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Aromatherapy
Aromatic History & Lore
Incense as Medicine
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May 13, 201741Comments

Frankincense – Divine Communion

Frankincense: the name echoes throughout the fragrant histories of the world as a champion of aromatics. One of the most popular incense materials of the ages, it has nourished many
by NW School of Aromatic Medicine

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You can have the most beautiful aromatic ingredien You can have the most beautiful aromatic ingredients in the world... and still make terrible incense. 🌿🔥 I learned this the hard way! You might have the finest Sandalwood, fragrant Frankincense, beautiful aromatic herbs, and a whole collection of incredible botanical materials. But combine them without understanding a few essential principles, and you could end up with incense that... ❌ Won't stay lit. ❌ Crumbles apart. ❌ Produces way too much smoke. ❌ Smells nothing like you imagined. And here's what might surprise you: The problem often isn't the plants. It's how you're putting them together. There's a fascinating art AND science behind making natural incense. Different ingredients have different jobs, just like in baking. Some create the aromatic foundation, some help everything hold together, and others influence how your incense burns. And once you understand how these elements work together, an entirely new world of possibilities opens up. You can begin moving beyond other people's recipes and start creating incense that's exactly the way YOU want it. That's what we're exploring in Lesson 2 of my FREE Hand-Crafted Incense Series, available to watch TODAY! 🌿 THE 4 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF INCENSE In this workshop, I'll walk you through the fundamental building blocks of successful incense, including how to choose your materials, what makes a blend hold together, and how to avoid some of the most common beginner mistakes. You'll also receive a downloadable Building Blocks of Incense Guidebook to help you put it all into practice. And if you're just joining us, don't worry! You can start with Lesson 1 and follow along from the beginning. 🔥 READY TO DISCOVER WHAT MAKES GREAT INCENSE WORK? Join the FREE 3-part Hand-Crafted Incense Series through the link in our bio! ~ Evan #IncenseCrafting #NaturalIncense #AromaticMedicine #Herbalism #Aromatherapy #HandcraftedIncense
I wish someone had told me I could make my own inc I wish someone had told me I could make my own incense sooner. 🌿🔥 I'd been burning incense long before I ever studied aromatherapy. I've always loved incense. Its fragrances, the atmosphere it creates, and that primal feeling of participating in something humans have done for thousands of years. But it wasn't until I began studying aromatherapy that I learned I could make my own. That's when two worlds I loved came together. I was learning about the therapeutic virtues of aromatic plants and essential oils, and suddenly I saw how that knowledge could become part of one of humanity's oldest aromatic arts. Long before essential oils were distilled, people were working with fragrant plants and smoke. Earth, water, fire, and air coming together to create an aromatic experience. As I explored incense traditions from around the world, it felt like finding my own trail back to something ancient and deeply human. I began experimenting with woods, resins, herbs, and spices, eventually creating a line of aromatherapeutic incense for different therapeutic purposes. But what I gained went beyond the incense itself. Making it deepened my relationship with the plants, brought more creativity into my practice, and gave me a new appreciation for the traditions that came before us. And here's what still excites me: this ancient art has so many possibilities yet to explore. With the incredible diversity of aromatic plants available to us today, we can honor the old ways while creating fragrances and experiences that are entirely our own. If you love herbalism, aromatherapy, or simply the world of aromatic plants, perhaps incense crafting has something waiting for you, too. ~ Evan P.S. My FREE 3-part Hand-Crafted Incense Series is underway! Lesson 1 is ready to watch, and Lesson 2 arrives tomorrow. Join us through the link in our bio! #AromaticMedicine #IncenseCrafting #NaturalIncense #Aromatherapy #Herbalism #AromaticPlants #HandcraftedIncense
What if you could make incense exactly the way YOU What if you could make incense exactly the way YOU want it? 🌿🔥 Imagine creating beautiful natural incense from aromatic woods, resins, herbs, flowers, roots, and spices. Incense with fragrances you genuinely love. Gentle, low-smoke blends for meditation or relaxation. Rich, resinous incense for ritual and ceremony. Or something else entirely your own. The possibilities are almost endless when you know how to make it yourself. And I'd love to show you how! 🎥 My FREE 3-part Hand-Crafted Incense Series begins TODAY, and Lesson 1 is ready to watch! Over three video lessons, I'll guide you through the foundations of natural incense crafting, sharing what I've learned through nearly 20 years of making, experimenting with, and teaching this beautiful aromatic art. Here's what we'll explore: 🌿 The 4 essential building blocks of successful incense blends. 🌿 How to work with natural aromatic materials to create beautiful fragrances. 🌿 How to make incense that burns properly, without excessive smoke, and begin creating your own unique blends. 📖 You'll also receive 3 downloadable workbooks to accompany the lessons and help you put what you're learning into practice. No previous incense-making experience needed! Whether you're an herbalist, aromatherapist, incense lover, or simply curious about this ancient art, I'd love to have you join us. 🌿 JOIN THE FREE HAND-CRAFTED INCENSE SERIES 🌿 📍Sign up through the link in our bio. Lesson 1 is waiting for you! See you inside, ~ Evan #NaturalIncense #IncenseMaking #AromaticPlants #Aromatherapy #Herbalism #AromaticMedicine #HandcraftedIncense
Tomorrow we begin. 🌿🔥 And whether you've loved in Tomorrow we begin. 🌿🔥 And whether you've loved incense for years or you're only beginning to wonder what's possible beyond the incense you've experienced before, I want you to know something: You don't need to know anything about making incense to join us. You don't need a shelf filled with rare materials, or even need to think of yourself as creative. And you definitely don't need to know where all of this might lead. You just need to be a little curious. Tomorrow we begin our free 3-part Hand-Crafted Incense Series, and I'm going to take you into a world I've been exploring for nearly 20 years. We'll work with real aromatic plants—resins, woods, herbs, spices and more—and start uncovering what actually goes into creating beautiful natural incense. I'm excited to teach you a beautiful hand-on skill, and even more excited for you to experience these plants differently... To learn to smell them more closely and notice things may have not noticed before. And to see the possibilities in materials you may already know and love. We'll open the doors to the series bright an early tomorrow and we'll be journeying together through it all week. I'll see you tomorrow! ~ Evan #NaturalIncense #AromaticPlants #IncenseMaking #Aromatherapy #Herbalism #AromaticMedicine
Can I tell you why I still get so excited about in Can I tell you why I still get so excited about incense after nearly 20 years? 🌿🔥 It's not because I think everyone needs another hobby. And it's definitely not because the world needs more stuff to buy and burn. It's because I've spent most of my adult life working with plants, and incense has given me one of the most beautiful ways I know to experience them. I love herbalism, aromatherapy, and learning what plants can do for us. But something gets lost when our relationship with plants becomes entirely about what we can get from them. Take this herb for sleep, use this oil for stress, this plant for digestion. Obviously that's all important, no doubt. But plants can also teach us to slow down, pay attention, and use our senses more... They can help us create something beautiful with our hands. They can teach us how to sit with an aroma without needing it to accomplish anything at all. And that's a big part of why incense is still such a big part of my life. You can spend an evening with a single piece of aromatic wood or a resin you've smelled a hundred times and still notice something you never noticed before. And after nearly 20 years of doing this, I'm still learning. I'm still finding amazing materials that stop me in my tracks, I'm still experimenting and trying new things, and I'm still as fascinated as I was when I first started my incense journey. That's the experience I want to share with you when our free Hand-Crafted Incense Series begins this coming Monday. I'm definitely going to teach you about making natural incense. But more than that, I hope it helps you see aromatic plants a little differently. And I'm curious about something: What originally made YOU fall in love with aromatic plants? Was it herbalism? Essential oils? Gardening? Incense? Perfume? Something else entirely? Tell me in the comments. I want to hear your story. 🌿 ~ Evan #NaturalIncense #AromaticPlants #Herbalism #Aromatherapy #IncenseMaking #AromaticMedicine
You might not dislike incense. You might just disl You might not dislike incense. You might just dislike the incense you’ve experienced so far. 🌿🔥 For a lot of people, the word incense brings up one thing in their mind: A heavily perfumed stick that fills the entire room with smoke and leaves you wanting to crack a window. Maybe followed by a headache. Maybe the fragrance feels overpowering. Maybe you simply decided a long time ago: “Incense isn't for me.” But that’s a little like tasting an artificially flavored strawberry candy and deciding you don’t like strawberries. Incense can be Frankincense resin slowly warming over gentle heat. A piece of Sandalwood releasing its aroma little by little. Juniper, Cedar, Pine resin, Rose, Agarwood, Elemi resin, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Jatamansi, flowers, spices and other fragrant woods. It can be rich and smoky, but it can also be delicate and subtle, earthy, floral, spicy, resinous. And yes, incense can even be crafted to produce very little smoke. When you strip away synthetic fragrances and begin working with the plants themselves, incense becomes an entirely different aromatic experience. For herbalists and aromatherapists especially, this is where things get interesting. Because suddenly incense isn't some foreign world. It's another way of working with plants you may already love. #NaturalIncense #AromaticPlants #Aromatherapy #Herbalism #IncenseMaking #AromaticMedicine #BotanicalIncense #Incense
What if you don’t know your favorite plants as wel What if you don’t know your favorite plants as well as you think you do? 🌿🔥 Rosemary. Lavender. Rose. Juniper. Cedar. Cinnamon. Cardamom. Clove. You may have grown them, cooked with them, made herbal preparations with them, distilled them, or worked with their essential oils for years. But every way we experience a plant reveals something different. Add heat, and something changes. A familiar spice can reveal aromatic notes you’ve never noticed before. A wood becomes warmer and deeper. A resin unfolds in stages. An herb you’ve smelled hundreds of times can suddenly catch you completely off guard. Heat has a way of asking plants to speak differently. And once you begin exploring natural incense this way, something else happens: Your apothecary starts looking different. A row of jars becomes a palette. The plants haven’t changed. Your way of seeing them has. Our newest article explores this beautiful side of the aromatic arts, and how incense can help us rediscover plants we thought we already knew. 🌿 NEW BLOG: “There Are Sides of Your Favorite Plants You’ve Never Met” Read it at the link in our bio. What’s one plant you’d love to experience more deeply through smoke? #NaturalIncense #AromaticPlants #Aromatherapy #Herbalism #IncenseMaking #AromaticMedicine #BotanicalIncense #Incense
This might surprise you, but you probably already This might surprise you, but you probably already have an incense collection. 🌿🔥 If you have an herbal apothecary at home, take another look at what's sitting on your shelves. Rosemary. Lavender. Rose. Cinnamon. Cardamom. Juniper. Cedar. Pine resin. You might know these plants from teas, tinctures, oils, culinary preparations, or your herbal practice. But have you ever experienced them as incense? One of the things I love most about incense is that it gives us an entirely different way to experience plants we may have known for years. Apply heat to an aromatic plant and something fascinating happens. A familiar aroma can reveal entirely different sides of itself. Sweetness becomes deeper. Woods become warmer and richer. Spices transform into something new. Resins release aromas that were barely perceptible when you smelled them in the jar. And suddenly, plants you've walked past on your shelves a hundred times become interesting all over again. That's part of the beauty of incense. Many of the plants aren't new. The way you're experiencing them is. 🌿 Take a look through your own collection today. Which plant would you most like to experience as incense? ~ Evan #Incense #NaturalIncense #Herbalism #AromaticPlants #AromaticArts #BotanicalIncense #PlantResins #Herbalist #Aromatherapy #NaturalAromatics #TraditionalIncense #IncenseLovers
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