Rue & Palo Santo: the ritual

Rue & Palo Santo is for the evening you come home, after a trip, after a long day, or after moving into a new place. You fill a small white oil burner with water, add a few drops of rue, the green herb people have kept by their front doors for generations, and light a tealight beneath. Another evening, you try palo santo. What you take away is a home that smells of an old custom, with no smoke at all.

Where the custom comes from

Rue, Ruta graveolens, is a small grey-green herb from the Mediterranean and the Balkans, with a sharp, bitter smell when you brush its leaves. It is one of the oldest garden herbs in Europe. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote about it in the first century, and around 840 the monk Walahfrid Strabo gave it a whole verse in his poem about the little herb garden on the island of Reichenau.

Above all, rue is a doorstep plant. In Italy, especially around Naples, people wore the cimaruta, a small silver charm shaped like a sprig of rue. In Brazil, where it is called arruda, a pot of it still stands by many front doors, and some tuck a sprig behind the ear. In the folk belief of both places, rue keeps the evil eye, the envy of others, outside the house. Shakespeare knew its other name: in Hamlet, Ophelia hands out flowers and says, "There's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays."

Palo santo, "holy wood", comes from the other side of the world: the dry forests along the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru, where it belongs to a living Andean folk tradition. Here we use its scent only, as an oil, with no smoke.

Why a tealight under the bowl

An oil burner is a small, gentle way to fill a room with scent. A tealight sits in the base, a little bowl of water sits above, and a few drops of oil float on the water. The flame warms the water slowly, and the scent rises with it. Nothing burns but the tealight, so there is no smoke and no ash.

We chose the Small White Oil Burner · Tree from Ancient Wisdom for its cut-out: a tree is cut into the side, so the tealight draws branches on the wall. It is plain white ceramic and small, made for one tealight.

The Scented Tealights · Lavender are six tealights of 10 g each, burning about four hours. Lavender is the scent of linen cupboards and summer evenings in the Mediterranean, where rue grows too. Under the oil, it adds a soft, clean third note.

The scent

Banjara describes their rue oil as green, herbal and a little bitter. Imagine crushing a leaf from a garden herb you do not quite recognise: sharper than sage, greener than thyme, with a bitter edge like the stalk of a fresh tomato plant. It is not a sweet scent. Many people find it clean and grown-up, the smell of a kitchen garden after rain.

The palo santo oil smells of sweet wood and citrus, like warm pencil shavings with a squeeze of lemon, the same scent as the wood itself, but without the smoke.

Why these two? Both are house scents, kept for generations at the threshold. Rue is the old European and Latin American one, green and bitter. Palo santo is the South American one, warm and sweet. We chose them for anyone coming home, or making a new home.

Why these pieces

The two Banjara fragrance oils. Two bottles of 10 ml, rue and palo santo, made by Banjara in India as fragrance oils for oil burners and diffusers. They are for scenting a room only: a few drops in water, never on the skin, never to swallow.

The oil burner and the tealights carry the warmth, as above.

Together they tell one story: a white burner with a tree on it, water warming, and two old scents taking turns, one for each evening you come home.

Small White Oil Burner · Tree

Scented Tealights · Lavender

How to do the ritual

1. Choose your evening. The evening you come back from a journey, the first night in a new place, or any evening you want to begin again at home.
2. Set the burner on a fireproof surface. A stone windowsill, a ceramic tile, a metal tray. Away from curtains and shelves, out of a draught.
3. Fill the bowl with water. Not to the brim, but well up. Warm water from the tap is fine.
4. Add a few drops of rue. Three to five drops into the water. The oil goes into the water only, never on your skin.
5. Light a tealight and set it beneath. Watch the tree appear on the wall.
6. Set your intention. Say, or think, one line: I am home. Or this is a good place to begin.
7. Sit with it. Let the scent fill the room slowly. Stay nearby while it burns.
8. Put the tealight out before the bowl runs dry. Top up with a little water if you want to keep going. Never leave the flame alone.
9. On another evening, try palo santo, or two drops of each together.

What the ritual gives you

It gives you a small homecoming, with a scent that marks it. You walk in, light one tealight, and the room smells different from the day outside.

Repeat it whenever you come home from somewhere, or once a week. The burner stays, and 10 ml of oil goes a long way at a few drops each time. It makes a thoughtful gift for someone who has just got the keys to a new door.

Why we put it together

We wanted the oldest threshold custom we know, without smoke. An oil burner gives you the scent of rue and palo santo in a flat, a shared house or a bedroom. We paired a Mediterranean herb with a South American wood because both travelled the same idea, keeping a home well, on opposite sides of the ocean.

The oils are from Banjara, the oil burner and tealights from Ancient Wisdom.

Safety

• Never leave the burning tealight alone, and put it out before the bowl runs dry.
• Set the burner on a fireproof surface, away from curtains, paper and shelves. The ceramic gets hot: let it cool before you touch or empty it.
• Fragrance oils are for the burner only. Never on the skin, never to swallow; keep the bottles closed and upright.
• Keep the burner and oils out of reach of children and pets.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions