Wylundt's Book of Incense: A Magical Primer

by Steven R. Smith

Book Overview

A complete how-to book for making your own incense. Discusses the various types of incense, gives instructions for making it, drying and storing it, working with liquids, censers, and charcoal.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877286795
• ISBN13: 9780877286790
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Weiser Books
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A must for incense afficienados!

All I can say is if you are the type who never seems to have enough incense, who is always seeing/smelling some new, extraordinary new scent and purchasing it, who has been dissillusioned with it after burning it, who is always on a quest for the 'nirvana'-type scent, then this book is for you!Not only can you discover the secret ingredients for many blends, but this book teaches you how to mix and blend your own.This is a MUST-Have for students of metaphysics. And all those who practice ritual religious/spiritual beliefs. NO MORE spending outrageous amounts of money for tablespoons of coal incense...buy your own ingredients in bulk at a health food store or elsewhere and then craft your own blends! Have fun!

A very good reference!

I have many herbals, and quite a few on incenses. Of all the ones I own, this has the most recipies, and the author does understand the ways in which to make different types of incenses for various situations. I would highly recommend it for those who want to experience a vast number of incenses.

Not a college course, but an *excellent* quick reference!

I find this book extremely useful as a good quick reference, much like the comb-bound "... For Dummies" quick references. No, it does not get detailed enough for absolute-beginners, but for those who have previously studied herbalism and such *at all*, it is a fabulous book to have on hand. The layout is very easy to use. The appendices are well ordered. This is not a "101" sort of book, but rather a solid QUICK reference for those *already* familiar with the subject matter at least on a beginner level. I think that *anyone* who at least has beginner level understanding can get a lot out of the somewhat cursory nature of the entries in this book. My recommendation for beginners regarding this book is to remember that this is a groundwork. It is not meant to be all encompassing at all. This book will not give you a college degree in incense; however, it does lay a good foundation and a smattering of some very good recipes/bases for further work and is always a good reference for verification purposes when doing more advanced work -- which is exactly the main use that I find for it -- cross-referencing and verifying the attributions on the fly. Regardless of what herbal or [book of incense] is your favorite, you should always have more than one on hand for cross-reference purposes. The structure of this book makes that extremely easy. Of course with well documented experimentation, in time one can develop a log for themselves of what herbs, gums, etc. work best for their aims -- which may or may not correspond to *any* book, but this book can serve as a great springboard-point to begin doing exactly that.

Great info for serious users

I loved this book....this is for serious users. Making sticks and cones is more trouble thanit's worth, tho, IMHO.

This is the most concise book of incense I've found so far.

If you are patient enough to invest the time, money, and practice to create personal incense with your own two hands, this is definitely a book that I would recommend. In all of my exhaustive searchings, this is one of the few books that I have found that actually described the steps needed to make incense, from referring you to the ingredients needed to make various types of incense (stick, cone, loose, and others), to the steps required to dry and burn the incense as a finished product- the author even goes as far as to tell you which censers are the best to use, and how. No matter what our reasons for making incense, this book is an excellent reference tool. It will help you to know the satisfying feeling of lighting a cone or stick of incense that you made yourself (not store-bought from some large faceless corporation where you don't know what ingredients were put in it, and are afraid to ask), and enjoying the esoteric pleasure that it brings you.