Quick Specs
- Brand: Escential Essences
- Type: Scented stick incense
- Scent: Frankincense
- Tagline: Consecration
- Count: 95-100 sticks per package
- Made: Hand-dipped in the USA
- Cruelty-free: Yes
A Classic Resin Scent in an Easy Stick
Frankincense is among the oldest incense scents there is, and a stick makes it a matter of seconds: light the tip and it burns on its own, with nothing else to set up. The blend carries the tagline Consecration, and that word tells you where it fits. To consecrate is to dedicate something, to set it apart for a particular purpose, and frankincense smoke has long been used for exactly that: dedicating a space, a tool, or a new set of cards. In practice the gesture is short. You name what the object is for, pass it through the smoke, and then use it. Unwrap a new deck, a new athame, or a new candle holder, and each can have its moment in the smoke before it goes to work. A pack this size lets you make the gesture a habit, because every new object that arrives can get its own stick. That habit also gives your collection a shared beginning: everything on the altar has been introduced the same way. You can use a stick to re-dedicate an object, too, after a stretch of heavy use.
Frankincense is the dried resin of Boswellia trees, tapped by cutting the bark and gathered after it hardens into tears. The trees begin producing resin at about eight to ten years old, and the last tapping of the season gives the best tears. Most of the world’s supply comes from the Horn of Africa, and the trade has run for centuries across Arabia, reaching as far as China, with Oman’s Dhofar region among its best-known sources. The resin was burned in the Roman Empire, and the Book of Exodus prescribes it in the incense for the altar of the ancient Hebrews. The Gospel of Matthew counts it among the three gifts the magi brought, and it’s still burned in thuribles in religious ceremonies today. Whatever your own practice, that long record explains why frankincense turns up so often beside words like consecration, blessing, and offering. A scented stick won’t reproduce a charcoal-and-resin session. What it gives you is the association, the scent, and a few quiet minutes, in a form that fits a desk, a shelf, or a travel altar.
Practical Ritual Applications
Light a stick the first time you open a new deck, a new pendulum, or a new set of altar tools. Burn one when you set up a new altar, hang a charm, or move into a new room. Use it to close a working: when you finish a reading or a candle ritual, a lit stick marks the space as dedicated for the night. Keep a few sticks in a drawer beside the altar for the objects that arrive between big occasions. Light one when you hand a deck or a tool to a friend as a gift, so it arrives already introduced. If you’d like to burn resin on charcoal for a more traditional session, my granular resin incense collection has loose resins in several sizes.
How to Burn Frankincense Incense to Consecrate a New Object
Three steps give a new deck, tool, or space a brief, clear dedication.
- Prepare the object and the holder
Clean and dry the object you want to dedicate, then set it on a stable, heat-safe surface with a stick holder beside it. Keep the holder away from paper, cloth, and the edges of the table, and open a window slightly. Decide on a short sentence that says what the object is for, such as 'for readings' or 'for my altar', so you can say it without hunting for words.
- Light the stick and pass the object through the smoke
Light the coated tip with a match, shake out the flame, and stand the stick in the holder. Hold the object a hand's width above the rising smoke and move it slowly through the stream, keeping it clear of the glowing tip. Say your sentence as you do. For a room or a table, carry the holder slowly along the edge and pause at each corner.
- Seal it and put the stick out
Once you've said your sentence, place the object where it will live. Stub the glowing end out in a dish of sand, and empty the holder once the ash has cooled. Stay with the stick until it's out. Use the object soon after, so the dedication connects to real work.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock Frankincense in the bulk pack because people who consecrate do it often: new decks, new tools, new rooms, and new seasons on the altar. A scent with this long a record of use sits comfortably in almost any practice, so it’s an easy first pack for someone just beginning to burn incense. The pairing of frankincense and myrrh is its own scent in the shop, and this one is also available as a 16-pack of sticks and as cones. For more of this size, browse my 95-100 pack Escential Essences collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Incense is the broad category: aromatic material that releases fragrant smoke when burned, from woods and herbs to resins, made into sticks, cones, or powders. Frankincense is one specific ingredient, the aromatic resin of Boswellia trees, long used in incense and perfume. A frankincense stick is an incense stick scented as that resin.
Both are aromatic resins from trees in the Burseraceae family, but they come from different trees. Frankincense is the resin of Boswellia trees. Myrrh is a gum-resin from small, thorny Commiphora trees, harvested by cutting the bark repeatedly, and its name comes from a Semitic root meaning bitter. The ancient Egyptians didn't always tell the two apart.
The word comes from Old French franc encens, which means high-quality incense, so the name began as a mark of quality. The same resin is also called olibanum, a word that reaches English through medieval Latin from the Greek libanos. In perfumery and incense, frankincense is the aromatic resin of Boswellia trees.
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