincense. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZmadeukQQssPageNameZSTRKQ3aMEFSQ3aMESOI
Jerusalem Gallery an Ebay seller in Israel who carries a very smoky and wonderful frankincense at a great price, also a myrrh which I have not tried. http://stores.ebay.com/JERUSALEM-GALLERY_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm
Floracopeia sells a variety of resins, including several grades of frankincense. They notably sell Ogaden frankincense, Boswellia rivae, easy to find as an oil, but difficult to buy as raw resin. Please note that this company has an unusual policy of selling by the size of the container, rather than the actual weight of the resin. I measured out a 10 ounce jar of Boswellia rivae at an actual weight of 4 oz. Nonetheless, the price was still fair. http://www.floracopeia.com/index.php
PENNHERB sells many things, but of special interest, they sell powdered frankincense which is specifically called for in several Orphic Hymns and is also useful to help make other sticky resins more easily used (see above Semi-Soft Resins and Gums). It is not so easy to actually powder frankincense. http://www.pennherb.com/cgi-bin/herbstore.cgi/find?;Frankincense
Sources of Charcoal:
Charcoal is easy to find at most of the incense dealers. Buy a big box. They do not vary that much from one manufacturer to the next, from my experience. The Japanese charcoal that has no salt-peter is a higher quality and is wonderful, but keep in my that the briquettes are very tiny; they are not really appropriate for resins etc. unless you are offering just little pinches.
Sheehan Religious Articles sells the Char-lite Self-Lite Charcoal. This is standard salt-peter encrusted charcoal, but the advantage is the very large size of these briquettes. They are 1-3/4" in diameter. Therefore if you are making many offerings, these may be the ideal choice.
Natural charcoal is another option. You could use this for burnt offerings or for a very large incense burner, such as may be suitable for a larger gathering of people out-of-doors. This charcoal is not impregnated with salt-peter. It comes in irregular shapes due to the fact that it is made from actual branches of trees and shrubs. The most economical way to buy this is from your local hardware store should they stock it. Another more expensive option is hookah charcoal. You will find some exotic woods amongst these suppliers, woods such as lemon and olive. Here are some sources:
http://www.hookahcompany.com/all_hookah_charcoal_33_ctg.htm
http://www.hookah-shisha.com/store/pc/viewCat_h.asp?idCategory=26
http://www.hookahhookah.com/store/catalog/PRODUCTS_HOOKAH_PARTS_Charcoal-p-1-c-256.html
http://www.hookahkings.com/Hookah-Charcoal-c-257.html
http://www.smoking-hookah.com/Store/Charcoal.asp
Note: (1) To clarify this statement, within a religious context, the correct use of incense would be an offering to the Gods, or a God, a Hero, or a demi-God, etc. However, when not used specifically for religious purposes, these substances are appropriate for medicine or various other applications. In ancient times, incense would also be used to fumigate the ritual space when blood sacrifice was performed, in order to mask unpleasant odors, a practical thing. But the idea I am trying to convey is that when we employ incense in ritual, it is not an empty artifice utilized merely for drama or for one's amusement; it is a gift to the Gods and therefore becomes holy. This is not to say that we should somehow refrain from enjoying the lovely fragrance of incense, only to point out that this enjoyment is serendipitous and should not be the motive for using it in ritual.
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