Lavender is a herb used as incense: the dried flowers of lavender, burned for calm, clarity and cleansing; a herb of European folk practice, it is commonly given to Mercury.
Material and correspondence
In the Western system of ritual correspondences it is set under Mercury 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.
A name from the washtub
The name is generally traced to the Latin lavare, "to wash," reflecting Roman use of the flowers to scent bathwater and laundry, a practical, domestic origin rather than a ritual one; Lavandula angustifolia, the species most prized for oil and incense, is cultivated at scale in Provence, whose lavender fields are now as much a tourist landmark as an agricultural crop. In English folk practice dried lavender was long kept in cloth sachets among stored linen, both for its scent and as a mild moth deterrent, a household use that predates and runs alongside its adoption into modern incense blends and, more recently, into aromatherapy, where its calming reputation is now marketed well beyond its older ritual correspondence to Mercury and Air.