Light of Ki

A wand is a pointing tool. That is all it is, and it turns out to be more than it sounds.

Attention is the thing we spend whether or not we mean to, and most of it goes to what we don't want. The thing that might go wrong. The message that hasn't come. The number that isn't moving. A wand is a way of aiming that somewhere else on purpose, with the arm and the hand involved rather than only the head.

Nobody picks a wand up and points it at what they're dreading. The gesture only runs in one direction, and that is the useful part of it.

More energy. Deeper creativity. Greater wealth. Expanded time. More delight.

If it were in your hand right now, where would you point it?

The form · Carved from a single piece of palo santo, aged more than thirty years. Two forms rise and twist around each other along the whole length, with a ribbed section at the base, so you find it without looking for it.

The rests · Two small carved blocks, so it lies level instead of rolling off whatever you put it on. Within reach rather than in a drawer.

On using it · A wand is a tool. What you point at is up to you.

No living tree was cut for it.

Solid dhoop incense with no bamboo core. 70% palo santo wood powder, 30% Phoebe bark as a binder, and water. Slowly sun-dried.

Nothing else: no perfume, no oils, no aroma enhancers.

A stick burns about thirty minutes. It snaps cleanly, so you can take a shorter length when you don't want the full run: trim at a third for about ten minutes, at half for about fifteen.

The box has a metal ring built into it that works as a holder.

This is the form of incense found in Japan and Tibet rather than India, where a bamboo core is standard.

The wood · A living palo santo tree has almost no scent. The oil forms only after the tree falls and lies on the forest floor, where it produces resin to protect itself from the insects that would otherwise decompose it. That process can run for five to ten years. Our wood was gathered in Peru between 1989 and 1995, and it has been aging in Taiwan ever since.

Handling · The sticks are fragile. They travel best flat. Handle with care.