Jade Spring 玉泉 - INCENSE for the 5th Qi of 2026

玉泉 "Jade Spring"

2 gram stick incense, approx 30 mins burn time per stick

Fifth Qi Incense · September 22 to November 21 (秋分 - 小雪)

The Season: 秋分 Qiu Fen to 小雪 Xiao Xue.

Host is 陽明燥金 Yang Ming zao jin. Guest is 少陽相火 Shao Yang xiang huo.

Dry metal holds the season. Ministerial fire arrives above it, out of turn.

燥勝則乾 when dryness prevails there is desiccation. 燥易傷肺 dryness injures the Lung first. 火刑金 fire scorches metal. 耗氣傷津 it consumes the qi and burns off the fluids.

A pure senkōh for the dry window, the stretch when the year has stopped settling and begun to close, and a late heat arrives on top of the closing.

Composed to hold the fluids, draw the late fire down, and settle the chest.

Sandalwood, agarwood, jiang xiang, benzoin, myrrh, dang gui, licorice, cinnamon, schisandra & others.

玉泉 is the inner alchemy name for the saliva that gathers under the tongue. The body's own moisture, made rather than added. That is what this stick is for. Not to put water into a dry room, but to change what the body does with the water it has.

In late July the bright influence that governed the first half of the year stepped down, and what took the second half is dryness. That was the announcement. At the equinox it arrives in full, because from September 22 dryness holds the seasonal position as well as the half. The same quality twice over, with nothing set against it.

Then the visitor. A late fire comes in out of turn and sits on top of it. Heat returning when it should be leaving. Fire and dryness both consume the fluids and they take them from opposite directions.

And underneath all of it the year still runs cold. It has since January, it works internally, it does not change with the season, and its address is the Heart.

So the shape of these sixty days is unusual. Dry and hot above, cold below, and the two do not meet. Treating either end on its own tends to make the other worse.

Thirst that drinking does not fix. A cough with nothing to bring up. The voice going by late afternoon and skin that feels tight after washing. Hard stool. And underneath it cold feet, a heavy lower back, and waking somewhere between three and five with the chest awake and the body not. Grief arriving with nothing attached to it.

Suited to dry rooms. Heated rooms, offices. Mornings when the voice is not there yet. Afternoons when the chest has gone tight and shallow. Work that asks you to finish rather than to start. Evenings when the mind is bright and the feet are cold. The stretch of the year when everything is closing and the body has not been "told".

Hand rolled in small batch on the Big Island. Natural materials, no synthetic fixatives and no fragrance oils.

An aromatic composition made in relation to a seasonal pattern, in the tradition of stem and branch calendrical practice. It is not a medical or therapeutic product and makes no health claim.