PALO SANTO + WHITE SAGE INCENSE

Now the fragrant scent of North American White Sage, Salvia apiana, is blended with South American Palo Santo Bursera graveolens, in the form of incense sticks. Each stick is made by grinding the finest herb sage and palo santo wood into a powder and then dipping the sticks in resin and rolling the ground herb onto the stick, drying and packaging them. A long burning incense. Made in USA. 6 sticks per pack.

Collected from the prairies and hills of the California, this sage is prized by the Plains Indians. Sometimes this is called white sage, other times grey sage. The common name is Cudweed Sagewort. The leaf is medium sized, somewhere between the narrow leaf of the desert sage and the broad leaf of the California white sage. The Cheyenne are said to call this man sage and it is extensively used by the Plains peoples in ceremonies.

Its medicinal qualities are said to be good for treating headaches, coughs, stomach disorders, and more. Additionally, because of its pleasant scent, it has been used to deodorize feet, made into pillows, and burned to drive away mosquitoes.

Burning herbs and resins (aromatic tree sap) is one of the oldest form of incense. Long before there were sticks and cones, people would add fragrant botanicals to fire to create beautiful smelling smoke to entice their deities or to please themselves. It is believed this is one of the most powerful means of working with herbs to imbue a space, an object or a person with holy qualities.

The name Palo Santo means "Holy Wood", and what a fitting name that is. The magic of Palo Santo is in the alchemical process that happens after the death of a limb or a tree. You see, in order for the Palo Santo to gain its magical and medicinal properties it must die, but not just any death only a natural death of a wise old limb or tree. The Palo Santo trees live for 80 to 90 years. After this death the tree must remain in its natural habitat for 4 to 10 years to complete its metamorphosis. Only then do its sacred, medicinal and mystical properties come alive.

Palo Santo has been used for thousands of years in Peru and Ecuador by shamans and healers. Travel today through the Andes Mountains you still find shamans, curanderos, and healers using Palo Santo as part of their ceremonies and healing rituals, evidence that its use more alive than ever in their culture. Increasingly the healing properties of Palo Santo are finding its way into the rest of the world as one of the truly great resins of Mother Earth. It has capacities in both physical and metaphysical realms.

Palo Santo has even caught the attention of western scientific researchers for it chemical properties which include limonene and monterpenes that are being studied for their anti cancer effects. It is truly amazing that this Holy Wood can at once, through its healing scent and sacred smoke, provide energetic protection, remove bad energy, uplift the spirit and bring good luck as well as ethno-botanical uses.

Aroma Description: warm, delicately sweet,rosy-woodsy

Element Association: Air

Magical Associations: Luck, Protection

Astrological Association: Gemini, Virgo, Aquarius

Planetary Association: Mercury

Burning instructions:

Use matches or a lighter and leave the flame at the end of the stick for about 5 seconds until the tip burns.
Leave the flaming stick for another 5 seconds then blow it off.
If necessary, repeat the first two steps once or twice.
Make sure ashes fall in a proper fire proof vessel (incense holder, shell, etc.).
When done put the stick out.
Reuse or let it all burn at once.
Keep in a dry place away from children.
Enjoy.