Practical Aromatherapy for the Spirit
by Tracey TieF, Certified Natural Health Practitioner
Registered Aromatherapy Health Practitioner
What I find the most rewarding and enjoyable in my aromatherapy clinic practice is creating essential oil blends that address the client's physical, emotional and spiritual needs at once. Aromatherapy is, after all, the use of essential oils, plant resins, hydrosols and oil infusions for the healing of the mind, body and spirit. In the quest to become credible in the eyes of the contemporary medical community, practitioners who use essential oils sometimes buy into the view of contemporary medicine as “scientific” and traditional medicine as “complementary”. We can emphasize the physiological effects of essential oils, at the expense of being true to the tradition of Wholistic aromatherapy working with conditions of mind, body and spirit as inseparable. Alternately, we can evade the subject completely and allow essential oils to be discussed simply as scents that are useful in cosmetics or for setting the mood in home décor. However, the case for aromatherapy being a practical, safe means to assist in the healing of mind, emotion and spirit is strong from both a “scientific” and traditional perspective, as is illustrated by the mechanism of smelling itself.
Scent is Intuition is Emotion
All our other senses register first in the rational portion of the brain, where sounds are deciphered, images clarified, and touch or taste distinguished, then, and only after everything has been dissected, inspected, and verified do we respond emotionally. With our sense of smell, the nerves are directly connected to our “lizard brain” (the limbic system structures), the place in the brain where science tells us our emotions are initiated and stored. Aromatherapy therefore stimulates our emotions directly, prior to our rational minds identifying the odour and calling up its associations in the memory.
History of Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy, we must recall, is a branch of herbalism, and aromatic herbalism goes at least as far back as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, who buried their dead along with aromatic herbs and flowers. Ancient societies around the world used local and traded plant essences for spiritual, medicinal and cosmetic purposes. The development of modern pharmaceutical medicine at the turn of the 20th century displaced plant medicine, relegating it to folk and indigenous practices. In W.W.II, Dr. Jean de Valnet, author of The Practice of Aromatherapy, long-term psychiatric patients with essential oils, diet and herbs and won medical acceptance for aromatherapy in France. In the 1950s, Marguerite Maury, a biochemist, developed wholistic aromatherapy, devising a special massage technique for the application of essential oils, and employing an Individual Prescription, choosing essences according to the physical and emotional progress of her patients. Wholistic aromatherapists today practice Therapeutic Perfumery by developing Individual Prescriptions that treat conditions of the mind, body and spirit together.
Traditional Perfumery developed the concepts of Top, Middle and Base Notes. These categories make sense in terms of the behaviours of essential oils in a blend; top notes being the first to “pop”, middle notes forming the body of the scent, and base notes providing a long lasting “finish” that act as a fixative in the blend. The same categories happen to be verified by the measured volatility of the categorized essential oils – the top notes evaporating fastest, and base notes the slowest, with middle notes being, of course, somewhere in the middle. Add the Doctrine of Plant Signatures that informs traditional healers of the action of a plant by its visible characteristics, and Plant Morphology, which classifies botanicals based on shared anatomical features, and we have a number of practical means to determine the possible application of each essential oil. Traditionally, top notes, coming from the outer parts of plants (ex flowers, citrus rinds), act quickly on our nervous system and emotions. Middle notes, derived from the bodies of plants (ex herbs), act on our metabolism and organ system function (such as digestion). Base notes, taken from the inner core of woods, their resins or the roots of plants, act slowly but deeply on our core being, our essences, our root chakra.
As above, so below.
The concept that I have found to be most useful is the Hermetic formula: “As above, so below”. The formula fits perfectly with wholistic philosophy. It is, for instance, unimaginable to suffer chronic pain in the neck, without experiencing the corresponding feeling that life is a “pain in the neck”. Similarly, if on a physiological level we have chronically blocked sinuses, we may have persistently repressed feelings of loss and sorrow – blocked tears, in other words. We find that peppermints (ex Mentha arvensis, Mentha piperita) and chemically similar essential oils treat sinusitis. We find that these oils also are traditionally used to “open the mind”, being derived from the leaves, which, because these breathe for the plant, also open up our airways. Physiologically, peppermints cause a cooling sensation, numbing pain and killing harmful microbes. Using “as above, so below” we can extrapolate that peppermints cool emotions, reduce painful feelings and combat invasive negative thoughts. Mints are tonics that slightly irritate mucous membranes and the liver, producing a helpful flushing and detoxifying effect, equivalent to bringing up a subject that leads to “a good cry” and “letting it all out”. Finally, the “opening” and tonic actions lead to an energizing and stimulating effect. In this way, physiological effects are inseparable from mental, emotional and spiritual effects.
A Metaphysical Morphology
Using the “As above so below” Hermetic formula, we can determine the possible emotional, mental and spiritual effects of an essential oil through a measure of logical analogy, and a dose of intuition. This practice brings us into alignment with Magical Aromatherapy – the use of essential oils, plant resins, hydrosols and oil infusions for achieving desired effects on the mind, body and spirit. Considering the qualities and scent characteristics of the plant itself can be helpful for intuiting the metaphysical applications of its essential oil. The dropped needles and shading of evergreen trees suppresses growth of competing plants in a circle around the tree, and so evergreens are seen as useful in helping to create and maintain emotional, psychological and spiritual boundaries. Cedarwood Virginian Juniperus virginiana has deep roots, and so the essential oil can be selected to connect us with our pasts, our genes and even our ancestors. The furthest extension of this principle is illustrated in the writings of Silvia Hartmann (not an accredited aromatherapis) author of Aromatherapy for Your Soul, who describes Cedarwood Atlas Cedrus Atlantica as “Majestic, soaring, balancing, great strength and beauty aligned, powerful.” She goes on to intuit that: “Cedarwood Atlas is for people who need to be swept off their feet and taken straight to a place of power and of beauty, where both become one and the same, and that is holy.”
My approach to designing aromatherapy blends for metaphysical, mental and emotional uses for some essential oils, built on Maury's Individual Prescription technique, can be summarized as:
Ask the client about physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual conditions that bother her or him the most. Pay particular attention to correspondences between physical and non physical symptoms. Ask “What is the negative emotion you experience most often?” Be sure to explain the wholistic approach and allay any possible fear that you consider their symptoms to be “all in their head” or caused by their emotions.
Add your own observations about the client's presentation, personality and composure to the list of symptoms, and ask questions to clarify and narrow down possibilities. For instance, both lavender and bergamot can be used to alleviate depression. I consider lavender Lavandula officinalis syn. angustifolia to be most helpful in cases of depression related to states of self-pity, while bergamot Citrus bergamia corresponds to depression related to unexpressed or chronic states of anger.
Select essential oils that address physical and non physical symptoms at once. For instance, chamomile Roman Chamaemelum nobile calms red irritated skin, and therefore calms anger and irritation in the personality. The client who seems ungrounded, often feels cold and suffers indigestion likely will benefit from ginger Zingiber officinalis.
I often refer to indexes and online resources in order to refresh my memory of the traditional uses of essential oils. The references I used most are Gabriel Mojay's book, Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit: Restoring Emotional and Mental Balance with Essential Oils and Aroma Web's online Aromatherapy for Emotional Well-Being article. I also maintain my own Materia Medica and add emotional, mental and spiritual uses continuously.
Have the client smell each essential oil in turn, asking him or herself “What oil do I need to heal?” S/he may hold the oil to the solar plexus or heart before smelling it. Applied kinesiology can be used as well, however, I prefer to allow the client to choose based on his/her enjoyment of the oil and intuition about its helpfulness.
Choose 3-5 essential oils in the top, middle and base ranges in order to compose a Wholistic Aromatherapy 5, 4, 1 blend, checking with the client that the scent of the oils when blended will be pleasing, and therefore used!
Finally, I advise the client on the safe and effective use of the 100% essential oil blend, with particular attention to cautions such as potential sensitization, photo-toxicity, skin and membrane irritation etc. I give written instructions for straight inhalation, wearing a terra cotta aroma pendant, drops in the bath, dilution into a carrier oil for massage, moisturizing or perfume, addition to existing products such as dish soap or lotions.
In this way I have learned, with and through my clients, to create the most unexpected, exquisite and satisfying perfume blends. I continue to grow in understanding and appreciation of aromatic plant essences and their power to affect us – even heal us – through the most instinctual of the 5 senses – the sense of smell. After all, the French word to smell, sentir, also means to feel emotion.
Online Resources:
The Aromatherapy4Soul site by Silvia Hartmann, is designed for anyone who would like to start experiencing working with “the energy” of aromatherapy essential oils. http://aromatherapy4soul.com/information
For an introduction to using essential oils to aid the emotions, please visit Aroma Web's Aromatherapy for Emotional Well-Being article http://www.aromaweb.com/articles/emotionalwellbeing.asp
Recommended Books:
Mojay blends a knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine with the practice of aromatherapy to treat the body, mind and spirit in this well written, easy to use reference book.
Mojay, Gabriel, Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit: Restoring Emotional and Mental Balance with Essential Oils Healing Arts Press, 2000
Cunningham, Scott, Magical Aromatherapy: The Power of Scent, Llewellyn's New Age Series, 1989