Hi, I’m looking to start evocation and have been looking online for incense censors. They all look ancient and have lids and are a bit distracting. Can I just use something like a round pasta dish with a bit of sand on the bottom, then just put coal disks and incense on? I don’t want to be fluffing around with fancy lids with one hand and tongs with the other while in a trance state… I would probably tip everything over and burn my house down. I want to keep everything as simple and as no-nonsense as possible.
Sounds like a winner to me Brutus. Improvisation isn’t going to make your evocations any less effective. In fact and a lot of people on here may agree with me but going with your gut in the preparatory stage and personalizing your ritual makes it all the more powerful. Magick should be as easy as breathing and the more comfortable you are the easier it is to breathe.
Thanks kitari, yeah I want to focus on the operation and I know if I buy one of those highly ornamental censors I will be constantly looking at it thinking “wow, look at the smoke coming out of the four dragon noses”…
Oh Yeah, BRUTUS! I totally back Kitari up on that one! And I bet you’re gonna find almost everybody modifies, improvises & coordinates to suit what feels right, or sacred to them!
I actually used one of those 6" metal plates sold as candle holders for awhile. I retired it back to candle use when I found a little squat, shallow brass pot I fell in love with. And I think I posted somewhere else, I am NOT above drawing a circle on the kitchen floor with sidewalk chalk, if thats what I have on hand! 
Z
lol, oh man I love the chalk! 
My favorite “on the fly” getup is one of my wife’s hula-hoops and 3 rocks, one at each point of the triangle. It’s like fast food evocation 
I agree with Kitari and Zoe - do what feels like it has the most power for you. I can dig the bowl with sand. I used a commercial censor for a while and ended up breaking up with it. Just couldn’t deal with her shenanigans 
I just have a hand made clay bowl with ash in the bottom. Plus, it makes it much easier to do my little 2-coal table trick
I burn my incense in a $6 black bowl from walmart
Use a microwave safe bowl with a little sand or even tin foil in the bottom. If you’re doing your evocation inside make sure you put a plate under the bottom of the bowl to diffuse the heat transfer. You wouldn’t want to melt your carpet, right?
I had a nice censor that I bought in one of those new age shops. It was terrible and got incredibly hot. I got burnt a few times. Then I ran across another one at a thrift store. Needless to say, I don’t use the nice one anymore. Thrift stores are treasure troves for finding pieces for ritual work and altar stuffs
My ‘censor’ is usually a terra cotta pot filled with graveyard dirt.
For sure, and yard sales! I’ve gotten the coolest ritual items from yard sales for next to nothing lol. Occult symbol medallions, preserved rattlesnake head, etc.
oooh - graveyard dirt - nice touch RR 
oooh - graveyard dirt - nice touch RR :)[/quote]
Thanks!
I have a brass bowl about five inches across that I got for a couple of quid in one of those shops sells lots of cheap brass stuff and just fill it with salt or sand whatever is handy. And I have some little tongs which were probably sugar cube tongs or some shit originally to hold the incense coals while I light them. Thats it.