Mixing Essential Oils for Magic: Aromatic Alchemy for Personal Blends (2 page)

things that interest me. My experimentation with essential oils slowed down once I found a core group of blends that I really loved, but now and then I feel the need for change. It was during one of those flow times when instead of taking out all my books I took only my notes because I usually relied on these for what I needed. That said, I don’t think of myself as an expert. I see myself as a Jane-of-many-trades, or perhaps a Renaissance woman with many interests into which I delve. I shy away from being labeled an authority—I simply saw what was missing, brought together details, and made connections that others had overlooked. More importantly to me, because scents can add a mystical and powerful component to ritual and magic work, I wanted to parley what had I learned into a straightforward guide for others whose personal creativity is an integral part of their spiritual and magical practices. As often happens, we reach a point where we want things to be uniquely our own, which of course, is when real magic occurs.

While to some people the use of essential oils may seem more New Age than Pagan,

these oils come from plants and down through the ages witches and Pagans have used

plants for magic and ritual. I think the use of essential oils is a way to hold tradition while extending our practices and giving them new depth. And so this book is intended for those Wiccans and Pagans who enjoy learning, tinkering, and expressing their individuality as well as exploring the plant world in a different way. However, while experimentation is fun, there is no reason that it has to be a hit or miss prospect. Just because oils may share certain magical associations it does not mean that they will necessarily blend well together. While there are no strict rules for mixing oils, this book provides the fundamental guidelines of how to make an informed decision when planning a blend so you can choose mutually enhancing oils.

I like referring to the blending of oils as aromatic alchemy because we transform the power of plant aromas into magical messengers for our purposes. Although smell is not 4 Introduction

our most acute sense, it can trigger strong memories and emotions. It can transport us back to childhood places (like my grandmother’s house) or to other realms. Through the alchemy of scent, aromas can retrieve a total experience of feelings, imagery, and sounds.

Essential oils provide immediate access to this rich storehouse of memory and emo-

tion, which are the deeper parts of the self that reach into the soul. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the word
essence
can mean fragrance or soul. With essential oils we use the very essence of plants—the core and spirit—which makes them valuable for magic work.

We can boost the effectiveness of our spells and rituals with this essence of life. Just as scent can trigger memory, using specific fragrances for ritual and magic helps us to return to a certain level of consciousness where we can pick up where we left off. It can help us build on our ritual experiences and deepen divination, psychic, or shamanic work.

Essential oils are also known as ethereal oils, volatile oils, or simply essences. They are called volatile because they are not stable substances and easily evaporate at room temperature. The word volatile comes from the Latin
volare
meaning to fly, which seems to connect them with spirit. Since ancient times, scent in the form of incense as altar offerings provided a way to share earthly beauty with deities. It was a way to connect the earth-bound with the ethereal; the physical with the spiritual.

Today the word alchemy usually conjures up the image of a Medieval practitioner

toiling away trying to transmute base metals into valuable gold. And granted, when I sit in front of my array of oils and mixing paraphernalia I admit to giggling at the image of myself somewhere between wizard and mad scientist. However, rather than working with metals the early art of alchemy was based on plants. Before the practice of alchemy in Europe gave way to chemistry, many practitioners were seeking medicinal elixirs, and in fact, Swiss physician and alchemist Theophrastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541), who

called himself Paracelsus, noted that the quest of alchemy was to make medicines, not gold.1

Although the etymology of the word alchemy is circuitous and perhaps murky, one

suggestion is that it comes from a Greek word meaning to pour or mix.2 In addition, authors Richard and Iona Miller pointed out that the modern perfumer “follows the three main stages of alchemical work: separation, purification, and recombination.”3 These 1. Sonnedecker,
History of Pharmacy
, 40

2. Franklyn,
Survey of the Occult
, 14

3. Miller and Miller,
The Magical and Ritual Use of Perfumes
, 11

were also the steps that Paracelsus used in his practice of spagyrics or herbal alchemy. The word spagyrics comes from the Greek verbs
spao
and
ageiro
, which mean to divide and bring together, respectively.4

In ancient Egypt the purpose of alchemy was focused mainly on preserving the phys-

ical body (mummification for burial), however, in Asian and Islamic traditions alchemy was focused on spiritual and inner transformations. Like scent, alchemy connected the physical with spiritual. To some practitioners, alchemy remained a magical art aimed at finding a link between matter and spirit: Essence and
quinta essentia
(the fifth element).

In the Sanskrit language, life-force energy is called
prana
, which also means breath. In English the act of inhaling is called inspiration. The words inspiration and spirit both have the same Latin root,
spir
, meaning to breathe. 5 Thus, through the use of essential oils in our magic and rituals we are inspired and in spirit as we breathe life into what we want to manifest.

This brings us back to fragrance and soul. As mentioned, our sense of smell is intimately linked to memory and emotion. This is because the olfactory cortex of the brain is an area closely tied to the limbic (emotional-visceral) system. There are thousands of olfactory receptors in a small area at the top or roof of each nasal cavity, and as we breathe in, air passes over these receptors and information is carried along a nerve into the brain.

Information about fragrance is ushered into our consciousness affecting it, as well as the subconscious.

While the ancients may not have understood the mechanics of the olfactory system,

they understood how to work with it. The use of scent in ritual and religious practices cuts across cultures, traditions, beliefs, and time. The purpose of incense in the earliest of rituals was to communicate with deities as well as the spirit world. Today, incense is still a part of many religious practices for focusing the mind and connecting with spirit, which more readily occurs when the elements are in balance.

In a sense (no pun intended), plants bring us into elemental balance. Their roots are in the soil (earth), growing skyward (air), nourished by rain (water), and as alchemists themselves they transform the sun’s light (fire) into the energy we need. Finally, through essential oil they bring us the essence of life (spirit). Through the elements, they bring us into rhythm with the natural world emphasizing our symbiotic relationship with the plant 4. Greer,
Encyclopedia of the Occult
, 445

5. Ibid.

6 Introduction

kingdom—they provide us with oxygen and we provide them with carbon dioxide. Work-

ing with scents can help us reach into our psyches, giving us clarity of purpose and access to our own powerful magic.

Essential Oil

(Spirit)

Sunlight

Sky

(Fire)

(Air)

Soil

Rain

(Earth)

(Water)

Figure 1: Plants relate to the five elements.

Although more prevalent in the animal world, scents also function as a form of com-

munication. They help us communicate with deeper self by retrieving memories as well as connecting with our spirituality and with our culture. In addition, we send nonverbal messages with the perfumes and colognes we wear to attract love interests or to send a message about who we are. Another form of communication related to scent is clai-ralience, the ability to connect with spirit world through fragrance. Spirits make their presences known or their identities recognized through smell. While this is not something I have tried to develop, it occasionally occurs.

A few days after one of my aunts passed beyond the veil, I was staying in her house and just as I was falling asleep one night I was awakened by the sound of her voice and the smell of roses. That scent had not been in the room when I went to bed, nor could I find a source for it. I was a little shaken but curious about the incident. With all that was going at the time I forgot about it until I arrived back home several days later. Alone in my apartment, I flicked on the TV for company as I unpacked my suitcase. I was half-listening to the program, which happened to be about angels, however, when the interviewee said that angels make themselves known through sudden floral scents I stopped in my tracks Introduction 7

and listened. The type of experience I'd had was exactly what the person on TV was describing.

While I don’t know if my Aunt Mary had actually become an angel, I do believe her

spirit communicated with me that night. Since then I’ve come to realize that I have a guardian spirit who makes himself known with a gentle sandalwood-like scent. He seems to show up when I need reassurance as well as when I’m engaged in spiritual activities.

With the help of essential oils we can invite communication with spirits as well as enhance divination, psychic, and dream work.

Alchemy Instead of Therapy

As previously mentioned, I refer to the blending of oils for magic and ritual as aromatic alchemy. I purposely avoid the term aroma
therapy
because it implies that something is broken and needs to be fixed. We are not giving our magic, rituals, or divination therapy when we use essential oils. Instead, we are using them to aid us in transforming our practices and breathing life into our intentions.

As mentioned, essential oils carry the essence of life. In an experiment using Kirlian photography, a fresh-cut leaf and a strip of blotter paper with pure essential oil were photographed side by side. Both showed strong auras indicating life-force energy remains within essential oils.6 Understandably, the synthetic oils that were tested did not exhibit auras because they are not from living organisms.

Although I originally wanted to focus this book on pure essential oils (those created through distillation) and omit extracts created through other processes, I realized that this approach would be limiting. For example, jasmine has such delicate flowers that the distillation process does not work with them, but to disregard this popular scent with its range of magical potential just didn’t seem right. Since I opened that door, I decided to also include the hydrosols (previously known as floral waters) in the arsenal of magical scents presented here. I have not found research using Kirlian photography with these other products and I do not know if they produce auras as do pure essential oils. However, they do carry the vibrational energy of the plants from which they were produced. And so I leave it to each individual to decide what to include in magical practice and ritual.

After all, the purpose of this book is to encourage exploration and creativity in the realm 6. Aftel,
Essence and Alchemy
, 49

8 Introduction

of scent. Let your intuition and imagination guide your aromatic alchemy and shape your magic.

As noted, there are no hard and fast rules for creating essential oil blends, but there are basic guidelines for choosing oils that will have a mutually enhancing effect when combined. With a fundamental understanding of the various methods, we will see how to

incorporate a magical approach so you can create powerful, synergistic combinations.

This book is divided into three sections. In the first we will explore the historical background of oils and their present-day magical uses. We will get to the nitty-gritty and learn about the different aromatic extracts, the processes used to create them, and the equipment needed to get started with blending. This is followed by three standard methods of choosing/mixing oils: by botanical family, scent group, and perfume note. Another chapter is devoted to what I call the As Above, So Below method that I created. And as previously mentioned, we will also give the carrier oils their due and explore how you can incorporate their magical properties into your blends. Although this is not a recipe book, I will be sharing one at the end of each chapter to illustrate how oils work together chemically and magically.

Section Two contains an encyclopedic listing of essential and carrier oil profiles with information on the plants they came from, their historical use, details about the oil, and, of course, their magical uses. In the Appendices you’ll find cross-references that make it easy for you to find what you need.

And now, let’s begin our journey into aromatic alchemy.

C H A P T E R 1

Scent in History and Modern Magic

Historical Background

The history of essential oils is intertwined with the history of herbal medicine, which in turn, has been an integral part of magical practices. Herbal medicine has been used for more than treating minor ailments and disease, it has been instrumental in providing life-enhancing benefits. In most ancient cultures people believed plants to be magical, and for thousands of years herbs were used as much for ritual as they were for medicine and food. According to medical herbalist and healer Andrew Chevallier, the presence of herbs in burial tombs attests to their powers beyond medicine. In addition, 4th century Greek philosopher Aristotle noted his belief that plants had psyches.7

Aromatic plants in the form of oil and incense were elements of religious and therapeutic practices in early cultures worldwide. In addition, anointment with perfumes and fragrant oils was an almost universal practice. Burning incense in rituals provided a connection between the physical and spiritual—between the mundane and divine. The word