Recommended Reading from The Incense Magick channel

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This book taught me more about the basics of incense making than any other. Although I don't recommend a lot of the recipes because they require the use of potassium nitrate - which is something I never recommend. It is still a very good book that teaches the basics of incense making in just about a dozen pages!

While I don’t like this book quite as much as Morita’s, it is still an excellent introduction to Japanese-style censer preparation and incense burning.

This book is part history, part archaeology, and part amazing adventure tale. There is a wonderful documentary about its story (an episode of Nova, if I remember correctly), but the book contains far more information. It is the tale of the search for a city thought to have been only a legend. Not only was Ubar a critical hub of culture and commerce in the ancient world, but it also was at the center of the incense trade that covered wide swaths of ancient Asia and Europe.

This book is beautifully illustrated and provides a historic overview of incense in different parts of the world. The author looks at various incense materials from different cultures and how those cultures employ(ed) them. It is wonderfully written and includes some interesting loose incense recipes.

This is perhaps the most famous herbal from the Pagan/Wiccan tradition. If you follow that type of spiritual path, this book needs to be on your shelf.

Another small volume, this book goes into great detail about both of these famous resins. From the plants of origins to use as both medicine and a source of fragrance, this book strikes nicely on the heart of these resins. It includes some interesting incense recipes and it's a quick read.

This book is written in Mr. Cunningham's famous conversational style. While it isn't very heavy on incense, it does give lots of examples of ritual use of fragrant materials and will give you lots of recipes for essential oil blends. Although bits of this book are often duplicated on the web and in the books of copycat authors, only the original text can deliver Cunningham's complete meaning.

My favorite feature of this book is the list of aromatics with interesting information about each one. It also includes an interesting section on tools as well as some incense basics. While I wouldn't make this the first incense book you purchase, serious incense users should have a copy on their bookshelf. Very nice reference book.

This book is a "deep dive" into smudging. It includes a small listing of smudge bundle ingredients. It also contains a wealth of ritual information for the use of smudges. It has a lot of content about cleansing spaces.

This book book is, in my opinion, the best practical guide to Japanese incense practices available. Although it is a slender book, it gives the reader an excellent introduction to Japanese incense history and practical instruction for koh-do style incense burning. It's one of my favorites!

I just can't heap enough praise on this essential scholarly book. The author explores an aspect incense history that few in the West have ever heard of. The use of incense as a form of timekeeping is absolutely fascinating. Bedini is a famed biographer, but his beautiful writing style and amazing research also fit perfectly with this little-understood aspect of ancient incense use. Although not an inexpensive book, it is worth its weight in gold to many of us. Published by Cambridge University Press.

While similar to "Sage & Smudge", this book offers a look at a different assortment of smudge ingredients. It also has a focus on the Native American traditions that form the basis for modern smudging. I found information and an energy in this book that is lacking in many others, although I did find some aspects of the book to be unpleasantly political. Still, it's a very good read.