Also called olibanum, Boswellia resin, luban
Frankincense is the milky, lemon-and-pine scented resin of Boswellia trees from southern Arabia and the Horn of Africa. It has been burned as a holy offering for thousands of years and is still the classic resin for blessing a room, opening prayer or meditation, and marking a space as sacred.
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Take care: Burn resin only on incense charcoal in a sand-filled fireproof dish, with a window open and never unattended. Smoke can irritate asthma, and pet birds are especially sensitive to airborne smoke, so keep them out of the room. Do not ingest frankincense resin or essential oil without a doctor's advice.
Exodus prescribes frankincense mixed in equal parts with three other aromatics, salted and ground fine, for the incense altar of the Tabernacle. The text forbids making the blend for personal pleasure, which is why later Jewish practice treated it as reserved for the Temple alone.
Uses: frankincense, stacte, onycha, galbanum, salt
In churches, frankincense, often blended with myrrh and other resins, is spooned onto coals in a swinging censer and carried around the altar, the Gospel book and the congregation. The rising smoke is read as prayers going up, following Psalm 141 and Revelation 8.
Uses: frankincense, myrrh, benzoin or styrax (optional)
In Oman, Yemen and Somalia frankincense is an everyday household scent rather than a church rite. It is burned in clay burners to perfume rooms and clothing and to welcome guests, and Omani luban is graded by color, with the pale silver Hojari prized most.
Uses: luban (frankincense), clay burner, coals
Frankincense comes from several Boswellia species, chiefly Boswellia sacra of Oman, Yemen and Somaliland, along with B. frereana, B. papyrifera and the Indian B. serrata. Harvesters cut the bark and let the sap harden into tears for a few weeks. Egyptian records mention incense from the land of Punt by the third millennium BCE, and the reliefs at Queen Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari show incense trees being shipped home to Thebes. Herodotus and Pliny the Elder both wrote about the Arabian harvest.
The trade made southern Arabia rich. The ports and caravan stops of Dhofar, including Sumhuram (Khor Rori) and Al-Baleed, were inscribed by UNESCO in 2000 as the Land of Frankincense. The resin reached the Gospel story as one of the gifts of the Magi in Matthew 2:11, and it became the standard incense of Christian liturgy. Today ecologists warn that wild Boswellia stands are declining from over-tapping, grazing and beetle damage, so ethically sourced resin matters.
A Scottish Highland New Year rite of blessing a house with water and the smoke of burning juniper. It is an open European alternative to white-sage smudging, which belongs to closed Indigenous ceremonial practice.
A whole-home cleansing that combines a real deep clean with old customs: sweeping out the back door, opening the windows, sounding a bell and setting salt in the corners. It marks a fresh start after an illness, a quarrel, a move or the turning of the year.
An altar is a small dedicated surface holding candles, symbols of the elements and objects meaningful to you, used as the focus for prayer and spellwork. This guide covers the Wiccan layout and simple personal altars, and where the greeting 'blessed be' comes from.
Tell us what you need and we will craft a custom spell, charm or reading for it. Or call to book a reading or a road blessing in person.
