The Role of Scent in Magick

 The Role of Scent in Magick

 

by Summer Rainstorm

 For thousands of years, people in all cultures have used various forms of scent in religious rituals. Specific scents were thought to be pleasing to the gods, but they also served an additional purpose. The smell of various herbs, resins, and oils helped the worshippers achieve the state of consciousness necessary for the success of religious magick.

Today, those practices continue as aromatherapy, and censing during rituals. Religions the world over even today use various scents to push the faithful into a frame of mind conducive to worship. Conventional aromatherapy utilizes both the sense of smell and the sense of touch, but it is the sense of smell that is most important in most magickal workings.

According to Scott Cunningham, in his book Magical Aromatherapy, scent is best utilized by the practitioner visualizing a particular need while inhaling a specific scent or blend of scents. Bioelectrical energy is then coupled with that of the fragrance, and is fine-tuned by the visualization.

It matters not if the scent is produced by throwing certain types of wood and herbs on a bale fire, lighting a stick of incense, or burning an expensive essential oil in a ceramic diffuser. Once the scent is released, the practitioner adds the component of visualization necessary to create their own brand of magick. Magickal aromatherapy is easy to learn, inexpensive, and requires no special training.

The most common type of scent is incense. The use of incense is not exclusive to Pagans by any means. The Catholic Church has used incense for hundreds, if not thousands, of years in their services. Many Eastern traditions also use incense in meditations and rituals. Pagans today use incense to promote ritual consciousness and to purify the altar and surrounding area, cleansing it of negativity. Specially formulated incenses are used to attract specific energies to the practitioner to aid in charging personal power for release to a particular goal.

Incense is relatively inexpensive, and easy to find. Walk into the nearest K-Mart, Wal-Mart , or even the local grocer and you will find many different types of incense to choose from. Motivated practitioners sometimes will make their own incenses, which isnÕt difficult. Incenses are usually created by mixing leaves, petals, roots, barks, resins, gums and oils together to form a powder.

There are several types of incenses. One type is the non-combustible incense which contains no saltpeter, an ingredient designed to aid in the burning of the mixture. This type of incense must be burned on a charcoal brick. Combustible incense contains saltpeter and simply needs to be lit. Examples of combustible incense are cones and sticks, which are available in many stores. Cunningham states in the book Incenses, Oils and Brews that most incense used in magickal rites is the non-combustible type. However, you should use the type of incense that you prefer best.

A less common way to utilize scent in magick is through the use of oils. Essential oils are actually not oils at all, but pure extractions of plants, berries, fruits, or other plant forms. Blended oils are usually essential oils pre-blended in a base of carrier oil.

The most efficient way to stock your own magickal oils is to buy a variety of essential oils and blend your own scents. This not only is cheaper, but also adds to the energy that you put into your rituals, since you are putting your energy into the blend. A general guideline for blending oils is approximately 10 drops to 1/4 cup carrier oil. Good choices for carrier oils are olive, sweet almond, jojoba, grape seed, apricot kernel, and vegetable.

An even less common method of employing scent into your rituals is the brew. Brews can be a multitude of things, from an herbal tea to a concoction specifically mixed to release fragrant steam into the air. Brewing has long had a reputation for being a witch's domain, and many a scene has been depicted with a witch stirring a large cauldron full of bubbling unidentifiable green stuff. In actuality brews were, and still are, used for magickal, medicinal, and ritual preparations.

An easy formula to remember when brewing is to let the mixture steep for at least 15 minutes prior to using. This allows all the ingredients to release their properties into the brew. The water you use should also be as pure as possible. Tap water, or water with a high composition of chemicals or minerals, can produce a slightly altered scent.

When developing your own scent preparations, carefully check several references for the attributes of the ingredients you are mixing. Each herb and preparation has specific attributes, and these can be effectively utilized by the practitioner as a tool towards accomplishing a specific goal..

Good luck and happy mixing!

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