I is for Incense

This rather pointless and tired post is brought to you by the Pagan Blog Project!

Today I went to our local grocery store and went down the 'assorted cleaning products' aisle, which is also where they store tampons and soaps and things. (Because you really want a bottle of Draino that screams 'UNCLOGS!' next to the tampax...)

I noticed as I was picking up some of said Draino in my ongoing battle to fight the hair in the sink that next to the hippy all-natural soaps and solid perfumes, they were now stocking incense. Nice incense, no less - I sniffed just about every one and they were all light and clear smelling. Looked handrolled too. They were priced at fifteen scents a stick, and so I bought several: rose, lavender, amber, 'rain', 'Indian spice' and 'Ganesh.'

When I was younger, I was a dollar-store-incense gal. For one thing, that was practically all that was available, and for another I was broke. I also used to get dollar store oils. Both of these were pretty rank, as you can probably imagine, with no real essential oils ever coming remotely near them.

Over the years I branched out, mostly thanks to being able to shop at metaphysical stores. (Although some of those swanky home decor stores stock nice oils nowadays.) I've discovered that yes, the more expensive shit tends to burn slower, more cleanly, and won't make your house reek like apricot bodyspray for days on end. I've also discovered the joys and annoyances of charcoal tabs and making your own incense blends from dried herbs and resins.

A word on those tabs... mine always seem to gutter out. I've tried different brands, with the same result 80% of the time. The other thing that I've never quite gotten the hang of is amount. How much incense should you be putting on that little glowing coal? If you need to replace it, why do the censers have metal lids that get fucking hot to the touch? Is there a ritual oven mitt I'm not aware of?  I've been doing this for years now and still I manage to overload the dry herbs and accidentally knock the resins off so they just turn to goo in the corner of the burner.

Why bother going to all this trouble? Besides the fact that incense matches are wonderful for covering noxious ass fumes in the bathroom, incense works in ritual on a few different levels.

Incense is associated with the element of air, for one thing. (Or air and fire.) So you can get some of your elemental groove going on right then and there. Secondly, the sense of smell has a way of bypassing the conscious mind and jump-starting memory and feeling. Third, incense is a traditional offering to spirits, the dead, and deities. It's one of those magical tools that anyone without an allergy can and generally does use.

But you probably knew all that.

I keep a large jar of stick incense in my magical supply cabinet, as well as lots of dried herbs and resins. I have a censer that's got to be something like seven years old now, and a stand to rest it on. I have a set of oversized tweezers to hold the charcoal tabs with while I light them. The one thing I don't have? A cool stick holder.

Materialistic, right? Yes. You're talking to a woman who has a shoe closet. The one I have works just fine - it's a basic wood holder, stained green. The kind you can buy at any dollar store. ...which is probably where I got it, actually. I used to have a glass one with a pentacle on it - a leftover from my 'dude I'm so witchy' days - but it broke in some move or another. I think the issue with the stick holders is that they tend to be really, really ugly if they're not plain. They're either stoner trees, fairies in goth leggings, or heavy metal style skeletons and dragons. Maybe skeleton dragons.

Well, whatever floats your boat I guess. So long as you can hide the smell of marijuana, am I right dudes?!

...and on that note google image searching 'glass incense burners' brings up pictures of bongs.