Working with Ronove: rhetoric, language, and the incense for that work

Ronove, and what working with him is for

Ronove is a Marquis in the Goetia, and the Grimoire Companion entry for him is specific: he teaches rhetoric and the arts, grants languages, and gives faithful servants. That is the domain of Ronove work, and this article stays inside it, rather than turning Ronove into a general spirit for general purposes.

Rhetoric, in this sense, is not empty talk. It is the art of speaking clearly, in the right order, to the right people, so that what you mean is actually heard. The arts, alongside it, are the practised skills that take years to learn well: writing, speaking, performance, and the crafts that depend on a trained hand and a trained eye. Languages are the third part, and they are the most practical of the three, because a new language opens a new set of people, books, and conversations that were closed to you before.

Before you light anything, be specific about which of those you mean. Are you working on a speech, a piece of writing, a performance, or a study of language itself? Are you preparing for a particular occasion, or building a skill over months? Those are different petitions, and they should not be blurred together. If you cannot state the matter in one clear sentence, write it down, leave it overnight, and come back to see if it still reads true. That pause is part of the work, not a delay in it.

Incense is not background scent

Incense is not background scent for this work. It is part of the working itself. That 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 Ronove, 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 a working that has no clear beginning often has no clear end either, and it drifts.

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.

Starting with the work, not with the tool

Spirit work is not shopping, and incense does not do the work for you. Before you light anything, be clear about why you are doing this working, what you are asking for, and what you are prepared to do yourself. A vague purpose produces a vague working, and a vague working is hard to read afterwards.

With Ronove, that clarity has an ordinary-world side that should not be skipped. Rhetoric is learned by speaking, and by being corrected. Languages are learned by study and by use, day after day. The arts are learned by practice, and by the criticism of people who know the craft better than you do. A working with Ronove does not replace any of that. It sits alongside it, as a ritual frame for the practice itself, not as a substitute for practice. If you are not doing the ordinary work, be honest about that before you light the incense, because a rite that covers for neglected practice will not teach you to speak well.

Ask yourself, plainly, what ordinary work this rite is framing. What are you studying, what are you writing, what are you preparing to say, and to whom? If you can answer those questions, the rite has something to frame. If you cannot, the first work is not ritual at all. It is sitting down, opening the book, and beginning the study.

Preparing the room

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.

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. Open a window a little, or leave a door ajar, and see how your room behaves before the night of the working, not during it.

Set out what you will need before you light anything: the incense, a safe burner or charcoal arrangement that you have used before, a seal or tool if your practice calls for one, and any text, notes, or instrument you will use in the working itself. Fumbling for a tool after the incense is lit breaks the very attention the incense is meant to hold.

Preparing yourself, and preparing what you will say

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.

With Ronove work, preparing what you will say has a double meaning. Prepare the petition for the rite itself, in your own words, direct and honest, kept to the matter at hand. And prepare, separately, the ordinary speech or writing the rite is about, if there is one. Know what you are going to say in the rite, and know what you are going to say in the world. A petition that tries to cover every possible outcome usually covers none of them well, and the same is true of a speech. Keep both direct, keep both honest, and keep both 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. That is rhetoric in miniature, and it is good practice for the larger rhetoric the working is about.

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 speak, time to listen, time to sit quietly and notice what changes, and time, in Ronove work, to practise the very skill the rite is about.

The Ronove 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.

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. Second, set out the incense, the burner, and any seal, tool, text, or notes you will use. Third, light the incense and let the space settle. Fourth, speak your petition, clearly and once, rather than repeating it until it loses its shape. Fifth, do the practice the rite is framing, if that is part of your working: speak the speech aloud, read the passage, practise the language, work the art. Sixth, sit quietly for a time and listen, rather than filling every moment with more words. Seventh, close the working properly, in whatever way your practice requires, and put the tools away in their proper place.

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 anything changed, and whether that change 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.

With Ronove work, keep a second record alongside the ritual one: a record of the ordinary practice itself. What did you study, what did you write, what did you speak, and how did it go? That record, over months, is what shows whether a skill is actually growing, and it is the record that keeps a rite honest.

What not to do

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.

Do not use incense as a substitute for the rest of the working. Lighting incense and then doing nothing else, with no petition, no attention, 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.

Keeping a record, and knowing when to stop

Keep a short record for each working: date, purpose in one sentence, incense used, what you did, and what you noticed afterwards, over days and weeks, not just on the night itself. If nothing changes, that is also information. It may mean the petition was unclear, the timing was wrong, the work was not appropriate, or simply that the situation needs a different approach.

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.

Ronove incense

Incense is not background scent for this work. It is part of the working itself.

I hand make Ronove 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 Ronove, 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: Ronove Goetia incense, $44 CAD. View the product

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