by Carl F. Neal
Japan
In the last 750 years Japan has arguably become the center of the incense universe. There was a time when a gentleman in Japan was judged not only by his prowess in the arts of war but also by the arts of flower arranging, poetry, and incense making. Creating personal incense blends was very common in feudal Japan with the intent to create a unique fragrance as a type of olfactory signature.
The art of incense making and incense enjoyment reached its current zenith in the incense world in Japan. The oldest incense making companies in the world are in Japan, with many of them using recipes developed within their companies hundreds of years ago. Several Japanese incense companies are older than the entire United States! The center of the incense making universe is—in my opinion—in Kyoto, Japan.
The kodo ceremony encapsulates the most advanced classification system ever devised for an incense ingredient (aloeswood). Kodo will be discussed further in chapter 9. Incense makers apprentice for decades before being allowed to create their precious blends, attesting to the supremacy of the art of incense found in Japan. Japan is also home to the only major incense producer (that I am aware of) that actually lists ingredients of their incense: Shoyeido. From dissimilar ingredients as star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and kyara, Japanese incense masters create blends that can transport us to worlds never before imagined. It is my life’s dream to one day visit Kyoto and experience firsthand the magick created there.
America
When most people think of incense, the New World rarely springs to mind, yet the Americas have valuable incense traditions that are more widely practiced than one might at first think. Remember that Europeans first visited the Americas in part in search for a shorter route to India for its rare spices, fabrics, and other goods for trade. I imagine none of the early explorers paid much attention to the aromatic treasures all around them in the Americas.
North America
North America has its own native incense traditions that, much to our good fortune, were not destroyed by Europeans’ attempts to “civilize” the Native Americans through forced cultural changes, theft, disease, deceit, and the offering of “salvation.” Wonderful North American aromatics such as sweet grass, white sage, desert sage, piñon, western cedar, and more are still available. The modern Neopagan and New Age cleansing practice of “smudge bundling” is the direct legacy of Native American incense traditions. Any who have performed cleansing with a sage bundle know firsthand the incredible power in that herb and the wisdom of the Native Americans who first put it to use.
Central and South America
The Latinized nations of the Americas also have proud incense traditions whose origins are lost in the mists of time. From Aztecs to Mayans to Olmecs, the pre-Columbian civilizations had powerful incense customs and botanicals. Damiana, copal, tonka beans, palo santo, and more come to use from these regions. Incan priests would mix aromatics with blood, some taken directly from the scrotum, and burn the incense mixture while asking the gods for guidance.
I had the great privilege of touring a pre-Columbian exhibition a few years ago. Although all of the information and artifacts were amazing to view, I was naturally drawn to a display of ritual tools. While the energies of the artifacts made it clear that they were from different origins and separated by many years in their use, the display was still nearly overwhelming. In particular I was drawn to the ancient censers. It was very moving to stand inches from a censer that was once used in rituals that guided an empire. It was begging to be used again, so it was difficult to keep my hands to myself! However, I didn’t think the curators would share my enthusiasm to burn some palo santo and copal in their archeological treasure.
Clearly this chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive history of incense use in the world—that alone would fill one or more books. Instead I want to introduce the sweeping worldwide inclusion of incense into life. It is easy to look at a single culture as the progenitor of incense, but in reality, incense has been a part of many societies on every settled continent. I hope that reading this information will encourage you to read more about the topic. You will find several interesting books in the bibliography to guide you in this discovery.
Synthetic versus Natural Incense
There is an important distinction between two basic ways of making incense: synthetic and natural. Synthetic incense is made using artificial scents (often petroleum by-products) that are laboratory versions of natural ingredients. On the other hand, we have incense made using only natural products. There are a few brands of commercial incense that are combinations of natural and synthetic, but those are very rare. Although both types of incense have their uses, it is critical to understand the differences between them.
Synthetic Incense
This is by far the most common type of commercial incense sold in the world. Even in Japan—the country best known for high-quality incense—synthetic incense is the type most frequently used. Synthetic incense can come in any form. Cones, sticks, coils, and even loose incense are commonly scented with synthetic fragrance oils.
Most synthetic incense shares certain drawbacks. First, some brands of synthetic incense are simply waste wood powder that is combined with a binder (a type of glue) with the resulting sticks or cones soaked in synthetic fragrance oils. The wood used in the powder might be sawdust from a manufacturing plant—sometimes the wood powder actually comes from the manufacturing of plywood. It could be a waste product from any number of commercial applications. As a result, the wood might have been treated with chemicals or could contain large quantities of powerful glues. I don’t want to imply that all synthetic incense uses such low-quality wood powder, but unfortunately there is no way to know simply by looking at an incense package.
The synthetic fragrance oils themselves can also represent some problems. These scents are created in laboratories in an effort to reproduce natural scents at a substantially lower cost than the natural version. This is done through chemical analysis of a natural scent. When natural scents are analyzed, there are many chemical components that might not appear to contribute directly to the scent. Chemical engineers will look at the analysis of the scent and then begin to experiment to see if they can replicate it. They will do so using the simplest chemical method possible. As a result, some components of the scent might be deemed “unnecessary” to the effort to fool the nose. Generally speaking, synthetic fragrances are rarely chemical duplicates of the original. They are “just enough” of the chemical composition to mislead the rather dull human nose. (Well, usually they are just enough—I’m sure we’ve all encountered incense that was labeled “apple” but actually smelled like a burning house.) The bottom line is that synthetics do not truly represent their natural counterparts. At best they are a simulation of nature. At worst they are a pathetic imitation that smells nothing like the original, natural scent.
Some fragrance oils are not formulated with burning in mind. They might be created to scent soaps, body lotions, or other non-combustible products. As a result their designers never considered the health impacts of burning the chemicals involved, so you truly have no idea what the ultimate result could be.
Furthermore there is the issue of so-called “extenders.” An extender is another synthetic oil with little or no scent of its own. Extenders cost far less than scented oils, so many synthetic incense makers use them to “step on” or dilute the more expensive scented oils. This allows incense makers to lower their costs by stretching the scented oils. Without an extender, a pound of scented oil might only make 500 sticks or cones of incense. With the extender, the same amount of oil could make 1,000 or even 1,500 sticks or cones. This does dilute the scent somewhat, but synthetic oils are usually so strong that the incense still has a powerful scent. Aside from the obvious ethical question of diluting oils to lower the cost (although the retail price usually stays the same), there is also a question of safety. The chemicals use
d as extenders have, to the best of my knowledge, never been tested in any laboratory anywhere for their safety in incense. Most extenders are actually meant to be used in products that are not burned (such as soaps and household cleaners). Dipropylene glycol (also called DPG) is the most commonly used extender.
This is a great point of contention among some incense makers, but both my personal and professional experiences have shown me many shortcomings of extenders. Although I have gotten a few nasty letters from several readers disputing my sentiments on this issue, I stand by my belief that this chemical is dangerous when used in combustible materials. The MSDS (material safety data sheet) for DPG states that it releases poisonous gas when burned! If that doesn’t clearly demonstrate its possible hazards, I don’t know what would. Some incense makers are so addicted to the extra few cents of profit they get from using these extenders that they resent my mentioning this to customers. I have gotten hate letters demanding that I prove the dangers of DPG in a full-blown university study. My response to this is that the manufacturers themselves do not endorse the use of DPG in incense and the MSDS warns not to burn the material. Therefore a university study would have to be done in order to prove that it does not represent any harm. Personally, I can often identify incense with DPG in it because it gives me a headache. If you believe that you are allergic to incense, it could easily be a reaction to the synthetic ingredients in the incense you’ve tried. In any case follow your doctor’s advice on the subject.
Incense labeled “dipped” is generally made with synthetic oils, although there are a few exceptions. “Dipped” means that the incense was formed and dried as an unscented stick or cone. This “blank” incense is then soaked in fragrance oils. Some incense makers use fireworks punks (the long, smoldering sticks used to light the fireworks safely) as their “blank” incense. Aside from the drawbacks of synthetic incense I mentioned earlier, the composition of those blanks is often a cause for concern. Although I imagine there are natural blank producers out there somewhere, most blanks are of unknown composition because the manufacturers aren’t required to disclose their materials; to my knowledge, none of them voluntarily provide that information. These blanks can be made from any type of wood, so the base scent is unpredictable. It is of even greater concern that some blanks are made with waste materials from the production of plywood. That type of wood powder can contain many different chemicals including all sorts of glues. The scent is unpredictable but so is the impact of the materials on those who inhale its smoke. Again, I want to make it clear that I’m not making a blanket condemnation of the incense dipping process, but one of the biggest problems with this style of incense is the lack of consumer knowledge about its content.
I know that all of this information seems to make synthetic incense appear to be a worthless product. That isn’t true. There is synthetic incense that uses high-quality wood powder and only pure scented oils. It’s true that the incense is not natural, but if no extenders are used, if the synthetic oils are pure and appropriate for burning, and if quality wood (or charcoal) powder is used, the incense should be perfectly safe to use. If your desire is to use this incense to cover a bad odor in your house (those of us with cats are very familiar with that problem) or car or other space, I feel it is perfectly fine to use good-quality synthetic incense.
Still, the problem is that synthetic incense is virtually never clearly labeled. I have never seen any synthetic incense that listed the purity of the oils or type of woods used, so it’s very difficult for a consumer to know if the quality is high or low. There are some synthetic brands that advertise that they are free of extenders. If you can locate those, they might be your best choice for synthetics. If the incense is made in a local store or by a small company, it’s unlikely you’ll have access to that type of information. You may want to ask the incense maker directly before purchasing. There are several internationally known brands of synthetic incense that are certainly made of quality materials, but incense from many makers is very difficult to confirm.
Natural Incense
When it comes to the use of incense in magick or ritual, I am a very strong proponent of using natural incense only. The way I see it is that, unless you are trying to invoke the powers of synthetic chemistry, synthetic incense has no place in ritual or on any altar. Understand that the incense used in many religious ceremonies worldwide is cheap synthetic incense because of the lowered cost. It isn’t that people intentionally use low-quality incense; it’s merely that they haven’t been educated about the differences.
My ritual spaces are scented only with natural incense. From a magickal perspective, synthetic incense contains virtually no power. Natural incense contains the energy of months or even years of sunshine, rain, and growth in the earth. Synthetic incense is made from petroleum by-products that are mass produced in giant chemical factories. It is, of course, a matter of personal choice; if a synthetic provides the results that you desire, then you should use it.
If you decide to pursue the path of natural incense, you will have to search a bit harder. There are a handful of natural incense brands distributed internationally. Companies like Shoyeido and Juniper Ridge (to name just a few) are proud of their all-natural incense lines. With a little searching you’ll find other national brands and perhaps some regional or local brands as well. There are many budding makers of natural incense around the world. If you can locate one, you might get some truly original, yet natural, incense. You could even make your own incense! If you live in an area that doesn’t have shops with a wide selection of incense, you can always turn to the Internet. A great deal of amazing natural incense can be found with just the click of a mouse.
One nice thing about buying natural incense is judging its quality. With synthetic incense, your nose might never be able to detect extenders or the quality of the wood. When you smell natural incense burning, your nose will be better able to determine the quality of the ingredients. The more complex the scent, the more experience is needed to judge the quality by scent alone. Nevertheless, even the most novice incense user can recognize many differences between high- and low-quality incense. Another indicator is price, which I’ll discuss in detail later.
If you’ve never experienced natural incense before, there are some basic recommendations I can offer. Never judge natural incense by its scent in the package. Natural incense can only be judged while it is burning. Unlike scented oils, the oils in natural incense are primarily locked inside the resins, woods, and powders rolled into the stick or cone. Only burning can release those amazing scents. Smelling the package might give you a clue to the incense’s aroma but doing so rarely conveys the actual scent.
When purchasing natural incense for the first time, you will find that you have to adjust from the powerful scents of synthetics. Natural incense is usually subtle, although there certainly are exceptions to this general rule. To experience these wonderfully subtle scents, you will need to spend time with them. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy natural incense at any time, but to really appreciate its beauty requires a bit of concentration.
Incense Concerns
Although incense is a wonderful and magickal experience, there are some important things that you need to consider before you jump into this amazing world. In my personal experience, the vast majority of people will never have to worry about any of these concerns. But it is best to think about the following things before you begin widespread incense use in your home.
Smoke
Perhaps the most troublesome part of incense use for some people is the smoke that is generated through burning. Some people have breathing problems that can be exacerbated by the presence of smoke. There are many people who feel that they are allergic to incense, but this is very rarely the case (as mentioned in the discussion of synthetic versus natural incense, these people are usually allergic to synthetic ingredients rather than incense itself). Natural incense generally produces les
s smoke than synthetic forms and is typically milder. If you find that any incense smoke impacts your breathing, first, stop using that type of incense. Second, you will find that many brands of natural incense are available in low-smoke or even smokeless varieties; try one of those next time you purchase incense. Third, if you use the proper techniques, even incense burned on charcoal will produce little or no smoke; try charcoal burning to enjoy scent without smoke.
Incense makers strive to produce incense that creates as little smoke as possible, since smoke is a by-product of incomplete combustion. The better the formulation of the incense, the less smoke is produced during burning. Incense that produces plumes of smoke is forcing a lot of unburned particles into the air, and those particles can irritate eyes, sinuses, and lung tissues.
The keys to low-smoke incense are moisture content, aromatic choices, and heat. All ingredients must be thoroughly dried. Moisture trapped inside your incense ingredients will produce elevated amounts of smoke, just like wet leaves or logs on a campfire. Your choice of incense ingredients will have a major impact on the amount of smoke the incense produces. Resins tend to produce more smoke than woods or green herbs. You can test potential choices on low-heat charcoal to determine how much smoke they are likely to produce. Finally, you want incense to burn at the lowest possible temperature. The best incense is smoldered rather than burned. With loose incense, this is controlled with your charcoal or incense heater. (You will find detailed information about charcoal burning in chapter 5.) In self-burning incense, the temperature is controlled by the selection of base materials and the ratio of base ingredients to aromatics. Mixing incense that produces little smoke is one of the skills that comes only with years of practice and study.