Satya Sacred Ritual: warm, creamy incense from India
Sacred Ritual belongs to Satya's Nag Champa range. The box carries the name of the maker, Shrinivas Sugandhalaya, the house that turned Nag Champa into a household scent. What you get is warm and faintly creamy with a woody undertone. It sits close to classic Nag Champa but comes out softer and less floral, which keeps it from taking over a small room.
The sticks are rolled by hand. A paste of sandalwood powder, resins, herbs and fragrance oil is wound around a thin bamboo stick and then dried, so the scent comes from the mixture itself rather than from a coat of perfume applied afterwards. A box holds 15 grams, roughly 12 to 15 sticks, and each one burns for something like 30 to 45 minutes. Because every stick is turned by hand, thickness varies a little from one to the next; that comes with the method and says nothing about quality. Incense from this range gets burned during meditation and yoga as readily as it gets used simply to scent a room.
Burning a stick
Light the tip, let the flame catch for two or three seconds and blow it out. The stick keeps glowing and releases a thin ribbon of smoke. Stand it in an incense holder or a small pot of sand, on a surface that can take falling ash. Keep the room lightly ventilated and never leave a burning stick unattended.
Storage and other scents
Keep the box closed and dry. Even unlit, the sticks give off their fragrance slowly, and a closed box holds that strength far longer. Alongside Sacred Ritual, Avalon Magic Plants stocks more scents from the same range, among them Nirvana, Mystic Yoga, Seven Chacra, Money Matrix and Californian White Sage, plus Satya classics such as Palo Santo, Musk and Natural, and holders to stand your sticks in.
