Guardian’s Portal (continued)

The earliest use of aromatics is found in an inscription of the 11th Dynasty of Egypt, when King Sanchkara sent an expedition for them through the desert to the Red Sea and to the land of Punt – now known as Ethiopia, and once a state conquered by Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, at the funerary rites, the decease was prepared with the use of the incense. In fact, frankincense and aromatic herbs were placed in the cavities of the body created by the removal of the organs in the process of mummification. In India, the Hindu sect of Siva burns sandlewood before the stone representing their god. In Buddhism, the offering of incense is one of the seven steps of worship, which also include offerings of flowers. In certain Tibetan monasteries, especially in those in which are practiced the perverted forms of Buddhism, incense is burned or carried upon the person continuously, because it is held that it is dreaded by the evil spirits. Incense is, therefore, one of the ingredients of the Tibetan priests’ amulet boxes.

The use of incense by the Semites was widespread. Its name among the Babylonians was kutrinnu. It was made from such odoriferous woods as cypress, myrtle, cedar and herbs. Its preparation and use is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.

The transition from this religio-magical use of incense to the mystical application was not sudden. In fact, there were indications of its existence with the earliest magical practices. In ancient Egypt, among certain of the mystery schools, incense was said to have strange physical properties, each ingredient having different properties which produced varying effects upon humans. The smoke, likewise, was held to carry upward from man the words of prayer offered to the souls beyond. The god Ra was said to draw the soul of the departed upward in the smoke of the incense. In many rituals, even today, the smoke of the incense has the mystical application of an offering to God as it spirals heavenward. The Malays burn incense as an offering at shrines, saints’ tombs, and it is accompanied by invocations to the spirit of the incense.

Today in the churches of well-established and respected Christian sects, the burning of incense is symbolically used to typify prayer, as man’s spiritual bond with his Creator.

The mystics and early alchemists made a careful study of their effect upon our moods and temperaments, just as music or sounds affect us emotionally. It has always been the hope and aspiration of the philosophers of old to bring all of the senses of man – the physical ones at least – in harmony one with the other. To them, ideal physical harmony would exist when something would be equally agreeable to each of the five senses simultaneously. It is know that when this is done, the resulting ecstasy would facilitate attunement with the spiritual forces in and around man. It is the distraction of the physical which nails man’s soul to the earth, as Plato had Socrates put in his dialogues.

Certain scents, when delicate in their aroma, or relaxing and seeming to quiet the body, liberate the psychical powers. They assist in meditation, and they give us a greater puissance to meet the obstacles of the day. In churches, we know from experience, the incense seems to harmonize with the surroundings of the place, its tranquility and its beautiful music, the solemnity. Most people do not know why. Mystics and Rosicrucians do.

Rosicrucians also look upon the smoke wafting upward as a symbol, and a symbol only, of a spiritual essence resident within man as a silver cord extending from him and binding him to the Cosmic. It is quite true that Cosmic attunement is not dependent upon the use of essence, nor upon the use of any material medium. To appreciate the spiritual and to make use of our bond with it, we need nothing of the beautiful, perhaps. We might succeed as well without music or the symmetry of form and beautiful art and architecture, or without any of the esthetic influences – but the way would be much more severe and discouraging. Since incense, like music, has proved its value to our psychic selves and functions, why not continue with its use, regardless of what primitive, irrational rites may have been performed with it by primitive minds of centuries past? The most glorious customs have had rude beginnings.

The mystics, even centuries ago, realized that the inhalation of certain harmless burning ingredients, and particularly certain scents, affected – or rather stimulated and accelerated – the functions of the psychic glands. By psychic glands, we mean those glands that are governors of the flow of psychic forces of the Cosmic through the nervous system. We all know how the sensations of smell will, by the association of ideas, cause us to remember incidents or events. Further, certain scents have a psychological effect upon us. They may raise our spirits, make us happy, or they may depress us and make us melancholy; at times irritate us. We must not think from this that incense was used as a drug or narcotic, for it was not.

- Rosicrucian Forum - December 1940