(New and Expanded)
By Carl F. Neal

My copy is an uncorrected proof, provided by the publisher through Netgalley.

 

This book is about making incense for personal use with all natural ingredients, rather than the commercial 'dipped' incense. It starts out by telling us about how scents can trigger memories and are directly wired to the brain.

 

The use of incense in meditation and to send messages to the gods is covered, as well as how to use it to cleanse space for magical ritual. The perspective of the book is for practitioners of magic and new age methods, though the practical information is very thorough and would be very useful for anyone who wanted to make their own incense. There is a List of figures, so I expect the finished book will have illustrations.

 

The author gives us good reasons for why we would want to make our own incense rather than just buying commercial as well as some history of how incense is made and the changes in manufacturing methods over time. He expresses some concerns about commercial incense and the chemicals that are included in it, especially saltpeter, which is used in self-lighting charcoals. Reasons for making your own include total control of what goes into it and making magical connections during the process, plus the issue of ethical concerns that some people might have about some of the ingredients, such as using animal products or allergens.

 

The book is written very much from a practicing Pagan point of view, but it is primarily a practical book and the author invites readers to challenge or dismiss his philosophies while gaining the benefit of the hands-on practical information.

 

We are given the difference between whole herb incense vs incense that contains essential oils and also the difference between dry mix and wet mix. The book favors dry mix methods. We are told how to make powder for incense trails, though the book is mostly focused on "formed" incense - sticks and cones. We are given the relative advantages of masala sticks, joss sticks and cones as well as incense disks which you can wear as a necklace, then toss into a bonfire. It's a form I hadn't come across before. We are also told about the process for making Kyphi, which involves cooking ingredients in wine.

 

The author occasionally diverges into the Pagan aspects, telling us about the feeling of ritual pageantry that goes with tossing loose incense over hot coals etc. Throughout the tone gives me the feeling that he is speaking to me like an ordinary person, almost as if he was giving personal instruction rather than writing a formal instruction book. I rather liked this aspect of his approach.

 

He goes on to explain the different kinds of aromatics - resins, plants & woods, then forms of binders and fixatives. We learn a little of the Physics of making it burn and how it is affected by shape, about avoiding dangerous material and about getting artistic with shapes as well as how to empower your incense with Magick.

Different types of burners and what shape incense is suitable for them is covered as well as safety precautions in an easy and sometimes entertaining narrative. There is some repetition, but mainly on things it is essential to learn so the extra emphasis is justifiable. My only real complaint is that there are a few too many plugs for the author's other book which begins to reek of salesmanship.

 

There are sections on growing your own ingredients and considering the needs of the plants when collecting in the wild, proper methods for drying and some advice on buying ingredients as well as proper storage. Tools & workspace as well as ritual tools are very thoroughly covered including consideration of children and pets.

Blending and adding liquid is explained along with troubleshooting and there are several basic recipes included to get the novice incense maker started.

The appendices include an ingredient chart, a section on ingredients that can be obtained through any grocery store, suggested ritual uses and a rather interesting section called "Listening to incense" which is about the Japanese art of Koh-do.

 

Overall, from a practical point of view it is a wonderful book. I expect that I will try some of the recipes and may take enough interest to expand into concocting my own incense blends, knowing that everything I need to know is here. The more philosophical aspects of the book are subjective and will appeal to some people more than others, but it does add an interesting angle to the information to see how incense is used in both modern Western Pagan practices as well as the Japanese Koh-do tradition.

I JUST finished this and I'll be back with a full review, but I wanted to add some notes.

TW: Transphobia, Rape, Pedophlia, Suicide,

--At first I was impressed with how0 they kept using someone's preferred pronouns. Then the situation took a nasty turn. It was disturbing how the character's started describing them, how all of a sudden their birth sex was apparent and how they'd been fooled! To make matters worse, they were not transgender by choice but were the villain by choice. So again, in a book with a setting where m/m, f/f, and bisexuality is accepted as normal and unremarked upon, the T gets phobia and villainy. Sano doesn't even agree about keeping "the secret" because of respect, but because it threatens his master's regime! UGH.

--While the shogan doesn't have an active harem of boys in this installment, just pages at this time, there are references to his history and I'm sure he won't be celibate for long.

--There is a victim of rape with her brother being the perpetrator. This is referred to as "incest" as if she was a willing participant. The victim blaming is excruciating and society is her adversary to justice and peace. She has PTSD, anxiety, and is the one to commit suicide.

An aside: Apparently in this society, incest is perfectly normal as is it resulting in children.

--I'm always impressed how Rowland keeps things fresh, evolving, and progressing.
--Holy fucking shit, that ending!!

I JUST finished this and I'll be back with a full review, but I wanted to add some notes.

TW: Transphobia, Rape, Pedophlia, Suicide,

--At first I was impressed with how0 they kept using someone's preferred pronouns. Then the situation took a nasty turn. It was disturbing how the character's started describing them, how all of a sudden their birth sex was apparent and how they'd been fooled! To make matters worse, they were not transgender by choice but were the villain by choice. So again, in a book with a setting where m/m, f/f, and bisexuality is accepted as normal and unremarked upon, the T gets phobia and villainy. Sano doesn't even agree about keeping "the secret" because of respect, but because it threatens his master's regime! UGH.

--While the shogan doesn't have an active harem of boys in this installment, just pages at this time, there are references to his history and I'm sure he won't be celibate for long.

--There is a victim of rape with her brother being the perpetrator. This is referred to as "incest" as if she was a willing participant. The victim blaming is excruciating and society is her adversary to justice and peace. She has PTSD, anxiety, and is the one to commit suicide.

An aside: Apparently in this society, incest is perfectly normal as is it resulting in children.

--I'm always impressed how Rowland keeps things fresh, evolving, and progressing.
--Holy fucking shit, that ending!!

Incense and Peppermints - Cathrina Const... I don’t read many books in the young adult genre alone. My taste lies more toward young adult slash dystopian slash science fiction slash paranormal creature or two. But after reading the summary for Incense and Peppermints I was drawn in instantly. I loved that it was set during the Vietnam War, flower child and hippie era. I had to know where the heroine Mary Monroe fit in, in this era and how she dealt with it. I have always been interested in this time period as I was born in the sixties, yes I am a baby boomer but I am not old enough to remember any of it.

For a sixteen year old Mary had a good head on her shoulders and was a very smart girl. She was very mature and handles life very well, a lot better than most adults. Her brother introduces her to the life of drugs and alcohol and they go from party to party with his friends and her new friends.

A new guy Michael Covington comes to town and all the girls want him including Mary. Michael is always looking out for Mary and taking care of her. One night at a party Mary is in a room alone when suddenly she is plunged into dark and his attacked but luckily Michael comes to her rescue but the guy takes off before they have the chance to find out who it was. Mary spends her days wondering who attached her and hoping she never runs into him again.

Michael and Mary like each other a lot but Michael has a lot of baggage in his life that he is not ready to share with anyone yet. His past may just put a damper on his and Mary relationship. But Michael is not the only one that is hiding things in their life; Mary and a lot of other people probably have a lot of skeletons in their closets they would like to keep hidden as well.

I would recommend Incense and Peppermint to anyone who likes young adult coming of age kind of book. But of course you might want to keep the Kleenex close by just in case they are needed and make sure you set plenty of time aside because you are not going to want to put this one down for any reason.

(I received a free copy to review from NetGalley)

This book is a brief introduction to creating your own incense, whether it be for rituals, magick, or just because you enjoy the smell of incense and want to try to make your own. I have no experience with the crafting of incense, but it is something I’ve been interested in for quite some time. I think this book is great for those new to incense making (like myself).

Incense: Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents covers a broad range of topics related to incense, but none are covered extensively. This is a beginner’s book, so I’m not sure an experienced incense maker would benefit from it as much as a newbie. The book is laid out in a way that made me feel prepared by the time I got to the actual recipes. I felt that I had a decent understanding of different forms of incense, base materials, binders, aromatics, safety, etc. All the things necessary before creating your first batch of incense.

My copy isn’t perfect (because it’s an uncorrected proof), so I’m not sure how it will look in versions that have been edited more. I had no pictures, which was a little sad, but understandable. This book had quite a few images and diagrams (according to my copy, there are 23), tables for troubleshooting, and an ingredient chart. I think in the finished copy, those will prove to be quite useful. (The troubleshooting and ingredients are in my copy, but they’re not formatted very well. They are still useful, however.)

I found several really cool and helpful tips for incense making. One of my favorites (which I plan to use very soon for my first batch of incense) is looking for binders and other materials at your grocery store. I had no idea you could use things like guar gum or xanathan gum as binders. I also really liked the idea of using a plastic straw for a mold for joss sticks.

I liked that environmental concerns were brought up. I honestly don’t know a lot about what plants are rare, near extinction, etc. because I don’t work with any that aren’t readily available (and reasonably cheap). I did know about a few that seem to be common for things like incense are endangered (such as Indian Sandalwood, and at least one type of sage). I’m really glad the author brought that up, because I think it’s important for us to remember that wecan over-harvest plants.

I disagreed (personally) with a few things, but I won’t go into that because it isn’t really important. All I will say is that the parts about ritual, magick, etc. had a very Neo-Wiccan feel to them. That was really my biggest complaint about this book, and it isn’t that big of an issue.

So, overall, I liked this book. It was laid out well to introduce people to types of incense and prepare readers for making their first batch of incense, there were quite a few good tips and ideas for troubleshooting, and there were some pretty good magickal, ritual, and philosophic topics discussed.