Book Circle #1 Recap: Incense

For those of you who couldn’t make it to last night’s session, here’s a quick recap of what we covered in our first session exploring Incense, Oils & Brews by Scott Cunningham. It was a great discussion filled with insights, questions, and plenty of practical tips for working with magical ingredients. The conversation was both informative and inspiring. We had 16 people attending (I think?), however for me, it’s not about numbers; it was about the quality of the conversation around the room and the experience shared. I sincerely enjoyed learning about how others incorporate plant & herb magic into their practice, and especially lived learning about cheese spoons! (more on that later)

Key Themes from the Session

We started by focusing on Cunningham’s approach to magical herbalism – essentially, you have to get your hands dirty to make change with your magick. You don’t have to necessarily grow your own herbs or harvest your own resins, but blending your own incense by combining and grinding resin, herbs and (sometimes essential oils) in a mortar & pestle can feel like quite an accomplishment when you’ve researched the ingredients and spent time or effort sourcing them. 

Ingredients and Substitutions

A large part of the discussion centered around the accessibility of ingredients, especially for those of us living in urban environments or in the Southern Hemisphere. Cunningham’s focus is often on herbs and items native to the Northern Hemisphere, but we shared ideas for locally sourced or easily available substitutions. We talked about how the exact same species of plant grown in different places can have a different energetic signature. 

We also touched on the importance of using what you have at hand. Cunningham encourages practitioners to embrace creativity and not stress about using the “perfect” ingredient. This led to a broader conversation about sustainability and ethical sourcing, also touching a little on appropriation with many of us reflecting on how to balance tradition with mindful consumption.

Practical Applications

One of the highlights of the evening was discussing how we could immediately put Cunningham’s teachings into practice. Several attendees shared their experiences with creating incense blends for various purposes – from cleansing and purification, to enhancing and shifting a mindset for ritual or spell work.

One of the most impactful points of the evening was acknowledging how important it is to work with smaller portions when experimenting with new incense recipes. This is where we learnt about cheese spoons! Tiny little measuring spoons used to measure rennet for cheese making, these can be super useful when measuring out tiny portions of herbs/powders for a new incense blend.

And once we finished the discussion part of the night, we got into some incense making amending one of the blends in the book (Temple Incense)

What’s Next?

For our next session, we’ll dive deeper into the the rest of the book on magical oils, brews, and ointments/salves. Bring your questions, thoughts, and any ingredients you’re curious about working with.

Missed last night’s session but want to join us next time? Our Book Circle will likely meet monthly (the next date to be advised, possibly mid November) We’d love to have you at the next one 🙂