Burning Bright

The autumn festival of Michaelmas, one of the ancient holy days, has come back around. Michaelmas Day is considered the feast of the Archangel Saint Michael and/or the feast of all the Angels. The celebration appears to come out of the Christian tradition. If you dig deeper, you will find references and similar stories coming out of the Vedas in India.

In Waldorf schools, Michaelmas is celebrated by honoring the brave knight St. George when, with the assistance of the Archangel Michael, he conquered the dragon. There is lots of symbolism woven through out this story, the main one being how we need to slay, train or master the dragon within us. The dragon can be seen as our lower chakra, the self that acts out of fear, using our primal brain over our higher awareness and the dark. Carl Jung views a dragon as a symbol of the universal unconscious. The main message of the story of St. George and the Dragon, no matter which version(s) you may subscribe to, is that ultimately good prevails over evil.

After looking at many paintings from the 14th through 19th century depicting this story I noticed something interesting that was not evident to me in the past. Look closely, and you will see a maiden in almost all these depictions. Thus another symbol here is that the brave knight is rescuing a damsel in distress, or the divine feminine, from the monster. I'm thinking about the Netflix series Stranger Things here, but that's another post!  The feminine is the aspect of our self that is centered on love, the right brain, circular form of being/thinking. She is not necessarily a "woman", we are looking at the symbol here. There are loads of women in our society that have severed themselves from their feminine side. The symbol is about balancing our selves and the dualistic nature of this reality that pulls us away from the truth.

The alchemists interpreted this aspect as Sol y Luna, the sun and moon, who in the process of transformation are balanced and become one.

In the story of Vespertina, she is a truth seeker, a lover of the ultimate truth hidden behind the veils of reality. She is struggling with many dualistic principals throughout her epic journey.

I've selected Vespertina as our collective anointing balm since she is a female hero and the perfume contains lots of the resin frankincense. I see the resins as holding the light, just as we are beckoned to do here in the Northern hemisphere as the light begins to dwindle and the dark rises.

More posts on Michaelmas here.

Images:
Gustave Moreau, St. George and the Dragon, c. 1870. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London
Alchemical Image
Photograph of Vespertina Round Compact, Roxana Villa

Vera Solid Natural Perfume is Back!

Three different lavenders and white sage grown and distilled in Ojai are combined with orange blossom and thirty one other plant essences with two of my own complex chords go into Vera. The labyrinthine orchestration results in a sparkling, sunny, uplifting yet calming pure fume, evocative of the location in Southern California where the inspiration began.

Breath deep, connect to the land, the sunshine, the air, the plants, the honey bees—all guides to our inner sanctum of knowing and peace.

Read more about Vera at these posts here at the journal

The liquid and Eau de Parfum version of Vera is coming along with other fragrances that are sold out and the intoxicating Summer jasmine perfume. I also have To Bee and Blanc as an Eau de Parfum to unveil, which by the way, are fabulous layered over each other. The synergy gives conveys a deep, rich honey note.

I'm a presenter, once again, at the NAHA Beyond Aromatics conference. Yay! This time, the happening takes place at the University of Utah toward the end of October. Come join me and this dynamic community.

International Peace Day!

Happy International Day of Peace, while we still have a bit of light here in California! This photo is a sample of a perfume I created back in 2009 as part of a friends vision to create a world musical prayer called "Project Peace on Earth." You can read more about the fragrance and project at the journal by following this search result here.

Number Nine

While working on a new pure fume here at the perfumery, I realized it's a power day! The number nine is composed of three trinities and is often associated with the goddess. Today is the 9th of September (9) and 2016 adds up to 9 making it a very auspicious day to call on the energy of the triple Goddess.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), the polymath born near Cologne in Germany, dedicated the sacred number to the Muses: Calliope, Urania, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Clio, Melpomene, Erato, Euterpe and Thalia.

Agrippa associated each of the nine Muses to an appropriate the Spheres, by noting that the first resembles the supreme Sphere (the Primum mobile), and descending in order to the Sphere of the Moon, he determined that Calliope is appropriated to the Primum mobile; Urania to the Starry Heaven, Polymnia to Saturn, Terpsichore, to Jupiter, Cleo to Mars, Melpomene to the Sun, Erato to Venus, Euterpe to Mercury, and Thalia to the Moon.1

"We all come from the Goddess…and to her we shall return."

There is also some interesting bit about the number nine and John Lennon which you can read about at the Beatles Bible blog here.

References:
Painting by Edward Burne-Jones titled The Garden of the Hesperides
Agrippa image via Wikipedia
1 Esoterica Archives

La Dame Blanche

The folklore of medieval Europe contains a wealth of mythical stories where are modern day writers pull inspiration from. Diana Gabaldon, like JK Rowling, was influenced by a few of these legends when she wrote her infamous Outlander series. "La Dame Blanche, literally translated as 'The White Lady'. According to different mythologies the attribution could be a witch, healer, sorceress, spirit or ghost. Some stories say they are benevolent and wise, but others record them as being evil, and often a harbinger of death.1 

In his book The White Goddess, author and poet Robert Graves writes that the deity is the  can be sacred figures who are said to help or hinder those who encounter them.

Claire, the protagonist of the Outlander series, receives the name La Dame Blanche in the second novel of the series titled Dragonfly in Amber.

“What I want to know,” I said, pouring out the chocolate, “is who in bloody hell is La Dame Blanche?”
“La Dame Blanche?” Magnus, leaning over my shoulder with a basket of hot bread, started so abruptly that one of the rolls fell out of the basket. I fielded it neatly and turned round to look up at the butler, who was looking rather shaken.
“Yes, that’s right,” I said. “You’ve heard the name, Magnus?”
“Why, yes, milady,” the old man answered. “La Dame Blanche is une sorcière.”
“A sorceress?” I said incredulously.
Magnus shrugged, tucking in the napkin around the rolls with excessive care, not looking at me.
“The White Lady,” he murmured. “She is called a wisewoman, a healer. And yet … she sees to the center of a man, and can turn his soul to ashes, if evil be found there.” He bobbed his head, turned, and shuffled off hastily in the direction of the kitchen.
I saw his elbow bob, and realized that he was crossing himself as he went.
“Jesus H. Christ,” I said, turning back to Jamie. “Did you ever hear of La Dame Blanche?”
“Um? Oh? Oh, aye, I’ve … heard the stories.”

Excerpt From: Diana Gabaldon. “Dragonfly in Amber.”

La dame blanche is also the name of an an opéra comique, composed by François-Adrien Boieldieu a century after Claire is in Paris, which tells the story of a Scottish love story, a lost heir and a hidden fortune 2,, it is also the name of a perfume commissioned by Beth Schreibman Gehring. Here are a few of her words regarding the fragrance...

"La Dame Blanche is a voluptuous green floral with a heart of rose, jasmine and tuberose. There is a tincture of sapphires and horse hair, amber and wood. It was blended and released on Samhain 2014 and it is as complex, mysterious and voluptuous as the Sorciere herself. It's a gorgeous perfume and the beauty of it is that it doesn't quite make sense...You will  constantly be trying to decipher it's secrets."

Images:
The White Lady of the Noldor by the-pre-raphaelite on Polyvore
La Dame Blanche by Greg Spalenka
Photo of silver compact, Roxana Villa

1, 2 Who is La Dame Blanche, published in RadioTimes, be warned there are spoilers.

Word Rant Wednesday

Wow, it's been since last January when I last hopped onto my bloody soap box and preached about correct word usage and definitions in the perfume industry. Thus, before another year arrives without me raging against the dying light, let's get on with it!

A few months ago a friend sent me a link to a blog post that referred to an iconic herbalist having challenges with essential oils. I won't mention the name since its not important. After some exploration I learned that some herbalists believe that we don't need essential oils. From what I was able to discern, this particular point of view argues that since a large quantity of plant material is needed to obtain an essential oil, the end product is very concentrated and thus both wasteful and potentially dangerous.

Different perspectives is a good thing and important, after all, there is no "one size fits all" and variety is what makes life interesting. There are many facets to a diamond, the more facets the more light is reflected.

In fact, after doing my own distillations I can resonate a bit with the "idea" that perhaps the plant material might be better utilized in its whole form and that the amount of water needed might be wasteful. This is particularly poignant here in Southern California where we have a sever drought. However, it really depends on what the plant material is, who is distilling and why, what the end result will be for the item, etc. I personally adore the hydrosols that have been obtained from the plant material from my garden, the farmers market and my other nearby growers. The benefits of the hydrosols have been marvelous and the aromatic waters contain chemicals that are not accessible in the raw plant material, as a tincture, infusion of an essentials oil. Each form will have a different imprint, a specific frequency based on the extraction, and each medium has a different use. For example, I might eat fresh spearmint leaves, use then in a tea, combine them with limes for a refreshing lime-aide on a hot day, or perhaps through them into a soup with fresh english peas. In fact, I have done all of those things in the last thirty days. However, that does not detract from the value of spritzing my face with the hydrosol while typing this blog post, using the essential oil on my temples or inhaling the aromatic molecules from my palms to provide a bit of clarity and energize my thinking or adding a tiny bit of the essential oil into an aromatherapy blend or perfume.

Just like we have many types of aromatics in the palette of perfume, we also have many types of extractions and ways to use them. Throughout history the "Still Room", the distillery room, was a big part of daily life containing herbs from the nearby garden.

"Still Rooms were places where freshly collected plants and flowers were utilised in many ways, and these traditions continued well into the Edwardian period. Herbs could be hung upside down in bunches and dried for household and kitchen use, or pounded to a paste and in their simplest form added to lotions and grease or fats to provide ointments, medicines and poultices, or added to water and allowed to quietly “distill” for bottling as herb-rich medicinal waters. These were strained off into bottles and stoppered with a cork or the fore-runner of today’s “clingfilm” – pig or sheep bladders, stretched tightly to produce an air-tight seal.

Honey-rich syrups were made by infusing herbs previously bruised in a mortar and pestle or by making a strong decoction – both methods requiring heating to reduce the liquid, then strained through muslin and honey added to sweeten. Colds and sore throats were often relieved by a rose-hip and lemon balm decoction with honey added to soothe and heal. In a static display it is difficult to show the process without a fire and bubbling potions reducing away, but we have an old copper full of herbs waiting to be infused with a ladle nearby for bottling – and a couple of completed bottles ready for use."1

According to one herbalist, the case against essential oils is that they are too concentrated and thus cause hormone disruption. This is followed by a reference to lavender oil causing young boys grow breasts. Oh my, really? Please follow this link to a post here at the journal from 2008 where I share insights into this very topic.

Ultimately we each will have to find our own truth, independent from what anyone says, that is the main tenet to the Art of Botanical Perfume course.

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

~ Linji

1 From the The Rye Castle Museum blog post The StillRoom in the Tower