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| Some incenses we used in our workings: saffron, frankincense, copal, camphor, sandalwood, storax, and myrrh |
The common English words for covering a person or place of incense smoke are incensing and censing. If the censing is performed to drive out diseases or evil spiritual entities, it may also be called fumigation. Censing a place or location is sometimes called suffumigation. However, in old-time Southern usage, censing or fumigating is also called 'smoking,' while those with a Native American background refer to it as 'smudging.' The use of the term smudging has also been adopted in some forms into several modern belief systems.
As far as we know, the use of incense in Hoodoo, as we see it now, derives from four primary origins: Central West African herbal smoking, Native American smudging practices, biblical incense offering, and concepts from Eastern traditions such as Folk Chinese religions and Hinduism.
Herbal smoking in Africa is still one of the many methods to prepare and administer medications for physical and spiritual illnesses. Dried plants are usually burned, and their charcoals are used in healing and divinatory rites. Traditional healers are also known to crudely prepare cigars containing dried plant materials. There are also known tribes in Africa that bless and use leaves to create cleansing smoke. They usually utter their native prayers or sing praise songs to dispel invocations and negativity from their sacred space.
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| In Native American traditions, sacred space is cleansed through the use of smoke. We find this practice compatible, consistent, and effective with many cultural earth-based traditions such as Ifa. |
On the other hand, ritual smoking before performing any spiritual works was learned and adapted from Native Americans by the early root doctors. Cedar, sweetgrass, tobacco, and white sage are just a few North American fauna Hoodoo practitioners use in their workings. Despite being referred to as 'smudging' by many spiritual workers, the herbs used in the Hoodoo tradition are more akin to 'smoke cleansing.'
Cedarwood is typically used by practitioners from the North. It is one of the most important Native American ceremonial plants, still used by many tribes, particularly on the Northwest Coast, as an incense, purifying herb, and an ingredient in medicine bundles and amulets. Historically, cedar trees were often found in Black cemeteries as they were sometimes used as grave markings. Due to its historical habitat, burning its wood chips became a sacred tradition that African-Americans built a relationship. While it burns with the strong aromatic smell of ceremonial and personal purifications, conjure workers use it to invite the ancestors and benevolent spirits as well.
Sweetgrass also became a common incense of practitioners from the South. The Gullah people of the Lowcountry region of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, in both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands, have an extensive history and relationship with this herb. One of the most visible uses of sweetgrass by Gullah folks is evident in the beautiful baskets they weave. Other than that, Native Americans also shared how to employ this in their workings: it is customary to braid the grass and burn the braid from the tip to the roots when used as incense. It is now often used to sweeten the place after cleansing, recalling positive energies back into space.
Tobacco was absorbed as a sacred spiritual tool in Hoodoo as enslaved Black ancestors worked with that herb in plantations, especially people from the East. During that work, they built an ineradicable relationship with the plant. Tobacco is especially sacred for ancestral spirits too.
White sage was and is still popular among Native Americans from the West. While some root doctors and practitioners use white sage within its cultural integrity, most of them have Native American ancestry. Those non-native people nowadays that use white sage for smudging do so because of the commercial availability of white sage.
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| White sage with abalone shells is a spiritual tool used for smoking. |
Smudging or saging is a spiritual and religious practice found in various Native American cultures and indigenous nations, typically used for purification, protection, prayers, and ceremonial occasions such as offerings and invocations, the technique varying from tribe to tribe. Smudging became popular with spiritual workers of diverse cultures, but the practice should not be taken lightly.
Traditionally, when gathering herbs for smudging, there are rules to be followed to correctly determine the time of day, month, or year when the herbs should be collected; for example, at dawn or evening, at certain phases of the moon, or according to seasons of the year. There are also some necessary ritual gestures when harvesting the plant, such as leaving the root and saying a prayer of gratitude. This is as much a part of smudging as burning the plant is.
The core of why people advise against using the term smudging (even if you are using sage collected by a Native American shaman) concerns the integrity of the indigenous tradition. This political stance is against White spiritual colonization, consumption, and consumerism. That doesn't mean though that if you're a non-Native and a conjure worker interested in tapping into sage's cleansing powers, the idea has gone up in smoke. It only means that you shouldn't go striking up a match yet. Listening to Indigenous people and what the smudging ceremony means is the first step in using sage for all people.
Smoke cleansing, however, is used to ward off negative energy and evil spirits by wafting the smoke of sage or herbs around an area, accompanied mainly by prayer or chanting. Smoke cleansing is a practice also commonly found in modern-day Paganism.
Another tradition that contributed to the use of incense in Hoodoo was the biblical reference to the incense offering. Smoke and scent have been significant in biblical thought for thousands of years. In the Hebrew Bible, our sense of scent is considered holy. The very word for the smell in Hebrew, "reach," is related to the word "ruach," or soul. When God created man, the Bible relates, "Then Adonai, God, formed a person from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living being. (Gen. 2:7). The site of our ability to appreciate scents became the very site where the soul entered the first human.
The Bible also describes the beauty of the Mishkan, the portable temple where the Hebrew ancestors worshipped God after the Exodus from Egypt. Precious metals and other lavish materials adorned this building. The interior was also beautifully perfumed by sweet-smelling incense. We don't know exactly what this exquisite scent was made of, but we know some of its ingredients, including stacte, onycha, galbanum, frankincense, and other unnamed sweet spices. The components are still being studied by biblical scholars and archeologists and are not determined with absolute certainty. Due to this reference, many conjure workers started using biblical incense resins, herbs, and spices such as frankincense, myrrh, calamus, aloes, spikenard, hyssop, cassia, cinnamon, saffron, Balm of Gilead, and others. Most practitioners regard the rising smoke from the incense as a symbol and vehicle of their prayers to God being elevated, just like in biblical times.
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| Some Catholic Church saints, such as St. Cyprian of Antioch, accept and enjoy incense as an offering to them. |
The use of incenses bearing Asian aroma and imageries in Hoodoo, on the other note, is a result of a top-down introduction of Hindu concepts such as Yoga, Vedanta, and Tantra into the American metaphysical community; and cultural intermingling of African-Americans with Cantonese Chinese immigrants who were adherents of Taoist-influenced Cantonese Buddhism and folk Chinese religions and traditions. These both took place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Metaphysical publishers such as L. W. DeLaurence, William Walker Atkinson, and others marketed Hindu concepts in the form of books and products nationwide. They distributed and sold talismans, crystal balls, and incense with various conflated Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, and other Asian images on their product labels. By the early 1920s, Dr. E. P. Read, an African-American rootworker in Philadelphia, began manufacturing and distributing his brand of what he called 'Hindoo' incense.
At the same time, Cantonese entrepreneurs on the West Coast, Chicago, and New York City established small 'Chinatown' districts that eventually became tourist destinations. These areas were often located adjacent to the ghettos reserved for African-Americans. The intermingling of the two cultures was supported by strong social ties, including shared interests in martial arts, traditional herbalism, and pharmacy.
From the early 1930s to the early 1940s, the Oracle Products Company marketed many spiritual supplies to Hoodoo shops that bore Chinese Taoist and Buddhist images. These goods became part of Conjure iconography and usage and included items such as Chinese Wash, Hotei the Lucky or Laughing Buddha, lucky Chinese coins, Ling Nuts (known colloquially in the U.S. as Bat Nuts or Devil Pods), and joss sticks.
From that time onward, spiritual supply catalog terms like 'Asian,' 'Oriental,' 'Hindu,' 'Chinese,' 'Buddha,' 'Temple,' 'Garden,' 'Rajah,' 'Rama' and the like, or products with a turbaned figure, usually holding a crystal ball or bottles of oil; a Chinese man in a Mao tunic suit; or else Oriental landscapes with pagoda or Taj Mahal-esque buildings as labels or covers became popular among manufacturers and practitioners. However, these terms and product label designs referred to the form of the incense commonly used by Asians, such as sticks, cones, ropes, coils, briquettes, and powders, rather than its ingredients.
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| Incense sticks are simple tools to experience the magic of fumes and flames. |
Speaking of ingredients, one characteristic ingredient in Eastern or Asian incense is the aromatic Sandalwood. As the price of Sandalwood rose throughout the 20th century due to over-harvesting in India, where it is now nearing extinction, non-fragrant filler woods such as Bamboo were added to the so-called 'Oriental' incense blends.
How to use incense in spiritual workings?
I do not use the herbs mentioned above, namely cedar, sweetgrass, tobacco, and white sage when invoking the ancestors of my bloodline as I know my Filipino ancestors won't recognize these scents. Instead, I use a mixture of resin, locally known as "insenso-kamangyan." It is a combination of yellow and black colored resins from the Alamaciga tree purchased inexpensively from local herbal shops.
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| Resins from the Almaciga tree are traditionally employed as incense in Filipino religious ceremonies. |
I usually perform this ceremonial smoking by starting a fire using charcoal or charcoal disks in a clay pot or metal pan and bringing the resins to fiery embers. As I straddle the pot or pan, smoke is generated. I let the fumes touch the tools and objects in my ancestral shrine while I say my prayers, offer food and drinks or cast my spell before my deceased forefathers. I add more to it as it is consumed while I perform my workings and offerings. When I am done, the pot or pan with the residuum of the still-smoking incense is taken around the house and finally placed at the back, underneath, or to the far left of my altar. The ritual smoking is believed to help me invoke my ancestors and drive the evil spirits away that might impede my prayers or workings.
Conversely, I use the traditional American herbs when honoring the ancestors of my path, Hoodoo.
Suffumigation of a client, more generally called smoking the client, makes use of incense or herbs to take off crossed conditions, remove energetic junk, and open the client's road for blessings and better times. The root doctor may use compounded self-lighting powder incenses such as Uncrossing, Healing, Road Opener, Blessing, Fast Luck, or one of the traditional resin and herb incenses that are burned on charcoal, such as frankincense, camphor, aspand, sandalwood, copal, etc.
During the suffumigation, the censer is usually placed on the floor, the client is instructed to stand over it, or the client may sit, and the rootworker directs the smoke over and around the client's body, particularly the head, while praying. With a fan made of black chicken feathers or black buzzard feathers, the rootworker may waft the smoke around and brush away negative energies. When bringing or drawing good luck, I was taught to brush the smoke upward but when taking off jinxes and crossed conditions, they told me to touch the smoke downward. As I do this, I sometimes puff a cigar or tobacco over my client to further cleanse and strengthen him.
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| Puffing cigarette smoke to the client. |
When cleansing a person or a location, I mostly add some couch grass to whatever herb or resins I'm using, just as one of my mentors in Rootwork taught me. Medicinally, Couch Grass supports kidney function, so energetically, not only does it help clear one's space specifically of 'toxic' energy and/or entities, but it's also one that will 'have your back, so to speak, in terms of protection. I also sometimes add Couch Grass to any amulet-type objects I put together for protecting or empowering people, places, or things.
Also, for protection purposes, I sometimes use mullein, native to Europe and Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean. Medicinally, mullein has antimicrobial properties (warding off fungi, viruses, and bacteria) and helps with specific lung issues, soothing inflamed or infected lungs and preventing coughing until infection or inflammation is broken. So this is one I would use most often when the negative energy I'm clearing out is 'upfront,' and I know where it's coming from.
If part of my intent in smoking is, in addition to clearing or cleansing, to improve the energy of a person or area, I might add hawthorn berries or leaves which when purchased, usually come with some flowers. Its medicinal properties support and protect the heart, which translates nicely as supporting love, balancing interpersonal interactions, and maintaining a loving atmosphere on an energetic basis. Rose petals can also be used for similar purposes.
For calming purposes, for instance, in a household with strife between the residents, I was taught to use rosemary in my suffumigation rites. Medicinally, rosemary is somewhat of a stimulant. Its aroma has improved mood, cleared the mind, and relieved stress in those with chronic anxiety or hormonal imbalance. Rosemary can also be used to relieve headaches, as an antispasmodic, and even to alleviate asthma. Chamomile, of course, is another perfect one for calming the energy of a person or place, as is lavender.
As a rootworker, I heartily encourage folks to make their personal incense blends or mixtures for suffumigation. Yes, it's best to familiarize yourself thoroughly with any herbs or resins you plan to use, as having that knowledge is a great way to deepen your connection with the herbs and help promote your focus while using them. There are no rigid set formulas in Hoodoo when it comes to incense blends and perhaps the best advice that can be given is to try out a variety of herbs, roots, and resins to be burnt. Experiment and use a variety pe for your spiritual and magical work.
You may also combine the smoking of a client with candle work by placing a candle on each side of the incense on the floor while the client stands between the candles and over the smoldering incense. Alternatively, some spiritual workers have the client hold one or two candles in his hands at heart level or shoulder level while being smoked.
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| Ritual smoking for myself before blending my bath crystals. |
Aside from cleansing or purification rites, incense is also believed to have effects on the mind that can serve to enhance the ritual or magical work. A heightened mental state is helpful for magical, divinatory, and spiritual works, and smell is an ideal way to achieve various conditions. Different aromas can affect individuals in varying ways, although the fact that they have been used for hundreds of years means that common effects have been documented and that it allows a sophisticated set of olfactory correspondences with desired outcomes to draw upon during ritualistic work:
- Acacia - stimulation of psychic powers
- Bergamot - attracts the right influence
- Carnation - replenishes energy
- Cinnamon - stimulative and arousing
- Eucalyptus - purifying
- Frankincense - empowering and purifying
- Hyacinth - peacefulness
- Jasmine - relaxing
- Musk - sexual attraction
- Patchouli - wards off malignancy and protection
- Rose - calming and love attraction
- Sandalwood - protection, and healing
It is also believed that incense works on the practitioner's mind and provides a suitable environment to invite the spirits. Again the choice of the incense can vary depending on the nature of the ritual, the spiritual presence to be primarily worked with, or even the time of the year.
Lastly, the smoky haze that lingers in the air is often thought of as an ideal place for spirits that have been invoked to take form or communicate their messages. In my experience, spirits sometimes metamorphosize within the incense fumes where they can be seen and directed.
Incense smoke can be fed to ritual objects, amulets, and talismans too, such as mojo bags, and set them to work for you, light the incense and when it produces enough fumes, hold the object in one or both hands and pass it through the smoke three times while speaking aloud your intention or reciting a Psalm.
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| Mojo hands are usually bathed with incense smoke when feeding it. |
As well as helping to get rid of unwanted energies, enhancing prayers or meditations or empowering implements, incense can have practical, concrete applications. Citronella keeps away mosquitoes during meditations or contemplative rituals, while saffron or vanilla sweetens and purifies the air of the noxious smells produced by burnt candles or spell remains.
As for preparations for suffumigation: The more mindful I am, the better and more focused my intent when doing any kind of spiritual work, so I always start with some praying to bring myself as fully as possible into the presence of God. If you intuitively feel something else needs to be done before suffumigation, you might want to just sit quietly and give it some meditative thought; see what comes to you. In my opinion, the less one follows instructions from other people and follows intuition instead, the better the results will be. Not that there's anything wrong with gathering information, but the answers to that kind of question vary from one person to the next, and I believe it's best to look for those answers from within.
Here are some popular incenses traditionally burned in Hoodoo:
- Aspand - to rid children of the evil eye and to bring blessings after funeral and burial rites.
- Benzoin - to purify home, break jinxes and dispel evil.
- Camphor - for purification and to heighten spiritual or psychic abilities.
- Cedar - to invite benevolent spirits,
- Copal - to bless religious items and aid in divination.
- Dragon's Blood - for good luck, invocations and pact-making.
- Earth Smoke - to increase cash on hand or bring new customers to a business.
- Frankincense - for empowerment and spiritual worship
- Gum Arabic - to contact the dead.
- Mace Arils - to enhance psychic abilities and mental powers.
- Mullein - for protection against dark arts.
- Myrrh - for purification, healing, love, and romance.
- Palo Santo - to take off misfortunes and send away evil spirits.
- Pine - to cleanse the home and draw money.
- Sandalwood - for wish-making, safety, peace, and good health.
- Spikenard - to improve love life, enhance sexual fidelity, and encourage marriage proposals.
- Sweet Grass - to draw positive energies.
- Tobacco - for cleansing and ancestral offerings.
- White Sage - for purification.
Not all things that are ritually burned in Hoodoo are herbs, or incense, in the way the term is usually used. They may produce an aroma but are not generally said to be 'fragrant.'
Red onion skins are burned for good fortune, luck, and peace throughout the South. Shoes or shoe soles, usually that of a man, are also ritually burned to bring in money-luck to a business. This is generally done in brothel businesses or whorehouses, but could also be performed in other businesses. Some roasted the shoe plain, but I heard some people poured some brown sugar inside or a mix of cinnamon powder and sugar. Sulfur is also a fumigant to rid a home of jinxes and sorceries. Asafoetida has also been used as incense for exorcisms and protection for nearly as long as sulfur.
