A note: First, burning herbs should always be done along with proper research knowledge of any possible effects of herbal smoke, in well ventilated areas, safely away from pets, children, and any other persons who may be ill effected. I know it’s been said a thousand times but I will say it again because it’s important, unless you are Native and it’s part of your culture, using smoke in magic/cleansing/fumigation, whatever, is NOT smudging. I also think it is important to always use, burn, local and abundant materials. Though I love frankincense and sometimes treat myself to exotic incense, I try to limit the use of foreign and endangered resins and plants and I suggest others do the same. Garden sage and cedar are great for cleansing, no need for white sage (unless you grow your own) or palo santo. It’s also important to be wary of your sources. You want to burn clean herbs that have never been treated with any kind of sprays. Even when labeled organic does not mean organic pesticides and fertilizers were not used and you don’t want to burn that. I suggest home growing, respectfully wildcrafting, and buying from trusted sources. I hope to have an incense shop one day to share pure unadulterated herbal incense and smoking blends with everyone. Until then, below is a brief look into my path and relationship with smoke:
Conifer resins are great for burning on their own or to add base and body to herbal incense blends. They are a great replacement for foreign resins like frankincense, myrrh, and benzoin. Working with resin, lifeblood of the trees, offers an energetic connection to these conifers and a deeper relationship with the forest.
Spruce (white, red, black)
Burning Woods and Wildcrafts are another way to connect to the local environment and spirits of the land. While we are enticed by all the different plants and aromas we can grow in the garden, it’s important to recognized the gifts that are already growing all around us.
Woods and needles from the above conifers, Juniper, Black Birch, Poplar, Sugar Maple, Willow, Apple, Wild Mint (I haven't pinpointed the species yet), Yarrow, Mullein, Sweet-Everlasting, Oakmoss, Bramble, Birch Polypore, Tinder Fungus, Chaga
These are mostly used in blends and sometimes individually, for example mushrooms are usually enscribed and burned alone as offerings while woods are dried powdered and put into incense.
Herbs, flowers, roots are grown in the garden for their aromatic qualities along with their physical and spiritual aspects.
Sweet Annie, Tansy, Mugwort, Sage (garden and pineapple), Lavender, Rosemary, Marjoram, Bee Balm (scarlet and rose-scented), Lemon Balm, Lemon Grass, Catnip, Skullcap, Coriander, Basils, California Poppy, Chamomile, Mints, Thyme, (cultivated) Wild Ginger, Valerian, Elecampane, Iris, Marshmallow, Rue, Patchouli, Hops, Rose
*plants are relative to my area along with some favorites, research and explore your local varieties or favorite plants for more!*
The two easiest ways to enjoy burning herbs are in Bundles and Loose Incense.
Create herbal smoking bundles by gathering leaves and petals of your favorite herbs or flowers . Lay them facing in the same direction and with a natural fiber thread crisscrossing up and down, winding the bundle tightly together then let dry for a few weeks before burning. Light one end and when evenly caught fire, blow out and the bundle will smoke. Extinguish by suffication (putting in a fireproof air tight container) or by firmly pressing lit end into a fireproof surface. My favorite for bundles are white cedar leaf, garden sage, rosemary, and mullein leaf
Loose incense are the purest form of creating herbal smoke. When crafting loose blends resins and dried herbs can be roughly ground, while woods should be thoroughly powdered. After being worked together with a mortar and pestle, plant spirits mingle and will release magnificent bellows of aromatic smoke when burned over hot charcoal, which has its own metaphysical properties.
Cleansing blend: 1 part cedar leaf, 1 part garden sage, 1/8 part pine resin
Diviners blend: 1 part rosemary, 1 part mullein, 1/2 part mugwort, 1/2 part yarrow
Floral blend: 1 part rose, 1 part lavender, 1/2 part chamomile, 1/8 part apple blossom, pinch of poppy seed
Forest blend: 2 part cedar leaf, 1 part pine needle, 1/4 part junpier berry, 1/4 part spruce resin, pinch of wild ginger or chaga
Loose incense blends can also be formed into cones or stick with the addition of a binder (like marshmallow root!) and resins can be dissolved in alcohol to make incense paper, but these more complex forms of incense could use their own post.
~bonus Mullein Torch: mullein is one of my favorite local plants to burn, it doesn't have much of an aroma but offers beautiful smoke with beneficial attributes.
Clip dried mullein flower stalks, or dry fresh ones for a week or more. Brush the long stalk with lard then dip in melted bees wax, rotate while cooling so wax evenly coats your newly made torch. These torches make great additions to Halloween ceremonies, rituals for the dead, working with ancestors and other spirits, for clarity and to bring visions.
Fumigation and Cleansing. In nature, smoke and fire are the great cleansers of the earth. Certain herbal smokes have even been scientifically proven to show destruction of air born bacteria [x]. This makes smoke cleaning practical as well as metaphysical. The energetic nature of smoke is harnessed to cleanse spaces and objects. Smoke can also be used for consecration, cleansing an object and infusing it with blessings, enchantments and plant spirits. Burn incense or bundles to smoke cleanse spaces and for objects pass through smoke or completely sufficate. This is probably the most common use of smoke. Cedar, pine, rosemary, and garden sage make great candidates for cleansing smoke.
*this post will not cover cannabis or tobacco. Inhalation of combusted plant matter does have consequences. Smoking herbs should be done with reverence, research, and precaution by adults only.*
Smoking is one of the most intimate ways to bond with plants and access their energies. By doing so you are inviting the plant spirit and all of its constituents suspended in smoke to be absorbed into your body through your lungs and into bloodstream and eventually your brain. Unlike other interactions with plants, smoking is an intense and immediate interaction that creates a vulnerable direct connection to the plant(s) that has potential dangers but can be used as a sacred act. Smoking is a ritual in itself: it invokes the elements, engages all senses, forces personal interaction with the plant, and can also form communal bonds with other people.
Smokers circle blend: 1 part mullein or raspberry leaf, 1/2 part catnip, 1/8 part hops, 1/8 part mint, lemon balm or lavender.
All methods of working with smoke release terpenes and aromas that interact with our olfactory system. These chemicals and how our bodies accept them are crucial in understanding why smoke can alter mood and offer medicinal value. Aromas can trigger memories and evoke emotions, they can bring pleasure or warn of danger. Our sense of smell is sacred, a direct connection to our nervous system and also to our ancestral evolutionary past.
In this post I won’t dive into the deep history humans have working with smoke but it has been intertwined with the human experience ever since we discovered fire. I feel this instinctual draw to smoke so it has been an important part of my spiritual path.
My path heavily relies on exchange and using smoke is one of the ways I deliver offerings and communicate with spirits. Smoke transitions the physical into the ethereal. Smoke thins the veil and moves an offering from one plane to another. Burning something fully dedicates the offering to the act and commits the energy given.
Smoke is a way to work with the elements and awakens a connection to both the natural and spiritual world.
Working smoke offers a direct connect with plant spirits. Like disturbing a body will conjure its spirit, burning herbs invokes the spirit of the plant. Not all plant spirits are willing to share their lessons and secrets, but with offerings and meditation, or powerful command, it is possible to harbor a relationship with these spirits. Plant spirits can teach practical knowledge of horticulture and herbology or more mystical wisdom of life and death, hedge crossing, and magic.
Certain compounds in smoke whether directly inhaled or experience as incense can induce trance. The intense mingling with plant spirits and energetic chemicals can induce states of visions, lucid dreaming, and other altered moods. Even just the visionary phenomenon caused by smoke is hypnotic. This can be harnessed as a powerful tool for the witch.
Smoke can be used for Divining and is known as capnomancy [x]. Methods for interpretation can be intuitive, but a straight rising smoke is indicative of a positive result, while low hanging smoke reveals the negative. My personal methods of diving with smoke uses visionary herbs like mugwort and wormwood sprinkled over hot charcoal or filling a bowl with smoke from a bundle and peering into it. Smoke in the form of incense or smoking blends can also be used to assist in other forms of divination like pendulum or tarot.
Visionary bundle: centered around a pre-dried dandelion root bind together stalks of mugwort, wormwood, yarrow, and cedar leaf
Smoke is a key element in my methods of weather magic. Smoke is seen as a representation of clouds and can be used to bring storms or deliver messages and requests to weather spirits. Learning from the evergreen trees who send terpenes into the atmosphere to form clouds and rain [x], we burn herbs and use smoke to send certain chemicals and energies associated with weather formation to the sky and spirits.
Storm bringer blend: pine needles, yarrow, rosemary, juniper berry, valerian
Burning something creates a conversion of potential energy. This is an important action is working magic. Releasing potential by burning is an intential act that allows for manipulation of energy. Smoke brings plant energies to the forefront and available for magical working. It puts into the universe the necessary building blocks for accomplishing your goals.
Herbal cigarette spells are a great way to work smoke magic especially in a pinch. This method can also be used for divining.
Gather corresponding herbs for spell and thoroughly grind and blend.
On rolling or thin paper draw sigils, bindrunes, write incantations or intent, an ode to a spirit or deity, if divining pose your question, etc.
Roll herbs in paper to form your cigarette. Light with a candle and let burn in an ashtray or fireproof vessel until completion. *these are not for inhalation
Leave the ash as offering either on an altar, buried, or given to a plant or the wind.
Herbal cigarette spell example: To bring financial success blend together sage, mint and chamomile in equal parts, roll in a paper adorned with the rune of wealth Fehu along with symbols found on the dollar and a clear intent in the form of a sigil or words, light cigarette with a green or ritual candle, burn and bury ash as an offering to the Soil, giver of wealth
Life on the homestead brings new adventures with smoke. Smoke and incense are used as medicine and for healing and I would love to learn more in that area but I feel far from qualified to share my experiences in that realm. Something I feel more comfortable with is using smoke to cook and preserve food. Smoking is a way our ancestors preserved their meats before refrigeration, and since I raise a lot of my own food and quickly run out of freezer space I would love to learn more about smoking meat. In the past, we have smoked some hams and bacon and have had varying results but I’m really excited to work with this ancient cooking medium in the future. I would love to update and keep working on this post so if revisions are made an update will be noted at the bottom of the post.
References and further reading *nonaffiliated*
[x]* cannabis related but focused on terpenes, info can be applied to other herbs
[NW School of Aromatic Med.]
[Uses and Abuses of Plant Derived Smoke]*on my wishlist
*for education and curios only, please practice safe burning*
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