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Using and Overusing Incense

Something that I realized only when looking through the Greek Magical Papyri regarding incense is that incense isn't just burned willy-nilly, and there's no general prayers for incense. Incense (when and where it appears, which was not often at all) was almost always an offering—a sacrifice. That got me thinking: despite what many people are used to, we don't actually need to burn incense for everything we do in a spiritual, religious, mystic, or esoteric context. Incense is more than just something we use to set the mood, and we should all remember "waste not, want not", especially in an age where some plants and materials get harder and harder, rarer and rarer to cultivate, propagate, or harvest from. Many of us are so spoiled nowadays by having so many resins, plants, and the like so cheaply and freely available to us when they were in older times gifts for kings and magnates, tribute given to rulers, and sacrifices for the gods that most people would never just have lying around in their homes. Besides, the way the planet is going and how conspicuous consumption is going to be the death of us all, we're putting ourselves in jeopardy of literally running out of these because the supply can't keep up with the demand; frankincense, for instance, may well go extinct in the coming century, and palo santo, agarwood, and white sage are at severe ongoing risk of overharvesting.

I'm not saying we shouldn't use incense at all, nor that we can't do so ethically or respectfully. We should use incense, and we can do so ethically and respectfully, but we need to remember the purposes, sacredness, power, and inherent wealth of this stuff, and not squander it just for the sake of good vibes in general. Many rituals explicitly call for the use of incense, and usually specific kinds or blends of the stuff; as we learn those rituals, we should also learn and consider why calling for incense (or specific incenses) might be the case, and conversely why one might not use that incense in other circumstances more than just for its scent or composition. Just how not everyone can or needs to be a software engineer to use a computer, not everyone needs to be a ritual specialist to use or participate in a ritual, but everyone should give some thought about why we do/use the things we do/use, when it's called for, and when it's not.

There are lots of ways to increase good vibes in a place beyond just burning incense, diffusing or anointing with scented oil, or burning scented candles. Fresh flowers or plants often do a great job on their own for that alone, and bring other spiritual benefits aside—and cooking aromatic food, too! But, by the same token, I wouldn't be surprised if people burn incense the same way they use Febreeze: to mask spiritual smells for the sake of avoiding having to clean things properly. At the same time, though, so much spiritual gunk is rooted in physical gunk, and we shouldn't waste incense to mask it all when what we need is to sweep, mop, and dust. Sure, incense can and does have banishing, cleansing, and purifying properties which can and should be relied on at times, but after a certain point, some people just treat the symptom instead of the underlying cause, whether due to ignorance or laziness. Don't be like that!

Also, if you have to burn incense with any frequency or regularity, unless you're independently wealthy or you have an institution backing you, don't burn high-end stuff all the time. Don't be afraid of the cheap shit, so long as you can trust it and it's not outright offensive. It's not like the ancients didn't use fillers in their incenses, too, like raisins, dates, wine, honey, sugar, or the like, sometimes to stretch the stuff out or to make the incense more smoke-proliferous. It's not cutting corners if it serves a good purpose, after all. Consider the laconic reply King Agis gave to Lycourgos the Lawgiver when Lycourgos asked why the offerings of the Spartans were so "mean and trivial" compared to the extravagant offerings of other city-states in ancient Greece:

So that we may always have something to offer.