The Magic of Scent

Scent has a powerful impact in our lives.  You have probably heard of pheromones, the personal scents individuals give off that science shows us can determine who we are attracted to and will mate with.  Even babies know where to get the booby milk by scent.  What I find fascinating is that our olfactory senses are managed in the same place as memory, emotion, and thoughts.  Genetic memory associations to scent can literally pass down to future generations.  Not only has scent been used for healing and invoking ritual for thousands of years across all ancient civilizations, but our ancestral memories can be kicked into gear by a scent as old as time, like Frankincense, Patchouli, or Rose.  

There is plenty of science on scent that you can google.  So I will cut to the chase.  Scent is a powerhouse to use for healing or manifesting any physical, emotional, or mental shift.  Particularly in the home you can use scent through oil diffusers, candles, incense, or by anointing yourself (and things!) with perfumes and essential oils.  

I am not going to get into the metaphysical properties of different scents and oils (there are tons of books out there!) but I do want to share some less conventional ways that I like to use scent in my work and life.

• Anoint your crystals or oracle cards.  I like to pick a crystal and oracle card every day.  Often, I select some essential oils or perfume that synergistically work with the crystal or card of the day, and then dab some directly on it.  
  • For that matter, anoint anything and everything so as long as it won't be permanently ruined or stained from the oils.  I like to spray high-quality essential oil room sprays all over my furniture and bedding, which is a great alternative to rubbing in higher concentrated essential oils.  
• Add some essential oil drops to unscented oil or lotion.  I have some unscented jojoba oil, and I take small amounts to mix with whatever fragrance I am into that day.
• Keep fragrance on your desk top.  More common are sinus or headache roller oils that people keep on hand, but you can mix this up to have fragrances that help with motivation and focus, or passion and creativity, or even oils that attract prosperity.   
• Drink your scent.  I am not proposing to drink your perfume straight up.  That's crazy. And dangerous.  But there are plenty of food grade essential oils that you can put in your water, tea, or foods in small amounts and reap the benefits of their powers.  

A couple notes on using scent.  Even if a particular scent is supposed to have miraculous powers for what you are trying to create, if you have a strong opposing reaction to it, then don't feel you need to work with it.  As mentioned above in article, maybe your great-great-grandparent got a bee sting while picking lavender, and the powers just won't work for you.  Also please note that the magic of scent is typically more relevant to natural scents, the type of scents that come directly from nature.  It is the flower, plant, bark, sap, resin, etc... that carries the powerful medicine that gets imbued in scent.  Therefore, chemical creations made to impersonate natural scents won't hold as much of the power.