#kyphi

They dried out rather quickly and smell wonderful, and I can’t wait for my friend to use them.

I did try taking some “artsy” photos and well… they kind of look like cat turds 😅 (it’s because one of the ingredients is very dark and adds a lot of colour to the mix).

So rather shamefully, as a Kemetic of over 15 years, I’ve never actually made kapet. I’ve always just made do with frankincense on its own. The various recipes have always been in the back of my mind meaning that I’ve collected most of the individual ingredients over the years and stored them away.

That all changes today!

I will be using the following recipe:

3/4 measure honey

3 measure raisins

1/4 measure myrrh (did not have this ingredient)

1/4 measure mint

1/2 measure cinnamon

1/2 measure cardamom (I went for green cardamom)

1/2 measure frankincense

1/2 measure juniper berries

Benzoin powder

Sweet red wine (again I missed this ingredient as I didn’t have any)

I used a teaspoon as the measure, and I made six pellets.

Mixing the dry ingredients

So I collected all my dry ingredients, essentially just missing out the honey because I wanted to use my spice grinder to mix. However, my spice grinder decided today was the day to pack up completely… so it all got mixed in the nutribullet, meaning that some of the cardamom didn’t get as well ground as I was hoping.

At this point, the mixture was already quite damp and smelt really strongly of cardamom.

Adding the honey

After I added in the honey, the mixture became quite a wet paste. So I rolled it into little pellets and laid them out on a paper towel to try to suck up some of the moisture.

I’m torn between if adding wine would be a good idea or not, on the one hand it would make the mixture far more difficult to work with as it would become wetter. However, because of the low boiling point of alcohol I wonder if it would ‘cook’ the mixture on the coals and if this would make a significant difference to the end scent?

I decided to try one of the kapet pellets immediately and fired up a coal, and I want to try to dry the rest out a little for storage.

Into the fire

There was very little smoke, which I was surprised about. And I would decide the initial scent as very benzoin forward and very sweet from the honey - the strong scent of cardamom is completely lost when it hits the fire.

Additionally there is a lovely sizzle sound from the incense that is very cosy.

Raisins

Myrrh

Honey

Frankincense

Copal

Low-grade marijuana

Blue Lotus flowers

Red-wine

Cinnamon

Mint

Pine resin

This is just a simple DIY method for preparing the holy incense Kyphi. Kyphi was an incense used for all sorts of things. It was believed to be used for general aromatic purposes, only to be later developed to be used as a specific incense. I use it during theurgical rituals and consecrating Egyptian statues.  I don’t measure how much of each ingredient I use. I play it by ear and vibes alone. For the resins, you’ll want to crush and grind it into a powder with a mortar and pestle. The flowers you'll want to grind up using an herb grinder. Be gentle with red wine but be generous with the honey, as I found that too much red wine would ruin the batch. Unless you're boiling all the ingredients with the wine, but I do not boil these ingredients I just mash them all together. I’ll provide a link for a more historically accurate list of ingredients and preparation methods if you all wish to prepare your Kyphi according to the ancients. You’ll see I added marijuana, blue lotus, and copal to my list. The reason is solely for these plants and resin's psychoactive properties. You can of course exclude these ingredients.

After you have mixed and mashed all the ingredients together, you’re going to want to to transfer the mixture to a large ziplock bag and let it rest and harden for about a week. Keep it in the fridge for a quicker process.

I am currently scrounging all the ingredients needed as inscribed on the walls of the Edfu Temple, built in the first century BCE (Ptolemaic period). And once I have all the ingredients ready, I’ll prepare it accordingly to how it’s inscribed on the walls of the Edfu Temple. And then I’ll compare the two incense effects, that being my homemade, personal method, and the incense as prepared according to the method inscribed on the walls of the Edfu Temple.

**DISCLAIMER** DO NOT USE MARIJUANA IF YOU LIVE IN A COUNTRY OR U. S. STATE WHICH WHERE IT IS ILLEGAL. ONLY USE SUCH AN INGREDIENT IF YOUR COUNTRY OR STATE LAW ALLOWS YOU TO POSSES SUCH AN INGREDIENT. ***

My biggest project this month was making several batches of Kyphi-type incense. One was a traditional recipe based on historical sources for my sister (not a part of this post), one to sell and another one to preserve the contents of my herbal cabinet by processing them and not letting them sit around loosing potency. 

^Final results, please notice my Slavic roots showing!

Generally, to define a Kyphi-type incense, we can say that this type of incense features a wet part consisting of wine, raisins, dates/figs, honey and a dry part, which are mixed and dried to form pellets. 

In general, to form the wet part of the incense dough, you need cca 4 raisins per tablespoon of dry material and one cup of dried dates/figs per 50 raisins, a tablespoon of honey and enough wine to cover it all and have left over to add, after the raisins and dates soak it up. Optionally, you can add some essential oils to the mix as well. 

You chop the raisins and dates finely, or if you are lazy like me, put both in the final jar, add wine and chop it using a hand blender. 

Leave the wet mixture (raisins, dates/figs, honey, wine and essential oil) to sit for 1-2 weeks, stir daily and add any blessings and incantations you may like. 

^From right to left: Wet ingredients jar, dry ingredients jar, misc tictures

Use these two weeks to finely grind your chosen dry ingredients. This incense type works best with a lot of resins and woods.

You can decide the final number of dry ingredients based on the intended purpose of the incense (planetary numbers etc.), or by what you have available in the necessary amounts. 

My dry materials consisted of among others:

Frankincense

Elemi

Myrrh

Damara

Lavender

Propolis

Pollen 

Mace

Mastix

Copal

Pine

When your wet materials have steeped enough, it is time to boil them down. 

Over a low heat, just enough to warm the mixture without boiling it, simmer it while stirring often for a couple of hours, until it forms a gooey batter. Ventilate you kitchen well!

Place your dry materials into a large bowl and once a little cooled, add the wet portion in slowly, while working it in. Don’t add everything at once, you are aiming to knead a firm dough that no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl and you may have more wet ingredients than needed. 

When you are done, break the dough into small pellets and place in on a drying rack. If you are fortunate like me to have an electric herb dryer, the process of drying the incense at 35°C takes about a week. If you are drying it in room temperature, it may take up to 3-4 weeks. Either way, the place where the drying will happen will smell absolutely lovely. 

The goal is to dry the pellets so they are firm to the touch. 

Afterwards, after removing the dried incense from the dryer, I like to coat it with ground Benzoin resin to work as a preservative, since the incense still contains organic materials and may also contain water. I also added Dragon’s blood to the coating for an added kick of scent and color.  

Store in an airtight jar and voilá, your own Kyphi-type incense:

This incense is well worth the effort taken to prepare it. Make a big batch of the dry version before you add the honey and it will store for a long time.

4 parts Frankincense

2 parts Benzoin

2 parts Gum Mastic

2 parts Myrrh

1 part Cedar

1 part Ginger

½ part Vetivert

½ part Juniper Berries

½ part Cinnamon

½ part orris Root

½ part Cassia

½ part Cypress

½ part Jasmine

Grind and mix together the ingredients and store for a month in an airtight container. You may add a few drops of honey to the mix at this point and then leave for another two weeks. If desired, you may leave all the ingredients whole, or grind to a fine powder. I find that grinding slightly to a fairly coarse mixture is my favourite method.