Resins

Resins and woods are the raw ingredients of incenses. A resin is the dried sap that was "bled" from a tree. It contains sugars and other compounds found in the plant or tree's sap, which is why most have a sweet scent when burned. Other products in this category are chipped or ground up woods, like Sandalwood. These are often used as a base for powdered incenses, and like resins, most smell very good burned on their own. I also include Sage leaf and smudge sticks in this section because they are used in similar ways.

How to burn resins

The charcoals used to burn resins get very hot. Use a burner made for resin incense, with a metal screen or with sand or rocks to insulate from the heat.
We often break the charcoals in half because they burn for nearly an hour. Light the charcoal with a lighter or match, and when it starts to spark, put it in the burner.
lt is best to let the whole charcoal begin to glow before adding any resin. Then sprinkle on the resin as desired, a little bit at a time. lf you add too much or cover the charcoal completely, you might put out the charcoal. Also, most natural resin incenses smell better when burned in small amounts at a time.
Keep away from kids and pets. Let the charcoal burn down completely, and make sure it's all ash before throwing out because it could set trash on fire. Ask us how we know!
We don't clean the burner after every use. When there is a collection of ash in the burner, pour contents into strainer over the sink and rinse with water. Let dry, and put rocks back in burner. (If you use sand you'll just have to dump the whole mess and use fresh sand).
Store unused charcoal in a zip-lock bag or in a jar, because they won't burn well if they collect humidity from the air.
Enjoy!

Frankincense

Frankincense is the definitive incense resin, and it can beburned alone or as an ingredient in countless formulas. Frankincense is used for purification, prosperity, protection, spiritual elevation, psychic power, and as an offering to the gods. It is truly an all-purpose incense for any intention.

Frankincense tears are the dried sap of several species of Boswellia trees from North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Boswellia carterii being the most common. The use of Frankincense as an incense is very ancient and was found in the tombs of Tutankhamen.

A friend of mine who is a Bedoin prince from a villiage on the Nile River in Sudan taught me to chew Frankincense like chewing gum. Like Myrrh, it seems to have many applications for oral health and hygeine, and it makes your breath wonderfully fresh. Certainly Awad's heart-melting smile with his perfect white teeth won me over to this use!

If you compound your own resin incense for ritual or just enjoyment, frankincense blends and harmonizes well with any other incense resin or herb.

The below correspondences are vis Cunningham, Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs in plain text, C.L. Zalewski, Herbs in Magic and Alchemy in brackets, and my own interpretations in parenthesis.

Gender: Masculine (Masculine)

Element: Fire (Fire) [Fire of Earth, Water of Earth]

Planet: Sun (Sun) [Sun]

Zodiac: (Leo) [Aquarius, Leo]

1 oz.

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