Florian and I have been developing the work of AromaGnosis mainly by using individual essential oils as ‘simples’, meaning one aromatic ally at a time. This method has really enabled us to work intimately with each essential oil and to notice its actions for a wide variety of emotional, mental and spiritual challenges. But there are times when blending essential oils for the whole psyche is needed.
Occasionally I have felt called to combine two oils together for certain situations and when the right two oils resonate together, they can be very powerful, e.g. angelica root and angelica seed, or rose attar and galbanum.
Recently, I felt called to start creating signature blends for individuals to find a way of balancing all aspects of a person’s psyche in a harmonious and strengthening way. We all know that the total of a combination of aromatics is much more than the sum of the individual parts, i.e. synergy. With the right combination for the right person, I was sure that the overall resonance would be able to re-align any imbalances in a person’s psyche. I was also beginning to think that maybe the more complex the odor, the more impact it could have psychologically.
Of course, I began with myself. I have been working deeply on healing and welcoming an important part of myself that had been cut off since birth. I wanted to create a blend for myself that would integrate this new and powerful aspect of myself.
I began by creating the right space and ambiance. Jasmine hydrosol helped to dissolve my auric boundaries and prepare myself to tune in. When everything was ready, I centered myself and while asking myself the question, “What do I need to integrate this newly activated part of myself and balance my psyche?” I pulled a card form the Brady tarot deck. It wasn’t surprising that the card was the Lovers (Number VI of the major arcana). I have been aware that the healing I am doing and the integrating of lost parts relates deeply to restoring balance between male and female, primarily within myself, but also reflected in my intimate relationship with Florian. Restoring balance between the masculine and feminine is also key to restoring balance in the world large, which is urgently needed.
Next, I drew a diagram of the psyche, which was going to help me to tune into the different parts of my psyche and find the oil that was being called.
At each stage, I drummed and allowed myself to be guided, being careful not to allow the left brain to ‘think’ that it knew what oil needed to come forward.
I journeyed while drumming and felt myself being led to an environment, a plant, a tree…I went with it until eventually the oil would come through. Once I had the oil for the physical body, I put a drop of it on a scent strip and went back to my drum to carry on the journeying for the emotional body, the mental body and the spiritual body.
Once I had an oil for each part of the psyche on scent strips, I played around with them, allowing the oils to penetrate me while noticing how they resonated.
Of course, I wasn’t yet at the final blend. Not only did I have to get the proportions right, but also finalize the choice of oils. I did all this with the aim that the blend ‘resonated’ in a way that harmonized the different subtle bodies that make up my psyche. The nearest I can explain it is like tuning the strings of a guitar by altering the tension. The blend needs to be able to alter the vibration of each of the subtle bodies so they could resonate in harmony and not in discord with each other.
The physical sign for me that an oil and a dilution was working is that I sensed a feeling of tears just touching the back of my eyes and nose – an emotion was being touched, an alignment was happening. Blending in this way is both an alchemical process and a shamanic journey.
There was one oil that I felt wasn’t right and interestingly, when I recalled my choosing it, it was the only one that I had a mental reason for choosing. I took it out and replaced it with Indian Valerian, an oil that had come into my vision and I had rejected (intellectually again) because of its strong, slightly unpleasant smell. It’s amazing how we make all these subtle mental judgments that throw us off course, if we are not vigilant. It takes practice to develop an inner sense, an intuitive intelligence, but it is really what is needed for this type of work.
Once I had an oil for each subtle body, I still felt something was missing. It was the shadow that was needed to finalize the blend. I instinctively knew it was jasmine. I tried both our ruh bela (jasmine) essential oil and our jasmine attar, thinking once again that I knew it would be the ruh bela, only to have my mind proven wrong. The jasmine attar added a tiny point of nearly imperceptible nuance and incredible power and depth to the blend. It was finished.
Now I could step back and ask myself the question, “What is the psychological correspondence between the blend’s essence and the essence of my psyche, including the newly integrated aspect? Does the blend restore harmony and resonate with my essence?”
It does and more. The blend resonates with my essence, and enables me to see and feel how far from my core I had wandered and how the real magic of returning comes from the unconscious’s connection with the whole that goes beyond time and space. My journey has been deeply magical. I couldn’t have invented it if I had tried. The blend is earthy, ancient, unimaginable, unique, indescribable and profoundly mine. It resonates with the hidden shadow of my essence, the colonized masculine who was dis-empowered and betrayed four generations previously. Through reclaiming my feminine, tracking the colonizer and mending my motherline, I have repatriated my healthy inner warrior. This oil is his.
“The only way I know to engage the masculine is by going deeper into the feminine.” Marion Woodman
To find out more about our Balancing Blend Consultations, click here or join our live-online class at Aromagnosis.
