Sacred Remedies - Burning Copal
The fire is lit. The resin softens. A river of smoke rises, curling into the unseen, carrying prayers to the spirits who walk between worlds. The scent is ancient. Sweet and wild. A breath of the ancestors drifting through time.
Copal is the gift of the trees. The lifeblood of the Bursera family, weeping from their trunks like golden tears. The Maya called it pom, the Mexica named it copalli, both knowing it was more than resin. It was an offering. A bridge. A way to call the divine closer.
Deep in the jungles of Mesoamerica, the trees still stand, whispering to the wind, their resin hardening into sacred medicine. In ceremony, the elders burned it to cleanse their altars. To bless newborns. To honor the passing of a soul. In the great temples of Tenochtitlán, it curled into the sky as an offering to Huitzilopochtli, to Tlaloc, to the gods who wove the fabric of existence. In the homes of the people, it burned for protection, for healing, for guidance through the shifting tides of life.
The Different Kinds of Copal
Not all copal is the same. Each type holds its own medicine, its own spirit, its own voice in the great conversation between earth and sky.
White copal, the purest, the most revered, burned in the great temples. Its scent is crisp like the morning wind, carrying the prayers of those who seek clarity. Yellow copal, rich and warm, the scent of sunlight trapped in resin, used for healing, for abundance, for drawing the blessings of the ancestors near. Black copal, dark and deep, sacred to the night, burned in rites of transformation, in moments of release, in the shedding of old skin to walk a new path.
To work with copal is to work with raw spirit. The true resin, the one that melts over charcoal, the one that carries the essence of the trees, the one that has not been twisted by chemicals into incense sticks that mimic the sacred but do not hold its power.
Bringing Copal into Your Life
The elders say smoke carries prayers in a way the tongue cannot. That when the words will not come, when the heart is heavy, when the spirit feels lost, the scent of copal will open the way.
To cleanse, light the charcoal. Wait for it to glow. Place a piece of resin upon it and let the smoke rise. Walk it through your home. Let it drift into the corners, the doorways, the spaces where energy lingers. Let it carry away what does not belong.
To bless, light it before your altar. Wave the smoke over your body, over your hands, over your heart. Breathe it in. Let it wrap around you like a shawl woven from the prayers of the ancients.
To pray, let the scent open the path. Close your eyes. Whisper your words into the smoke. Speak to the spirits, to the ancestors, to the ones who listen beyond the veil. Trust that the smoke will carry them where they need to go.
A Final Blessing
May the scent of copal wrap around you like the embrace of those who walked before. May it cleanse what lingers. May it bless what is yet to come. May it carry your prayers to the unseen hands that weave your destiny.
Light the fire. Offer the resin. Let the sacred smoke rise.