Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Incense

Using incense in everyday life can both create a sense of calm and cleanse the space. Burning it for just a few minutes helps to relax, focus, or meditate, while its delicate fragrance awakens the senses. It can be used at home, in the workplace, or even during yoga practice to make the environment more harmonious and the mood more balanced. Regular use of incense can be a small yet effective ritual for reducing daily stress.

Origins and history

Incense in Hindu Tradition

In Hinduism, dharma and incense are closely connected. Offering incense is an essential part of temple rituals and daily practice in the home. It is common, for example, for a bus driver to light incense before starting a journey, seeking blessings for safe travel. The fragrance is seen as a way to invite divine presence, deepen prayer, and express devotion.

Prayer and Worship: While incense burns, devotees pray, honoring the deity. The fragrance aids focus and creates a spiritual atmosphere.
Purification and Offering: Incense, burned on a fire altar or in a special vessel, serves as a sacred offering that symbolizes both purification and devotion.
Ceremonies and Festivals: Incense plays a central role in Hindu celebrations, honoring deities and creating a festive, reverent mood.
Seeking Blessings: For many Hindus, offering incense is part of dharma (life duty). It is believed to attract blessings and help fulfill wishes.

Prehistoric Times (6000–4000 BCE): After the discovery of fire, people noticed that burning certain woods, resins, and herbs produced a pleasant fragrance and calming effect. Plants burned in fire were likely used for magical and purifying purposes.
Egypt (around 3500 BCE): Frankincense, myrrh, and other resins were burned in temples, during religious rituals, and even in mummification. The smoke symbolized the “soul’s ascension.”
India (around 2000 BCE): The Vedas mention the use of incense. The tradition of agarbatti (stick incense) originates here. Incense became part of religious rites, offerings, meditation, and Ayurvedic healing.
China (2000–1000 BCE): Herbal and resin-based incenses were used for medicine and meditation. With the spread of Buddhism, incense burning became integral to both Taoist and Buddhist practices. In temples, it symbolized purity and connection with the divine.
Greece and Rome: Adopted the use of frankincense and myrrh from Egypt, offering them to gods and during funerary rituals. Smoke was seen as a “messenger to the divine.”
Japan (6th–7th century): Incense traditions arrived with Buddhism from China. Later it evolved into a refined art form called Kōdō (“the way of incense”), a ceremonial practice of appreciating incense as an art.
Medieval Europe – Rome (500 BCE – 400 CE): In Christian churches, incense (especially frankincense) became part of liturgy. At home, it was burned to ward off disease (even during plagues). Incense was also used at feasts, theaters, and rituals.
Modern Times (from the 16th century): Incense spread worldwide. Today it is used not only in religion but also for wellness, aromatherapy, and home fragrance.

Summary

Incense has a history of at least 5,000 years, though its roots likely go back much further, to prehistoric times, when the power of fragrant smoke was already known.

In short, incense has been used for:

Religion and rituals → offerings to gods and ancestors
Purification → driving away disease and negative spirits
Healing → herbal remedies releasing essential oils
Meditation and relaxation → shifting consciousness
Everyday fragrance → clothes, homes, and personal scent

Forms of Incense

Stick (agarbatti)
Cone

Soul Tribune - D.I.Y. Homemade incense herbal.-stick-2

Divination with Incense Smoke

When someone reads signs or messages in incense smoke, it is called:

Capnomancy → divination by smoke (general term).
Libanomancy → divination specifically by frankincense smoke.

Smoke Reading (Libanomancy)

Ancient Signs (adapted from Irving Finkel – A New Piece of Libanomancy):

If incense flame smokes heavily → your army will defeat the enemy.
If it stops and then smokes → the enemy will defeat your army.
If smoke goes right (not left) → victory.
If smoke goes left (not right) → adversary prevails.
If smoke goes east → downfall for adversary.
If smoke goes toward diviner → adversary prevails.
If smoke spreads equally → balance, equal forces.
If smoke clusters → success and profit.
If smoke top breaks apart → financial loss.
If top splits → madness or hardship.
If top looks like Šamaš’s brickbasket → disease in the household.
If smoke gathers like a date palm but thin at base → hardship.
If smoke constricts over time → troubles.
If smoke breaks through → overcoming hardship.
If smoke pushes eastward → relief from troubles.

How to Read Incense Smoke (Modern Practice)

Find a quiet, calm place.
Cleanse your space.
Focus on a clear yes/no question.
Light incense and watch smoke patterns:
- Rising straight → YES, positive.
- Breaking apart → NO, resistance.
- Moving downward → warning, change path.
- Shapes, symbols, or animals → personal messages.
- Sounds (crackling, hissing) → extra meaning.
- Aroma → emotional/spiritual guidance.

Always rule out mundane causes (like wind or fans) before interpreting spiritually.

How to Make Incense at Home

Two main methods exist: one using traditional makko powder, and one using alternatives if makko is unavailable.

Makko Powder

Also known as tabu no ki (椨の木 powder), it is a traditional Japanese incense ingredient.

Made from the bark and inner fibers of the evergreen tree Machilus thunbergii (tabu-no-ki, sometimes called “Japanese camphor tree” or “oak-leaf laurel”).
Bark and fibers are dried and ground into a fine powder.
It acts as a natural binder: when mixed with water, it becomes sticky and moldable.
Burns slowly and evenly, carrying fragrances smoothly without altering their aroma.

This is why it is widely used in traditional Japanese and Indian stick incenses.

Makko Powder

Makko Powder Substitutes

Wood and Bark Powders
- sandalwood
- cedar
- bay leaf powder
Natural Gums (Binders)
- gum arabic
- tragacanth gum
- honey (adds sweetness, burns faster)
Starch Binders
- rice flour or rice paste
- wheat flour + water (less durable)
Charcoal Powder
- not a binder, but burns steadily when mixed with herbs + resin/honey

Example Easy Blend (without makko)

2 parts ground lavender
1 part cinnamon powder
1 part charcoal powder
A little honey + water → knead into paste → shape cones → dry

Tips:

If you don’t have makko powder, you can mix ground herbs + a little honey → shape into cones → dry. (They burn less evenly but still work.)
Herbal bundles (e.g., sage, lavender) tied with string can also be lit directly as incense.