Belongs To Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Herbs gathers ten of the atlas's plant based incense materials, spanning ancient scriptural recipes, modern devotional blends, European folk magic and living Indigenous ceremonial practice, several of which the atlas deliberately describes without instructing.

Calamus and Spikenard are both scriptural aromatics whose exact botanical identity is argued: calamus is the fourth ingredient of the holy anointing oil in Exodus 30, disputed between Acorus calamus, a lemongrass and a true cinnamon, and also used in Ayurveda as vacha and in Native American practice as a chewed stimulant; spikenard is the nard of the Song of Songs and the ointment poured over Jesus at Bethany, valued in that account at close to a year's wages, and is now CITES listed. Costus, the qust of the hadith literature, and Saffron, strewn as an offering in Persian and Indian practice and used to dye renunciates' robes, both carry a religious use alongside a much larger use in medicine, dye or food. Lavender, Rose and Nag Champa are the group's devotional staples, burned for peace and calm, for love and the opening of the heart, and, Nag Champa being a sandalwood and champa flower compound, for meditation in temple, yoga and home practice alike.

Sage, Sweetgrass and Tobacco are grouped here as materials, not as the closed ceremonies that use them. Burning aromatic smoke belongs to no one tradition, but what the word smudging names is narrower, particular ceremonies of particular Native nations, several of which are closed and were illegal in the United States within living memory. Sweetgrass and tobacco carry the same distinction: their ceremonial use belongs to specific peoples, is not a general technique, and is described here without being taught.