Like the Rose is regarded as the queen within the flower kingdom the Cedar can be called the king among the conifers. With its roots well fastened into the earth and its crown high stretching to the sky, the tree represents the majestic power of Mother Nature. Cedars can grow up to 50 m high,…
Bay Laurel – the Oil for Courage and Strength
Just to take a drop of Bay Laurel oil on your fingertip and smell it is quite an experience. You are right away taken into a spicy fresh energy which – within seconds – enlivens your spirit from deep inside, as if a whiff of fragrant air breathes through you and imbibes the whole system…
Davana – gift of the Goddess
Davana oil is another gift from the Artemisia genus. What a wonderful fragrance it radiates ! Its essential oil is known in the world of Aromatherapy for its very special herbal-sweet perfume notes. Botanically known as Artemisia pallens, Davana is a member of the family, of Asteraceae. The herb is indigenous to the southern parts…
Ylang Ylang – a Flower from Heaven
The “flower of flowers” as it is called sometimes has its firm place today in modern aromatherapy and perfumery. According to some sources the name “Ylang-Ylang ” is derived from Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines. It stems either from “ilang” meaning “wilderness” hinting at the natural habitat of the tree or from “ilang-ilan”…
Magic of Alchemy – Nature’s Transformational Skills in Plants
The purpose of alchemy is to release the „deity in matter“ wrote the famous psychologist C.G. Jung, it is “to liberate the quintessential core of matter through repeated processes of purification.” To release the deity in matter does not only mean to access the secrets of transformation in Nature and its innumerable “matter-fields”, but to…
Yarrow – A Thousand Leaves, A Thousand Cures
Yarrow, with its botanical name Achillea millefolium, is a perennial medicinal plant popular throughout Europe. The Latin name goes back to the Trojan hero Achilles who came to Troy in search of the king of the Mysians, Thelephos. He injured Telephpos on the thigh, and healed the wound with a medicinal plant, which was later…
Frangipani – An Intoxicating Seducer
Frangipani (Plumeria alba) is a genus of flowering plants in the Apocynaceae family, containing seven or eight main species of shrubs and trees. They are native to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and South America but have been spread by missionaries and early travellers throughout the world’s tropics, especially Hawaii. The name Plumeria can be…
German Chamomile Oil – Caring and Motherly
Chamomile ‘matricaria’ contains the latin word ‘matrix’ in its botanical name – meaning ‘caring for the womb’. This finds its echo in folk medicine which has always emphasized Chamomile’s emmenagogue properties and its connection with the female system. The word ‘Chamomile’ is derived from Greek ????? (chamaí) ‘on the ground’ and ????? (m?lon) ‘apple’ hinting…
Aromatic Reflections for Moments of Crisis – Part 2
We do not need to re-invent the wheel. We just have to deepen our knowledge of Nature and combine her age-old defense mechanisms with our modern scientific approach. Essential oils are Sun-Light messengers. With their poly-molecular bio-chemical outfit they have developed as allies of interaction inside Nature herself in a kind of challenge and response…
Aromatic Reflections for Moments of Crisis – Part 1
Sometimes… When we look at our lives today, individually and collectively…When we have forgotten how much we are caught up in the matrix of habits, routines, conditionings, boredoms, stress… Then something may appear from “nowhere“, pulling us by the nose ? making us jump up in panic, cutting the normal flow of things in a…