Wherever you travel in the world, when you enter a House of Spirit — the first thing to greet you is fragrance: the offerings of incense, oils, spices, or flowers that let you know you have entered a sacred space.
Like the plants they come from, essential oils are generous in the sheer range of their healing gifts. Complex and volatile, they have a direct affect upon every level of our being — from the mundane to the sublime. Essential oil of Lemon, for example, which can lift the fog of depression, can also clean our counter tops; expansive Eucalyptus can ease bronchial congestion, and open the heart; soothing Lavender not only heals emotional scars, but the cuts and burns on our skin; warming Sweet Orange can balance and stimulate our digestive system and Chi, and awaken our appetite for joy; Myrrh can both heal our gums, and fortify the wounded healer within.
How do they do this? On the most basic bio-chemical level, essential oils increase the oxygen in our blood. As soon as the volatile essential oil molecules hit the air, they are on the move, and as we inhale, enter our bloodstream. That's thanks to our olfactory nerve — two bulbs behind the bridge of our nose -- the only exposed nerve in the human body, and one that connects to the oldest part of our brain — the limbic system — the center of memory and motion. That's also why scents affect us so deeply — they trigger sense memory.
On an energetic level, essential oils' complex and electro-magnetic chemistries interact with our own electromagnetism, and help our body access and restore its natural balance. In The Fragrant Heavens, Valerie Ann Worwood describes essential oils as "crystalline structures that carry light," observing how remarkably: "They are thought to travel in the interstitial fluid, the space between the cells, where the molecules of emotion also travel…"
Entering our innermost pathways, these aromatic teachers stir our innate wisdom and grace. Within their fragrant sanctuary, we are called to be present — that space where all healing begins.