These are the Sea Witch's scent selections for cleansing, meditation, divination, spirit work, shadow work, and spellwork. You are welcome to take what resonates and leave what does not! Your practice is yours alone, and it is important that you are autonomous in its execution.

Using incense in your practice can help you mentally and emotionally prepare for the work you're doing and adds a ceremonial element that echoes back throughout human history. It is often incorporated in spellwork as a representative for the element of air, and customarily burnt as an offering for spirits and deities. 

Remember, you get to decide what works best for you, so take these recommendations with a sprinkle of sea salt and stay true to you! Whenever possible though, keep close to nature and burn raw, dried plant materials or incense made with pure essential oils!

Cleansing & Meditation

Pine & Cedar

These conifers are both useful for cleansing as well as creating sacred spaces. They are linked to the oxygenation of our planet, and are powerfully purifying and grounding. 

Picture the mist that hovers over the Pacific Rainforest, the moisture that gathers on the canopy and slips down the trees, filters through the Earth and recollects itself on its way out to sea. Call upon the cleansing power of that process and let all that does not serve you be washed away.

Lavender & Rosemary

This may be the most powerful meditation duo in existence. Lavender is the ultimate soother of stress and calmer of nerves, and rosemary is a cognitive stimulant known to improve focus!

Divination

Star Anise

Next time you pull out your pendulum, light a stick of Green Fairy before you begin. Star anise has a history of being used not only to enhance psychic abilities, but also to ward off evil, misfortune, and negative energy.

Lavender & Rosemary

Mind-sharpening rosemary and anxiety-calming lavender make excellent companions for any tarot reading or consultation of the runes! Allow these garden favorites to work their mental acuity magic so you’re operating at your full capacity.

Spirit Work

Star Anise

These dark, celestial buds evoke the fabled Green Fairy and have an association with a thinning of the veil between worlds. They can be used to enhance a medium’s perception, and as an invitation for spirits to make contact. They also ward off evil, and can be used for protection while engaging with the spirit world.

Cinnamon, Clove & Orange

Cinnamon for strength, clove to clear your head, and orange to be a beacon of love and light in the darkness.

Doing spirit work while burning this blend is like carrying an enchanted torch through the underworld with you, or leaving a candle burning in your window so your loved one can find their way home in the dark.

Shadow Work

Cinnamon, Clove & Orange

When you’re ready to shine the light from that torch inward, you’ll find its flicker remains an empowering companion. Facing our shadow selves and doing the hard work to heal calls for some solid spiritual support, and you can find it in this fiery combination that promotes strength and alertness. It’s a warmly comforting and disarmingly intimate blend, with optimistic citrus against darkly sinister spices.

Orange, Pink Grapefruit, Lavender & Patchouli

Create a safe space to do this delicate, complex work with yourself. Calm and center with lavender, prepare to go deep and get intimate with patchouli, and illuminate all your darkest corners with bright, warm citrus.

Spellwork

Cedar, Fir, Rosemary & Peppermint

For cleansing, banishing, cord-cutting, baneful magic, et cetera, I favor a blend with the cleansing power of conifers, the strength of will from rosemary, and the defensive properties of peppermint.

Citrus, Peppermint & Ylang Ylang

For prosperity and protection spells, a blend of positivity-rich citrus and cheerful ylang ylang in a circle of peppermint to ward off misfortune and ill will.

 

What are your favorite plants to burn in your practice? Let us know in the comments!

For answers to all the questions you could possibly have about incense, click here! And let us know in the comments if something's missing!