Ritual Witchcraft Incense: Leaves from the Spiritual Spells Book of Shadows
Witchcraft and Paganism have a long history of the use of incense as a valuable ritual tool. Incense is associated with the element Air and helps us to create and open the way to a Sacred space. In the past people would burn magical herbs and aromatic woods to help cleanse, purify, and sanctify their homes and temples as well as spaces in which they were going to perform ritual magick.
History tells us that Incense has been used as a sacrifice to both Goddesses and Gods, as a smudge to help drive away evil spirits, and as a tool to draw in good luck, love and wealth. The ancient Egyptians and Jews were but two such peoples who blended and produced high-quality Incense for ritual use. You can even find mention of such recipes in the Bible and other older texts for some of these wonderful fragrant incense blends.
Types of Incenses
Incense comes in many forms. Some are more popular than others, but each type has a use that is traditional its own magickal culture. or Compounded Incenses, which .
Natural Incenses are made of dried tree resins, wood chips, or herb pieces.
Granular Resin Incenses are commonly burned on a charcoal. You light a charcoal disc and place it on, or in, an appropriate incense burner and then place the incense on top of the charcoal disc to burn.
Smudge Sticks are bunches of dried herbs such as Sage, that are lit at the tip and slowly smoulder as they burn.
Compounded Incense are recipes made up primarily of natural wood flour with added resins, herbs, plus natural essential oils or fragrance oils. There are many forms or shapes that Compounded Incenses can take, such as self-lighting powders, granular, cones, briquettes, coils, and joss sticks.
Joss sticks, also called Agarbathi and Cone Incense, also called Dhoop, arre Indian and Asian forms of Incense that are very popular In Witchcraft and Pagan practice, the Indian and Asian style joss-sticks are one of the most popular and common forms of Incense, due to their introduction to America many years ago. Joss-sticks, especially those made with pure Sandalwood, called "Chandan," are great for short rituals, but for longer rituals self-lighting powders, granular or cone incense seems to work better. Another issue with joss-sticks is that you cannot blend sacred or magickal herbs into them and they only come in a range pre-made scents, some of which are highly artificial in fragrance.
Self-lighting Incense Powders are the most popular form of incense in Hoodoo and Conjure and nicely bridge the gap between our Witchcraft traditions and those of the traditional Southern Conjure workers. They contain herbs in a base of wood flour, and they are usually scented. To use them, the powders are formed into corn shapes for burning. This is done by using a candle snuffer as a cone-shaper or cutting a small half-circle of paper that is folded to make a cone shaped form that the self-lighting powder is molded in. After the cones are made, they are lit exactly the same way you’d light regular Cone Incense.
Special Purpose Incenses are made in our Coven out of Self-lighting Incense Powders with added herbs and essential oils that correspond with the ritual work we are performing. Careful planning and care should be used when making up your own Incense this way; use your intuition and intent to help guide you in making up what is best for your ritual. It is also very helpful to dedicate the incense you have made up. This can be done by simply making a prayer or statement of intent over the Incense, such as, "I dedicate this incense for the use of..." and then naming the ritual or intent for which the Incense will be used.
The following is a list of incense fragrances and their properties that can be used in assistance of your magickal work.
The Witches' Cupboard: Ritual Wiccan and Eclectic Pagan Incenses
Spiritual Incense play an important role in setting the tone and mood in a working Coven's ritual space. The lighting of the incense often begins a ritual, and its cessation signals the close of the rite. In addition, Incense may be used to impart magickal intentions to articles, such as clothing, that cannot be anointed with spiritual anointing oils.
DRAGON’S BLOOD is a resin incense burned on charcoal to help cleanse spaces and rid them of negative influences. It also good for attracting love, increasing luck, aiding in magickal invocations, and pact-making.
FRANKINCENSE is an ancient and holy incense that comes down to us from the spiritual rites of the Jewish peoples. It is burned on charcoal and has become the preeminent incense for spiritual worship and work. It can also be blended with other incenses and herbs in almost any rite to help invigorate and empower the work.
MYRRH is also a resin and as such must be burned on charcoal. It shares the same rich history as Frankincense, and the two are often burned together for healing and purification. Its nature by itself is one that helps create peaceful, healing, relaxing, and protective environments and also can help stimulate sensual love.
SWEET GRASS comes to us from Native American traditions and it possesses a holy, unique scent unlike anything else. It is used as a sacred offering for blessing, consecration, and funerary rites. It is found in long braided lengths and is intended to be lit and burned as a smudge, which, depending on your magickal working, may take several days.
WHITE SAGE is offered in the form of smudge bundles. It is a traditional herbal incense used for cleansing, purification, and protection work among some Native Americans nations, and as such it has become very popular for the same uses with Magickal and Spiritual workers from many different traditions.
SOLOMON SEAL INCENSE is a wonderful incense to help invoke the wisdom, strength, and beauty of King Solomon, one of the greatest of sorcerers. This is also really a fabulous formula for doing ritual work with Talismans and Seals.
The Conjure Bag: Hoodoo and Conjure Self-Lighting Incense Powders
There are literally hundreds of different Hoodoo recipes and formulas for Self-lighting Incense Powders; we present here a list of our recommendations for those which are most useful to those working in a Pagan or Eclectic Witchcraft path. One of the most traditional uses for these incenses in Hoodoo is called "smoking," which means to wave an article or object, such as a lucky mojo bag in incense smoke.
CROWN OF SUCCESS INCENSE POWDER To help you succeed and achieve recognition in school, career, or your magical work there is no finer magical formula than the Crown of Success family. This traditional Rottworker's Incense is tried and true; it helps crown you and uplift you in all endeavors that you might undertake. We like it enough at Coven Kyklos that we have used it for ritual work as well as in magickal undertakings.
ROAD OPENER INCENSE POWDER is one of the most powerful magickal aids for clearing away old obstacles, set-backs, or slow-downs. It is used to aid in "opening the way" to a better future. Road Opener and can help to break through negative blockages that may have been placed on you by others or help you aid you when you are starting new enterprises. We find it useful to add a little Road Opener to other types of Incense if our rituals or workings seem to be dragging.
FIRE OF LOVE INCENSE POWDER This incense helps create a passionate sexuality, or a fervent desire. The old Conjure Workers say of this that as it burns flame burns, so does love burn and increase. We consider it an incense that combines elements of Venus with elements of Mars, producing a natural sexual heat.
MONEY DRAWING INCENSE POWDER This is one of the most popular of the Hoodoo Incenses for private workings to foster abundance and prosperity in the home. As such it is definitely more of a Magickal Incense than a Ritual Incense. We like to mix it with the next incense in this list, Money Stay With Me.
MONEY STAY WITH ME INCENSE POWDER We all know that far too often the problem is not about how much money you make but how much of it you can hold on to at the end of the month. This old time traditional formula helps keep your money from slipping out of your hands and bank account too fast.
SPIRIT GUIDE INCENSE POWDER This Conjure incense is quite beneficial when one wishes to invoke helpful, beneficent spirits to aid one in any kind of magickal, ritual, or ceremonial work. It also is works excellently when calling the Guardians of the Watchtowers.
NATURE INCENSE POWDER Not to be confused with the "nature" around us, instead here the word Nature is the old Conjure and Hoodoo term for one's sexual nature, one's sexual vitality. From time to time all of us find our libidos wavering, due to any number of reasons, and we wish to reverse that. This incense, and in fact the whole family of Nature products, helps increase the user's sexual vitality.