The Definitive Guide on How to Use Incense in Meditation and Ritual Practices

Before we talk more about How to Use Incense for Meditation, we thought it was important to talk a bit about why one would choose to use incense for meditation. Incense and its use in meditation and ritual have deep roots in the history of our world.

The Aztecs had the Palo Santo tree, the Christians had their Frankincense and Myrrh, and the Buddhist used a whole host of incenses in their rituals, meditations, and even as medicine. These examples are but a few of the civilizations which have used incense for Millenia.

You may be interested in using incense in your meditation practices or your spiritual rituals and ceremonies. We decided to try to dig as deep as we could and produce for you a guide on the how? And why to burn incense during meditation or ceremonial practices?

How Incense Affects the Brain

To start out let’s look at why you may want to burn incense during meditation?

Researchers at John Hopkins University conducted a study on mice and found that Burning Frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain that alleviate anxiety and depression.

This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses, literally!

We could not find scientific studies on all of the incenses we researched for you in our The Definitive Guide To The Best Incenses For Meditation And Ritual Practices, so we will have to rely more on the ancient tradition which suggests that different incense can have profound effects on our mind and mood.

The History of Incense In Ritual and Meditation

The word incense comes from the Latin incendere meaning “to burn.”

One of the oldest existing incense burners was found in Egypt and dates back to the 5th dynasty (25th century BCE). In Egypt, the pleasant aroma of incense was widely used to keep evil spirits at bay or appease the gods.

The ancient Egyptians used combustible bouquets for both it’s pragmatic and mystical capabilities. As you can imagine ancient times were a lot smellier than they are today, so burning incense to obscure the malodorous products of humans living in such close habitation was almost a necessity.

Incense burners which date as far back as 33rd century BCE have also been found in South Asia. India adopted the techniques of burning incense from East Asia and adapted their techniques to encompass their own aromatic roots and indigenous flora. Frankincense, Cypress are a few of the incenses used by the Indians.

Evidence of incense use in China dates back to the Neolithic era, however, it’s application in a religious or spiritual sense dates back to the 20th Century BCE. Cassia, Cinnamon, Styrax, and Sandalwood were used as components of many formalized ceremonial rites.

The technique of burning incense was brought to Japan in the 6th century by Korean Buddhist Monks, who used the mystical aromas in their purification rites. In later years Samurais would often use incense smoke to perfume their helmets and armor to achieve an aura of invincibility.

Most cultures at some point adopted the use of incense into their rites and spiritual pursuits. From the Aztecs in South America to the Mongols in Asia, from The Celts in Europe to the Egyptians in Africa the use of incense by our ancestors is ingrained into our collective unconscious.

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