The Power of Scent

Of all the senses, the sense of smell is often the sense considered least important. Yet a scent has the power to set the mind reeling. Scent not only has the power to affect mood and invoke memories, a scent can shape your entire sense of well-being. Scent can even affect the way others respond to you.

Fragrances have been casting their spells for thousands of years. As early as 7000 BC, man used fragrant ointments from oils and plants. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Chinese all used essential oils not only for bathing and perfume, but for healing as well.

The olfactory nerves are connected directly with your brain, where scent impulses create instant memories and reaction. A single scent has the power to trigger feelings of peace, energy and even a good night's sleep.

Many scents are associated with memories and summon certain emotional responses. We react to specific aromas with specific response. We are comforted by the savory scent of baking bread. We feel festive when breathing in the scent of apple-cinnamon pie. The invigorating scent of lemon, lime or tangerine works to lighten our mood and lift our spirit. While the scents of rose and vanilla evoke memories of romance.

The complicated world of scent is all around us casting its spell. One way to harness this power is through the use of Essential oils. Essential oils are oils made from the leaves and flowers of plants. You can buy bath products or home fragrances containing the oils, or you can purchase the oils on their own. Every oil has its own, unique healing property. Once you know the benefits of each essential oil, you can use them to their full advantage.

The power of scent is not hard to incorporate into your every day life.
For example: Essential lavender oil has been traditionally used in France as a topical application to heal minor burns and reduce scarring. It is also used to counteract insomnia, anxiety, rheumatism, headaches, pains and as a regenerative and anti-aging treatment. When you are feeling frazzled and need a mood lift, try adding several drops of essential lavender oil to a hot bath. Not only will this relax your mind, studies show that lavender oil helps reduce joint and muscle pain.

Even if you're too busy to think of scent as a daily necessity, there are effortless ways to incorporate their powers into your daily routine. The simplest one is ending your day with a fragrant soak.

You can add a couple of drops of essential oil to your bathwater or make up a batch of bath salts. Salt not only draws impurities out from your body, it works to heal and deodorize it too. These make-ahead recipes can last up to six month. For best results, use a wide-mouth quart-size jar and store in a cool place.

Basic Bath Salts
1/4 cup Epsom salts
1/8 cup baking soda
1/8 cup sea salt
10 drops essential oil
Measure salts into a jar. Secure lid and shake until thoroughly blended. Add five drops of essential oil that suit your magickal need and blend well, then add five more drops and blend again.

Psychic Bath
(to help you connect to the Divine)
20 drops almond extract
10 drops rose oil
5 drops lavender oil
5 drops lemon oil
5 drops cinnamon oil
Add to basic recipe.

Enchanted Dreams
Use this relaxing bath to recall your dreams.
Add: 10 drops jasmine oil
5 drops lavender oil
5 drops orange oil
add to basic salt recipe. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Buttermilk Bath Salts
Soothing and very moisturizing
1 cup buttermilk powder
1 cup sea salt
Add up to 24 drops of essential oils. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Holiday Cookie Bath Salts
Add: 4 drops vanilla
10 drops essential oil of bergamot
5 drops essential oil of ylang ylang
2 drops essential oil of cardamom
1 drop essential oil of chamomile
To 3 cups basic salt recipe. This recipe makes 6, 1/2 cup baths.

Super Simple Cleanser
1/2 cup of sea salt with three drops of lavender oil
Add to running water for a relaxing bath.
Substitute the lavender oil with tangerine when you want to be revived.

A Walk in the Woods
( A woodsy scent that invokes feelings of comfort and contentment)

1 cup of Epsom salts
1 cup of Sea Salt
2 tablespoons of baking soda
essential oils:
5 drops of rosewood
2 drops cedarwood
2 drops chamomile
Add to basic salt recipe. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/4 cup per bath.

Balancing Bath Salts
1/4 sea salt
3 tbsp baking soda
3 drops each geranium, lavender, palmarosa, and rose.
Add to basic salt recipe. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Soothing Fizzing Bath Salts
3 tbsp sea salt
3 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp citric acid
8 drops of the essential oil of your choice.

Attraction Bath
3 drops palmarosa
2 drops lavender
1 drop rose
add to basic salt recipe. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Healing Bath
3 drops niaouli
2 drops eucalyptus
1 drop Ssandalwood
Add to basic salt recipe. Blend well, keep in a sealed jar. Use 1/2 cup per bath.

Unhexing Bath
Use when you think someone has hexed you
1 cup Epsom salts

1 cup sea salt
Add equal parts: clove oil
peppermint oil
lemon oil
eucalyptus oil

add 1/4 cup salt mixture to each bath. Store in a tightly sealed jar.

Even the most common culinary herb has a magical property. Parsley is used for fertility and thyme for clairvoyance. Check out our Herb page for more information on how herbs are commonly used in magic and home remedies.

Importance of Recognizing and Celebrating the Holidays

November is a month rich in beautiful ritual. Yet it seems that the commercializing of the holiday season has spawned a generation of curmudgeons that often choose to stay home, opt out of social interactions and avoid family gatherings. We've assimilated into the fast-paced, plugged in society that celebrates independents. Is it any wonder our society is losing its relationship with ritual?

Today's youth clamor that our society has no culture yet it is their non-participation in family traditions that is causing this culture riff. A major portion of childhood memories are based around our individual holiday experiences. Participation in holiday celebrations helps us feel connected to our place in society. Through ritual we connect to generations, past and future.

Barbara Fiese writes in the Journal of Family that families that celebrate holidays are more likely to raise kids who have a strong sense of identity, are healthy, have close ties to family members and succeed in school. Dr. Steven J. Wolin, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School, cites that the power of ritual comes from heritage, tradition and most of all something being emblazoned in your brain over time. And that family rituals protect the individual against a sense of loneliness and uncertainty in daily living as it transmits shared beliefs of the family group across generations.

Carl Jung wrote, "Without meaningful ritual, people suffer. Ritual and ceremony can bridge our past and our present elegantly, making it possible for folks like you and me to travel through life, honoring the good and bad times we’ve been through. They can help us become human “well-beings,” ready to take on more life and liberty and ready to pursue our happiness.”

Recognizing and celebrating holidays and interacting with your family, friends and community are all ways to acknowledge seasonal changes. By celebrating these ancient rituals we attune with the magical tides and acknowledge the rhythms of life, death and rebirth, to harmonize with the world and to recognize that we are a part of it.

Dr. William Dorherty, director of the marriage and family therapy program at the University of Minnesota, has identified two kinds of rituals in our society. The first is the traditional secular and religious rituals surrounding holidays, weddings or funerals; the second involve ritual a family or individual has created to celebrate their life. As children our lives were sprinkled with these small, magical rituals from nightly prayers to singing skipping songs, blowing dandelions to blowing out birthday candles. As adults practicing daily ritual allows us to experience a more magical life. Through ritual we can reprogram the unconscious mind so we have a different set of expectations about how the world will respond to us. Through ritual we can find our way to the places in our lives that exist in between the tick-tock of everyday living and the luscious places of dreaming, the magical places that connect us to the Divine.

There are many simple ways to incorporate ritual into your life: practicing meditation, keeping an alter, lighting a morning candle, whispering a prayer, silently focusing only on your breathing as you visualize what you want to accomplish during the day… all of these are examples of simple morning rituals and all of these work to pull your awareness from the mundane and shift it to the sacred. Through daily rituals we are able to recalibrate our energy and connect with the Divine.

Ritual doesn't have to stop at home. Look at your workspace. What does it hold to remind you that you are a human being, not a robitron but a person, a human being living a tender, ecstatic, gorgeous life? I have a peacock feather and a bright red rock shaped like a heart and before I start my workday, I put the rock in my palm and whisper Namaste. This is called ritual. It is a small ritual but never the less it serves to remind me that I not a robot, and that I am so much more than just flesh and blood, but that I am also spirit as are all those I work with.

Taking a few moments everyday to engage in ritual allows you to become the spiritual being you really are and creating a personal ritual is easy. The important thing is to take something that is significant to you and to honor it. The gesture could include lighting a candle, practicing a daily meditation, honoring a specific place either inside or out, burning incense, or incorporate icons obtained in faraway places. Nothing is, unless you make it so with intention.

So make your life sacred. Take time out to see your world. Don't let the hurry and worry of life take the magic out of your existence. We as a nation have forgotten the art of conscious living. Unplug and take a conscious breath. This is your life you are missing. Put down that cell phone when you are out on your walk. Be present in the here and now, and stop multitasking! If you are eating, then push away that paper, book, phone and take a conscious bite. Be present and enjoy the flavor and texture of your food. Allow yourself to revel in the rich taste, to savor the decadent scent. Give your spouse your full attention during your conversations and be there in that moment when you send your child off for school or play. When we shift our awareness back to the things that matter, it honors and allows them to regain their importance in our lives and makes a way for the magical moments to exist, the moments that make life worth living.

Experience the Magic of the Season

October is surely one of the most enchanting months of the year. Energy crackles in the air. The air turns crisps and blustery. Leaves fall from the trees to twirl at our feet before whirling off down the street. Nights grow cold. Morning meet us with a chilly nip. This is the time for celebration, a time of gratitude for life's abundance as we go from a season of plenty into a season of want.

So turn off that television, step away from your computer, put down your cell. Unplug yourself and step outside. Look at the beauty right outside your window. Most of humanity has experienced their most moving spiritual experience in nature. How inspiring is a thunderstorm or the sight of a brilliant sunset? What emotions were elicited last time you caught the scent of an unexpected rainstorm or stood ankle deep in lapping ocean as the tide rose of fell? Did you feel the first cold nip in the morning as the seasons changed? Stepping out into natural world is a way of connecting with the Divine. The act of becoming aware of the glory of the natural world, of reconnecting with nature allows us to move within the slower, more harmonious rhythms of life. And It allows us to escape our hectic schedules and experience the magic: in the beauty of the setting sun, in the glory of the full moon, in the wonder of a hummingbird sipping nectar from a blossom.

Seasonal awareness, awareness of the solstices and equinoxes and reflecting seasonal changes in our own person practices, allows us to attune our own personal energy to the energy of the natural world. Eating seasonal, recognizing and celebrating holidays and interacting with your family, friends and community are all ways to acknowledge seasonal changes. By celebrating these ancient rituals we attune with the magical tides and acknowledge the rhythms of life, death and rebirth, to harmonize with the world and to recognize that we are a part of it. As children our lives were sprinkled with small, magical rituals from nightly prayers to singing skipping songs, blowing dandelions to blowing out birthday candles. As adults practicing daily ritual allows us to experience a more magical life. Through ritual we can reprogram the unconscious mind so we have a different set of expectations about how the world will respond to us. Through ritual we can find our way to the places in our lives that exist in between the tick-tock of everyday living and the luscious places of dreaming, the magical places that connect us to the Divine.

There are many simple ways to incorporate ritual into your life: practicing meditation, keeping an alter, lighting a morning candle, whispering a prayer, silently focusing only on your breathing as you visualize what you want to accomplish during the day… all of these are examples of simple morning rituals and all of these work to pull your awareness from the mundane and shift it to the sacred. Through daily rituals we are able to recalibrate our energy and connect with the Divine.

Ritual doesn't have to stop at home. Look at your workspace. What does it hold to remind you that you are a human being, not a robitron but a person, a human being living a tender, ecstatic, gorgeous life? I have a peacock feather and a bright red rock shaped like a heart and before I start my workday, I put the rock in my palm and whisper Nameste.. This is called ritual. It is a small ritual but never the less it serves to remind me that I not a robot, and that I am so much more than just flesh and blood, but that I am also spirit as are all those I work with.

Taking a few moments everyday to engage in ritual allows you to become the spiritual being you really are and creating a personal ritual is easy. The important thing is to take something that is significant to you and to honor it. The gesture could include lighting a candle, practicing a daily meditation, honoring a specific place either inside or out, burning incense, or incorporate icons obtained in faraway places. Nothing is, unless you make it so with intention.

So make your life sacred. Take time out to see your world. Don't let the hurry and worry of life take the magic out of your existence. We as a nation have forgotten the art of conscious living. Unplug and take a conscious breath. This is your life you are missing. Put down that cell phone when you are out on your walk. Be present in the here and now, and stop multitasking! If you are eating, then push away that paper, book, phone and take a conscious bite. Be present and enjoy the flavor and texture of your food. Allow yourself to revel in the rich taste, to savor the decadent scent. Give your spouse your full attention during your conversations and be there in that moment when you send your child off for school or play. When we shift our awareness back to the things that matter, it honors and allows them to regain their importance in our lives and makes a way for the magical moments to exist, the moments that make life worth living.

Meditation for the day:

I just spent a year living in Portland, Oregon, isolated from my friends, daughter and husband. An entire year, working an exhausting, depreciating job I hate. I kept asking, "What am I doing here?"  I had spent all my savings to move my kids, pets and vast accumulation of possessions up here. I seemed stuck.

I knew I was waiting to learn a lesson and finally I learned two.

First: Lose the ego.

Why do you scorn others?
Can it be that you are that proud?
No matter how accomplished you are,
There are people ahead of you and behind you.
All beings on the path,
All victims of the same existence,
All with body, mind and spirit
No one is better than the next person.
Help others for all the times that you have been ignored.

Be kind to others, for all the times that you have been scorned.
The journey of humanity is the journey form ignorance to enlightenment.
There is injustice in the world, yes. but there is no need to add to it. When you see someone less fortunate, express compassion. When you see someone more advanced, try to learn from them. Any other feelings are superfluous.

 From Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao

Second: Lose the junk.
Shifting importance and priorities from material possessions to relationships, I decided not to worry about my things but to instead "lose all the junk" and as soon as I adopted this approach, the door opened. Next month I am leaving Portland and moving to LA. I get take my dogs and all the stuff I can cram into one small car... I'm very excited.

My March Om

March is a Time for Renewal

 "Life on Earth has been a history
of interaction between living
things and their surroundings."
-Rachel Carson

 When early man settled an area that allowed plant life to flourish, agricultural societies prospered allowing for the pursuit of higher ideas. In areas where grain could thrive, civilizations grew, cultivating religion with man's evolving ability to sense the changing seasons and note the motions of the celestial bodies.

To the ancients, bountiful grain fields were a sign of health and harmony. A Sumerian tablet from 260 B.C. lists the crops as rice, soy, wheat, barley and millet and from the cultivation of these five sacred grains, a rich culture was established as deities of local power sprang up with symbols central to the agricultural cycles.

The agriculture year falls into four quarters based on the movements of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes. The ancients marked these days heralding the seasons beginning with feast days naming them: Imbolc or Candlemas, the return of light in the longer days and lactating ewes. Beltane or May Day, coinciding with the sprouting of the first crops and the birth of farm animals. Lammas the first fruits festival and Samhain or Summers end the final harvest of the crops before the time of cold and want. Under the growing pressures of the Catholic Church, the old feast days became Ember Days; or days for fasting and self-denial but paganism persisted until many of the old gods were canonized into Saints and the pagan symbols and rituals over-laid the new celebrations especially apparent in Christmas, Easter and Halloween.

Easter or Ostara is a celebration of the arrival of spring or Vernal Equinox on March 21. This is the time when light and darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger by the day. This is a time of renewal. A time to celebrate fertility as life re-awakens. Also known as Oestara or Eostre's Day, Rite of Eostre, Alban Eilir, Festival of the Trees and Lady Day, this ancient holiday precedes the Christian holiday Easter. The name for this Sabbat actually comes from that of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre and her chief symbols are the bunny and the egg.

This is a time of renewal, a time when life reawakens and all is new. This month is the perfect time for you to become an all new, better and improved, you. Look in the mirror and decide what is important to you. Write your goals for this year down and post it where you can see it every day. Take time to sort out what is important to you and put your energy toward its realization.

 It is the small changes we make today that fosters big changes later on. A healthy lifestyle which includes moderation in all things: eating right, daily exercise and a normal sleeping pattern is key to balanced energy. One trick to healthy living is making small changes. Make wise choices (skip the chips choose raw fruit or vegetables) Eating healthy snacks will make you feel awake and alive. Free yourself from a bad diet in simple steps: add fruit to your cereal, have an extra glass of water instead of soda, limit your alcohol and caffeine consumption. It is possible to ease into a healthier lifestyle just by making conscious choices.

The practice of yoga and daily meditation are also wonderful vehicles to a healthier life. Our bodies are so much more than meets the eye. Of course we are flesh, blood and bone but we are also Spirit and within our body lies and an amazing network of energy centers or chakras.

This energy system ensures that our organs, cells, and tissues stay strong and healthy. When there is a block in an energy pathway, the organ system that the pathway corresponds with will also become blocked. Through meditation we can move energy through the body and heal it. Not only can we eliminate stress but we can heal and balance our own bodies by drawing energy to the energy center or chakra point that is not functioning to its fullest potential.

The practice of meditation is a large part of psychic development and spiritual work. Meditation is the practice of focusing and quieting your mind to achieve a heightened awareness of your inner spirit and release your inner wisdom whereby you are attempting to merge the desires of the subconscious mind with the desires of the conscious mind in order to work toward a common goal.

When you shift your attention to each breath slowly and deeply drawn and released, you shift your mind into a quiet mode, releasing your mind clutter and silencing the “monkey mind" that constantly tries to invade our thoughts and emotions. The result of this shift is peace, serenity, calmness and inspiration. Through Meditation we are able to recalibrate our energy and connect with the divine. Your world is what you make it. Take time to make a conscious change. You have the power to create the happy, peaceful, fulfilling (you choose the adjective) life you always wanted. It is in your power to simply choose to worry and let life drag you down or let go of the distraction, switch you attention to the wonder of the here and now and live the harmonious life you were intended to live.

Only you can make your life better. You can make your life into the life you desire. Indeed You have the power to change the world.

I choose easy world.

The universe speaks to me through signs, omens and synchronicities that I welcome and look for but sometimes miss as I ramble by. Three times this week a reference made its way to me.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.                   -Philippians 4:8"

But it wasn't until the fourth encounter that I sat up and took notice. I mean how often is it that an obscure passage in a letter written by a guy who's been dead over a thousand years stands up to make its self known? Ok so the first encounter was in church, but in the lunchroom at work? Really? And I know, why did it take four times? And was it really only 4 times or have my guides been blindsiding me with this a dozen times more before I noticed? I really need to sharpen my communication skills with all that is Spirit. 

Was this an admonishment warning me that if I didn't move my mind back to easy world* (my alternate reality where life has no worries) my path was going to become more difficult? Or was this an attempt to move me along and facilitate my climb to the next level? Considering where my mind has been these past few days, I suspect it is the latter. The universe is like that offering brief exchanges that often seem vague and obscure yet it offers boundless, positive, creative energy to us. Just ask and it will be given, however I caution you, be absolutely sure your really want what it is you are asking for. 

You are the creator of your own reality. Sure there are many external influences that we have no control over but there is no reason to stew over them.  Nothing was ever solved by worrying about it. Instead worry about nothing. Beginning today I resolve to meditate on the good aspects of my life, to lift my vibration as I shift my reality to spirit and dwell in easy world. I have purified my body. I eat healthy and (groan) even gave up coffee in my quest to find peace and exist in harmony with the flow Of All that Is. Have I been under attack these past days? Have I cause harm to others? This week I am going to make a conscious effort to live in spirit and keep the darkness that is this world at bay. 

* Choosing Easy World by Julia Rogers Hamrick a spiritual guide for the suburbanite.

February marks the return of light and life to the world.

I always longed to live in a place marked by the season, a place where life was slower and nature was outside the front door. I got my wish last year and found that the reality of winter is harsh, dark and depressing. The sun was winking out mid-afternoon and the rain seemed to never stop. The Solstice came and went and with it the hours of light grew. By February hints of spring's approach were emerging in the buds on bushes and sprouting bulbs.

For the ancients, February marked the return of light and life to the world. With food supplies running low, the birth of the first lambs brought a reprieve from hunger providing milk and fresh meat. Our ancestors celebrated February as a time of renewal, a time to honor the returning light, as the cold and darkness of winter withdrew. The birthing of lambs and the lengthening days fostered the early fertility festivals that became our modern Valentine's Day.

Indeed February is time of romance, a time to be kind to your loved ones, a time to be kind to yourself. Make this month a time of renewal as you turn away from habits that are holding you back and foster habits to heal your body, mind and spirit. This is the time to take your life back.

Simple Steps to a New You

Honestly look at your life and look at yourself. In your heart you know what is keeping you from being a better person. Take an honest look and decide what habit is keeping you from your goal. The first step to changing your life is to identify what it is that you want to change and have a desire to do the work to change it. Through awareness and ambition you can turn your energy to becoming the person you want to be.

Let’s begin with your body:
Your body is a machine. To improve this machine, you must control the input and output by refining your diet and getting exercise. This doesn't mean stop eating and join a gym. Start small, don't make it hard. Take out one unproductive thing and add one positive thing and by the end of the month you will be a new you. Substitute water for soda. Trade an hour walk, for an hour of watching TV. Eliminate fast food and processed snacks. Instead eat fresh fruits and lots of green leafy vegetables and by changing the small things, you will change your lifestyle. Remember a small step today will result in big changes in your future.

Your mind:
Change is a process. Today take the first step to a better you. Take an honest look at your attitude. Begin by counting your blessings. Look at your life and decide to become mindful. Be being aware, you will be able to make conscious choices and change the way you respond to people. By being aware of your reaction to others, and responding mindfully with positive words, you will avoid habitual traps. When someone rubs you wrong, don't become angry, don't hold grudges. Instead of becoming resentful and wasting all your energy, learn to forgive. When you harbor animosity against a person or group of people, you become stuck in a nonproductive cycle of anger. Learning to forgive fosters positive emotions and lends to a healthy lifestyle. The simple act of changing your attitude gives you the ability to avoid the counterproductive emotions of anxiety and depression and instead find happiness.

By choosing to react with a positive or peaceful response, we choose to be happy. Happiness is at your fingertips. Through conscious choices you will reap huge rewards. When reacting to those around choose to smile more. Praise yourself and others. Dream of success. Be enthusiastic. The shift of your energy to these positive responses will allow you to be happy, joyous, healthy and successful.

Your spirit:
The best medicine to heal the spirit is meditation. Meditation is the practice of focusing and quieting your mind to achieve a heightened awareness of your inner spirit. When you shift your attention to each breath slowly and deeply drawn and released, you shift your mind into a quiet mode, releasing your mind clutter. The result of this shift is calmness and inspiration.

Incorporating a morning meditation into your daily routine will allow you to fill a well of peace at your center. It will give your strength and fortitude to be able to stick with and accomplish the goals you’ve set. The practice of meditation will allow you to improve mental functioning and attain greater intuition as you are granted access to unconscious resources and abilities.

This month be kind to yourself. Take time for yourself. Incorporate into your schedule activities you've wished to do. If you've been meaning to take a yoga class, now is the time. Don't make excuses, don't put it off. If you've been toying with the idea of learning a new skill or working on a hobby, now is the time. Don't let life pass you by. Your life belongs to you. You have the power to make it the life you want to live. It is up to you and you alone to become the person you want to be.