Ambience and the Scentuous Aura

This excerpt was taken from Chapter 7: Ambience and the Scentuous Aura of Scents and Scentuality by, Valerie Ann Worwood, with the permission from the publisher, New World Library.

Nothing is more important to humanity than love, and whether that love has been spiritual or emotional, it has always been closely associated with sweet-smelling aroma. in the excellent History of Perfume, Frances Kennet points out that most civilizations have made the association between sweet smells and "goodness, friendly supernatural beings and immortality, and of evil smells with bad omens, malevolent gods and the force of death." Today, sweet-smelling aromatic substances are an integral part of the spiritual ritual in many places of worship.

Nature's sweet-smelling aromas are not only an aesthetic delight to human beings, but bridges to our spiritual, emotional, and physical interior, and in this chapter we shall be exploring a number of ways to bring romance into our lives and to enliven love with nature's precious essential oils. You will discover that creating the Scentuous aura is very simple, and as delightful for you as it will be for your lover or guests. Scentualists are bringing a timeless human activity right up to date.

We are, indeed, very lucky to have access to such a rich variety of essential oils. In times past the average man or woman would probably encounter only the highly valued essential oils when they were on the street- during the large state ceremonial occasions. These were extravagant Scentuous events. For example, we know that during the third century B.C. in Egypt, there was one procession in which 120 children marched-all carrying incense, myrrh, and saffron in golden basins. Behind them came the camels, each carrying the Ptolemys' personal supply of crocus (saffron), cassia, cinnamon, and orris root. The king of ancient Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, was a great admirer of fragrant materials and during his reign, aromatic processions were a way of life. We have record of one in which two hundred women walked, sprinkling everyone with perfumes held in golden watering pots. In another, boys wearing purple tunics carried frankincense, myrrh and saffron in golden dishes. They were followed by tow huge incense burners made of ivy wood covered in god, between which a large square altar was held high. We don't know if the Syrians-like the Egyptians-had braziers burning incense on street corners during public festivals.

The aristocrats of ancient time would have been invited to banquets at the palaces, where aroma was as important an elements as the food. In Babylon, guest had their own individual cassolette, incense burner, at their place setting. The aroma from this would have added to the aromas already present, (which would have been considerable as the Babylonians were great consumers of aromatics). Herodotus tells us that they used to perfume their whole bodies with the costliest of scents. In The Book of Perfumes, Eugene Rimmel recounts a travelogue of Arabia by Neibuhr, in which the author mentions the habit of throwing rose waster on visitors as a mark of honor; "It is somewhat amusing to w8itness the discomfited and even angry look with which foreigners are won t to receive these unexpected aspersions. The censer is also generally brought in afterwards, and its fragrant smoke directed towards the beards and garments of the visitors, this ceremony being considered as a gentle hint that it is time to bring the visit to an end."

You should, however, consider it and honor if, traveling in Arab countries today, you are showered with rose water from the gulabdan, a narrow-spouted vessel designed expressly for this purpose. Had you traveled in ancient Egypt, you should have been prepared to be anointed with fragrant oils, and in times past "anointing" usually meant letting the oils pour from your head to your feet! So it was when Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria, bathed at the public baths and was approached by a man saying, "You are a happy man, O king; you smell in the most costly manner." The good-natured king immediately ordered a large ewer of thick unguent to be poured over the man's head. Unfortunately, a large crowd of people then tried to gather up what had been spilled on the ground, causing the king great amusement, until, in the slippery melee, he fell on his back in "a most undignified manner."

The ancient Greeks, who attributed sweet smells to divine origin, provide one of the most extravagant aroma stories, in an account of a feast at which the host soaked four doves in different perfumes and sent them soaring above the heads of the guests, who got sprinkled as the birds were in flight. The Roman emperor Nero, who was an extravagant among an extravagant aroma-minded people, had a special ceiling built at his palace, the Golden House on the Esquiline, formed by ivory squares concealing silver pipes that could be moved from above to allow flowers and perfumes to fall gently upon the guests at dinner. Nero would not have been surprised to learn that similar contraptions, called "aroma-generation machines" are being used by Japanese businesses today to stimulate the workers and relax the customers. Nero is reputed to have slept on a bed of rose petals and been fond of carpets of petals (a stylish touch he probably copied from Cleopatra's famous seduction of Mark Antony). And for any fashionable Roman host or hostess, perfumed fountains were de rigueur.

King Edward VI of England ( 1547-1553) insisted on his rooms being suffused with the aroma of red roses, day and night. The method he employed was to place twelve spoonfuls of red rose water and "the width of a sixpence of fine sugar" in a pan on the embers of a dying fire where the mixture would, apparently, scent the largest of England's royal rooms.

Queen Elizabeth I of England was equally concerned about making a good, aromatic impression upon her guests, going so far as to order a perfumed cannon to fire when she entertained the duke of Anjou. This bizarre move would have been in addition to the usual aromatic additions to ambience-floors, walls, and wall hangings sprayed with perfume. Like other Elizabethan ladies, Queen Elizabeth carried a pomander, either in their hand or in necklace form, as protection against infection. Also, as was the custom of the day, she had a still room for preparing perfumes and healing remedies.

Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife, Josephine, were both extremely involved in creating a Scentuous aura-her bedroom was thick with the aroma of musk while Napoleon preferred the aroma of rosemary. Among his belongings when he died on St. Helena was a miscellany of perfume paraphernalia including an incense burner, reportedly used as he lay dying. A Scentualist until the end!

From earliest times, people have not only sweetened their bodies with perfumed soaps, dusting powders, massage oils, deodorants, and mouth fresheners, but also suffused their environments with scented braziers and room vaporizers, perfumed candles, clothes, cushions, pillows, and bed linen.

The Scentuous time is any time. Romance and courtship, of course, go hand in hand, and it's crucial to make the first occasion of lovemaking an especially romantic time, because that sets the pattern for the future. Aroma is a delight of creation, a bonus of life, and when you create your special ambience and Scentuous aura, you join not only history's lovers, but also the alchemists, physicians, philosophers, and poets of all time.