Sacred Copal
The aromatic scent of copal, a pleasant smell that emerges from the resin, has been associated with offerings to the divine in great ceremonies. The clear search and connection between human beings and The Creator, The Giver of Life, was thought by ancients to be guided by the white smoke of copal. The smoke rising is also a clear demonstration of the dialogue between heaven and earth, and the smoke column becomes the World Axis from which the universe and its creatures spin, caring prayers and petitions to heaven. The Copal resin comes from the tree of the Bursera Bipinnata, in Nahuatl, ancient Mexican language, its called Copalquahuitl and its resin Copalli. The way to extract the resin from the tree has not changed much from ancient times. Diagonal cuts along the trunk tree allow the resin to squeeze through the middle and fall in a Maguey leaf, or in a container and some people let it dry in the tree itself.