Working with Amy: astrology, the liberal sciences, and incense for study
Amy, study, and the question behind the study
In the Grimoire Companion material, Amy is a President whose work is tied to knowledge, divination, familiars, and treasure: he teaches astrology and the liberal sciences, grants familiars, and discovers hidden treasures. That is a study field, and it is the field this article stays inside. Astrology and the liberal sciences are not quick answers. They are disciplines learned slowly, by reading, by calculating, by drawing, and by checking your work against experience, over months and years rather than in a single evening.
Before you light incense for Amy work, be specific about the study you mean, in one sentence. Are you working on a chart, on a branch of the liberal sciences, on a text you are trying to understand, or on a piece of research where something hidden needs to be found? What is the question that study is meant to answer? If you cannot state the study in one sentence, you are not yet preparing for Amy work. You are preparing for a general interest in old books, and that interest, while real, is not a working. Incense prepares the room for study. It does not do the study for you.
Hidden treasures, in this field, deserve a plain reading as well. A treasure, here, is not only a buried object. It can be a fact hidden in a text, a connection between two subjects you had kept separate, a source you had overlooked, or a piece of your own notes that suddenly makes sense when read again. Be specific about what kind of treasure you are looking for, and about where you have already looked. A working that begins with a clear account of what has already been tried is easier to read afterwards than a working that begins with a vague hope that something will turn up.
Incense is not background scent
Incense is not background scent for this work. It is part of the working itself. That is a good place to start, because it corrects a habit many practitioners bring into the room without noticing it. We are used to scent in ordinary life being pleasant, or atmospheric, or something that makes a room feel nicer. In ritual work, incense does a different job. It marks the time as set apart, it fills the space you are working in, and it stays with you through the working, in a way a spoken word does not.
When you light incense for spirit work and spellwork with Amy, you are not adding decoration to a working that would be the same without it. You are changing the room you are working in, and you are changing your own attention along with it. The smoke, the scent, and the act of lighting itself all tell you, in a physical way, that you have begun. That beginning matters, because study that has no clear beginning often has no clear end either, and it drifts into ordinary reading, ordinary browsing, and ordinary distraction.
So treat the lighting as a step in the work, not as preparation for the work. Do it deliberately, name the purpose in your own words if that is part of your practice, and then give the room a moment to settle before you go on to anything else. Set out the study materials before you light anything, so you are not fumbling for a book or a chart after the incense is lit, breaking the very attention the incense is meant to hold.
Preparing the room and yourself
Preparation is most of the work, and with incense that is literally true, because the room is the thing the incense acts on. Clear the space you will use, physically, and set it aside for this purpose. Put away the things that pull your attention elsewhere. If you have a regular working space, use it. If you do not, choose one place and use it consistently for this working, so the place itself starts to carry the association, and so the preparation becomes a habit rather than a fresh decision every time.
Ventilation matters, in a practical sense that is easy to overlook when you are focused on the ritual side. A room that is completely sealed will fill with smoke quickly, and a room that is wide open will lose the scent before the working is done. Find a balance that works for your space: enough air to breathe comfortably, enough containment that the scent remains present through the working. Try that balance before the night of the working, not during it.
Then prepare yourself. Bathe, or at least wash your hands and face, and change into clothes you do not wear for ordinary errands. This is not about looking a certain way for anyone else. It is about marking, for yourself, that this time is set apart. Eat simply beforehand if you can, and avoid starting a working when you are exhausted, drunk, or already agitated. A clear head is a working tool, just as much as incense or oil is, and in study work a clouded head shows up quickly, in a chart misread or a passage skimmed instead of read.
Know what you are going to say, in your own words, and know what you are not going to say. A petition that tries to cover every possible outcome usually covers none of them well. Keep it direct, keep it honest, and keep it to the matter at hand. If your practice calls for a formal form of address, use the form you have been taught. If it does not, plain, direct words said once, clearly, are better than a long improvisation that loses its shape halfway through.
Why incense, and why this incense
Incense works in a room in a way that oil alone does not. Oil marks and anoints, and it stays on the skin or on a tool. Incense fills the space itself. It is present whether you are looking at it or not, and it is present for the whole working, not just at the moment you apply it. That presence is useful when a working needs time: time to read, time to calculate, time to sit quietly and notice what changes in your understanding.
The Amy incense offered here is hand made in the same way as the other incenses on this site. Each batch is hand made when you order it, unless a batch has just recently been made. The incenses made here are of a quality that Athena uses herself for magical work. They work well enough that she uses them successfully for spirit work, work for clients, as well as her own spellwork.
That made-to-order point matters here, too. It means the incense has not been sitting, opened and closed, through other people's orders. It is made for your order, and then blessed by Athena herself before it is sent out. No promise about what it will do for you is made here, only that it is made by hand, for this work, and not mass produced. For study work, that distinction is not a luxury. It is part of taking the preparation seriously, in the same way that taking notes seriously is part of taking the study seriously.
Oil to go with the incense, and fumigation
Oil and incense are often used together in Goetia work, and Amy work is no exception. They do different jobs in the room, and they reinforce each other when they are used together with a clear purpose. The oil marks and anoints. The incense fills the space and sets the atmosphere for the working itself.
If you are doing a full working, rather than simply burning incense on its own, use both. Anoint first, with a clear purpose in mind, then light the incense and let the room settle before you speak your petition or begin your study. Do not rush from lighting to speaking. Give the room a moment to change, and give yourself a moment to notice that change. The Amy oil offered here is made in the same way as the other oils on this site: from only pure essential oils, roots and herbs, with no synthetics and no fillers, sometimes with the odd gemstone thrown in, in a 1/2 oz bottle, about twice as large as those little health food store essential oil bottles, unless otherwise stated. Each batch is hand made when you order.
If you are only burning incense to fumigate a tool or a seal for later use, that is also a recognised use in this kind of work: to start a working, and for fumigating the tools and talismans that will be used in it. Do that fumigation deliberately, too, passing the item through the smoke with the purpose in mind, rather than waving it through quickly and putting it away. For study work, fumigating the books, charts, or tools you will use is a way of marking them, at the start of a working, as set apart for that working, rather than as ordinary objects on an ordinary desk.
A simple working order, to adapt to your own practice
The following is a general order, not a fixed script. Adapt it to the system you already work in, and to the instructions you already follow for Goetia work. First, prepare the room and yourself, as above, and set out the study materials. Second, set out the incense, the burner, and the oil and any seal or tool you will use. Third, anoint, if you are using oil, deliberately, naming the purpose in your own words. Fourth, light the incense and let the space settle. Fifth, speak your petition or state your study question, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Sixth, work: read, calculate, draw, and write notes as you go, rather than filling the time with more words. Seventh, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools and study materials away in their proper places.
Afterwards, write down what you did, when you did it, and what you noticed. Not what you hoped would happen, but what actually happened, in plain language. That record is what lets you tell, weeks later, whether your reading or your understanding actually improved, and whether that improvement had anything to do with the work. Note the incense itself in that record: how much you used, how the room behaved, how long the scent remained. Those practical details are part of learning how to work with incense well, not a distraction from it.
What to watch for, and knowing when to stop
Do not burn incense in a room where it is unsafe to do so, and do not leave a burner unattended. Use a safe burner, on a heat-proof surface, away from curtains, papers, and anything that could catch, and stay with it for the whole working. That is a practical point, but it is also a ritual point: a working that ends in a fire risk, or in a room full of smoke you cannot breathe in, has not been prepared properly.
Do not use incense as a substitute for the rest of the working. Lighting incense and then doing nothing else, with no petition, no study, and no closing, is not spirit work. It is just a room that smells different. The incense supports the work, it does not replace it. If you have sensitivities to smoke or to particular incense ingredients, test carefully, ventilate well, or choose a different form of working. If the incense makes you cough, or gives you a headache, that is information, not a test of dedication. Stop, ventilate, and reconsider how, and how much, you use.
Keep a short record for each working, and do not repeat the same working endlessly in the hope that repetition alone will force a result. Do the work properly, once, observe, and then decide, calmly, whether a second working, a different approach, or no further working is the right next step. Repetition without reflection is not persistence. It is noise. Study, like ritual, needs that pause, or it becomes copying without understanding.
Amy incense, and Amy oil to go with it
Incense is not background scent for this work. It is part of the working itself.
I hand make Amy incense myself, in small batches, when you order, and I bless it myself before it is sent out. It is incense I use myself for spirit work and spellwork with Amy, not a bulk incense relabelled for the purpose. I make no promise about what it will do for you, only that it is made by hand, for this work.
If you want the incense for that work, this is the one I offer: Amy Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product
I also make the oil to go with it, for the same work: Amy Goetia grimoire demon evocation oil, $44 CAD, 1/2 oz bottle. View the product
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