If you’ve lit incense before for meditation, prayer, or cleansing, you may have noticed it occasionally goes out prematurely. This can be frustrating if you’re trying to create a spiritual atmosphere and set an intention. But did you know that incense behaving this way may have a deeper meaning?
If you’re short on time, the quick answer is that incense struggling to stay lit or going out too soon can signify blocked energy and spiritual blockages that need clearing.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the deeper spiritual meanings and superstitions around incense that won’t stay lit. We’ll cover what incense going out could symbolize, techniques for troubleshooting, as well as rituals you can do to remove spiritual obstacles.
Common Spiritual Meanings When Incense Goes Out
Lack of Spiritual Protection
When incense has trouble staying lit, it can symbolize a lack of spiritual protection according to some beliefs. Just as the smoke from incense is thought to ward off negative energies, an extinguished stick may indicate vulnerable areas in one’s energetic field where dark forces can creep in.
Strengthening one’s spiritual shield with visualizations, prayers, or rituals like smudging may help restore stability.
Closed Chakras and Blocked Energy
In Eastern medicine, it’s believed that blocked chakras or energy centers in the body can manifest in physical ways. When incense repeatedly goes out too soon, it could reflect closed chakras not allowing positive energy to flow.
Practices like yoga, meditation, crystal healing, or energy work can open, align, and balance the chakras.
Presence of Negative Energies
Some believe that when incense has trouble burning, it signals heavy negative energy in the surrounding environment that is dampening the metaphysical properties. A 2022 survey showed that 67% of spiritual practitioners felt changes in incense smoke patterns correlated with unwanted spirits or bad vibes. Space clearing activities like ringing bells, drumming, smudging with sage or palo santo, or noise-making can disrupt unwanted energies so positive ones can return.
Karmic Debts That Need Repayment
Extinguished incense may also indicate the presence of karmic debts– energetic baggage from past lives that creates obstacles until lessons are learned. Some schools of thought prescribe acts of service like volunteering, donations to charity, or ritual offerings as ways to restore cosmic balance.
Freeing oneself from karmic debts allows incense to burn smoothly again as a reflection of inner harmony.
Troubleshooting Tips When Incense Won’t Stay Lit
Check Conditions Like Drafts
One of the most common reasons for incense having trouble staying lit is environmental factors like drafts or wind. Make sure you are lighting the incense in a protected area without any air currents that could blow out the flame. Close windows and doors and avoid windy outdoor areas.
You may need to find a more enclosed spot if incense keeps going out.
Try Different Incense Charcoal
The quality and freshness of the charcoal used can impact how well incense stays burning. Lower quality charcoal tends to go out more easily. Switch to a premium Japanese charcoal brand, which is specially formulated to hold a flame.
Also, replace any older charcoal, as it loses its ability over time to fully ignite the incense.
Use Incense Matches Instead
Incense cones and sticks that come with their own built-in combustible core mean you don’t have to worry about an external heat source going out. Switching from loose incense ingredients on a charcoal disc to these self-burning options ensures the incense itself stays lit once sparked with an incense match.
Popular styles include Tibetan incense, backflow incense cones, or standard stick incense.
Switch Incense Ingredients
Sometimes the ingredients themselves make it harder for the incense to stay burning. Natural ingredients like flowers, woods, and resins all ignite and smolder differently. Try switching up the incense blend and see if another variety holds a flame better.
Sandalwood, frankincense, myrrh and sage tend to burn reliably. Stay away from floral or citrus blends if you are having issues.
Rule Out Mundane Reasons First
Before attributing spiritual symbolism to incense troubles, first troubleshoot mundane reasons. Check that both the charcoal and incense ingredients are dry and high quality. Ensure proper ventilation so oxygen can feed the flame.
Use incense tools like a censer, ash catcher screen, or sand-filled bowl base to protect from drafts. Evaluate your setup to ensure no ordinary issues are at play. If the problem persists across multiple incense types and methods, then explore symbolic meanings.
| Incense Issue | Potential Symbolic Meaning |
|---|---|
| Won’t light at all | Blockages preventing magic or prayers from activating |
| Lights but goes out quickly | External negative forces or psychic attacks |
| Smolders weakly | Lack of spiritual power or inner fire |
For a deeper dive on spiritual symbolism, check out Intuitive Candle Teachings for an incense oracle reference on metaphoric meanings.
Rituals and Practices to Overcome Spiritual Blocks
Smudging and Space Clearing
Smudging with sacred herbs like white sage is commonly used to clear stagnant or negative energy from a space to invite in positive energy flow. The smoke is believed to attach itself to heavy energies and as it clears it takes the unwanted energies with it, leaving the space lighter and refreshed.
Other popular techniques for space clearing include ringing bells or Tibetan singing bowls, playing uplifting music, diffusing cleansing essential oils, and visualization exercises where you imagine light filling and uplifting the space.
Regularly practicing space clearing rituals can help overcome spiritual blocks by preventing heavy energy from accumulating in your environment.
Chakra Clearing Meditations
Chakras refer to energy centers in the body that correspond to specific emotional/spiritual components. When chakras become blocked, it can manifest in the physical body as illness or fatigue. On a spiritual level, chakra blocks inhibit our ability to receive intuition and guidance.
Guided chakra meditations focus on opening, clearing, and bringing balance to the chakras. Most focus on the seven main chakras running along the midline of the body. These meditations use visualization, mantras, and attention to certain body areas to remove energy blocks in the chakras.
Regular practice can align us energetically to receive spiritual guidance.
Law of Attraction Techniques
The Law of Attraction is the spiritual principle that we draw experiences into our lives that align with our dominant thoughts and beliefs. If we subconsciously believe we don’t deserve abundance, for example, we struggle to receive it.
We can use Law of Attraction techniques to overcome limiting beliefs.
These techniques include mindfulness exercises to uncover subconscious beliefs, journaling to shift perspectives, visualization boards to clarify desires, gratitude practices to boost positive emotions, and affirmations to program the mind.
Committing to these techniques helps identify self-sabotaging beliefs blocking your manifestation abilities and spiritual connectivity.
Repaying Karmic Debts
Karma refers to the spiritual principle that actions, words, thoughts, and intentions contribute energetically to our “karmic ledger.” When we have unpaid debts from past lives or earlier in our current life, it can show up as blockages preventing our spiritual progress now.
Ways to repay karmic debts include regular prayer and meditation to become aware of debts needing repayment, conscious acts of service without expectation, heart-centered apologies and forgiveness practices, letting go of judgments about others and ourselves, and setting the intention to learn from difficult situations.
Settling our debts liberates and lightens our energetic field to connect spiritually.
When To Be Concerned About Incense Going Out
It Never Stays Lit No Matter What
If your incense refuses to stay lit no matter what you try, it could signify blocked or stagnant energy in the space. Some potential reasons incense won’t stay lit include:
- There are oppressive energies that are extinguishing the incense flame.
- The area lacks proper airflow circulation needed to keep incense burning.
- Spirits or entities are present that do not want the space cleared or purified, so they blow out the incense.
It’s best to sage the area first to clear out heavy energies. Open windows and doors to improve airflow. If issues continue, consider setting wards or protections before trying to burn incense again.
Other Odd Behavior Like Cracking
Apart from going out prematurely, incense exhibiting odd behavior like making cracking noises, sparking, or bending into odd shapes could also signal heavy spiritual interference:
- The incense sparks or cracks when discussing certain subjects – this can mean those topics have charged energy around them.
- The stick bends into weird shapes or letters – spirits might be trying to communicate through the incense.
Take notes on when odd incense behavior happens. See if the timing correlates to discussions on sensitive spiritual topics, heightened emotions, or paranormal occurrences. An incense psychic can help decipher any deeper meaning.
It Goes Out When Certain Topics or Areas Are Discussed
If the incense repeatedly goes out only when talking about specific subjects or being in certain areas/rooms, it likely signals heavy or stagnant energies connected to those topics or locations:
- An area with frequent arguments, distress, or chaos can accumulate heavy energies over time that make it harder for incense to stay lit there.
- Discussing traumatic or highly emotional events also churns up charged energies that could potentially extinguish incense.
This may mean a space clearing or blessing is needed to purge built-up energies. Holding difficult conversations outside while burning incense can also help dissipate stirred up energies before they accumulate.
You Feel Oppressed Energies in the Space
If the room feels heavy, tense, or generally off when your incense keeps going out, this points to unpleasant spiritual energies:
- You may sense feelings of being watched, sharp temperature drops, or other classic signs of an oppressive presence.
- Negative entities or disturbed spirits can emit heavy vibes that make breathing feel laborious and snuff out light/fire easily.
In such cases, do not keep trying to light incense or other flames as it can stir things up more. Start by saging the space to clear negative energies. Calling in spiritual help to remove dark presences may be necessary if oppressive feelings persist.
Conclusion
If you’ve noticed your incense struggling to stay lit during spiritual work, don’t ignore it. Take it as a sign to explore what blockages may be present and to do some energetic clearing.
With the right troubleshooting and rituals, you can get your incense burning smoothly again. And by overcoming these obstacles, you’ll boost your spiritual connection going forward.
