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 one 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 · Cut 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 grip at the base so the hand finds its place without looking. Computer-guided carving is what keeps the twist even from end to end.

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, and the power is in the one handling it.

Wand · 245 × 26 mm (9.65 × 1.02 in), 25.36 g (0.89 oz)
Each rest · 40 × 25 mm base, 61 mm high (1.57 × 0.98 × 2.40 in), 12.4 g (0.44 oz)
No engraving

No living tree was cut for it. The wood came down on its own in Peru and has been aging in Taiwan ever since.

Solid incense with no bamboo core. Palo santo wood powder, Phoebe bark as a binder, and water. 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. That core is a large part of what people are smelling when they say incense smells like incense. There isn't one here.

Nothing is taken out · A great deal of the palo santo on the market is what is left after the oil has been distilled out of it for perfume. The wood gets sold on afterwards, which is why so much of it smells faint. No oil has been taken out of ours.

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. So nothing is cut for any of our products. The wood was harvested in Peru between 1989 and 1995, and it has been aging in Taiwan ever since.

Composition · 70% palo santo, 30% Phoebe bark binder, water. Molded and sun-dried.
Each stick · 150 × 2.5 mm (5.91 × 0.10 in)
In the box · 15 g (0.5 oz), around 30 sticks
Pack · 156 × 44.5 × 10.3 mm, 26 g (0.92 oz) gross. Kraft box with a printed paper sleeve.

Handling · The sticks are brittle without a core. They travel best flat.

Caution · Never leave anything burning unattended. Use a holder that collects the ash, in a ventilated room, well away from curtains, paper, or anything else that can catch fire. Do not touch a stick while it is alight. Keep out of reach of children and pets.

Light of Ki is a member of 1% for the Planet. One percent of our sales goes to environmental nonprofits, verified annually rather than self-declared.