Incense

This incense gig's really got me. I mean, REALLY got me. To the point where I'm ashamed of my past behavior when I was presented with handmade incense from an incense artist. An underwhelming response would be an understatement. While deep in the throes of another intensely captivating art form (perfumery) I failed to see the potential of the original form of perfumery (incense). I'd written it down time and again, in preparation for a workshop or class, while drafting the perfumery books, but I never took the time to investigate the history and importance of incense making in perfumery until a student suggested we learn to make Kyphi. Then all hell broke loose.

I think that one of the reasons I felt so ambivalent toward incense making was because I'd already gone down that road -- sort of. Not as a study, but as a means of making money and to use in casting. I used Scott Cunningham's book 'Incense, Oils & Brews' as the template to create Zodiac themed powder incense, again, using tons of sawdust as the medium into which all the other elements went. As I progressed through that, and eventually got rid of the sawdust, I began to see the value of incense -- a little. I was then in the throes of soap making and hadn't the time to thoroughly research incense making (which is why I was using the Scott Cunningham book), plus I hadn't quite nailed down the importance of collecting the very best raw materials I could find in the making of -- well, then, just about everything. I was still using soy oil as the soap base and sawdust as an incense base, for Pete's sake. I was probably still eating Hamburger Helper back then too.

It's been a rotational progression of revelations and serendipitous events that have whisked me from one scent-filled art form to the next, each one imparting its wisdom so that the next can be better understood, until I stand again at the beginning of the circle, this great pool of information shimmering before me. So what do I do with it all? Continue to fill the pool, what else? I am no where near done learning about anything I do, and that's the exciting part. Learning again and again that I am a fool to stand so staunchly beside flimsy bits of understanding, and that I am wrong about this or that, and the whys of it, then finding the truth of the thing and throwing it into the pool with the rest of the good stuff. I swear, though, if I don't start writing it all down, it'll trickle out and be lost forever. I learned that from writing class. Ideas become like dreams and no matter how full of meaning and impact, they disappear into the ether if not documented.

Vetyver Compounded Resin Incense

Kyphi ~ Step One

Edfu-style Kyphi

Frankincense tincture

Boswellia sacra Omani sourced (white hojary)