Deborah Lipp

This all came up out of a Topic of the Day on Shakespeare’s Sister. The topic was on how we relax, and one of the things I brought up was incense.

Incense can be used to create all manner of moods, by imprinting the mood. If Pavlov had used scent instead of a bell, he’d have had his dogs salivating in half the time. We respond incredibly well to scent.

The olfactory membrane is the only place in the human body where the central nervous system comes into direct contact with the environment. All other sensory information initially comes in through the thalamus. The sense of smell, however, is first processed in the limbic lobe, one of the oldest parts of the brain and the seat of sexual and emotional impulses. In other words, before we know we are in contact with a smell, we have already received and reacted to it.
Essence and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume, by Mandy Aftel, pp 13-14

So what you do is lay the groundwork by burning a particular incense while you are doing wonderful, meditative, beautiful stuff. Do this regularly for about six months, and use the same scent each time. I like nag champa. Lavender is also exceptionally good for relaxation. What happens is, you will think happy thoughts as soon as you smell the nag champa or whatever. Now that you’ve imprinted, you can start burning it to create that mood. In other words, first burn the incense while meditating and relaxed, then use the incense to provoke meditation and relaxation. (It’s important to also continue to burn it while relaxed, otherwise, over time, you might start to associate it with being stressed and needing to relax!)

This needn’t apply only to relaxation. I burn cedar when I’m concentrating on writing. Rosemary, cypress, and marjoram are more traditional for concentration. Clearly, there are all manner of moods that can be set, using the same techniques.

Many people use a different incense for each ritual, but I like to have strong-smelling ingredients (frankincense is ideal) that are the same each time. This serves the mood-trigger purpose and helps make the irutal more powerful.

Update: CmdrSue reminds me: Some people can’t handle incense, either because of the intensity, or because of asthma or other respiratory issues. An excellent alternative is a scent infuser, which is a dish of water over a candle holder. You let a tealight heat the water, into which you’ve put a few drops (2-5) of an appropriate essential oil. (If you have scent sensitivities, don’t use artificial scents, stick with the real thing.) Some of them are set up like double boilers; above the candle is the water, and above the water is a dish for fresh or dried herbs or other plant matter; flower petals or the like. These infuse the air with a scent but don’t create smoke, and the scent doesn’t linger so much the next day.