Frankincense or olibanum is an aromatic resin obtained from the tree Boswellia thurifera or B. sacra. It is used in incense as well as in perfumes. Frankincense is tapped from Boswellia trees through slashing the bark and allowing the exuded resins to harden. Tapping is done 2 to 3 times a year with the final taps producing the best resin due to its higher aromatic terpene content. High quality resin can be visually discerned through its level of opacity. Omani frankincense is said to be the best in the world, although q ...

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• Frankincense - Articles
• Frankincense - Related Sites

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Read more here: » Boswellia: Encyclopedia - Boswellia

In perfumery, a base note is a class of odorants that evaporates very slowly and are typically not perceived until perfume drydown. Essential oils used as fixatives are often considered to be base notes. sandalwood patchouli frankincense Categories: Perfumery | Olfaction Other related archivesEssential oils, Olfaction, Perfumery, fixatives, frankincense, patchouli, perfumery, sandalwood

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The Sabaeans were ancient people who lived in what is today Yemen and north of Ethiopia and Eritrea in the 1st millennium BC and spoke an earlier version of a South Semitic language. They may be the same nation as the biblical kingdom of Sheba. They made substantial profits off the spice trade, especially frankincense, and left behind many inscriptions in the musnad (Old South Arabian) alphabet. They were polytheistic, and should not be confused with the Sabians mentioned in the Qur'an, whose name is written with the Arabic let

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Epiphany celebrates the intervention of God in the life of a people, relating effectively, the Christmas message which emerged from Christ's birth place at Bethlehem. Hence it is also called the Feast of Lights or the Candlemas Feast.

In the past it was also known as the Twelfth Day as it falls on the twelfth day after Christmas and winds up formally the Christmas season of rejoicing.

(See also: Epiphany, Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

With the Christmas-New Year festive season round the corner, we are about to spin into another frenetic round of gift-giving. The act of exchanging gifts, however, has undergone a huge metamorphosis, from a personal heartfelt offering to a commercial ritual, true to today's market mantra, which goads one to 'shop till you drop'.

'To give' may not always be the same as 'to gift', although we often take one to be a synonym of the other. In giving is included the emotion of caring for, and nurturing. Whether it is tending a love relationship like a garden or bringing up children, some of the most precious moments of our lives are ones in which we give of ourselves. When we share of our deepest selves and take care of another using our love and energy.

(See also: Christmas, Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

The Adoration of the Magi is the name traditionally given to a Christian religious scene in which the three Magi, almost always represented as kings, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: in the church calendar, this event is commemorated as the Feast of the Epiphany. Christian iconography has considerably expanded the bare account given in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (2:1-11) and used it to press the point that Jesus was ...

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• Adoration of the Magi - Treatment by individual artists
• Adoration of the Magi - External link

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Benzoin resin or styrax resin is a balsamic resin obtained from the bark of several species of trees in the genus Styrax. It is used in perfumes, some kinds of incense & medicine. It contains benzoic acid. Commonly called "benzoin", it is called "benzoin resin" here to distinguish it from the crystalline compound benzoin. Benzoin resin does not contain the crystalline compound benzoin. Benzoin is also called gum benzoin or gum benjamin, but "gum" is incorre ...

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Incense is a preparation of aromatic plant matter, often with the addition of essential oils extracted from plant or animal sources, intended to release fragrant smoke for religious, therapeutic, or aesthetic purposes as it smolders. In the past, Chinese and Japanese society used incense as a time keeping device in the form of incense clocks. Incense - Forms and use of incense. Incense is available in numerous forms and degree of processing. However incense can generally be separated into direct burning< ...

Including:

• Incense - Forms and use of incense
• Incense - Direct burning
• Incense - Indirect burning
• Incense - Manufacturing
• Incense - Fragrant materials
• Incense - Combustible incense base
• Incense - Mixture properties
• Incense - Forming incense
• Incense - Religious and ethnic use of incense
• Incense - Biblical use
• Incense - Christianity
• Incense - Buddhism Shinto and Japan
• Incense - Paganism
• Incense - Criticism of incense
• Incense - Health risk
• Incense - Strong smell
• Incense - Flammability

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Iram of the Pillars (إرَم ذات العماد, Iram dhāt al-`imād), also called Ubar or Wabar or the City of a Thousand Pillars, is a lost city on the Arabian Peninsula. Ubar was mentioned in ancient records and was spoken of in folk tales as a trading center of the Rub al Khali Desert in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula. It is estimated that it lasted from about 3000 B.C to the first century A.D. It became, according to legends, fabulously wealthy from trade of the coastal regions to ...

Including:

• Iram of the Pillars - Re-Discovery of Ubar/Iram

Read more here: » Iram of the Pillars: Encyclopedia - Iram of the Pillars

Myrrh is a red-brown resinous material, the dried sap of the Commiphora myrrha tree, native to Somalia and the eastern parts of Ethiopia. A number of other Commiphora or Balsamodendron saps are also known as myrrh, including that from Commiphora erythraea (sometimes called East Indian myrrh), Commiphora opobalsamum and Balsamodendron kua. Its name is derived from the Hebrew

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Showbread, shewbread, Schaubrot, lechem (hap)pānīm(לחם פנים) refers to the twelve cakes or loaves of bread which were continually present on the Table of Shewbread in the Jewish Temple as an offering to Yhwh. Shewbread - Composition and Presentation. Shewbread - Biblical Data:. Twelve cakes, with two-tenths of an ephah in each, and baked of fine flour, which were ranged in two rows (or piles) on the "pure" table that stood before Yhwh ...

Including:

• Shewbread - Composition and Presentation
• Shewbread - Biblical Data:
• Shewbread - In Josephus
• Shewbread - In Rabbinical Literature:
• Shewbread - Rabbinical Traditions
• Shewbread - The Table
• Shewbread - Critical View:
• Shewbread - Bibliography

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Nativity is the general time and place of a person's birth and early years. The term has evolved a strong association, at least in Western civilization through the enfluences of Christianity to the nativity of Jesus of Nazareth iconified as simply The Nativity. The term can also apply to cultural appropriation to identify the specific and general situation, as in Native land, language, political system and environment of a person. In this sense, a person's nativity is construed (or misconstrued) to form a basis for a general im ...

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• Nativity - The Nativity of Jesus

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Apicius was a name applied to three celebrated Roman epicures, the first of whom lived during the Republic; the second of whom, Marcus Gavius (or Gabius) Apicius—the most famous in his own time—lived under the early Empire; the third of whom, probably no relation, was the late 4th or early 5th century author of the one surviving Roman cookbook. The famous "Apicius," M. Gavius Apicius, moved in the Imperial circle of Tiberius and his son Drusus (died CE 23) and was a close friend of Sejanus, according to ...

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The Nabataeans were a trading people of ancient Arabia, whose oasis settlements in the time of Josephus gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases and the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert. Nabataeans - Culture. Thousands of graffiti and inscriptions document the area of Nabataean culture and testify to wi ...

Including:

• Nabataeans - Culture
• Nabataeans - Origins
• Nabataeans - The Hellenistic and Roman periods
• Nabataeans - List of Nabatean kings
• Nabataeans - Notes

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THURIBLE

Three-legged dish for burning ritual frankincense and other sacrifices.

(See also: THURIBLE, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

holiday aromatherapy: Adaptation of aromatherapy to holiday time. It involves the use of scents associated with such a season (e.g., Christmassy scents such as of frankincense, myrrh, and pine).

(See also: Holiday aromatherapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Recent discoveries have brought Iram out of the realm of myth into history. The first came when tablets found in the archives of Ebla were found to mention Iram by name. A more recent discovery occurred when archaeologists examined photographs taken of the Persian Gulf Coast from the space shuttle Challenger in 1984. These photos revealed some buried cities along the ancient frankincense trade route dating from 2800 BC and 100 BC. One, on the eastern edge of Oman in the Dhofar province, proved t ...

See also:

Iram of the Pillars, Iram of the Pillars - Re-Discovery of Ubar/Iram

Read more here: » Iram of the Pillars: Encyclopedia II - Iram of the Pillars - Re-Discovery of Ubar/Iram

Muscat, like much of Oman, is dominated by trade. The more traditional exports of the city include dates, mother of pearl, frankincense and fish. Many of the souks of old Muscat and Muttrah sell these items and traditional Omani artefacts. The Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has been central to Muscat's economy since atleast 1962 and is the country's second largest employer, after the government. PDO's major shareholders include Royal Dutch/Shell and Partex and its production is estimat ...

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Muscat Oman, Muscat Oman - History, Muscat Oman - Economy, Muscat Oman - Society and religion, Muscat Oman - Transportation

Read more here: » Muscat Oman: Encyclopedia II - Muscat Oman - Economy

Muscat, like much of Oman, is dominated by trade. The more traditional exports of the city include dates, mother of pearl, frankincense and fish. Many of the souks of old Muscat and Muttrah sell these items and traditional Omani artefacts. The Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has been central to Muscat's economy since atleast 1962 and is the country's second largest employer, after the government. PDO's major shareholders include Royal Dutch/Shell and Partex and its production is estimat ...

See also:

Muscat Oman, Muscat Oman - History, Muscat Oman - Economy, Muscat Oman - Society and religion, Muscat Oman - Transport

Read more here: » Muscat Oman: Encyclopedia II - Muscat Oman - Economy