How to burn loose Incense

Most of use have used Joss Sticks and cones, but have not used loose incense, do not know how to burn it, and may even be a little afraid of it!

Here’s a quick “how to” for you, I hope you find it helpful

Lighting the charcoal

Charcoal for burning incense consists of a small disc of charcoal, with a concave back and the top has a depression in it for placing the incense into. Charcoal discs need to be kept in a dry place once the packet is opened as they absorb moisture and then are really difficult to light. If you have one of those packs of moisture absorbing granules that you get in other purchases, pop one into the container you keep them in. I use a small screw topped jar and keep them wrapped in foil. This seems to work quite well. If they do get moist, put them in a warm place like an airing cupboard or on top of a radiator for a short while to drive out the moisture but keep an eye on it, if it gets too warm it could combust unexpectedly.

I advise that you use a pair of tongs to hold the charcoal when lighting it, I have an old pair of sugar tongs that I keep in my incense box.

Hold the disc and apply flame to one edge – a lighter is best as you need two hands to light a match, and it has a limited life, so if the disc does not light immediately you can end up mucking about while relighting matches and picking up & putting down the disc – not a good thing. You will know that the disc has lit because you will see little “sparkles” going across the surface. Put the disc down on its side on the place where you lit it. When the sparkles have moved across the disc and stopped, push the disc over onto its back and blow onto it until you see it glowing red. You are then ready to put your incense on.

Adding the Incense

It is best not to put too much incense onto the disc at once, otherwise this smothers the charcoal and it can stop burning. It is then difficult to relight the disc with incense already partly burnt onto it and could be rather dangerous. Also, you would not be able to dispose of the charcoal safely as it would still be hot and you would have to break off from the task in hand to deal with the problem.

I would suggest you use an old teaspoon to put the incense on, if you try pouring it on you could overdo it. Remember, it is easier to add more incense, and you will have to replenish it anyway – no way can you put as much incense on the disc at one time as it is capable of burning, Top it up gently.

Important safety issues to be addressed when burning incense using charcoal.

Never, ever, use a glass dish. The charcoal gets extremely hot and can crack or explode the dish, throwing red hot embers a great distance, this can burn you badly, and cause havoc with your soft furnishings!

If you use a metal dish, make sure that you place it onto a heat proof mat, and do not pick it up! If you do you will burn your fingers badly and drop it. You can use heatproof gloves, but it is safer to not pick it up at all

When you have finished burning the incense, leave the ashes and dish until they are stone cold – if you are using an altar, leave it in situ, or place the dish in a safe out of the way place ( like a metal sink for example) and overnight is best as the charcoal disc holds heat a lot longer that you may realise. If you put the ashes in a waste bin too early, you could set light to it.

One of the safest dishes is a wide shallow pottery dish, with sand in it. The pottery can take the heat, as it has been fired, the sand also absorbs the heat so that the dish does not get too hot and if you need to move the dish around for purifying a room for example, it also stops the charcoal moving around, which keeps it much safer. By having a wide dish, you have room to scrape the ash from the burnt incense off the disc.