Magical Oils

I ordered oils this summer from Elizabeth Van Buren and as a clinical aromatherapy student I got them half price!  The oils are beautiful and rich. 
http://www.elizabethvanburen.com/

The two oils on the left are from Alchemy Works, a magical site at

http://www.alchemy-works.com/

that has a great variety of interesting and hard to find items.
I was drawn in by the description of the Artemis of the Mountaintop Oil and I bought it along with the Night Blooming Flying Oil

Here are the descriptions right from the website:

Artemis of the Mountaintops Oil This oil honors the wilder aspects of Artemis, the virgin goddess. There is some indication that her worshippers used mugwort or wormwood as aids to prophecy in her name. I chose five members of the Artemisia family (named for her) for this oil - wormwood, mugwort, davana, peach artemisia, and dragon's wort - and combined them in a grounding base of distilled baked earth. While still wet, the oil smells very strongly of wormwood, but as it dries, it changes first to a somewhat minty, fresh scent and then settles into a lightly fruity sweetness. It's a very wonderfully virginal with a strong Air quality that sets it apart from many of my other oils. It's good evoking the wild aspects of the forest or for honoring Artemis. She is associated with the wilder parts of the Old World, especially the dry, stony mountains of the Mediterranean. There she amuses herself with archery and wide circle dances, according to Callimachus. Although she is a hunter, she also protects the animals that roam the mountain forests and dances there with her nymphs. These would paint their faces white in imitation of the full Moon (she is connected to the moon as her brother was to the sun) or wear masks made to look like the dogs she went hunting with; clearly, tapping into one's wild side is important with this aspect of the divine. 

   

Night Blooming Flying Oil This floral flying oil focuses strongly on night-blooming flowers, which release their perfume to the Moon, not the Sun. I also chose flowers representing each of the planetary influences except Sun, which I figure doesn't have too much of a role to play in a flying oil. I included tuberose and osmanthus (Saturn); gardenia, white rose, and night-blooming jasmine (Venus); carnation (Jupiter) and mimosa (Mars). Many flower scents, especially those of night-blooming flowers, have qualities that enhance trancework. In addition, I included the Moon's favorite, clary sage, for its divinatory effects. For Mercury, I chose a soft Australian white sandalwood, which allows the various scents to work together. Sandalwood also has its own long tradition in magic and trancework. I was lucky enough to obtain some very rare ingredients for this oil from sources that I trust to reject synthetics, as I do. These rare natural perfumes increase its price, but I think they are worth it, as they make this oil truly unique. I'll wager you will not find anything like this anywhere else.

How could I resist?
I have been drawn to Artemis ever since College freshman Greek and Roman Mythology class when Herb Goldman, my eccentric and quite charismatic professor stood up at the podium and read one of her myths out loud.  It sent shivers all over me with a feeling of  "This is it!  Pay attention!" 




This summer I found the notebook from that class when I rummaged through my teenage bedroom closet.  There it was!  I couldn't even bear to open it because it had held so much power and magic when I was 17 years old, sitting in that huge lecture hall hearing him speak, I was shocked the notebook looked so pedestrian and  shabby.  I thought it should be glowing with a golden light, not bound in a plastic torn notebook.  I still haven't peaked at the myths that caught my soul like silk on a thorn, saying "These are for you.  You've heard them before.  Listen.."

It made me think of the Carl Sagan quote about writing as a magical act.

“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”