Music Credits

This episode features music by Australian composer Scott Buckley, whose Creative Commons music library provides cinematic music for creative projects with attribution.

“Unraveling” by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
“Incantation” by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
“Hymn to the Dawn” by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
“Petrichor” by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

Music used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Sources, References, and Further Reading

This episode draws from academic scholarship, museum and public-history resources, practitioner texts, industry standards, and primary religious sources.

Practitioner resources are identified as such. They provide valuable insight into contemporary and living practices, but no individual author, company, or text should be understood as speaking for every practitioner or every community represented here.

Books and Scholarly Articles

Aga-Oglu, Mehmet. “About a Type of Islamic Incense Burner.” The Art Bulletin 27, no. 1 (1945): 28–45. doi: 10.1080/00043079.1945.11407668.

Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y., and Donald R. Hill. Islamic Technology: An Illustrated History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Paris: UNESCO, 1986.

Bogenschütz, Luisa, Christina Bermeitinger, Anna Brörken, Helge Schlüter, and Ryan P. M. Hackländer. “Odor Associated Memories Are Not Necessarily Highly Emotional.” Acta Psychologica 230 (2022): 103767. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103767.

Bussmann, Rainer W., and Douglas Sharon. “Traditional Medicinal Plant Use in Northern Peru: Tracking Two Thousand Years of Healing Culture.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2 (2006): Article 47. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-2-47.

Chireau, Yvonne P. Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Classen, Constance, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott. Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell. London: Routledge, 1994.

Hazzard-Donald, Katrina. Mojo Workin’: The Old African American Hoodoo System. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013.

He, Qingqin, Yuanyuan Sun, Xiqin Chen, Jian Feng, and Yangyang Liu. “Benzoin Resin: An Overview on Its Production Process, Phytochemistry, Traditional Use and Quality Control.” Plants 12, no. 10 (2023): 1976. doi: 10.3390/plants12101976.

Herz, Rachel S. The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell. New York: William Morrow, 2007.

Herz, Rachel S., and Jonathan W. Schooler. “A Naturalistic Study of Autobiographical Memories Evoked by Olfactory and Visual Cues: Testing the Proustian Hypothesis.” The American Journal of Psychology 115, no. 1 (2002): 21–32. doi: 10.2307/1423672.

Howes, David, ed. Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader. Oxford: Berg, 2005.

Kamp, Karina Stengaard, et al. “Sensory and Quasi-Sensory Experiences of the Deceased in Bereavement: An Interdisciplinary and Integrative Review.” Schizophrenia Bulletin 46, no. 6 (2020): 1367–1381. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa113.

Le Maguer, Sterenn. “The Incense Trade during the Islamic Period.” Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 45 (2015): 175–185.

Le Maguer, Sterenn. “Une archéologie des odeurs: identifier les encens et leurs usages au Proche et Moyen-Orient (VIIIe–XIIe siècles).” Bulletin d’études orientales 64 (2016): 135–158.

Manniche, Lise. Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy, and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Pormann, Peter E., and Emilie Savage-Smith. Medieval Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

Teeter, Emily. Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Contemporary Magical and Practitioner Resources

Blackthorn, Amy. Sacred Smoke: Clear Away Negative Energies and Purify Body, Mind, and Spirit. Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2019.

yronwode, catherine. Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic: A Materia Magica of African-American Conjure. Forestville, CA: Lucky Mojo Curio Company, 2002.

yronwode, catherine. “How to Use Incense in the Hoodoo Rootwork Tradition.” Hoodoo in Theory and Practice. Lucky Mojo Curio Company. Accessed July 22, 2026.

For the specific example of carrying unburned frankincense in a mojo bag, see catherine yronwode’s March 22, 2024 response in the Lucky Mojo Forum thread “How to Use Bottle, Box, and Container Spells Questions and Answers.”

Museum and Public-History Resources

Bincsik, Monika. “Japanese Incense.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009.

Stünkel, Isabel. “The Temple’s Cult and Decoration.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 2, 2018. Revised September 10, 2025.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection records for Japanese incense burners, incense boxes, fragrance-game equipment, and ancient Egyptian censers also provided useful visual and material context.

Sustainability, Fragrance Standards, and Air Quality

FairWild Foundation. Compendium of Best Practices: Frankincense and Myrrh. June 8, 2026.

International Fragrance Association. “IFRA Standards” and “Certification of IFRA Standards.” Accessed July 22, 2026.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Wildfires and Indoor Air Quality” and “Reduce Your Smoke Exposure.” Accessed July 22, 2026.

Biblical and Religious Texts

The following biblical passages were discussed or consulted in connection with incense, frankincense, myrrh, and the gifts of the Magi:

Exodus 30:1–10 and 30:34–38
Isaiah 60:1–6
Matthew 2:1–12
John 19:39–40

The familiar number, royal status, and names Caspar or Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar belong to later Christian tradition. The Gospel of Matthew does not name the Magi, call them kings, specify that there were three, or assign an individual gift to each visitor.

Further Reading

The history of scent is far larger than one episode could hold. These books offer especially useful places to continue exploring.

Amy Blackthorn, Sacred Smoke
A contemporary magical resource on ritual smoke, incense, herbs, creating sacred space, practical application, and safety.

Yvonne P. Chireau, Black Magic
An essential history of African American Conjure, Hoodoo, Rootwork, healing, harming, Christianity, and spiritual power from slavery into the twentieth century.

Katrina Hazzard-Donald, Mojo Workin’
A major study of Hoodoo’s history, regional development, material culture, commercialization, and relationship to African American religious life.

catherine yronwode, Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
An extensive practitioner-oriented materia magica documenting the use of herbs, roots, minerals, resins, incense, mojo bags, and other materials in contemporary Hoodoo and rootwork.

These authors do not always agree about Hoodoo’s history, boundaries, commercialization, or authority. Reading practitioner sources alongside the scholarship of Chireau and Hazzard-Donald offers a broader and more complex picture than relying on any one text alone.

Constance Classen, David Howes, and Anthony Synnott, Aroma
A cultural history of smell and the social meanings people attach to fragrance, bodies, environments, class, religion, and memory.

Rachel Herz, The Scent of Desire
An accessible exploration of smell, psychology, emotion, memory, attraction, and perception.

Lise Manniche, Sacred Luxuries
A beautifully illustrated study of fragrance, incense, cosmetics, aromatic preparations, religion, bodies, and the afterlife in ancient Egypt.

Emily Teeter, Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt
A readable scholarly introduction to Egyptian temples, priests, divine images, offerings, festivals, magic, funerary practices, and lived religion.

Edward Said, Orientalism
A foundational study of how Western institutions, scholarship, literature, and art constructed an imagined and exoticized “East.” It provides important context for the temples, bazaars, mysterious smoke, and generalized spiritual elsewhere that continue to appear in fragrance and metaphysical marketing.

Sterenn Le Maguer, “The Incense Trade during the Islamic Period”
A focused study of incense commerce and aromatic materials after the ancient period, helping correct the tendency to let the historical incense trade disappear between biblical antiquity and modern perfumery.

Monika Bincsik, “Japanese Incense”
A concise and visually rich introduction to Japanese incense culture, rare aromatic woods, fragrance games, and attentive incense appreciation.

FairWild Foundation, Compendium of Best Practices: Frankincense and Myrrh
A current resource on sustainable harvesting, supply-chain responsibility, environmental pressure, and the people whose livelihoods depend upon the resin trade.