Monday, September 29, 2008

The Dragon's Breath


"We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes,
and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves."
- Tom Robbins

Today marks the autumn festival of Michelmas, one of the ancient holy days that I have a fascination with. I first became conscious of the day when I attended the Michelmas play at my daughters Waldorf school. At the time Eve was only about four years old and having a challenging morning saying goodbye to me. The teacher suggested I stay and come along to see the Michelmas play up the hill put on by the second grade.

The play and festival centers on the brave night St. George who is assisted by the Archangel Michael to conquer the dragon. The story is a metaphor for taming that inner dragon within each of us.

Many of the holidays that begin now focus on light, often referred to as festivals of light. We enter the darker portion of the great seasonal wheel, as nature moves toward inward sleep, humankind is challenged to find the light within and courageously banish the dragon.

So, during these most challenging times of great Maya, we look inward for that most luminous light within which will carry us forward into uncharted waters.

Botanical perfume ingredients that have a dragon-like feel are those associated with fire. Here are a few possibilities: spice, some of the resins, tincture or infusion of dragons blood, amber bases, sulphuric aromas and something with a burnt quality like choya or cade. The spice will help add lift as well as pepper and some citrus.

Read last years post on Michelmas here.
Roxana Illuminated Perfume

Image: "Apocrypha" ©Greg Spalenka, an original painting and avialable as limited edition Giclee print. (I was the model.)

2 comments:

e and s said...

Hi . you are a great artist. I hope you can answer this quest of mine,I bought a bottle of perfume at a Family Dollar store in 2008. No name or box just as is. I believe that someone brought it there . The bottle resembles the one posted except mines was larger. Could this be the same one?

Illuminated Perfume said...

Thanks so much for visiting the journal. The glass falcons I use come from France and are made by the same company that makes the Chanel bottle. I do not have a bigger version of the bottle and doubt that my perfume would be at the Family Dollar Store since I do not currently sell wholesale.

Best of luck on your quest. You might want to post your question on one of the many perfume blogs like Now Smell This.