Lammas Loose Incense Recipe

Make a loose incense blend for Lammas to toss in a ritual bonfire, burn in your cauldron or scatter around the home for a summer blessing.

This blend includes dried sunflowers, lavender oil, cedar, and other natural, seasonal ingredients. to celebrate the spirit of Lughnasadh and rejoice in the abundance of the first harvest festival.

Lammas Loose Incense Recipe

 

Things You Will Need:

-4 parts dried cedar or juniper leaf (or sub rosemary)

-1 part dried sunflowers or calendula flowers

-2 parts dried basil

-sprinkle of juniper berries

-whole dried lavender flowers

-sprinkle of frankincense or myrrh resin

-4 drops lavender essential oil

Step 1

Blend together cedar leaf, sunflowers, basil, juniper berries, dried lavender and frankincense or myrrh.

Step 2

Top with lavender essential oil.  Store in a clean glass jar for up to 3 months.

Magical Correspondences

The ingredients in this blend are wholesome, natural, and specific to the season of Lammas.  Understanding what each specific ingredient means in the context of your practice is an important part of staying connected to your tools and your magic.  Here’s what they mean for the season of Lughnasadh:

Cedar 

While cedar is traditionally associated with winter holidays like Yule and Imbolc, we include the leaf and berries of this tree for its purifying properties.

In addition, the berries symbolize abundance, which is a key theme in all the harvest festivals.

Sunflowers

Of course, sunflowers are the ultimate sun symbol of the summer garden.  Radiant and glorious, the sunflower is in full bloom during the season of Lammas, towering over nearly all the other garden flowers.

Sunflowers represent courage and the force of will materializing.  

Basil

A culinary gem, basil is a common ingredient in summer kitchen witch recipes.  

Prized for its tendency to promote clairvoyance and mental clarity, basil is a perfect addition to meditation salves and flying ointments. 

We include it in Lammas recipes and rituals to represent the transition of summer to fall and the majesty of the sun in full glory.

Lavender

Lavender and bees have a notorious kinship.  Most lavender farmers also keep bees, and the honey that they produce from this flower is especially precious.

We include lavender to honor this symbiotic relationship between the animal kingdom and the plant world.  The link between the two is critical to the harvest and the turning of the Wheel.

Frankincense

Like cedar, we more often associate frankincense with the winter season.

However, in the context of summer, it is abundant in solar energy.  I like to call it “frozen sunlight.”  

It gives this blend a rich, earthy fragrance and balances the more floral energies.

How to Use Your Lammas Loose Incense

After you whip up a batch, you may be wondering what to do with it!  Here are a few ideas:

-Write a wish for what you hope to “harvest” from your hard work during the coming harvest season.  Bury the paper in your sacred garden or near the roots of a strong tree along with a pinch of Lammas incense.

-Toss a handful of this blend into a bonfire to empower a Lughnasadh ritual.

-Burn it in a fire-safe bowl or cauldron on a charcoal dish during your Lammas solitary ritual

Interested in learning more about developing your magical practice?  Check out Moody Moon’s introductory course, Magic 101.

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Sources & References

Claims with Published Sources

• Cedar associations with purifying properties: Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1985). Llewellyn Publications.
• Cedar and juniper berries symbolizing abundance: Scott Cunningham. The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews (1989). Llewellyn Publications.
• Sunflowers as ultimate sun symbol and representing courage and willpower: Scott Cunningham. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1985). Llewellyn Publications.
• Basil promoting clairvoyance and mental clarity: Scott Cunningham. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1985). Llewellyn Publications; Lipp, Deborah. The Way of Four: Create Elemental Balance & Harmony (2006). Llewellyn Publications.
• Lavender in honey production and relationship with bees: Documented agricultural and botanical practices
• Frankincense associations with solar energy and winter season: Scott Cunningham. The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews (1989). Llewellyn Publications.
• Lammas/Lughnasadh as first harvest festival: Published Wheel of the Year calendars and contemporary pagan sources
• Traditional use of incense in seasonal rituals and celebrations: Historical witchcraft and pagan practice documentation

Claims Based on Personal Practice & Experience

• Recipe development and testing for Lammas incense blends (Lumina’s experience with 20+ years in modern pagan community)
• Personal client experiences using loose incense for Lammas rituals and bonfire ceremonies (professional practice)
• Practical applications and variations of this incense blend for contemporary witchcraft (professional experience)
• Substitution options and ingredient adjustments based on availability (professional herbalism practice)
• Instructions for safe burning and storage of loose incense (professional practice experience)

Recommended Reading on Herbal Magic & Seasonal Practices

• Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs (1985). Llewellyn Publications.
• Cunningham, Scott. The Complete Book of Incense, Oils & Brews (1989). Llewellyn Publications.
• Lipp, Deborah. The Way of Four: Create Elemental Balance & Harmony (2006). Llewellyn Publications.
• Dugan, Ellen. Witches’ Brew: Crafting Spellcraft (2009). Llewellyn Publications.
• Moorey, Teresa. The Herb Bible: A Comprehensive Herbal Reference (2002). Connections Book Publishing.

Note

This article combines established herbal and seasonal magical correspondences with the contributor’s 20+ years of professional pagan practice and experience developing incense blends. Claims grounded in published herbal magic references are cited as documented sources; personal recipe development, practical applications, and professional variations are labeled as contributor experience for transparency.