OUR ANCESTORS KNEW: GOING BACK TO WHAT WOKS

This article is written by Written by our old friend Evan Sylliaasen, this weeks blog post is called The Roots of Aromatherapy & The Soul of Plants. I am sharing with the community, and I totally agree that we should get back to nature and our ancestor ways. The Roots of Aromatherapy & The Soul of Plants. Modern Aromatherapy, the therapeutic use of botanical essential oils, is one of the fastest growing healing modalities of our time, and its name is widely known around the world today. If we break down the word itself, the principle is easily revealed: a practice of healing (therapy) using aromatic plants.

What many people don’t realize is that traditional Aromatherapy has been around for thousands of years longer than essential oils. The smoke and aromatic medicine from fragrant plants in the form of incense, fumigants, and steam has been used by ancient physicians, medicine people, healers, and shamans for millennia to bring balance to the body and emotions, clarity and enhanced function to the mind, and healing to the spirit.

Traditionally, the soul of a plant is believed to be housed in its natural oils which saturate its physical parts: leaf, resin, bark, stem, seed, flower, and root. In the esoteric tradition of Western Alchemy, these volatile essential oils, referred to as “sulfur,” are considered to be the soul, or the unique consciousness of a plant. Therefore, in this ancient belief, to breathe in a plant’s aroma and essential oils is to embark on a fragrant process of personal transformation and healing through direct communion with the soul, or “sulfur,” of a plant.

If we take this thought into nature, we find that the unique ‘soul’ of a plant often travels on the breeze in the form of volatile essential oils, reaching out to passersby. These oils carry with them their own aromatic signature in hopes of gaining our attention with their strong, alluring fragrances.

The ancients were well aware that aromatic plants have the power to enhance and heal mind, emotions, and cognitive functioning. They used herbs as incense and fumigants for ailments and disorders based on different systems of classification, diagnosis, formulation, and prescription. Without advanced machines, technology, research, or modern methods of extraction, they were still able to deeply understand the inherent connection between plants and humans, and were incredibly effective in keeping people healthy.

Like skilled locksmiths, they knew which aromatic keys were necessary in order to unlock the many facets of the human psyche and the emotional heart. Modern research can be quite fascinating, however, it’s important to understand that health-science is usually verifying the known wisdom of thousands of years of experience: aroma holds a powerful key to our health, well-being, spirituality, and joy.

Comments

  • Gardennan
    Gardennan Posts: 47 ✭✭✭

    What has been will be again,

        what has been done will be done again;

        there is nothing new under the sun.

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    Thanks for sharing. We can learn so much from the old ones' ways. 'Chop wood, carry water'