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.

Woods gathers six of the atlas's fragrant timbers burned as incense, ranging from a scriptural spice to a South American ceremonial wood, and including one name that covers more than a single tree.

Sandalwood, the heartwood of Santalum species, is burned across South and East Asia for meditation and devotion and is prized as a base note for compound incense. Agarwood, the resin soaked heartwood certain Aquilaria trees produce after a mould infection, is the costliest raw material in the perfume trade by weight, known as oud in Arabic and jinkoh in Japanese, burned daily as Gulf hospitality, refined into the Japanese kodo ceremony, and offered in Buddhist and Hindu temple practice; wild Aquilaria is now CITES listed. Cassia, the bark of the cheaper relative of true cinnamon, appears in the holy anointing oil of Exodus 30 and is a major warming drug of Chinese materia medica, rou gui, old enough to carry its own moon myth.

Juniper and Palo Santo are both burned for cleansing and protection, Juniper from ancient Egypt to Scottish folk custom, Palo Santo by South American shamans and healers releasing a citrus resin smoke. Cedar is the group's caution: the name covers the true cedar of Lebanon, the timber of Solomon's temple and of Gilgamesh's forest, and the unrelated junipers and thujas that specific North American nations burn ceremonially, and the atlas records that resemblance without treating two different practices as one custom.