Incense & Soap

Thurifera on the barbie

Every morning I burn frankincense. It begins moments after I roll out of bed, between setting up the percolator and flipping on the computer. One day there will be sacra burning, the next a thurifera. Of the sacras there is often a rotation of green first, then white, then red (Nar). On days when the stress promises to bust down the door, the elongota joins the sacra. My nose is just beginning to discern differences between these frankincense resins when burning. What makes it difficult is that the current stress level is really up there -- like stratospherically up there, and that makes it hard to concentrate on the nuance of scent. There are many factors contributing to the stress, all of which are mostly out of my control. However, I do what I can do in the form of burning incense to reduce the stress so that peaceful and encouraging thoughts can manifest. Working helps a lot too. Keeping myself immersed in the building of beautiful scented things at least occupies my mind enough that I can breathe. The past 18 months has been hell in terms of stress. I've discovered lately that I unintentionally hold my breath when I'm stressed, which results in more stress, and exhaustion, and light-headedness, and brain fog. I also discovered that when I'm this stressed out, I don't move much, as if moving will draw attention to my worries and will result in the worries becoming a reality. It's nuts, I know. Today I'm getting out. There are some errands to run, but there's also some resin to hunt down. I think I will weather the strange looks and nosy behavior of the camp manager who stalks the day use area at the campground up the road. The last time I went up there to gather resin, this guy asked three times if I wanted to rent a camp space while I was clearly parked in the day use area next to the toilets enjoying the outdoors. I'm going to assume the reason he acted the way he did is because the campground is close to town (I live in a semi-rural area) and easily accessible to people going in and out of the campground for nefarious purposes. Even this scenario, this hunting for resin, brings its own forms of stress! 

 

 Yesterday was a fairly productive day. I kneaded the new Kyphi dough and spread it out to dry more. I made bread. And a batch of soap. 

New soap: Root, y'know, to go with Leaf, soon to be (possibly) joined by Fruit, Petal, Resin, Seed, and Wood. Who knows? This may be as far as this theme goes. Root is made with some of my favorite essential oils -- vetyver, patchouli, cedarwood, mushroom, choya.

I recently ordered soap colorants -- natural soap colorants -- to jazz up the soap. I have this peacock color scheme going on in my head that I'd like to add to a sweet and refreshing soap. I make nice soap, but let's face it, they aren't always aesthetically appealing and a good many people (all people?) go for the look of a thing before they fall for the scent.