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All About Incense and Smudging
Burning incense is a practice that spans through the centuries and across the globe. From Ancient Egypt to contemporary China, the art of burning aromatic material holds an important place in spirituality and culture. Here at Dragonspace, incense and sage bundles are consistently some of our best-selling products.
So what is the allure of aromatic products? Is there a difference between incense cones and sticks? How exactly do you burn resin or smudge your home with sage? Below, we’ve answered some of the frequently asked questions we get about this many-layered world of scent and smoke to help you in your practice.
What is incense?
Incense is a composition of botanical materials that release fragrant smoke when burned. These materials can be condensed into manageable forms - like sticks and cones - or kept whole and unprocessed - like resins or herb bundles. Common botanicals used in incense are barks, wood, seeds, fruits, leaves and flowers. The aromatic smoke that incense creates can be used for a variety of purposes, from purely olfactory to deeply spiritual.
How do you burn incense?
When many people think of incense, they instantly think of sticks. But incense can actually come in a variety of forms, all of which require different burning methods as outlined below.Cored Sticks
You’re likely already familiar with this form of incense. These thin sticks have a core, normally made of bamboo or sandalwood, which is coated with a thick layer of hard powdered incense.
This is the easiest type of incense to burn. All you really need is a traditional ‘boated’ incense holder, like our collection here. Or, if you want to get a touch more glamorous, check out our range of dragon or Green Man incense holders! These holders normally come with small holes to stick the wooden end of the stick into, and an easy catchment area where the incense ashes will fall.
Once your incense stick is securely in the hole, light the incense-coated end of the stick until it glows and emits a light smoke. It will then continue to smoke all on its own. Please note that incense should never be left burning unattended.
View our Incense Stick Collection
Solid Sticks and Cones
Solid formats of incense don’t come with a wooden core, and are better for one-time use. Incense cones are small and compact, so they burn through quite quickly. And solid sticks can actually be broken into individual portions, so you can control how long they burn for.
You must use a fire-proof burner for solid sticks and cones, as they burn all the way through--don’t use wooden burners for these. Brass pyramid holders are great for cones, while resin and stone holders are a safe bet for solid sticks.
Ignite incense cones from the pointed ends, and solid sticks from either end. It might take a bit longer for them to ignite than cored sticks, but once they start glowing and emitting smoke then you've done the trick.
View our Incense Cones Collection
Resin and Herbs
Incense can also be burned in its more natural unprocessed forms. Resin or gum incense is made of hardened tree sap condensed into a granular form, with common types being frankincense, copal and myrrh.
Some dried herbs and flowers can also be burnt directly as incense, like sage, lavender, or eucalyptus. Your herbs should be completely air-dried before burning (this can take a few weeks).
It’s a little trickier to burn raw incense, but it’s worth it for the rich scent and heady smoke you’ll produce.
How to burn resin or herb incense:
Equipment you'll need: charcoal discs (specifically for incense-burning), a fire-proof bowl or plate, and a lighter or matches.
- Place the charcoal disc on the fire-proof vessel, and stand it on its side or hold it in the air using a tong or pliers (not your fingers).
- Light the edge of the disc for around twenty seconds, until it self-ignites.
- Place the disc in the vessel and wait for the charcoal to warm up. You’ll see it starting to go grey around the edges after a few minutes.
- Sprinkle a small amount of your resin or dried herbs on top of the charcoal disc.
- The heat from the charcoal will begin to burn the natural materials, releasing their fragrance and power into the air.
View our Resin Incense Collection
Why should you burn incense?
While burning incense undoubtedly smells wonderful, there are a number of spiritual and cultural reasons to burn incense in your home or sacred space.
- Divination - Reading patterns in incense smoke is a form of divination, which we touched on in our 'Divination at Dragonspace' blog post.
- Meditation - The aroma of scents like lavender and tea-tree have a calming effect, making them a powerful meditative tool.
- Ceremony and ritual - Scent is considered a powerful pathway to a higher consciousness, and can enhance your magical practice.
- Cleansing - The smoke from incense or smudge sticks can cleanse a space of negative energies or bad spirits.
- Blessing - Incense or smudge sticks can also be used to bless people and places.
What is smudging?
When we talk about incense, we often get questions about smudging. Smudging is a ceremonial practice common in several First Nations and Indigenous cultures. We would recommend looking to these communities and their Elders to learn more about the intricacies of this sacred practice.
The purpose of smudging is to cleanse or bless people and places. It involves burning raw whole incense or herbs, which are commonly wrapped in a wand-like bundle.
The smoke produced from the incense is fanned lightly by the hands or an ethically-gained feather, with a fire-proof vessel or decorative shell held underneath to catch the ashes. The smoke is directed around a space, or a person's body, with clear intention and purpose.
You may wish to smudge when you first move into a house or an office space, or when you have been through a challenge or ordeal. Some people even choose to smudge daily. It's a powerful way to cleanse, purify and strengthen. To learn more about clearing spaces, check out 'Clearing Spaces' by Khi Armand, a fantastic book on the topic.
View our Sage and Smudging Collection
The world of incense and smudging is an immensely sensory and spiritual one. Whether it's cleansing a sacred space with smoky sage, or meditating in a haze of warm lavender, we hope your next aromatic journey is a little more meaningful and magical with the information above!
Five Wonders of Winter
It’s easy to get bogged down by winter blues during the frosty months. But we believe that winter is is just as full of myth and wonder as the rest of the year...if not more! From the enchanting quiet of snow falling, to the ancient tales that winter inspires, a bit of cold doesn’t freeze the magic here at Dragonspace.
Not exactly convinced? Here are five winter wonders to warm you up.
A Time for Brewin'
There’s nothing better to warm you up on a frosty day than a hot brew or pot of soup. Cooking might seem like a practical act, but there’s something deeply spiritual about preparing and eating food. It’s a practice that our ancestors have done for aeons, and connects us both with each other, and with the past.
Winter is the perfect time to try something new in the kitchen, and we can help with that! Our Celtic Folklore Cooking book features recipes derived from the Celts, from savoury chestnut soup to hearty cakes. Or there’s our Kitchen Witch’s Cookbook, full of culinary magic! Here you’ll discover foods that encourage peace and love, or ingredients that help with endurance and stability. You’ll find that a thoughtful recipe can be just as nourishing - physically and spiritually - as a well-executed spell. And let’s be honest...the kitchen, with its blazing oven and steaming stovetop, is the nicest place in the house during the cold season!
Winter Deities
You’re probably familiar with Santa Claus and Jack Frost, but there are dozens of other winter legends from cultures the world over to explore.
In Greek mythology, Boreas is the god of the cold north wind and the bringer of snow. His name gives us the word ‘boreal’, meaning ‘north’ or ‘northern’. In the old legends, Boreas falls in love with with Orithyia, the lady of mountain gales, and has a daughter with her. This daughter, Chione, becomes the Greek goddess of winter and sleet.
Norse myths feature Skaði (or Skadi), the goddess associated with bowhunting, skiing and mountains. Skaði is described in some stories as a giantess, and lives in the highest peaks of the mountains, where the snow never melts. Similar to Skaði is Beira, the personification of winter in Gaelic mythology. Beira appears in many forms, but in some folk tales she appears as one-eyed giantess who built the mountains of Scotland using a magic hammer.
Winter deities appear in many other mythologies, from the Great Winter God in Chinese folklore to the Slavic Father Christmas, Ded Moroz. Delve into the vast world of winter mythology this season - it’s sure to keep you occupied for hours in front of the fire!
View our Winter Figures Collection
Fire Magic
Magic, both new and old, is heavily inspired by the elements - earth, air, water and fire. As a hearty antidote to the winter chills, fire reigns supreme during the colder months. This is a time to honour fire in its many forms.
There’s the obvious act, of course - curling up in front of the hearth fire and appreciating the element in its most basic form! But this is also the perfect time for performing fire spells and rituals. In Wiccan practice, votive candles are popular symbols of fire, as is the cauldron bubbling away with a hot potion. Incense is also a powerful fire tool, which can be used for cleansing sacred spaces and divining the future through smoke patterns.
Winter is also the ideal time for practicing aromatherapy. Heated essential oils can be wonderful healers for ailments - be they in the body or in the soul. And of course, the scent of fragrant eucalyptus, rosemary or patchouli wafting through your home brings a warmth all of its own!
Bunkering Down with Books
Speaking of fire...there are fewer winter activities more delightful than curling up in front of the fireplace or heater with a good book!
Have you heard of bibliotherapy? Some people believe that reading is a pathway to healing - that it can make us happier, and even alleviate psychological issues. If you’re the kind of person who gets the winter blues, then bibliotherapy could be just the cure.
We’ve got a vast range of books here at Dragonspace, encompassing mythology, divination, Wicca, and more. Titles like Avalon Within draw on Celtic mythology, Arthurian legend and Druidic lore. Others like Eastern Body, Western Mind look to the East for inspiration, exploring the chakra system, Jungian psychology and more. While books like A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts are for those who love their mythology and magical creatures. Whether fictional or non-fictional, instructional or inspirational, a good book is a surefire way to warm up this winter.
Winter-Loving Animals
But perhaps you’re the kind of person who’d rather be outside during winter? We don’t blame you...the natural world can be gorgeous during winter, whether it’s a mountaintop glittering with snow or a resilient evergreen forest.
And then there are the animals. While some creatures hibernate during the cold months, others are completely in their element. Beasts like the musk ox, reindeer (caribou), and the snow leopard are well suited to colder climates, with their fur coats and and strong physiques. There are also many beautiful birds to look out for in the winter, like the snowy owl and the northern goshawk.
Wolves are also known as the champions of winter. While these beautiful creatures are adaptable to many climates, from deserts to woodland, they thrive in colder climes. In the soft snow, wolves are able to splay their feet to distribute their weight evenly. They also benefit from all the bears being in hibernation, as there’s less competition for prey! On a spiritual level, there's something deeply mystical about a wolf in the snow, nature at its finest and most divine.
View our Winter Animals Collection
Have those pesky winter blues been cast away yet? Between reading up on winter goddesses, preparing an old-fashioned Celtic stew, breathing in the healing scent of hot peppermint oil, and keeping an eye out for snowy owls, there's no time to let winter get you down! Here's to embracing the magic of the frosty season and turn those blues into shimmering silvers.
Beltane Blessings!
Today is a day for raging bonfires and promising summer pastures, flower garlands and bright ribbons. Today is May 1st, halfway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Today is what many of you will know as ‘Beltane’, the Celtic fire festival of fertility and high spring.
The Celtic year is traditionally split into two halves - the dark and the light. Samhain (celebrated at the end of October/beginning of November, and associated with the modern-day Halloween) heralds the beginning of the ‘dark’ part of the year. Beltane, celebrated now, heralds the ‘light’. There were many colourful rites and rituals the Celts undertook at Beltane; a number of which still persist today. Let’s take a look at some of the old and new ways of celebrating this sacred seasonal festival.
The Bonfires
Traditionally, the Celts would build large bonfires on the eve of Beltane and drive the tribal livestock through the fire for purification and increased fertility. Leaping across the fire was said to bring good luck - for young people, finding a lover; for travellers, a safe journey; for the ill, a quick recovery.
While safety and animal welfare concerns might make this tradition less prevalent, fire is still a corner-store of modern day Beltane festivities. Revellers still build roaring bonfires to dance and sit around. Ashes from the fires can be rubbed on the skin, and food cooked in the fire’s embers is said to take on its purification powers. Even if you don’t have the ability to build a bonfire, simple candle rituals and burning sacred herbs can be a good way to pay your respects to the shifting seasons this Beltane.
Spiritual deities make up a large part of Beltane lore. The May Queen is a common figure - also known as the Spring Goddess, Flora or the May Bride, she is the female manifestation of growth and renewal. Stories have her marrying The Oak King (the Green Man, Jack-in-the-Green) at Beltane, uniting the earth with the sky, and the masculine with the feminine. Cernunnos is also an important Beltane character. Sometimes considered one and the same as the Green Man, Cernunnos is the horned god, the god of the green, and the king of fertility and vegetation.
While these figures aren’t worshipped as commonly today, their energies are still felt at Beltane. The festival is a common time for handfasting and marriage ceremonies, when young couples join just like the May Queen and the Oak King do. ‘Going a may-ing’ still describes the practice of lovers going off together, to flirt and otherwise bond. This is also a time for worshipping fertility deities across many spiritual belief systems, from Artemis (Greek) to Bacchus (Roman) to Xochiquetzal (Aztec).
The Maypole
Flower Giving and Planting
Being the festival that celebrates high spring and impending summer, Beltane has always been awash with floral decor, greenery and garlands. On Beltane eve, villagers would go and gather budding greens from the forest to decorate their homes, doorsteps and barns. They would wear flowers in their hair and upon their wrists, and secretly gift friends (or those in need of healing) with bouquets and flower baskets.
Gifting flower baskets or making flower garlands is an easy and enjoyable way to celebrate Beltane now. Families with children might also like to plant flowers, vegetables or other plants in the garden together at Beltane in a form of modern ritual. Popular flowers and trees for Beltane include: primrose, daffodils, tulips, rowan, and hawthorn.
Although Beltane is traditionally the fire festival, May waters also held mystical power. Rolling in dew on May Day eve or morning, or getting one’s hair wet in the rain, was practised for health, luck and beauty. Holy wells were often visited and given offerings for good fortune and vitality, and the first water drawn from any common well on Beltane morning was said to be especially potent.
In the absence of rain or dew for your Beltane celebration you might choose to visit a local water body (pond, lake, spring or other) and provide your own offering of flowers, ribbons or coins. Beltane morning is also a favoured time for scrying in sacred waters.
However you chose to celebrate Beltane, this will surely be a time of brightness and greenery, sowing seeds and good intentions, and looking forward to a beautiful summer. We wish you good health, fertility and fortune in this time of light!
If you’ve liked reading about Beltane, you might be interested in our Celtic giftware collection, or our woodland series for some lovely nature-themed decor! You can find further reading about Celtic ritual and nature healing in the following book titles, too: