Medicinal Incense; Kyphi

When considering helpful medical treatments, I find practitioners often neglect the consideration of incense, used as aroma therapy. Alone or in combination with other healing modalities, medicinal incense can provide a valuable benefit. I am going to explore some of the history, uses and recipies of incense worldwide, in this blog. I hope you find it useful to promote health or as an adjunct to increase the effectiveness of other medical therapies. Since I have a personal interest in things Egyptian I have decided to begin with one of the most important of there medicinal incenses, Kyphi. This incense is the actual one used in sacred and healing rituals in the temples of ancient Egypt. It is difficult to make, but worth it. A current recipe is provided toward the end of this entry. Not only does Kyphi offer many medical uses, it smells beautiful!
Lynn

Historical accounts of Egypt state that the people burned resins in the morning, myrrh at noon, and Kyphi at sunset. Reports state that could lull one to sleep, alleviate anxieties, increase dreaming, eliminate sorrow, treat asthma and act as a general antidote for toxins. It was said that Cleopatra believed it increased her beauty and burned it constantly. During the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, c. 2700 BCE, papyrus manuscripts recorded the preparation of fragrant herbs to be used to make Kyphi. The first "recipe" on how to prepare it is contained in the medical Ebers Papyrus (1500 BC). It consisted of nine ingredients boiled in honey Unfortunately, many of the plants and herbs specified cannot be identified with certainty. Fortunately later documents present a recipe for Kyphi which has ingredients we can recognize today . There is a recipe inscribed twice in the temple of Edfu and once in the temple of Philai. The ingredients are exactly the same in all three cases and vary only in their proportions. This is the Edfu 1 version:

"[Take 273 g each of mastic, pine resin, sweet flag, aspalathos, camel grass, mint and cinnamon.] Place the items in a mortar and grind them. Two-fifths of this will {turn out to} be in the form of liquid to be discarded. There remain three-fifths in the form of ground powder. [Take 1.5 lb each of cyperus, juniper berries, pine kernels and peker (unidentified)] Reduce the ingredients to powder. Moisten all these dry ingredients with [2.5 lb] wine in a copper vessel. Half of this wine will be absorbed by the powder [the rest is to be discarded].

Leave overnight. Moisten the [3.3 lb] raisins with [2.5 lb] oasis wine. Mix everything in a vessel and leave for five days. Boil to reduce by one-fifth. Place [3.3 lb] honey and [1,213 g] frankincense in a cauldron and reduce volume by one-fifth. Add to the honey and frankincense the kyphi macerated in wine. Leave overnight. Grind the [1,155 g] myrrh and add to the kyphi".

As time went by there came to be more than one recipe for making kyphi. The Greek physician Dioscorides (1st century AD) gives the following variation:

"Kyphi is a mixture of incenses dedicated to the Gods which promote healing. Egyptian priests use it very often. It is also mixed with antidotes and is given in beverages to the asthmatic. There are many methods of preparation, one of which is the following: half a xestes (0.137 lt) of galingale; the same quantity of the major juniper berries; twelve mnai (5,239.2 g) of big stoned raisins; five mnai (2,183 g) of cleansed resin; one mna (436.6 g) each of sweet flag, aspalathos and lemon grass; twelve drachmai (48 g) of myrrh; nine xestes (2.466 lt) of old wine; two mnai (873.2 g) of honey.

Stone the raisins and chop them, and grind with wine and myrrh. Then grind and sieve the other ingredients and mix them with the aforementioned mixture. Let steep for one day. Then boil the honey until it thickens and mix thoroughly with the melted resin. Mix thoroughly with the other ingredients and store in an earthenware pot".

To make Kyphi today, Kemetic herbalists use the following recipe.

5 Cups of white wine 1 cup of raisins
1/4 cup juniper berries
1
cup Myrrh resin (powdered)
1 cup frankincense (powdered)
1/4 cup sweet flag
1/4 cup Gum Mastic
1/4 cup Cinnamon
1/4 cup calamus (also called sweet flag, may substitute Vetivert)
1/4 cup bay laurel
1/4 cup acacia
1/4 cup orris root (powdered)
2 cups of honey

You can obtain the ingredients from health food stores that sell raw herbs or over the internet or purchase it ready made.

Some online stores where you can purchase ingredients for incense

Magik Herbalists

http://www.magikherb.com/

Mountain Rose Herbs

http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/index2.html

Penn Herb

http://www.pennherb.com/herbs.html

By Kaphi ready made

Alchemy Works

http://www.alchemy-works.com/incense_kyphi_edfu.html

Peacockangel

http://www.peacockangel.net/incense.htm