Mastic (Chios)

Mastic is the resin from a small, evergreen Mediterranean tree. The best mastic comes from the Greek island of Chios, where it has been collected for thousands of years. The resin is pale yellow with a scent that is light and breezy compared to similar resins such as copal blanco and frankincense. Unlike those resins, mastic has a rich tradition as a flavoring in food as well as use in incense; it is used to make mastic liqueurs, flavor Turkish delight, ice cream, cookies, and also savory dishes, often with lemon. Additionally, the resin can be chewed directly as a rustic chewing gum.

In magical operations, mastic finds most of its historical uses in the ceremonial magic traditions from the Medieval through Early Modern era. In the Key of Solomon and its later derivative works, mastic is assigned as the most efficacious fume for magical operations ruled by Mercury. As an example, in the Ars Almadel of the Lemegeton, three grains of mastic are employed as a pleasing incense to the angels, enabling their communication with the magician. Further, mastic is used to bind such spirits to tangible objects carved with specific sigils. Elsewhere, in more practical matters, grimoires include mastic in recipes for magical inks, presumably for its physical properties to thicken and bind the disparate components, and Abertus Magnus prescribes it to join broken stones and glass.

Use mastic to communicate between the spiritual and physical worlds, joining them together. It is used to bind, not in the Saturnian sense of restricting, but in the Mercurial sense of combining separate pieces into a greater whole.

We import our mastic directly from suppliers in Greece to ensure its authenticity.