Mercury Retrograde Incense Recipe

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If you’ve arrived at this page, there’s a good chance that we’re in Mercury Retrograde.

At the time of writing this article, we’re about 5 days into an almost month-long retrograde. Fear not, my friends, for I’ve got an incense blend for that!

How Does Mercury Retrograde Influence Us?

Retrograde is an optical illusion that happens a few times each year where a planet appears to reverse direction in the sky due to orbital patterns. It’s actually called “Apparent Retrograde Motion” because it’s only apparent from our perspective on our planet. In reality, everything is still moving forward around the sun. This usually happens when the Earth overtakes a slower-moving planet, like Mercury, in its orbit, but it can also occur when the Earth is overtaken by a faster-moving planet.

You are probably somewhere here, just really tiny.

Although the visible effect is an illusion, the energetic effect is not. The planet of Mercury governs things like…

“I would have paid my rent on time, but my car broke down on the way to the bank, then the bank was closed by the time I got there, and when I tried to text you about it, my phone crashed. Oh well, I guess something must be up with Mercury.”

-A Witch Suffering From Retrograde

How to Lessen the Effects

You don’t freak out when you see rain in the weather forecast do you? Stay calm and bring an umbrella. There are some magickal things we can do during Mercury retrograde that are the equivalent of an energetic poncho.

• Burn Mercury incense (we’ll get to that in a second)
• Give extra attention to Mercury (either as the planet or deity) through offerings or prayers.
• Carry crystals like citrine around with you
• Create a Mercury talisman using planetary squares/seals and leave it somewhere conspicuous where you’ll see it every day

You could also try reciting the Orphic Hymn to Mercury. One translation to English is below.

XXVII. TO MERCURY [HERMES]

Hermes, draw near, and to my pray’r incline, angel of Jove, and Maia’s son divine;
Studious of contests, ruler of mankind, with heart almighty, and a prudent mind.
Celestial messenger, of various skill, whose pow’rful arts could watchful Argus kill:
With winged feet, ’tis thine thro’ air to course, O friend of man, and prophet of discourse:
Great life-supporter, to rejoice is thine, in arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine:
With pow’r endu’d all language to explain, of care the loos’ner, and the source of gain.
Whose hand contains of blameless peace the rod, Corucian, blessed, profitable God;
Of various speech, whose aid in works we find, and in necessities to mortals kind:
Dire weapon of the tongue, which men revere, be present, Hermes, and thy suppliant hear;
Assist my works, conclude my life with peace, give graceful speech, and me memory’s increase.

Let’s not forget the more mundane stuff, too…

• Pay extra attention to your words. Think before speaking. Proof-read before posting or sending.
• Make sure your cell phone battery is always charged.
• Back up important files. If Star Trek taught me anything, it was that you should always have two backups — a primary and a secondary.
• Try not to make dramatic life decisions for these few weeks. Don’t rush into things. Think twice before signing a contract.
• Don’t jump to conclusions. Ask for clarification more often. What’s upsetting you may have just been a misunderstanding.

And of course, don’t forget to meditate! Make time for calm personal space. In fact, that’s probably something most of us should be doing more often anyway.

The Incense Recipe

Alright, enough talk. You came here for an incense recipe. Here it is.

Aerik’s Mercury Planetary Incense

• Frankincense – 3 Parts
• Mastic – 3 Parts
• Cardamom (Whole) – 1 Part
• Star Anise (Whole) – 1 Part
• Clove (Whole) – 1 Part
• Lavender – 1 Part
• Jasmine – 1 Part
• Cassia (Powdered) – 1 Part

Notes: Grind until everything is chunky. Like coarse see salt. If you’d like to learn more about grinding incense by hand, check out my 101 guide to all things incense-related. I usually go light on Cassia.

It has eight ingredients because the number of Mercury is eight. If you need an explanation for why that is, you’ll have to wait for another post. (note to self, write a post about that)

Multiple Purposes

Okay, so the truth is that the above recipe isn’t solely for retrogrades. It’s a planetary incense blend that can be used for all things related to Mercury. You could use it as an general offering, burn it during Mercury-themed rituals, or… yeah, put some on a charcoal during retrogrades to lessen the effects.

But it definitely works during retrograde. I just throw some in our censer and say something like “Hey Mercury, this is for you. Please be gentle.”

Other Recipes from Interesting Folks

Agrippa and Franz Bardon also give recipes for Mercury incense. Here are their recipes.

Bardon’s Mercurian Sphere Incense (from The Practice of Magical Evocation)

• Mastic
• Frankincense
• Carnation Petals
• Aniseed
• Wood from the Juniper Shrub
• Chamomile Flower
• Valerian Root

Notes: Use equal parts of all ingredients. Grind to a fine powder.

Agrippa’s Suffumigation for Mercury (from Three Books of Occult Philosophy)

• Mastic
• Frankincense
• Clove
• Cinquefoil
• Stone Achates
• Brain of a Fox or Weasel
• Blood of a Pie

Notes: “Achates” stone most likely refers to an agate. Please do not use animal parts.

Or perhaps you’d like to make your own Mercury incense blend. In fact, I’d strongly recommend you do because it will be even more personal and unique to you. Grab any herbal reference guide (Scott Cunningham’s is classic), flip to the planetary correspondences, and gather any ingredients that catch your attention. Throw everything together and grind it in your mortar and pestle! It’s that easy.

Conclusions

That’s all for today. May this Mercury be gentle to you during this retrograde!

Hello, valiant reader. Since you have dared to forge to the end of this article, you deserve this disclosure as a reward. Indeed, there are Amazon affiliate links somewhere on this page. If you use one of those links to make a purchase, Amazon will pay me a tiny commission.