Copal oil

How to Use It

Witchcraft & Folk Magick

• Anoint crystals, charms and tools to charge them after cleansing.
• Dress a white candle for purifying a room.
• Rub onto an ancestor altar or offering bowl.

Hoodoo & Rootwork

• Anoint the doorframes after a spiritual cleansing to seal in good energy.
• Add to a limpia-style bath for clearing heavy energy.

Ceremonial & Occult Magick

• Consecrate tools and talismans as a solar, purifying offering.
• Dress candles in workings of the Sun or for devotional offerings to Mesoamerican deities.

A Simple Working

• Take a white chime candle and the object you want to charge.
• Cleanse the object first, with smoke, salt or running water.
• Dress the candle with Copal oil from base to wick.
• Anoint the object with a single drop.
• Light the candle and set the object in front of it.
• State clearly what the object is for and leave it while the candle burns down.
• Keep the charged object on your altar or carry it.

Pairs Well With

• Copal resin, burned on charcoal alongside the oil.
• Marigold, the cempasúchil flower of Día de Muertos altars.
• Frankincense, for a European counterpart in purification.
• White candles, for cleansing and blessing.

What You Receive

Copal oil, in a 1 oz bottle.

Origin & Lore

Copal oil is named for copal, the aromatic resin of several tropical trees, especially Bursera and Protium, that the peoples of Mexico and Central America burned as an offering to the gods. The name comes from the Nahuatl copalli, and copal is still burned in churches, on Día de Muertos altars and in curandero cleansings today.

The Maya called copal pom, and the Popol Vuh tells that the first people burned it to greet the first sunrise.

Copal was burned in great quantity at Aztec temples and was offered into the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá, where divers have recovered lumps of it alongside jade and gold. In the Popol Vuh, the K’iche’ Maya creation story, the first people burned copal as they waited for the first dawn.