HERBAL INCENSE INFORMATION I/III

      Title: HERBAL INCENSE INFORMATION I/III
  Categories: Seasonings, Info
       Yield: 1 Info below
  
       1    Info below
  
                    - General and Historical Information-
   
   "The burning of sweet gums, resins, woods, and plants has taken
   hundreds of beautiful, diverse cultural forms, many of which persist
   today. Ancient Egyptians burned offerings to the sun god, Ra, on his
   daily trek across the heavens.  Frequent references to the use of
   incense in the Old Testament suggest that the Jews have used it since
   very early times. Modern Hindus burn camphor and incense before the
   image of Krishna. The Greeks burned sweet incenses to make sacrifice
   and prayer more acceptable to the gods. Little use of incense is
   evident in Islamic traditions, and incense was unknown in early
   Buddhism, opposed as it was to external dogma. However, public and
   private use of incense has now become widespread among Tibetan,
   Japanese, and Chinese Buddhists.  By the fourteenth century, it had
   become part of most of the established Christian rituals, and is
   still used for such ceremonies as high mass, processions, and
   funerals. Modern pagan and neopagan practices also involve highly
   developed ritual uses of incense. In Native American religion, sage,
   sweet grass, yerba santa, uva-ursi, cedar, and tobacco are burned
   ceremonially for purifying oneself and one's environment, for sending
   up prayers to the Great Spirit, and for connecting with one's spirit
   helpers - the unseen forces that assist humans.
   
   "Besides its place in ceremony and religion, incense is often used
   simply to evoke a mood or create an atmosphere...
   
   "Incense makes use of many botanical products which cannot be
   liquefied or distilled into a perfume.  Tree barks and saps, gums,
   resins, roots, flowers, fragrant leaves, and needles can be combined
   in myriad ways to create a rising, mood-enhancing bouquet of fragrant
   smoke. The botanical ingredients may be purchased, grown, or gathered
   from the wild."
   
   "Incense can take many forms, from simple, loose ingredients to be
   thrown on glowing coals to ornately shaped cones, cylinders, sticks,
   or coils. All are fun to make and enjoyable to use. All except loose
   incense consists of four basic ingredients: an aromatic substance or
   mixture, a burnable base, a bonding agent, and a liquid to change the
   bonding agent into a glue. Coloring agents can be added as well."
   
   Excerpted from Sandy Maine's "Herbal Incense" article in "The Herb
   Companion."  Dec. 1992/Jan. 1993, Vol. 5, No. 2. Pg. 37. Posted by
   Cathy Harned.
[ add our full cookbook to your website ] [ Search The Cookbook ]