How to make Herbal Incense

This following piece will help a layperson learn to make their own natural and high quality herbal incense. While there are many incense blends suitable for ritual/spiritual purposes available commercially making your own preperations just adds that extra OOMPH! to spellwork. Enjoy!
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Making your own herbal incense requires time and effort but the results are well worth it.

Perhaps the most important benefit of making your own incense is the confidence you will have that it was made with natural ingredients; making your own herbal incense is also beneficial because you can make it to your exact specifications. It is also less expensive to make your own incense as oppossed to purchasing it.

To make herbal incense start by carefully researching the flowers, roots, oils or resins you want to use. Keep in mind that some plant matter and essential oils while normally safe can be poisonous when burned. So be very careful when choosing your herbs.

Once you have researched and decided what plant matter and oils you would like to use you can purchase them from a health food store or from an online supplier. Mountain Rose herbs is an excellent on-line company to purchase herbs and essential oils from.

After you have purchased your plant material you will need to grind it. You can use a mortar and pestle, food processor, or coffee grinder. Mortar and pestles work well for grinding resins but the process is much easier if you have a food processor or coffee grinder.

Grind each component seperately, taking care to process the material into a powder. I have found it that I save time by grinding extra of each component that I am using; I then store the extra material in a zip lock craft bag (any zip lock bag will do).

Many people find the grinding process to be enjoyable, but it can also be very tiring. It is possible to eliminate this step for some herbs such as lavender and rose since these are readily available in powder form. It generally costs more to purchase herbal powder, but it does save time so do not feel that you must exhaust yourself grinding the material. Resins (such as frankincense and myrrh) and roots (such as comfrey) are more difficult to grind than flowers, so it is also possible to base your recipe on the ease of preparing the materials.

Free incense recipes are available all over the internet, and many suppliers of herbs and essential oils include recipes on their websites as a service to their customers. Once you have finished grinding each ingredient all that is left is to mix them together in proper proportions according to the recipe you have chosen.

Make sure to stir thoroughly until all ingredients are nicely blended. After you have finished this step refer to your recipe to see what essential or fragrance oils you will need to add. Then add the oils, one drop at a time, stirring the mixture carefully between drops. Once you have finished adding the oils stir the mixture once more taking to make sure the mixture is uniformly blended.

Once you have finished blending your incense it is ready for storage or use. You can store the incense in small craft bags, or store in a small and pretty glass bottle. Glass bottles of hand made incense make lovely and thoughtful gifts. For a truly thoughtful gift try making some incense with the intended recipient's favorite flowers and scents. To burn the incense add a pinch of it to a lit charcoal disc. Charcoal discs are available from health food stores and on-line.