I have talked about incense before, but as I am trying out a new incense for Apollon I wanted to talk of the subject again. The incense I am trying is called Chandan. It has a distinctive smell that reminds me a little of sandalwood, but is different. As most of my readers may know I do often use sandalwood for Apollon in my private prayers. Its light clean scent is something that I have often found to be pleasing to Apollon. And this brings me to the topic of this post.
It seems that for Apollon I feel a very strong inclination to get what I deem as clean pure light scents. These are not very spicy, they are not particularly flowery (though there is sometimes some florals added to certain blends), nor excessively pungent. For this reason I don’t typically offer him heavy floral perfumes, nor do I offer him very spicy hot scents such dragon’s blood, amber etc. Despite its strong smell frankincense is an ideal of what I am speaking of because it has a sharp clean scent to it after you get past the clouds of smoke. Laurel also has this light clean perfume, as does rosemary. I would even suggest pine to work in relation. This clean scent is often more woody than anything else. Cedar and cypress should also be included. But as I said sandalwood is the incense that I first really got a feel for in my youth (among others, such as dragons blood, jasmine, rose, patchouli (which I don’t particularly care for btw), myrrh etc) and one that I instantly understood to be appropriate for him years ago. And as a fairly plentiful form of incense it has also been the most regular perfumed offering that I have given to him over the years.
Recently I have added other incenses to this list, many of them being particular Indian blends, such as the Shiva blend which really struck a chord, another kind of sandalwood, and now trying out Chandan. Though this has been mostly an instictual exercise over the years, it seems logical that a god of light would enjoy cool scents.
Beloved in Light 
I also used Chandan, and Champa as well, and found them very useful smells, though I don’t really put much thought in whom I give it to for hat what reason, as you do here. Maybe I should start thinking about that as well…
Interestingly I also recently bought some Indian blends for specific Gods, to try and see if they matched with Gods I consider their Hellenic counterparts. I also thought of the Shiva blend as appropriate of Apollon, as both are Gods of Destruction and Creation at the same time. I also have a Vishnu blend for Zeus – as the preserver of Divine Order and Upkeeper of Justice in the Kosmos -, though I haven’t tried that blend yet. I also have a Ganesh blend, which I think should word for Hermes, as both are Gods connected to good luck and enterprises (many business owners pray the Ganesha when they start their business and keep doing so to insure their business being successful.
Sounds rather like the connections I would make 🙂 I have a Ganesh blend that I use for Hermes too. Vishnu I keep going back and forth between Zeus and Dionysos 😛
Well, I think most of my thinking in these comparisons stems from this blog 😉 I’m not sure in how much I would connect Vishnu and Dionysos though. I also think the Indra blend would work for Zeus as both are Storm Gods , and the rulers of the Pantheons (or at least Indra used to be before the Trimurti became more prominent).
The incense I use is from the Hem corporation, and India-based company that rolls the incense sticks by hand. They also have other Indian God bends, for Laxmi, Saraswati, Rama, Hanuman, Krishna, Durga, and the Buddha. Is this the same as yours?
Well with Dionysos and Vishnu I get toit more because I link Dionysos and Krishna….and since Krishna is Vishnu, hence I link Dionysos and Vishnu. That said, Dionysos supposedly shares alot of characteristics of Zeus in his youth so maybe it isn’t quite so strait foreward. Also Dionysos is known as a Liberator, and Visnu returns to earth as a kind of savior typically as far as I can tell.
The incense I use comes from a local Indian shop. It says handrolled on it, but it is made by Darshan Exports. But I have seen all of these scents as well as the shop. I have thought of getting Lakshmi for Demeter 🙂
Because of Indra’s association with the mid-air, the antarikṣa, and because of the wonderful fine essences of trees, flowers, and roots – many of which don’t grow here – that delight the senses (the indriyas – powers of Indra!), incense is my favourite offering to him, one which I choose very carefully.
Viṣṇu is a difficult Deva to correlate to the Greek pantheon; I can see indeed parallels with both Zeus and Dionysos, and that’s without getting into all of Viṣṇu’s avatars! For Viṣṇu I have used both Lotus and Oceans incense blends (Maroma) in the past. And since big-bellied Gaṇeśa loves to gobble sweets, for him it was the sweetest foody and/or floral incense I could find, like Honey Amber (Fred Soll) or Orange-Vanilla or Coconut (Maroma).
I am thinking of splurging on Ross Urrere’s Sandalwood-Ambergris, which has been so highly rated as a glorious melding of both ingredients. If you’d like to partake in the bounty, I’d be happy to send you a little, as well as a Mermade blend that I burned just last week and thought, “Whoa, Apollon!” the minute I caught the scent. 🙂
The thing with Zeus and Dionysos is that they share alot of mythic connections and even in some respects have paralleling myths when it comes to the mysticism associated with their births. As I explained above Dionysos is rather like a young Zeus…so it is an association that would be difficult to pin down in any case 🙂
Those blends sound lovely! And I can certainly understrand why you choose what you do for Ganesha! It certainly makes sense to me, and sounds delightful.
And an offer of incense…sign me up! 😀