NaturalPedia > Incense

Quotes about Incense from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

Share

Tweet

Email to a friend   |  Click here for FREE email alerts

page 1 of 4 | Next ->

"One of the most revered of all fragrances, frankincense has been used since antiquity as a ceremonial incense in India and China as well as in Catholic churches worldwide. This is fitting, because frankincense conveys an aroma that quells anxiety, abates nervous tension, and eases the mind. In traditional medicine, the gum is used in topical preparations for wounds, scars, and blemishes. Frankincense holds a unique place in religious tradition as one of the gifts presented by the three wise men to the infant Jesus." - Christopher Kilham, Tales from the Medicine Trail: Tracking Down the Health Secrets of Shamans, Herbalists, Mystics, Yogis, and Other Healers (Get the book.)

"On virtually every count, all four describe the moxas—the pellets or cones of a fibrous vegetable substance and the use of incense to light them—and the process of moxabustion identically. The physicians' accounts are much more detailed and use some technical language, but these are differences in degree rather than kind. Therefore, we can fairly say that laymen and medics saw, recorded, and transmitted the same material practice." - Roberta Bivins, Alternative Medicine?: A History (Get the book.)

"The burning of incense has traditionally been used for healing and purification, as well as for sacramental purposes. In Hindu ceremonies, the offering of dhupam, of incense, is said to purify the air. In Jewish and Catholic ceremonies, worshipers are invited to smell special spices, some burning, in ornamental spice boxes or incense holders. Does this have only sacramental purpose? Consider that frankincense, also known as Boswellia, contains a compound called boswellic acid that is known to inhibit COX-2 inflammatory processes." - Thomas M. Newmark and Paul Schulick, BEYOND ASPIRIN Nature's Answer To Arthritis, Cancer & Alzheimer's Disease (Get the book.)

"Rosemary is also used in funerals and other religious ceremonies as incense. Where Is Rosemary Grown? France, Spain, and the United States, specifically California, are the main growers of rosemary. Why Should I Eat Rosemary? A large number of polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant activity have been identified in rosemary that inhibit oxidation and bacterial growth. Home Remedies Rosemary tea is often used to ease headaches. In olden days, sprigs of rosemary were used to ward off "evil spirits" and nightmares." - David W. Grotto, RD, LDN, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! (Get the book.)

"In virtually every age and culture, people have tried to please and appease their gods, saints, and even demons by burning fragrant incense. The nose had a prominent role in the Bible: according to the book of Genesis, God created humankind by blowing the "soul of life" into Adam's nostrils. Later, Jacob asked God to send humans a sign so they would know when they were fatally ill, giving them enough time to repent before dying. Jacob's wish was granted: God created the sneeze. No wonder ancient Israelites believed sneezing portended a medical disaster." - Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan, Body Signs: From Warning Signs to False Alarms...How to Be Your Own Diagnostic Detective (Get the book.)

"In the United States, in contrast, where yoga is secularized and widely seen as a health practice, people seem to feel that it can't be effective unless they burn incense and light candles. The religious roots of some of mind-body medicine's most striking narrative themes account for some of its extraordinary success in our time." - Anne Harrington, The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine (Get the book.)

"As his body was adorned with all the good signs and marks, there arose from the pores of his hair and from the palms of his hands all sorts of precious ornaments in the shape of all kinds of flowers, incense, scents, garlands, ointments, umbrellas, flags, and banners, and in the shape of all kinds of instrumental music. And there appeared also, streaming forth from the palms of his hands, all kinds of viands and drink, food, hard and soft, and sweetmeats, and all kinds of enjoyments and pleasures" (The Larger Sukhavati-Vyuha, 10; "Sacred Books of the East," Vol. XLIX, Part II, pp. 26-27)." - Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell (Get the book.)

"It is even thought that perfumery evolved from the burning of resins and gums as incense for ceremonial use. Certain types of cosmetics, or combinations of colors that denoted social class, could only be worn by members of the ruling elite, with violators subject to execution. A parallel tradition arose in China, where the wealthy wore nail polish fashioned from beeswax, gelatin, gum Arabic, and egg whites, and only the nobility were allowed to paint their nails gold and silver, which signified the wealth of precious metals. By 500 B.C." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"Gozei lit a few sticks of incense and set them down in front of an ancient photograph of a sullen-looking peasant couple. A ribbon of smoke curled upward and filled the room with the smell of sandalwood. Again, I seemed to disappear. For the next ten minutes she recited a series of prayers bowing toward the altar. Then she sat back down and smiled. "Do you see what's going on here?" Craig asked me. "This is what we call ancestor veneration. Older Okinawan women have great respect for their deceased ancestors. They believe that if they make the proper offerings in the HOW MUCH SUN?" - Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest (Get the book.)

"Use candles, soft lights, and incense, if you prefer. Some people find it helpful to create an "altar" of sorts, as a focal point, with objects or photographs that you find inspirational or particularly meaningful. Even if you are not at home, you may find that you will naturally "enter" your intention space by visualizing it whenever you want to send an intention. Unless you live in the mountains and can open your windows to clean mountain air, you also may want to install an ionizer in your space." - Lynne McTaggart, The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World (Get the book.)

"He lit two more candles and an incense burner. As my eyes became used to the shadows and half-light, I saw that Andres was kneeling and chanting next to a prostrate figure. He beckoned me closer. "Maximon welcomes you," he intoned. Andres lifted a bottle of rum and poured another glass. He drank it and poured another for me. I politely declined, telling Andres that I would rather sit respectfully than throw up on a deity. "That's okay," Andres said thoughtfully. "You come to the Old Man with respect. That's the most important thing. Come closer. He won't bite you." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.) "The top half of the room was lost in an acrid fog of cigar smoke and incense. One ak-jun was standing and chanting. He looked like he was ascending into the heavens, as half his body was in the clouds. Andres stood and walked toward me, cutting a swirling pattern through the smoke. He greeted me with a firm handshake and a pat on the shoulder. "Have you come to pay respect to the Old Man and seek his help in the election?" I shook the smoke and judgment from my head. "Yes. Diego told me it was time to visit Maximon." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.) "Thick, acrid incense obscured the ceiling, creating halos around the light bulbs and opening the path for prayer (or, in my case, making it difficult to breathe). We sat on benches along the walls. I was careful not to lean too far back for fear of setting my hair on fire. At the far end of the crowded room, three older ak-jun quieted the singing. They began to implore the spirits to come join the feast and hear the prayers of the people. They called them by name. Jesus, Joseph, Mary, George, Hunab Ku and the Bacab (the creator and his sons), Yumil Kaxob (the maize god), and, of course, St." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.)

"The future doesn't think like North Americans do: the future is unfolding in places that have mobile phones but still rely on the arrival of the caravans, that sell computer chips in souks and bazaars, that burn sandalwood incense in five-hundred-year-old temples but broadcast video-game championships on TV. A bright green future will smell of curry and plantains, soy sauce and chipotle, and will sound more like Moroccan rap and twangy Mongol pop than Mariah Carey." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"The telinel is required to keep his home open for supplicants and visitors for a full year and must keep the house supplied with the candles, incense, tobacco, and alcohol that Maximon requires. Most often these are brought as offerings. However, it is the responsibility of the telinel to keep the house stocked, which can mean a considerable outlay for a poor villager. The house was shrouded in strings of Christmas lights (the intermittent blinking ones), Guatemalan flags, three crucifixes, and little wooden Day of the Dead skeletons." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.)

"Delicately scented incense wafts through the tea room. The guests are offered a light meal. After a ritual involving the serving and eating of this meal, the guests return to the waiting room while the host cleans up the remains of the meal and prepares the tea. At the sound of a gong, the guests return to the tea room and watch the host heat a kettle of water and whisk green tea powder into water in a bowl and transform it into a thick tea. Each guest tastes the tea, praises the flavor, wipes the rim of the bowl, and passes it to the next guest." - Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews, The Green Tea Book (Get the book.)

"For one, the Catholic Church has used incense for a long time, and so most people are either familiar with burning of incense or can understand its use. If you are smudging some thing or place and are questioned about it, just state that you are burning incense because you like the smell of it. Most people will even appreciate this and accept what you are doing. Secondly, smudge has a light clean smell which dissipates quickly, leaving a pleasant odor. While smudging, the smoke can be seen, but that dissolves quickly, too." - Lesley Tierra, Herbs of Life: Health & Healing Using Western & Chinese Techniques (Get the book.)

"Angelica is traditionally burned as an incense to attract angelic presence. Its essential oil is sometimes used in perfume, and its leaf in potpourri. Native Americans in the Arkansas region used to combine angelica root with tobacco as a smoking mixture to inspire visions. Some carry angelica as a talisman for luck in gambling. And angelica leaves were once used to wrap and preserve food for traveling." - Brigitte Mars, A.H.G., The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine: The Ultimate Multidisciplinary Reference to the Amazing Realm of Healing Plants, in a Quick-study, One-stop Guide (Get the book.)

"For one, the Catholic Church has used incense for a long time, and so most people are either familiar with burning of incense or can understand its use. If you are smudging some thing or place and are questioned about it, just state that you are burning incense because you like the smell of it. Most people will even appreciate this and accept what you are doing. Secondly, smudge has a light clean smell which dissipates quickly, leaving a pleasant odor. While smudging, the smoke can be seen, but that dissolves quickly, too." - Lesley Tierra, Herbs of Life: Health & Healing Using Western & Chinese Techniques (Get the book.)

"Other Uses Calamus has been used as a strewing herb and in incense and sachets for its pleasant aroma, and the essential oil has been used to flavor pipe tobacco. Mongolians planted calamus near watering holes to purify the water for horses. Native Americans were known to hold a piece of calamus root in their mouths when running long distances to increase their endurance. In large amounts the root has psychoactive effects; the poet Walt Whitman wrote many poems while under its influence." - Brigitte Mars, A.H.G., The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine: The Ultimate Multidisciplinary Reference to the Amazing Realm of Healing Plants, in a Quick-study, One-stop Guide (Get the book.)

"Peel burned as incense in ceremonies Usos / Uses: Escorbuto, Dolor de estomago, Presion alta, Fra-gancia, Mal Aire - Scurvy, Stomachache, High blood pressure, Deodorant, Bad Air / Mal Aire Ruda Ruta graveolens L. Familia / Family: RUTACEAE Partes usadas / Plant part used: Toda la planta, fresca - Whole plant, fresh Administracion / Administration: Topico - Topical Preparation / Preparation: Como Emplasto bajo las axilas, calentado al natural. Para Bafios y Frotaciones: 2 cucharas en 1/21 de Aguardiente o 1/2 cuchara en 1/21 de agua - As poultice under arms, heated naturally." - Rainer W. Bussmann and Douglas Sharon, Plants of Longevity, The Medicinal Flora of Vilcabamba (Get the book.)

"The wood is sometimes burned as incense. In magical traditions, guggulu is associated with strength and triumph. Constituents Phytosterols (guggulsterones), terpenes (manusum-bionic acid, manusumbinone), essential oil, gum, calcium, magnesium, iron Energetic Correspondences • Flavor: bitter, pungent, sweet • Temperature: warm • Moisture: dry • Polarity: yang • Planet: Mars • Element: fire Contraindications In rare cases guggulu can cause an allergic skin reaction; the reaction will disappear when use of the herb is discontinued." - Brigitte Mars, A.H.G., The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine: The Ultimate Multidisciplinary Reference to the Amazing Realm of Healing Plants, in a Quick-study, One-stop Guide (Get the book.)

"This is the land of the resins: incense, myrrh, storax.* Neither solid nor liquid, they are unloved of perfume factory hands because of their treacly stickiness, which makes them awkward to handle, and they usually sit forlornly in grimy drums at one end of the factory, like surly exotic beasts. I hesitate to use the word 'spiritual' when applied to molecules, but whereas musks were merely plush and sensuous, woods and especially woody-ambers and ambers have a radiant, otherworldly quality." - Luca Turin, The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell (Get the book.)

"To solemnize it they went to some plantation belonging to one of their number, where they sacrificed a dog, spotted with the color of cacao, and they burned their incense to their idols and offered them iguanas of a blue color, and certain feathers of a bird, and other kinds of game, and they gave to each of the officials a spike of the fruit of the cacao [presumably a cacao pod].27 Ethnohistoric accounts point to the widespread, perhaps even pan-Maya, use of chocolate in betrothal and marriage ceremonies, particularly among the wealthy." - Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (Get the book.) "Clad in specially prepared robes and jaguar pelts, and adorned with collars and bracelets of apple-green jade, the corpse was laid to rest on a bed or litter, amid sacred smoke from copal incense and music from conch-shell and wooden trumpets, rattles, and beaten turtle carapaces. Near the body were placed pottery dishes, bowls, and cylindrical vases which we now realize held the food and drink that the ruler or noble (or his wife) was to enjoy in the abode of the dead." - Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (Get the book.) "Mixe-Zoquean loan wotds of considerable cultural significance are found in other Mesoamerican languages, such as the terms for paper and copal incense, and it is now generally thought these were borrowed from the highly-civilized, Mixe-Zoquean-speaking Olmecs during the apogee of their influence over less advanced cultures. It so happens that "cacao" is another of those loan words from Mixe-Zoquean." - Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (Get the book.) "Also included were clay vessels and lacquered gourds, as well as plant products, such as chillis of various kinds, beans, sarsparilla, maize, liquidambar (a plant of the witch hazel family) and copal (resin) incense. They also brought to court receptacles of beaten chocolate; as far as we can tell, this marked the debut of chocolate in the Old World, and we can only hope that Philip politely sampled the exotic beverage at this historic moment. These are the facts, as we presently know them." - Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, The True History of Chocolate (Get the book.)

"Dried fruit, like dried spices such as cloves and cinnamon, and resins such as incense and myrrh, have what I would call an archaic smell, suggestive of a time when spices and drying were used as preservatives. These remnants of the pre-phenolic age smell intensely salubrious. This may be some sort of ancestral memory, because they are. Put little blotters dipped into any one of those 'spices' on a Petri dish where bacteria are growing, and many will clear a bacteria-free circle around the blotter. Cloves are particularly good at this." - Luca Turin, The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell (Get the book.)

"Thyme appears to have been burnt like incense by the ancient Greeks. It has a long history of use as medicinal and culinary herb and is cultivated in many parts of the world. Parts used Fresh or dried leaves. Cultivation & harvesting Plants are easily grown from seeds or cuttings. It prefers alkaline soil. Uses & properties Thyme is one of the basic herbs used in cooking and is an essential ingredient of stuffings, sausages, meat, poultry and fish dishes. It is added to soups, stews, lentils, scrambled eggs, tomato dishes and salads." - Ben-Erik van Wyk, Food Plants of the World: An illustrated guide (Get the book.)

"The formula for incense used by the old Jewish Church at the time of Moses is given in Exodus 30: 34-36. "Take unto thee three spices - stacte, onycha (powdered shellfish shell) and galbanum . . . with pure frankincense . . . equal parts. Thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy. And thou shall grind some of it small and place it before the testimony of the tabernacle of the congregation." incense of the Anglican Church. Parts: Olibanum 4; Thus 4; Benzoin 4; Tolu 41; Storax 2. Mix powders. INCONTINENCE. Bladder instability." - Thomas Bartram, Bartram's Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Guide (Get the book.)

page 1 of 4 | Next ->

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalPedia.com

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008, 2009 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of NaturalPedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.