INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

"The burning of sweet gums, resins, woods, and plants has taken hundreds of
beautiful, diverse cultural forms, many of which persist today. Ancient
Egyptians burned offerings to the sun god, Ra, on his daily trek across the
heavens.  Frequent references to the use of incense in the Old Testament
suggest that the Jews have used it since very early times. Modern Hindus
burn camphor and incense before the image of Krishna. The Greeks burned
sweet incenses to make sacrifice and prayer more acceptable to the gods.
Little use of incense is evident in Islamic traditions, and incense was
unknown in early Buddhism, opposed as it was to external dogma. However,
public and private use of incense has now become widespread among Tibetan,
Japanese, and Chinese Buddhists.  By the fourteenth century, it had become
part of most of the established Christian rituals, and is still used for
such ceremonies as high mass, processions, and funerals. Modern pagan and
neopagan practices also involve highly developed ritual uses of incense. In
Native American religion, sage, sweet grass, yerba santa, uva-ursi, cedar,
and tobacco are burned ceremonially for purifying oneself and one's
environment, for sending up prayers to the Great Spirit, and for connecting
with one's spirit helpers - the unseen forces that assist humans.
"Besides its place in ceremony and religion, incense is often used simply
to evoke a mood or create an atmosphere...
"Incense makes use of many botanical products which cannot be liquefied or
distilled into a perfume.  Tree barks and saps, gums, resins, roots,
flowers, fragrant leaves, and needles can be combined in myriad ways to
create a rising, mood-enhancing bouquet of fragrant smoke. The botanical
ingredients may be purchased, grown, or gathered from the wild."
"Incense can take many forms, from simple, loose ingredients to be thrown
on glowing coals to ornately shaped cones, cylinders, sticks, or coils. All
are fun to make and enjoyable to use. All except loose incense consists of
four basic ingredients: an aromatic substance or mixture, a burnable base,
a bonding agent, and a liquid to change the bonding agent into a glue.
Coloring agents can be added as well."
Excerpted from Sandy Maine's "Herbal Incense" article in "The Herb
Companion."  Dec. 1992/Jan. 1993, Vol. 5, No. 2. Pg. 37. Posted by Cathy
Harned.
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