April Showers Wash Away
Winter Blues

Last month I gave you something to think about when I described the effect that specific energy fields can have on other energy fields near and far.

And now, to take it out of the abstract, as someone I know likes to say, I'll share what we discovered in the aromatherapy class I am currently teaching at Brescia.

The first evening we started with a set of ten essential oils. I spent a lot of time in finding ten oils, each unique in its aroma and properties, but each of which were compatible aroma-wise with most of the other oils in the set.

Everyone in the class sampled each oil, one at a time, and wrote their first impressions of what they felt when they smelled the aroma, where the feeling was in their body, and how it made them feel. At the end of class everyone went back to the perfume sticks and wrote their second impression of each oil after it had vaporized to some extent.

When we started class, no one was sure what I meant when I asked how did the oil make them feel, and especially when I asked where did that feeling go in their body. But by the time the class ended, everyone was able to start feeling the energy move through their body - some aromas to the heart area, or the throat. Some aromas went to the top of the head or to the solar plexus. But everyone was starting to feel the energy move. And of course, when the energy moves, our own energy changes.

Because I wanted the class to concentrate on the personalities of the oils, along with their mental and spiritual effects, many of these oils turned out to be anxiety or stress relief agents, or relaxing and soothing agents. One person stated that she had gone home, gone to bed, and not woken at all until the next morning which was unusual for her. She attributed that to the absolutely relaxing atmosphere we had created in the classroom with our sampling of all the aromas.

In the second class each person came back with a selection of three to four of their favorite oils from the original ten, and created a personal oil blend using those oils. Suddenly, everyone could feel the energy move much more freely.

We had a five year old child in the room with us. I asked her to take colored chalks and a sketchpad and to draw what she saw when she closed her eyes and smelled the aromas permeating the room. Children of that age are still able to associate smell and vision and energy as one and the same.

The first picture was a structured flower on a stem, on a red background with a small strip of blue at the top of the page. No one in the class had any idea what to do, or where to start to "create" with these oils (structure). They were afraid that they would do it "wrong" or not know what they wanted to create (red - the first chakra - survival). They wanted to ask many questions so they could get it "right" (blue - fifth chakra - communication). There was a small amount of orange (second chakra -creativity), and there was a small amount of green (heart (fourth) chakra, always open in the atmosphere of the Brescia Contemporary Women's Group).

The second picture was less structured. Colors were starting to overlay each other, but they were still located pretty much in a small area.