Alchemy + Stories

These days are hard for many of us. Whether we see ourselves sitting in the Left or Right aisles, there are some points of reference and government architecture we have...

The Effects of Smelling Coffee

We all know coffee is for waking up, whether first thing in the morning or as a means to get over the afternoon slump. Sometimes we will have coffee after...

Vein of Gold: An Allegory About Following Your Dreams

Once upon a time there was a man who sought his fortune in the world. He was mining for gold—his own vein of gold. Every morning he would go deep...

Love + Memories

Have you ever felt "less than"? Less than is the feeling of not being enough. It is associated with performance anxiety, imposter syndrome, and other depressive self thoughts. That is...

UnVeiling

You probably don’t imagine your perfumer will talk to you about spirituality–even though, some of the first perfumers were Egyptian priests. You also may not expect discussions of current Western...

The Alchemy of Scent & the Brain

Have you ever walked into a kitchen where cookies are baking? As you wade into the sweet aroma of sugar, flour, and vanilla you are transported for a second to your childhood. Sweet memories surface and you feel more "at home." Your sense of smell is directly linked to the memory center in your brain. This is why realtors bake cookies just before an Open House. They want you to associate the at-home-happy memories with the house they are trying to sell. Aromatherapy and natural perfumes work on the brain...

Scent & Emotions

Scent has the power to inform whether we feel comfortable in a place or not. Scent has the power to trigger memories, bringing people long gone before you. An agitated mind that bends a nose deep into a fragrant rose and inhales, straightens with a sense of momentary calm. These same tenants of aromatherapy are still true in natural perfumes. An accord (a blend of fragrant extracts and scents layered to create a singular harmony of fragrance) can be used individually or blended with other notes and accords to craft...

Honoring the Fragrant Mind

Exploring the techniques, folklore, and history of perfume, herbs, and flowers sparked a question for me. If herbs and flowers have healing properties, would those healing properties be available once extracted into scents? Could scent actually elicit positive emotional states of being? Research led me to Valerie Wormwood’s The Fragrant Mind. The sense of smell is the ONLY physical sense with direct access to the brain. It was one of early man’s first danger detectors. Smells bad, don’t eat. Smells good, take a try. The concept: use scents to improve your...

Garden Alchemy

How does your garden grow? Are you straining to find the sun because you are not planted in a space of thought that aligns intention, needs, and action? Are you depleted because you have allowed encroaching weeds of self-doubt and accepted criticism to divert your growth-inspiring nourishment? How does your garden grow? Are your branches heavy with fruit, standing in the glorious knowledge that who you are is supported by a lattice of determination and intentional living? Do you allow your vibrant blossoms of personal expression to mix flawlessly in...

Ochun + Ogun, the meeting outside the cave. Image by Elhoim Leafar

The Delicious Encounter of Ochun + Ogun

The story goes, Ogun, the god of iron and innovation, had grown depressed by the state of the world—the state of humanity ceaselessly using his gifts to bully and injure....