Benzoin is a resin used as incense: the balsamic gum of Styrax trees of Southeast Asia, a sweet fixative used in temple incense and in perfumery. In the Western scheme it is linked with the Sun and with purification and cheer.
Material and correspondence
In the Western system of ritual correspondences it is set under the Sun and the element of Air. Such planetary and elemental attributions belong to the Western esoteric tradition of correspondences, drawn from writers such as Agrippa and codified in the modern period by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn; the material's use as incense is far older and cuts across many cultures. It is described here within that documented tradition of ritual perfume.
From gum benjamin to Friar's Balsam
Tapped chiefly from Styrax benzoin and related trees of Sumatra, Java and the wider Indonesian archipelago, the resin reached medieval Europe through Arab trade under a name later corrupted into English as "benzoin," itself descended from an Arabic phrase for Javan frankincense; the modern chemical term "benzene" derives, at some remove, from the same word. Beyond incense and perfumery, tincture of benzoin became a standard European medicinal preparation, most familiar as an ingredient of compound tincture of benzoin, popularly called Friar's Balsam, used for generations as an inhalant and skin preparation, a secular pharmacy use that developed alongside, and independently of, its long-standing ritual and correspondence role.