I'm stubborn. A few months ago, I bought Scott Cunningham's The Complete Book if Incense, Oils and Brews. I have a rather large herb collection and decided to make an incense for Imbolc. I didn't follow one of his recipes - NOOOOOO that would be too easy. I made up my own. I picked some herbs appropriate for Imbolc (gleaned from my notes on the Sabbat) ground them, mixed them together, bottled them and then put them aside for a few weeks. I didn't even think about the incense until Imbolc when I lit a charcoal disc, opened the bottle and FELL IN LOVE! OMG I didn't remember it smelling that good when I made it! Slowly, a horrific realization took hold of me - I hadn't written down the recipe. Cunningham stressed the importance of writing recipes, in fact, I'm pretty sure he mentioned it at least 5 times. But I knew better! I would never want to re-create this particular recipe, I would simply explore a new avenue and try something else, right? WRONG! My lesson in all of this - when someone who has been working with herbs and writing about herbs for as long as Cunningham has - LISTEN TO HIS ADVICE!
After an hour or so of sniffing what little I had left and experimenting with the herbs I had on hand (luckily I could narrow it down by looking at the original Sabbat notes), I did manage to re-create it. So here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Purple Basil (I grow and dry my own - I have never seen it available in a store but I am sure regular basil would be fairly close)
Chamomile
Rosemary
Frankincense Resin
I didn't really follow any set measurements but I have added to my notes to go light on the Chamomile and heavier on the Basil. Also, try not to over-work the Frankincense - it got started to get gummy on me.
*I will probably re-post this recipe next Imbolc.
