EXPERIMENTING WITH LIBANOMANCY-INCENSE DIVINATION
Not having a fireplace or an outdoor fire pit where I could try true capnomancy, I tried libanomancy– divination by incense, instead.
Turning off the HVAC unit in the room so it wouldn’t create suction, I first tested the test area with a lit match, to make sure there were no other drafts which would pull the smoke consistently in any one particular direction. I positioned the incense burner at least 2 ft./6 dm. from away from my face, so my breathing wouldn’t be a factor either. I had three different kinds of incense to test: small-stick incense, cone incense, and loose-powder, homemade incense.
Starting with plain old 4.75 in/12.5 cm stick incense, I noted it could be relied-upon to give off a straight slender stream of smoke, wavering only occasionally. The problem is, the straight stream of smoke from this tiny incense stick was so slender, it was at times hard to see, even with a darkish-colored wall behind it. I asked it an obvious yes question, and the smoke stayed straight most of the way, while in response to an obvious no question, the smoke appeared to have stopped altogether for a moment, then started again. The short-stick incense generated the least smoke, and was at times hard to see, but it had the virtue of not burning for very long, only about ten to fifteen minutes, so if you’re time-pressed, but want to smoke-divine, it might be a viable option for you.
I then wanted to try the home-made loose-powder incense, and for that you need a charcoal block, but I had a devil of a time getting the charcoal block lighted. After about six tries, I gave up. Now I know why some people just go with the self-igniting charcoal blocks. So I set the cone incense on the still-intact charcoal disk, hoping it might eventually help ignite the charcoal block as it burned down. The cone incense fairly-consistently gave off a slightly-stronger stream of smoke than the small-stick incense did, though it burned for about as long. So if you’re pressed for time, but still want to smoke-divine, the cone incense is a better option than the small-stick incense.
When I knocked loose the ash at the top of the cone, I realized the base was a still-smoldering ember, so jumping at the chance, I threw a tiny spoonful of the loose-powder incense on the ember, and was rewarded with a good, strong, but-not-overpowering cloud of smoke. I wasn’t able to do this more than a minute or two, but the loose-powder incense easily gave off the best smoke for divining. Problem is, my homemade, loose-powder incense didn’t smell as good as the stick or the cone incense, so you might want to keep scent in mind, and what sort of burning-smells you can tolerate when smoke-divining, and go with some nice-smelling, commercially-made incense.
I didn’t have any of the foot-long/3 dm stick incense on hand to try, but I suspect that would be a good option as well, given that it’s more substantial than the short-stick incense, and it will burn longer.