C is for Censer

I had great trouble thinking of a C for this week. I was thinking of doing one week for Heathen stuff, one week for Hedgecraft stuff - but as it turns out, there's not a great deal really that begins with C in Heathenry. My main option would be the Christian conversions, which isn't really something I want to discuss at length. Suffice it to say that compared to most other conversions, the ones across Scandinavia were pretty bloody.

But anyway, today's C is censer, or incense burner.

I have a few. The most used are a long stick burner with a grotesque that holds the stick, that I use solely for non-religious incense burning, and one I use for ritual, my favourite:

(You can tell my altar is a working space, hmm?)

This censer, my favourite, was a gift from my grandmother a few years ago, who knows that I like incense, but would never imagine quite what that star means or why it might please me. So perhaps the gods were whispering in her ear.

One hangs the stick of incense upside down from a ring in the top, and smoke billows out through the holes. It rather surprised me the first time I used it quite how atmospheric it was. A pleasing atmosphere (candlelight, billowing smoke) makes for an effective ritual.

I wouldn't have chosen it myself. I'm not all that into the pentacle as a symbol, really. I used it for the first time just on a whim, but fell in love with it when I saw how the incense smoke behaved as it floated up through the holes.

Just a light entry this week because Lock, Stock is on and there's a bottle of wine open.