Dioscorides' Kyphi
Recipes
for the incense used to usher in the night in ancient Egyptian temples
to Ra have often been preserved thanks to medicine. Dioscorides was a Greek born in 40 CE in
what is now Turkey,
then part of the Roman Empire. He studied medicine in Egypt and was a
physician in Nero's Roman Legion, which gave him much opportunity to
see other cultures. This recipe comes from his five-volume De Materia Medica
on "the preparation, properties, and testing of
drugs," which describes how plants were used medicinally in various cultures. His
work is thought to be the first systematic Western herbal and covers
over 600 different plants (as well as a few mineral and animal substances). Kyphi is the only compound drug
in his book, which implies its importance, and as in the case of the Galen recipe,
we must be grateful to physicians for preserving another recipe for this ancient
Egyptian incense. Dioscorides' book was lost to Europe but preserved in the
Muslim world [thus he is in Muslim dress in the picture]. Arabs reintroduced his
work to Europeans a millenium later.
Like
Galen's recipe, the ingredients in this first-century kyphi include raisins, wine,
and honey, as well as sweet flag, aspalathos, camel grass, and cyperus
tuber. The major difference is in the proportions and in the addition of myrrh and pure resin
and the subtraction
of asphaltum. This recipe also includes a period of steeping in the middle
of the process that the Galen recipe does not. No fragrance oils or synthetics come
anywhere near this kyphi. The ingredients are
mixed in a high-fired ceramic bowl with a wooden spatula to preserve
their potency. Following
the ancient Egyptian custom, ingredients are added one at a time to the base
of chopped raisins.
The result is a much
sweeter incense than is produced by the Galen recipe. At the start, the scent
is almost candy-like. It provokes the appetite but is satisfying as well.
As the scent develops, it blossoms into a spicy resinousness.
The myrrh note is surprisingly strong, given the very small amount of myrrh
actually called for. According to the Talmud, wine was added to myrrh to make
it more fragrant, and this recipe bears that out. The impression is of an Oriental
perfume. Gradually the scent matures into a heavily resinous and spicy
aroma that seems to open the back of one's mouth. Users have described
visions evoked of serpentine
shapes (rivers, snakes, winding roads, canes, hooks, curved beams) and water-associated
images (boats, docks). The smoke was easier to see with one's eyes shut, when it was
revealed to be quite extensive and sinuous. At the last, the scent is majestic and expansive. The
way this incense unfolded gave me the impression of watching an entity go from
playful childhood to powerful maturity. It makes a wonderful contrast with Galen's
kyphi and is good for developing the more visual aspects of the psychic.
Traditionally kyphi was rolled into pills, but I have left it in a loose crumble so that you can make whatever size pellets you want. This is nowhere near as smokey as one would expect, given the honey included. It must be burned on a piece of charcoal, as it contains only pure ingredients, not charcoal of its own. I also have Galen's kyphi and Edfu kyphi.
Other hand-compounded incense: Edfu Kyphi, Galen's Kyphi, Abramelin, Festival, Planetary,
Get some chemical-free charcoal
Uses in Witchcraft & Magick:
Honoring Horus
Trancework
Divination
Consecration
Purification
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