ANNOINTING:

BANISHING, RELEASING:

BLESSING, CONSECRATION:

CLAIRVOYANCE, DIVINATION:

COURAGE:

GOOD LUCK:

INSPIRATION, WISDOM:

LOVE:

PURIFICATION, CLEANSING:

WILLPOWER:

PROSPERITY:

YULE:

IMBOLC:

OSTARA:

BELTANE:

LITHA:

LUGHNASADH:

MABON:

SAMHAIN:

Blue Berry

Blue Roses

Carnations

Cherry

Cinnamon

Coconut

Copal

Frangiapani

Frankincense

Honeysuckle

Jasmine

Lotus

Musk

Myrrh

Passionflower

Patchouli Patchouli

Pine

Rose

Sandalwood

Spice

Spirit

Strawberry

Tangerine

Temple

Vanilla

Incense has been burning on alters and in homes for over 5,000 years. There are four basic forms of incense--loose, cone, cylinder or stick. Choices of scents come from berries, bark, flowers, gums, leaves, roots, seeds, spices, wood. Some herbs do not burn like they smell, such as peppermint, which smells quite unpleasant when burned. You can test a scent by sprinkling a pinch of your mix on charcoal first, keeping a record of what works and smells pleasing.

A recipe for incense always has five ingredients: an aromatic substance, a base of wood powder (sandalwood, vetiver, cedar etc.) saltpeter or potassium nitrate (the igniting substance), a glue (gum arabic or tragacanth) and liquid (water, wine, brandy, olive oil, rosewater, etc.). Frequently used ingredients are (frankincense, myrrh, benzoin, copal, rose petals, bay, cinnamon, pine needle resin and others.

Loose noncombustible incense is easiest to make. Combine finely powdered leaf, bark, flower, root etc. with a few drops of liquid or oils. Mix by hand, label and store in a jar. Burn this incense on charcoal. You may also scent a "blank" incense stick with a few drops of your favorite essential oil--very simple!

6 parts powdered sandalwood (or cedar, pine, juniper)

2 parts powdered benzoin (frankincense, myrrh etc.)

1 part ground orris root

6 drops of essential oil

3 to 5 parts loose incense mixture

Mix all ingredients in the order given and weigh. Add 10% of total weight of saltpeter, mix and add gum arabic "glue" one teaspoon at a time - it's a bit messy and sticky. Roll cones thin and shape approximately 1 3/4" long. Cones will shrink and dry in two to seven days. Continue to turn cones to assure even drying without cracking. Start drying in upright position. Cones will burn 10-25 minutes.

Stick incense involves dipping bamboo sticks repeatedly into your cone incense mix until your desired thickness is achieved, changing the mixture between dippings. Are there "rules" for making combustible incense? YES: Never add more than 10% saltpeter of total incense weight, keep woods and gum resin in proportion--use twice the amount of powdered woods as resin. Frankincense, myrrh etc. should never be more than a third of the final mixture.

For more wonderful formulas and recipe ideas, refer to the sourcebooks listed below. Add the magic of scent to your daily ritual, personally created by you!

Sources:

Wylundt's Book of Incense, Samuel Weiser Press

The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews, by Scott Cunningham

Attraction oil

3oz. Apricot or Almond oil base

2dr. Allspice oil

2dr. white musk oil Color: Topaz

1dr. citrus oil (lemon and lime, and orange)

1/2dr. Sweet pea

Place an amber stone in the master bottle and a corriander seed in the dram bottles for sale.

Magnet oil

2oz each Apricot and sesame oils as a base

1dr. Cinnamon

1dr. Rose Color: Dark red

2dr. Rose Geranium

A lodestone in master bottle with iron filings

[From 'The Witches' Goddess by Janet & Stewart Farrar (C) 1987 and published by Phoenix Publishing Inc., Portal Way, P.O. Box 10, Custer, Washington USA 98240. Presented here to help encourage the continuance of The Craft and to encourage those who find it of interest to acquire the books written by the selfsame authors. Uploaded Into computer BBS circulation by the MYSTERIA MAGICIA BBS of Des Moines, IA.]

1 Drop Queen of the Night Oil

3 drops rose oil

1 drop lemon verbena oil

4 fl. oz (120cc) white spirit

Blend the three oils in a bottle. Add the white spirit, and shake all vigorously. A cologne can be made by adding another 1 FL. oz (30cc) of white spirit and 3 fl. oz (90cc) of distilled water.

1 fl.oz (30cc) lemon verbena or Lime oil

2 fl.oz (60cc) coriander oil

1/2 fl.oz. (15cc) camphor or myrrh oil

1/4 fl.oz. (7cc) white spirit

3 3/4 fl.oz. (105cc) distilled water

Blend the oils in a bottle, add the spirit and water and shake all vigorously. Increasing the myrrh oils gives a darker perfume; increasing the camphor, a lighter and more spicy one. All perfumes 'behave' differently on different skins, so it is worth experimenting to find your own balance.

Musk oil

Patchouli oil

Rose Oil

Blend in equal parts, bottle and shake well.

Rose oil

Blue Lotus Oil

Blend equal parts, bottle and shake well.

Cinnamon Oil

Lemon Verbena Oil

YlangYlang Oil

Blend equal parts, bottle and shake well.

2 fl.oz.(60cc) tincture of myrrh

1 fl.oz.(30cc) oil of cinnamon

1/4 fl.oz.(7cc) Queen of the Night Oil 1 fl.oz.(30cc) oil of rose

Blend, bottle and shake well.

7 drops oil of rose

2 Drops oil of Camphor

2 drops tincture of myrrh

3 drops oil of blue hyacinth

Blends the oils of rose, camphor, and blue hyacinth during the waxing moon. Bottle and keep till the Moon wanes. Add the Myrrh

The olive is sacred to Athene, so use pure olive oil as an anointing oil in particular, rub between the palms of your hands and anoint your feet, forehead and lips. For the Incense:

1 oz (30gm) cedarwood chips

1/2 oz (15gm) camphor

7 drops musk oil

Female sweat (as much as possible)

6 olives unstuffed and preferably black

Blend the first four ingredients well, at the full moon, and add the olives. Put in a jar and leave for one month to mature. Then remove the olives (Which will have imparted their essence to the rest) and throw them away.

Stuffed olives, both black and green, are an obvious food for a ritual of Athene, also stuffed vine leaves, a very Athenian dish. If possible, of course, the wine should be Greek especially retsina, though that is an acquired taste.

To cleanse and relax the body before a ritual, and to energize the psychic centers Fill small sachets of muslin cloth with equal amounts of the following herbs:

Basil (for psychic energy)

Borage (to strengthen the inner self)

Lavendar (to banish mental and emotional stress)

Centaury (a traditional witch herb)

Rue (a traditional bathing herb)

Put a sachet into your bath five minutes before you get in, to give the aromatics time to work.

A carrier oil

The herb. For this purpose it doesn't matter if it's fresh, dried or even frozen. Herbs are sold in many places. Occult shops often have quite an assortment, but the supermarket in your area may sell some of these much cheaper. Supermarkets often have herbs in either the spice department (notably fennel and cardamom the health food department (notably rosehips and buckwheat) or even the hot drinks department (notably chamomile and cocoa). Specialized health food stores and natural cosmetics boutiques often have herbs too.

Growing your own herbs can be a very satisfying experience, and it doesn't take a lot of skill to do with the most common ones. You can buy plants at a nursery or raise your own from seeds. Seeds are available in supermarkets, garden centers and nurseries. There are often quite adequate instructions on the seed envelope. If you are new to growing things, start out with easy growers like mint, heartsease and dill and grow them in pots.

Which herb to choose is a science in itself. If you want to use the oil for magickal purposes, you will probably want to choose it according to its correspondences. At the end of Starhawk's _Spiral_Dance_ there is a substantial list of common correspondences, and the classic Culpeper's Complete Herbal lists herbs and their uses and correspondences. Of course if you follow a specific tradition you will want to consult it, so you don't use inappropriate herbs. Many eclectic witches like to make up their own correspondences following their intuition. If you will use the oil on your skin, make sure that it won't irritate or cause allergic reactions. You may want to consult a book on aromatherapy if you are using fragrant oils for healing. Some oils are considered aphrodisiacs, and can be quite fun to use for massage.

A practical consideration is the availability of a given herb. Herbs may be unavailable for many different reasons. Maybe it isn't traditionally used in your part of the world, it may be illegal for a number of reasons, it could be surrounded with superstition or it can simply be out of season.

A bottle. Fragrant oils are sensitive to light so try avoiding crystal clear bottles. You will often want to use just a spoonful of the oil, so a squirt cap is useful. Shampoo bottles can often be used, as they are generally about the right size and have caps which are made so you can easily take a small amount without having oil run down the outside of the bottle. Plastic bottles will often be found to take on some of the aroma of the contents, so you may want to throw them away after one use, or always keep the same oil in the same bottle. Some occult shops sell amber glass bottles, too. Of course it's neat to have all your oils in identical bottles instead of having an array of brightly colored shampoo bottles, but they're a lot more expensive than saved up shampoo bottles. Label all your bottles carefully with the name of the herb, carrier oil and date of manufacture!
This is how to do it

The basic principle is easy:

If you are bothered by herb particles in the finished product, you can use a tea egg or a small bag of muslin or nylon suspended by string in the bottle, and remove them when you find the fragrance strong enough. This requires a bottle with a wide opening. If you don't have such a bottle, you can strain the oil in a wiremesh tea sieve instead. If you aren't bothered by herb particles, you can often leave the herb in the oil until you've used it all up. This works particularly well with antiseptic herbs like peppermint, but can in other cases make the oil go stale.

The time it takes for an oil to become pleasantly fragrant depends on the herb and the oil, what you consider pleasant and the conditions you keep them under. You will have to experiment with concentration, stirring, and time to find out which works best under your circumstances. With some herbs crushing can speed up the process. Seeds like fennel are among those. Many herbs vary quite a lot in strength depending on a range of factors, so sometimes you will have to adapt your recipes. The best thing is probably to develop your intuition with regards to herbs. As a rule of thumb, two weeks to three months should be adequate.

Suggested uses for fragrant oils

Bathing:

Many oils can change your mood when used in a bath. Try out different ones, like thyme and heartsease. Caveat 1: Some herbs are skin irritants, and you may be allergic to some without knowing this. If your skin gets irritated during or after a bath, immediately take a shower and wash yourself all over with hypoallergenic soap. Then dry yourself and use a hypoallergenic body lotion. This should take care of most skin irritations. If it doesn't, seek a doctor. Carefully note which herbs cause skin irritations in you, and avoid them. If you know that your skin is sensitive, avoid herbs which are known to cause skin irritations or allergic reactions in many people. Some of the more common ones are mint, vanilla and of course all hot spices like pepper. Caveat 2: Never use psychoactive herbs in a bath, this includes sleep inducing herbs. You can drown yourself quite easily that way.

Anointing Fragrant oils

are much milder than essential oils, and can often be used directly for anointing on your skin. If you are using fragrant oils for magickal purposes, you may want to take into account the correspondences of the carrier oil, too.

Vaporising:

Vaporising means that you heat the oil so that it gives off its fragrance. This is useful in its own right, but can also serve as a substitute for incense when you or members of your household object to incense for medical or other reasons. Vaporisers can be bought in occult stores, shops for herbal cosmetics, interior decoration boutiques or even in the department store. The most common ones are a terracotta ring that you suspend on a lightbulb, and more elaborate structures with a �house� for a teacandle and a shallow pan suspended above it. The fragrant oil has to be quite strong for this purpose.

Massage:

Massage is a fine art and healing in many ways. You may want to experiment with using edible oils for this purpose. Caveat 1: The oil used for massage enters the skin even more forcefully than the one used in a bath. Make sure you aren't allergic beforehand. Vigorously rub in a tad of oil on a sensitive place like the inside of the arm just above your wrist. If the skin is irritated after an hour, don't use that oil on your skin again. Caveat 2: Massage is often a part of lovemaking. If you use a condom for birth control, don't use massage oils. The reason for this is that the oil makes microscopic holes in the rubber, and renders it useless.

Cooking:

Fragrant oils of spices like oregano or basil can be used in cooking. You can use it as a marinade, or to brush on meat before you grill it. How about making your own curry oil? Caveat: Use only oils specifically made for ingestion for this purpose.

Libations:

We often use wine or water for libations, but we know that for instance the Minoans on Crete offered their deities oils as well as wine and honey.

You can use this method with other mediums than oil; shampoo and liquid soap for instance. Find fragrance free products, and make your own herbal cosmetics. I like to use chamomile shampoo, so I blend 100 ml of fragrance free shampoo with 1 gram of chamomile flowers from a teabag. After one week the liquid starts to turn yellow and smell of chamomile and is ready for use. I use a hair conditioner (again fragrance free) to make sure I rinse out all chamomile particles from my hair. The same can be done with rosemary if you have dark hair, and other herbs if you have problems with your hair or scalp. Lavender produces a soothing soap, and pine needles an invigorating one. Again, make sure you aren't allergic to herbs used on the skin or in the hair in this way.

Here is the method to make oils:

assemble the essential oils (bouquetes) in the recipe. In a clean sterilised glass jar, add 1/8 cup of one of the following vegetable oils:

-safflower

-sunflower

-coconut

-Apricot kernel

-Jojoba almond

-Hazelnut

-Grappeseed

Jojoba oil is the best to use it last for long periods of time without becoming rancid.

Using an eye dropper or the single drop dispensers which are included in virtually every bottle of true essential oils, add the recipes that follow.

Moon oil

1 drop Jasmine

1 drop Sandalwood

Wear to induce psychic dreams, to speed healing, to facilitate sleep, to increase fertility and for all the other Lunar influencies.

Power oil

4 drops Orange

1 drop Ginger

1 drop Pine

For having additional power during potent rituals.

Sacred oil

3 drops Frankincense

2 drops Sandalwood

1 drop Cinnamoon

Annoint your body prior religious rituals to stimulate spirituality.

Sleep oil

2 drops Rose

1 drop Jasmine

1 drop Chamomile

Annoint the temples, neck, pulses of both wrists, and soles of feet. It bring on natural sleep.

Lunar oil

4 parts of Sandalwood

2 parts of Camphor

1 part Lemon

Wear to invoke the Goddess within.

Hecate oil

3 drops Myrrh

2 drops Cypress

1 drop Patchouly

1 dried Mint leaf

Mix the essential oils in a base of sesame oil. Add the dried Mint leaf to the blend. Wear during rituals of defensive magick.

Courage oil

3 drops Ginger

1 drop Black Pepper

1 drop Clove

Wear to increase your courage.

Come and see me oil

5 drops Patchouly

1 drop cinnamoon

To attract the ideal mate. Mix thse true essential oils in an Olive Oil base, smear on white candle of the appropriate sex, and burning with visualisation.

Energy oil

4 drops Orange

2 drops Lime

1 drop Cardamoon

Ideal after heavy magick rituals.

Initiation oil

3 drops Frankinncense

3 drops Myrrh

1 drop Sandalwood

Use for mistic initiation cerimonies and also to increase your awareness of the spiritual realm.

Visions oil

4 drops Lemongrass

2 drops Patchouly

1 drop Nutmeg

To produce psychic awareness.

Purification oil

4 drops Frankincense

3 drops Myrrh

1 drop Sandalwood

Add to bath or wear to be rid of negativity.

Sexual energy oil

2 drops Ginger

2 drops Patchouly

1 drop Cardamon

1 drop Sandalwood

wear to attract sexual partners.

Aries oil

3 drops Frankincense

1 drop Ginger

1 drop Black Pepper

1 drop Petitgrain

To increase your own powers.

Sources: