Incense and Oils

[Burning Shadow Alchemist]

What incense and oils do you burn for spell casting and ritual work? What do you burn just for peaceful aroma?

I like to use Cernunos oil and Abramelin oil for spells or rituals myself, and for lounging about I burn dragons blood or cinnamon incense.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Incense and Oils

I use all sorts of essential oils for both magick and health. Primarily essential oils derived from plants, and always 100% pure... not that fragrance stuff. I use them alone and make my own blends... I very rarely buy pre-blended oils. Ironically, I don't tend to use the classic all-rounders like frankincense much, because they are expensive and I couldn't afford them as I was learning. So in the beginning I made do with using more accessible oils and blending them to create similar effects. I could buy three oils for the price of something like frankincense... and still can.

Incense... I don't really use it for myself, because I grew up in a house where I wasn't allowed to burn it due to an asthmatic family member. So I learned to use oils instead, and most of the time use them in a way that didn't involve diffusing them into the whole house. On the flip side of that, my husband uses incense sticks because that's what he had access to and could afford when he was learning. So now that we both have access to both, I still default to oils and he still defaults to incense.

We also smudge. I use Mugwort and he uses White Sage.

[Burning Shadow Alchemist]

Re: Incense and Oils

If you use your own essential oils then I'm guessing you know a fair bit of alchemy, what method do you use if you don't mind me asking? And the oils i buy come from elderly indian woman that owns a local shop so their pure. My fiancee and I use white sage to smudge as well.

[Rowanwood]

Re: Incense and Oils

If you use your own essential oils then I'm guessing you know a fair bit of alchemy, what method do you use if you don't mind me asking? And the oils i buy come from elderly indian woman that owns a local shop so their pure. My fiancee and I use white sage to smudge as well.

Alchemy =/= using oils.

I use oils and fragrances a lot. I know exactly nothing about alchemy.

Buying 100% pure oils is just a matter of finding a good source, though not all scents/herbs/what-have-you can be even gotten like that. Most of us couldn't afford say Neroli or Jasmine in pure form, but usually they can be natural in a carrier oil.

The primary methods for extracting oils really aren't DIY. They require equipment and quantities of materials most people just don't have.

In my personal experience, its really the scent that matters more than the actual plant in the end. Rosemary might be traditionally used for a particular intention, but if you despise the smell, it sort of negates the help.

I like natural when its available, but if its not (or doesn't exist, like lilac or heliotrope or something) synthetic will do for me.

But as far as your source? Be careful. A lot of imported oils are fake, especially if they are inexpensive. Some synthetics can cause allergic reactions....and some naturals too, so its important to know what you are getting.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Incense and Oils

If you use your own essential oils then I'm guessing you know a fair bit of alchemy, what method do you use if you don't mind me asking?

I never said I DISTILL my own essential oils, just that I BLEND them. And that requires no knowledge of alchemy whatsoever. Nor does distilling essential oils, either (though it DOES require special equipment, a ton of raw material and a lot of time and effort). Blending essential oils is just a matter of mixing different oils on their own or in a carrier oil. If you want to get technical about it then you need to know what is a base note, a top note etc... as they evaporate at different rates and will release fragrance at slightly different times. But that's about as complex as it gets.

And the oils i buy come from elderly indian woman that owns a local shop so their pure. My fiancee and I use white sage to smudge as well.

This does not necessarily guarantee that you're getting 100% essential oils rather than fragrance oils. I've seen fragrance oils in New Age shops and I've seen people who add fragrance oils to their own blends for sale.

Fragrance oils DO work for some people, as evidenced by commercial incense sticks, but I have a preference to avoid them.

Buying 100% pure oils is just a matter of finding a good source, though not all scents/herbs/what-have-you can be even gotten like that. Most of us couldn't afford say Neroli or Jasmine in pure form, but usually they can be natural in a carrier oil.

Honestly, I consider Neroli in a carrier to be 100% pure essential oil. Because it's pure Neroli in pure carrier (Jojoba, Almond, whatever)... and so it's still pure essential oil, it's just diluted. My differentiation is not whether it's neat or diluted, but whether it's pure essential oil or whether it's fragrance oil. I probably shouldn't say '100% pure essential oil' but just 'pure essential oil', as that's strictly more accurate. The diluted ones would technically be 3% pure essential oil (as my Cammomile bottle says), or whatever dilution it is.

Synthetic oils... don't sit right with me. They don't smell right. They don't feel right. They give me a headache. It's part of the reason I don't use incense sticks. I don't know... it's just a personal preference thing, because I know that fragrance oils work for a lot of people. I just don't like them.

In my personal experience, its really the scent that matters more than the actual plant in the end. Rosemary might be traditionally used for a particular intention, but if you despise the smell, it sort of negates the help.

In aromatherapy, it's the volatile compounds that the body is responding to, not the scent. The volatile compounds are actual, measurable compounds that are known to have certain affects on the body, and in some cases are the same compounds that are utilised medicinally when ingesting the plant itself, or when being created in conventional medications. So in that sense, a synthetic fragrance is not a substitute for an essential oil.

BUT... a synthetic fragrance is just as good as an essential oil in triggering certain mental changes, especially if it is a part of a person's correspondence matrix. If you 'know' that rosemary aids memory, then smelling synthetic rosemary could still trigger the same sorts of memory retention or memory recall that the pure essential oil would. But it wouldn't have the analgesic, antiseptic, decongestant and diuretic effects that the essential oil or the actual herb itself have.

I don't use essential oils just for magick, but for aromatherapy and healing. And so to me whether something is synthetic or pure essential oil makes a big difference as to whether it's likely to be effective or not.

[Burning Shadow Alchemist]

Re: Incense and Oils

Rae'ya: I misinterpreted what you meant when you said you MAKE your own blends. It is my understanding when making ones oils the end result is usually what you'd call a blend, the combination of several essential oils that you derived from a plant yourself.

Rowanwood: The alchemical process of getting an essential oil out of a plant is not difficult. Spagyrics is extremely simple and anyone who has internet access and the ability to follow directions could do it.

As for my source the lady I mentioned is a close friend and she makes the oils herself so I know that the oils are pure, honestly I doubt if I made them myself that they could be any better.

[Rowanwood]

Re: Incense and Oils

What essential oils does she make? What method does she use? Spagyrics is not specific, as it covers several methods not suitable to extract oils. I'd love to hear what she does.

[Ula]

Re: Incense and Oils

We make our own lotions and we are going to try soap making. That's it really as far as oils. I make my own incense cones. I use mugwort a lot for general cleansing. My husband has a home sewing business so we have a money incense: cinnamon, frankincense and myrrh. I also have a "flying" incense I burn to help with meditation: mugwort, mullein and dragon's blood. Most are just dry herbs on charcoal.

[Clive]

Re: Incense and Oils

We make our own lotions and we are going to try soap making. That's it really as far as oils. I make my own incense cones. I use mugwort a lot for general cleansing. My husband has a home sewing business so we have a money incense: cinnamon, frankincense and myrrh. I also have a "flying" incense I burn to help with meditation: mugwort, mullein and dragon's blood. Most are just dry herbs on charcoal.

Hah, what you use as money incense I use as a general "altar incense." No wonder I haven't gone hungry yet. :P

I use a pretty wide variety of recipes, most of which I create myself or adapt from published ones. A different incense for each Sabbat and so forth. A couple of years ago I created an "autumn incense" for casual use during the season. I found that simply grinding up frankincense with an equal amount of "pumpkin pie spice" makes an excellent general incense during the Samhain-Yule months.

Once when I was without a smudge stick I created "Smudge Powder," which may still be floating around the forum.

When I need a little boost with an endeavor I favor Crown of Success Oil.

Sadly, my landlady doesn't allow smoking of any kind in the house, including incense.

[Burning Shadow Alchemist]

Re: Incense and Oils

Please explain how Spagyric methods are not suitable to make oils? I'm pretty sure the entire point of Spagyrics is to pull the three essentials from a substance, purify them, and recombine them, the entire process termed Spagyrics by Paracelsus. For those who don't understand, the three essentials are the Sulfur, the Mercury, and the Salt of a substance. The Sulfur, or Essential Oil is one of these three part. So using Spagyrics, we pull the Alchemical Sulfur from the plant or substance, therefore having pulled the sulfur we have pulled the essential oil from the substance. It is in a Volatile state, but it is the essential oil of the substance.

Furthermore I never said she used spagyrics, I said it was an easy way to get the essential oil from a plant that anyone could do if they could follow directions.

[thalassa]

Re: Incense and Oils

I have made essential oils, hydrosols, and absolutes. The sheer amount of plant material necessary to make a very very tiny bit of oil in essential oils (thru steam distillation), is rediculous...much more efficient to buy it through a reputable commercial organization, or just make an infused oil (and, IMO, an infused oil is often better, when it is being used for cosmetic or medicinal purposes). TBH, not that this is the point of this convo, but if someone told me they were making essential oils, I'd ask to see their distillation equiptment (I used to make them in the organic chem lab at school). I see no benefit from doing it myself, but it was an interesting thing to try out for a while (and it makes me appreciate the money I spend on buying the real deal, since I know how much stuff goes into it).

Hydrosols though, are pretty easy to DIY, since they don't require precision in decanting off the excess water--you can do it pretty easily with some patience and creativity. Absolutes are also fairly easy to DIY (using ethyl alcohol...although, once again, the sheer amount of plant material required to do this really isn't cost effective). Both of these methods make nice toners and conditioners (hydrosols) and astringents, perfumes, and room sprays (absolutes)

[Rowanwood]

Re: Incense and Oils

Please explain how Spagyric methods are not suitable to make oils? I'm pretty sure the entire point of Spagyrics is to pull the three essentials from a substance, purify them, and recombine them, the entire process termed Spagyrics by Paracelsus. For those who don't understand, the three essentials are the Sulfur, the Mercury, and the Salt of a substance. The Sulfur, or Essential Oil is one of these three part. So using Spagyrics, we pull the Alchemical Sulfur from the plant or substance, therefore having pulled the sulfur we have pulled the essential oil from the substance. It is in a Volatile state, but it is the essential oil of the substance.

Furthermore I never said she used spagyrics, I said it was an easy way to get the essential oil from a plant that anyone could do if they could follow directions.

Spagyric methods include fementation, do they not? That would change the plant hence rendering it useless as a method to extract oils.

I don't get why you are getting so defensive. You can do whatever you like, I was just trying to suggest taking care when someone's claims are perhaps a little grand.

[Burning Shadow Alchemist]

Re: Incense and Oils

That would only be if you followed all the methods in order to create a plant tincture, you can stop at any point and purify what you have gathered from the plant. It's not a very grand claim to say you can pull an essential oil from a plant, but perhaps you feel my information is falsified, I have started a new thread on Alchemy and I will explain Spagyrics in full extent.

I wasn't being defensive, for one to say they make their own oils and know nothing of alchemy I find to be a very misleading statement, making essential oils requires knowledge of herbal alchemy. Whether you call it something different or not doesn't take away at it's most basic form, it's alchemy.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Incense and Oils

Rae'ya: I misinterpreted what you meant when you said you MAKE your own blends. It is my understanding when making ones oils the end result is usually what you'd call a blend, the combination of several essential oils that you derived from a plant yourself.

I do make my own blends... by mixing essential oils that I bought at the store.

An essential oil blend is simply a mixture of two or more essential oils. It's got nothing to do with making the oils yourself.

Please explain how Spagyric methods are not suitable to make oils? I'm pretty sure the entire point of Spagyrics is to pull the three essentials from a substance, purify them, and recombine them, the entire process termed Spagyrics by Paracelsus. For those who don't understand, the three essentials are the Sulfur, the Mercury, and the Salt of a substance. The Sulfur, or Essential Oil is one of these three part. So using Spagyrics, we pull the Alchemical Sulfur from the plant or substance, therefore having pulled the sulfur we have pulled the essential oil from the substance. It is in a Volatile state, but it is the essential oil of the substance.

In order to get a true essential oil (as in, an actual chemical compound), you require steam distillation and a lot of raw material. If you have a proper laboratory setup for your spagyrics, including a steam distillation setup, then you may get actual essential oils. If you do spagyrics in your kitchen with a double boiler, you aren't.

And knowledge of alchemy is NOT required for the making, blending or use of essential oils. This is because distillation is ONE part of spagyrics, and is hardly a patented alchemical process. That would be like me saying that you can't apply a bandaid without medical knowledge... sure, wound dressings are a part of medicine, but you don't need to know medicine to apply a wound dressing.

There is an entire industry that creates essential oils without alchemy.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Incense and Oils

The entire process is alchemy.. Where you do think "the industry" learned to pull oils from plants? Chemistry and Herbalism are both derived from Alchemy as are all other forms of modern science. With all seriousness and due respect, your argument lacks logic and ability.. "knowledge of alchemy is not required", the base concepts of what you are doing IS alchemy. I fail to see how you cannot understand that.

I'm not an alchemist but I know enough to know that alchemy is a set of techniques that are performed for a set purpose. It is the SUM of the techniques that make 'alchemy'... you can't take one technique and claim you are performing alchemy. Otherwise everything in modern science would be alchemy. Yes, these techniques were born from the experimentation of alchemists, but that does not make them alchemy. An alchemical process perhaps, but it kind of misses the entire point of alchemy if you are not performing the Work, no?

You think my statements are illogical? By YOUR logic, every chemist, biologist, perfumer, vintner, moonshiner and distillery worker is performing alchemy, which would make them an alchemist.

Alchemy is more than it's techniques. As an alchemist I assumed you would respect the Work and strive to maintain the integrity of the path. Perhaps I assumed wrongly.