The Nose Knows
Acknowledging the invisible while remaining grounded
Wednesday morning I woke up with threads of a recurring thought that demanded to be transcribed, as I sat down to capture it, I became side tracked by updating the "about" page here at Wandering the Wonderland. While editing, I noticed that I had spelled the word sophomore incorrectly, and recognized the root sopho, in Greek meaning wise. Curious about it’s full meaning, I looked it up and discovered that mores means fool. That fascinating oxymoron brought me back to the post I came here to write, which was partly rooted in the challenge of living in this contradictory, dualistic realm of wisdom and foolishness.
As I returned back to transcribing the thought that was slowly disappearing once more, my email in-boxed dinged. Thought leader Charles Eisenstein, had published a new post titled Activating the Subtle Senses. How synchronistic, in the first paragraph he wrote:
“Today a realization came to me. It wasn’t the first time it has come; I don’t know about you, but I keep having these realizations and then forget them again. Then when they come back, they sink in deeper.”
️After reading the post and marveling at the shared insights, I yet again returned to focus on the work at hand, capturing ethereal thoughts, then stringing words together to ground its essence into physical form. The similarity with writing and the distillation of plant material floated up into my consciousness, hmmm.
If you’ve attended one of my classes, or visited the perfumery, perhaps you’ve heard me mention how in distillation the plant material (Earth) is placed into the vessel, then we add Water, which is heated (Fire) so that the water tiny aromatic molecules contained in the plant matter turns into steam (Air) which condenses down into aromatic molecules → essential oil (Ether). One of my aromatherapy teachers, Jan Kusmirek, called essential oils the fifth element, the quintessence.
During art school, I had to give up working with oils to paint with because my body couldn’t handle turpentine, or the alternative odorless variety called Turpenoid. I pivoted by switching to acrylic paints and creating layers of color. Shortly there after, I also gave up on using “perfume”, my favorites at the time were Opium by Yves St Laurent, Lauren by Ralph Lauren and Boucheron by Boucheron. I had not yet made the connection that it was the synthetic aroma molecules that were causing my distress.
As my sensitivities became more acute, scented cleaning and laundry products became intolerable, I was no longer able to use any scented candle or incense. Even if the labeling claimed to be “natural”, my body loudly proclaimed “NO!”, usually in the form of a headache or just not feeling well.
It was as if my antenna were slowly getting more and more refined. Have you seen the 1986 film Man Facing Southeast? The director was a good friend of my mother, and I remember a sense of kinship with the character and the concept of a damaged antenna.
The challenge was that the more refined and attune my antenna became the more the synthetic world became difficult to migrate and more isolating.
In early 2020, I had been living in Santa Fe, New Mexico for over two years, detoxing from frenetic Los Angeles, consumptive culture and synthetic living. I felt grounded by the iron rich soil, expanded by the landscape, lightened by the ever, changing luminous skies. Although the move was very tumultuous, I felt held by the earth.
March arrived and there was a sentiment quietly shared amongst a few of my friends that humans were losing their common sense. Meanwhile, stinky “hand sanitizer” became the most common scent thread. An ethereal realization dropped in, a nudge to renewing the commitment to supporting small and indie businesses. As much as possible I stopped shopping at conglomerate markets and supporting local, and small online businesses. The synthetic haze at super markets seemed to get even more fierce and the molecules would linger on my clothing long after visiting, another reason to exit that paradigm.
Last month, while in Los Angeles for two weeks and then in Albuquerque this past Tuesday, it became very obvious that big cities, with their grids, ugly generic structures dominating the landscape, traffic and very systematic conditions, are a perfect representation of technology versus nature.
I remembered as a child, when staying with my maternal grandma in Buenos Aires, she would get up early in the morning and head to all the various little stores while I slept. When I awoke and wandered into the kitchen, there was fresh bread and croissants from the bakery, meat from the butcher, veggies from the vegetable stand, etc. This was the early 70’s, the one shop “super” market model had not yet established itself in Argentina like it had in the US. I experienced a little of this in the mid 80’s while living in an area called Cobble Hill in Brooklyn. It was a community of mostly Italians, with lots of independently owned establishments where I would go to get bread, pasta, veggies, meat, flowers, etc., just like my grandma. I knew the owners and workers by name, and then knew me.
The basic governing theory of opposites, known as duality, has been referenced by many spiritual and psychological traditions such as Jungian theory and the Asian principal of Yin and Yang. Duality is perfectly represented in the polarity from the Hot, Yang, Dynamic, Masculine to the Cool, Yin, Soft, Luscious Feminine.
In nature we can observe theses polarities in the Sun and Moon, or contrary forces such as macro to the micro. We also observe this principle is in alchemy, where we utilize a heightened sense of awareness to observe patterns and gain insights, We stand in the middle, stepping out of the duality, the duel, those polarizing patterns that pull us off center and create division.
In philosophy, duality is described as a theory where reality or a concept is understood to have two fundamentally separate and irreducible elements like good and evil, or the separation of self and other, with the unification of the spirit and the matter being the goal.
My introduction to this concept was during a three year apprenticeship with Kaitryne, a shaman whose work was mostly based on Jung and Celtic traditions. She would often use the Arthurian Tarot by having us choose a card after a session and have us describe the scene.
Hence the orientation of Illuminated Perfume with Celtic inspired perfumes. The card above is of the Goddess Sovereignty, before reading on, I suggest you take a moment to describe what you see in the card?
Here is my description:
The goddess Sovereignty sits in a forest of ferns and oak like trees, at the edge of a tri colored stream flowing with black, white and red water. The roots of the large tree next on her reach down into the steam. The goddess is depicted in her "mother" aspect, with dark hair and in a red dress with a flame above her head spreading out in a circle, illuminating the forest with its golden hue. She holds a four, sided metallic chalice in her right hand, supported by her left and looks directly at the viewer with a calm, focused, serenity. At the bottom of the card is a white stout rising out of the stream looking toward the right.
The concept of a goddess called Sovereignty, like most elder tales featuring a strong feminine archetype, is a bit illusive and shrouded. A goddess of Sovereignty is most often portrayed and known in Celtic stories but also finds parallels in other traditions. I have even perceived her as representing the symbolic union of opposites in the alchemical tradition. The thematic element of union implies the existence of a dualistic nature uniting in ritual. She is also seen as a conglomerate archetypal symbol embodied in many other goddesses and legendary queens described in the folklore and mythologies of other cultures.
Notice the black and white checker board trim of her dress. Kaitryne described this pattern as the game board of this earthy realm, symbolizing the opposing forces of nature, such as light and dark, day and night, or good and evil, reflecting the inherent balance within the universe, where opposing forces test us, and are necessary for growth, order and progress.
Standing with feet firmly on the ground, feeling into our central channel, which corresponds to trunks of trees, we can begin to get aligned. From this place of centering, we perceive the chaos of the world but do not engage or react, unless we are called to do so from a of deep discernment and a place of spirit. We stand strong in this vertical axis, in the heart, outside of the dynamics of the horizontal plane of the dual/duel.
As we are tempted to step out of the center, by battle, by greed and the superficial, it’s important to return to the center. Be at peace, kind and sovereign to your self. Get out into nature, take a deep breath, and support your local farmers and indie businesses in your community.