Bifrons incense: astrology, geometry, herbs, and the dead

Who Bifrons is in the Goetia material

Bifrons is an Earl in the Goetia material, and the Grimoire Companion data describes his work in terms that span a wide field: he teaches astrology, geometry, and the virtues of herbs and woods, and he moves the resting dead. That is a distinctive combination. Astrology is the measure of the heavens. Geometry is the measure of form and space. Herbs and woods are the living materials of the earth. The resting dead belong to what lies beneath and behind ordinary life. Work with Bifrons, on this reading, touches measurement in all its forms: the sky, the shape, the plant, and the threshold.

That breadth is worth respecting. A practitioner who approaches Bifrons for only one of those terms, astrology alone, or herbs alone, may miss how they belong together in the traditional picture. The measures reinforce each other. Astrology gives timing and pattern. Geometry gives structure and proportion. Herbs give material and virtue. The dead give depth and memory. A working that holds those together, even quietly, is working with Bifrons as the tradition presents him, rather than with a single fragment.

Astrology and geometry: learning to measure

Astrology and geometry, taught together, point to a particular kind of learning: learning to measure well. In astrology, the measure is time and position: where the planets stand, what aspects they form, and what those patterns have traditionally signified. In geometry, the measure is form: proportion, angle, and the shapes that underlie both natural forms and built ones. A practitioner who studies both learns to see pattern in two registers at once, the pattern of the heavens and the pattern of form, and that double vision is itself a skill.

That skill is best built by steady study, not by a single working. If you are studying astrology, keep a chart record, note transits and their traditional meanings, and compare them, over time, with what actually happened. If you are studying geometry, draw the forms by hand, slowly, rather than only reading about them. Hand drawing teaches proportion in a way that reading does not, because the hand learns the measure as well as the eye. Spirit work on these subjects accompanies that study. It does not replace it, and it works best when it accompanies real effort.

Herbs and woods: virtues, not just names

A virtue is a property in use: how a herb behaves in a working, what it is suited for, and how it combines with other materials. That knowledge is learned by handling the materials, by smelling and working with them, and by noting what happens when they are used, in plain terms, over time.

For incense work, that point is immediate. Incense is made from plant and wood materials, and its virtue lies in how those materials behave when burned: how the scent develops, how long it lasts, and how it changes the atmosphere of a room. A practitioner who works with Bifrons incense, and who also studies herbs, will notice those qualities more sharply than a practitioner who only lights incense without attending to it. Attention to the material is itself part of the learning the tradition describes.

The resting dead, approached with care

The last term in the Companion description, moving the resting dead, is the one that most requires steady, respectful handling. Work with the dead, in any tradition, is threshold work. It touches grief, memory, and what has been left unresolved, and it should be approached with the same care you would bring to any threshold: slowly, with a clear purpose, and with attention to closing the working properly afterwards. If you are grieving, or if the dead in question are your own close dead, take particular care, and consider whether a simpler, quieter practice, remembrance, tending a grave or a memorial, or a plain spoken acknowledgement, is the right form for now.

Being specific about what you want helps here as well. Are you seeking knowledge from the past, a settling of something unresolved, or a clearer sense of lineage and memory? Each is a different purpose, and each calls for a different kind of working and a different kind of closing. A vague approach to the dead tends to stir more than it settles. A clear, bounded approach, with a definite beginning and a definite end, serves both the practitioner and the matter at hand.

Why incense, and what it does in the room

Incense in Goetia work does a different job from a seal or an oil. A seal gives you a point of focus. An oil marks and anoints. Incense fills the space and sets the atmosphere for the working itself. When you light incense for a Bifrons working, you are not only adding scent to a room. You are marking a change in the room, a shift from ordinary time to working time, and you are giving the working a sensory frame that your attention can return to whenever it drifts.

That frame matters most at the beginning of a working, when the mind is still full of the day, and at the end, when the working needs to close cleanly. The scent arriving, settling, and then fading gives the working a shape in time that words alone do not always provide. It is a simple mechanism, and its simplicity is why it has lasted: it works through the senses, directly, without requiring you to believe anything about it in advance.

How this incense is made here

The incenses offered here are a small variety of very rare and very useful incense, hand made in small batches. Each batch of incense 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, successfully, for spirit work, work for clients, as well as her own spellwork.

Made-to-order matters for incense in the same way it matters for oil. Incense that has sat, opened and closed, through other people's orders is not the same as incense made fresh for your order. Freshness in this context is not a luxury claim. It is about the scent being clear and full when you light it, rather than faded, and about the working starting from a material that has not been handled through many hands before reaching you.

A simple order for a Bifrons working

The following is a general order, not a fixed script, to adapt to the system you already work in. First, settle the question: what measure are you studying, or what threshold matter are you approaching, in one plain sentence. Second, prepare the room and yourself, clearing the space and giving yourself a few quiet minutes. Third, set out the seal or tools you will use, if your system calls for them, and light the incense, letting the room settle before you speak. Fourth, speak your petition clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses shape. Fifth, sit quietly and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Sixth, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools away.

Afterwards, write down what you did, when you did it, and what you noticed, in plain language, over days and weeks rather than only on the night itself. For study work, note what you actually learned, and whether it checked out. For threshold work, note what settled and what did not, in concrete terms. That record is what lets you tell, later, whether the working bore on the matter you named, or whether it only felt significant at the time.

A note on expectations

No incense, and no working with Bifrons, can promise a particular magical result, and this article promises none. What is offered here is incense hand made in small batches, when you order, of a quality used by its maker for her own spirit work and spellwork, for use in your own practice. What follows from that practice, in terms of magical result, is yours to observe, not mine to guarantee. That wording is about the magical result itself, not about delivery dates for a physical item.

Bifrons Goetia incense

If you are doing spirit work and spellwork with Bifrons, and you want incense made for that work, this is the incense offered here: hand made in small batches when you order, for spirit work and spellwork with Bifrons.

The incense is: Bifrons Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

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