Monday, August 30, 2010

NAHA Article May 2010


Contributed by Candice Covington

Expanding Your Anointing Practice


This mini-article is a follow up to the NAHA Subtle Aromatherapy issue (2010.1) article Amulets and Oils-in which the concept of a personal anointing practice is introduced where one could either anoint energy centers in the body (specifically chakral) or amulets that vibrate to different elemental energies that in turn effect the doshas. A list of exotic essential oils were offered at that time. This follow up article is intended to introduce more commonly used essential oils to expand and enrich that practice. If more in-depth information is required please see the before mentioned Journal's back issue.


Following is a quick guide to the key, in reading the profiles:

Key) Vata = V. Pitta = P. Kapha = K. - Diminishes. + Increases.


Ginger Zingiber officinalis

Dosha effect: V K-, P +

Elements: Fire, seed of, Earth.

Stimulates the: 1st and 3rd chakra.

Energy: A hero's energy, strong and brave, use to stay in process in difficult situations.

Cautions: Not for use with high pitta conditions, fever or inflammatory skin diseases.


Juniper Berry Juniperus communis

Dosha effect: K V -, P +, (V+ if used in excess).

Elements: Ether, seed of, Fire.

Stimulates the: 3rd and 5th chakra.

Energy: Cleansing, healing, clear sight, profundity, internal teacher.

Cautions: Not for use with kidney infections or during pregnancy.


Lavender Lavendula officinalis

Dosha effect: P K -, (V + if used in excess).

Element: Ether

Stimulates the: 5th chakra.

Energy: An elevated nature, the divine, expansion, truth, purity, detachment, peace.

Cautions: Safe for most every one.


Jasmine Jasmimum grandiflorum

Dosha effect: P-, K+, (V + if used in excess).

Element: Water.

Stimulates the: 2nd chakra.

Energy: Emotional disturbance, frigidity, anxiety, lack of confidence, celebratory.

Cautions: Can be sensitizing to some.


Lime Citrus aurantifolia

Dosha effect: P K -, V +

Element: Air.

Stimulates the: 4th chakra.

Energy: Refreshing, cooling, invigorating, new awareness, aids in shifts, movement, joy.

Cautions: Not for high vata conditions, phototoxic.


The above profiles offer access to all of the 5 Great Elements (Tattvas):


Ether, Juniper Berry and Lavender.

Air: Lime.

Fire: Ginger and Juniper Berry.

Water: Jasmine.

Earth: Ginger.


The energy in the profiles listed above resonate with the essential oil's specific vibration, after one takes that into account, one should factor in the actual energy of each element. If the essential oil is a mix of several elements, one should read both profiles:


Ether (skt. Akasha)

Promotes detachment, expansion, opens one to spiritual gifts and pure expression
Air (skt. Vayu)

Facilitates positive change, flexibility, directs consciousness and fosters forgiveness
Fire (skt. Agni)

Initiate projects, passion, enthusiasm, warmth, intelligence and divine masculine
Water (skt. Apas)

Access to the subconscious, dreams, emotions, purification & divine feminine
Earth (skt. Prithvi)

Stability, security, being grounded, family lineage, DNA healing and abundance

The Rig Veda, a root text for Ayurveda, offers a hymn to The Healing Plants "that a wise man" would invoke before ritual plant use:

The tawny plants were born in the ancient times, three ages before the gods; now I will meditate upon their hundred and seven forms...You who have a hundred ways of working, make this man [woman] whole for me. (10.97 1-2)


My wish for all who enter into this practice of using essential oils to affect the whole of Self: that the plants indeed "will make this man [woman] whole." May it be in a healing practice you facilitate or as a healer unto thy Self-to perfecting the whole of Self!


Candice Covington is a certified Aromatherapist (ACHS), body and energy worker, and a long-time student of ancient alchemical systems. She travels the world seeking knowledge to inform and enrich the Divine Archetypes product lines. She is a former instructor for Ashmead College in Advanced Spa Modalities (including Ayurvedic) and Aromatherapy and currently performs Pancha karma at The Chopra Center for Well Being.


For more information on Divine Archetypes and the Tattvas Esoteric Essential Oil Collection (a system designed for work with karmic, elemental, chakral and personal dosha arrangements through the lens of The 5 Great Elements), and how one can use these to Consciously Craft Self™, please visit her website, www.divinearchetypes.com

NAHA Article August 2010


Contributed by; Joni Keim

Summertime Aromatherapy


(Excerpts from the NAHA Journal Spring 2001 Vol. 11 Number 1)

Summertime is a glorious time of year. The weather is hot and the days are long; a perfect setting for being with friends and enjoying life. Aromatherapy, the use of essential oils extracted from aromatic plants, enhances the rapture of summer with its ability to capture our senses as well as comfort the afflictions of the season.


Staying Cool in the Heat:

The higher temperatures of the summer season are uncomfortable for many people, especially those whose personal cooling system (perspiration) doesn't function well. Water is the key to staying cool in warm weather, both internally and externally. Drink plenty of water to prevent becoming dehydrated and use water on your body to help dissipate the heat.


Combining water with essential oils provides an oasis of refreshment, perfect for baths and body misting. When the heat has you feeling weary, step in a bath of cool to tepid water, add essential oils -- three drops Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi), three drops Lemon (Citrus limonum) and two drops Peppermint (Mentha piperita) -- swirling them around you. Sip a glass of water and put a cool, wet, folded washcloth on your forehead. Take a deep breath and feel revitalized.

If a bath is not available or you are in inescapable heat such as driving on the freeway or sitting at your desk at work, use a body mister. Fill an eight ounce spray bottle with three drops of Peppermint, shake well and mist over your neck, shoulders, arms and legs. Avoid getting the mist into your eyes. Try misting and then standing in front of a fan. It will feel as welcome as an ocean breeze!


Cooling Your Environment


Experience the essence of cool in your home, room, or office with a diffuser and 'cooling' essential oils. Though they will not reduce the temperature, they do create an atmosphere that lifts your spirits and invigorates when too much heat is weighing you down. Diffusers are available in different models designed to disperse the fragrance of essential oils into the air. No home should be without one!


Cooling Citrus-Mint for Diffusing

20 drops Lemon (Citrus limonum)

15 drops Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi)

10 drops Lavender (Lavendula vera)

5 drops Spearmint (Mentha spicata)

Mix together well and store in a dark glass bottle. Use in your diffuser according to manufacturer's instructions.


Refreshing Citrus for Diffusing


25 drops Orange (Citrus aurantium)

10 drops Lemon (Citrus limonum)

10 drops Lime (Citrus aurantifoia)

5 drops Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)

Mix together well and store in dark glass bottle. Use in your diffuser according to manufacturer's instructions.

Cooling Hot and Tired Feet

A foot bath laced with essential oils is the perfect solution to summertime feet that are hot and tired. You will notice that when you tend to your feet, your whole body feels better, and your spirits are uplifted!

Relieving Foot Bath

Fill a bowl or small tub, deep enough to fully immerse your feet, with cool water. Add three drops of Lemon (Citrus limonum), one drop of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), one drop of Lavender (Lavendula vera), and one drop of Peppermint (Mentha piperita). Stir briskly, and then immerse your feet for ten minutes.

Cooling Citrus Foot Bath

Fill a bowl or small tub, deep enough to fully immerse your feet, with cool water. Add three drops of Lemon (Citrus limonum), two drops of Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi), and one drop of Peppermint (Mentha pipertia). Stir briskly, and then immerse your feet for ten minutes.


Note: To fully disperse the essential oils in the water, dilute by adding them to a tablespoon of vodka fist, then stir this into the water. The alcohol has the added benefit of adding a 'cooling sensation' to the bath. This type of alcohol is not drying to the skin, especially when diluted in water.

Spirit of Summer Blend


The intensity of summer reminds us of our potential. It embodies endless energy and inspires us to take action and achieve our goals. The following blend is a representation of the spirit and essence of summer. Enjoy in a diffuser, wear as a perfume, or simply sniff from the bottle.


10 drops Orange (Citrus aurantium)

8 drops Mandarin (Citrus reticulata)

5 drops Lime (Citrus aurantifolia)

2 drops Litsea (Litsea cubeba)

1 drop Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)


Note: For a perfume add five drops of essential oil blend in one teaspoon of jojoba. Because it contains citrus oils, which can cause phototoxicity, do not apply to the skin before being exposed to the sun.

Check out one of Joni's books available for sale on the NAHA Online Bookstore.

Joni Keim has worked in the alternative health field for over twenty years as an educator, practitioner, consultant, and author (5 books). She has certificates in aromatherapy, holistic health sciences, and energy healing. Joni is a technical advisor, copy writer, and educator in the natural products industry and professional aromatherapy field and can be reached through her website www.joniconsulting.com or email her at info@joniconsulting.com

Sunday, August 1, 2010

NAHA Article July 2010


Contributed by; David Crow, L.Ac.

A Poetic Tribute to A Beloved Aromatic Plant-Lavender



Like serpentine waves of color undulating across the continents, the lilac hues of lavender farms weave together all that is good about us humans. For love of beauty people flock to the cascading purple terraces of Provence, New Zealand, Himachal Pradesh, California, drawn like the bees climbing through their miniature labyrinthine worlds of ultraviolet scent. Because there still lives, somewhere in our heart and soul where the artificialities of modernity are not allowed, an innate indescribable love for nature's tender expressions, the soft voice of lavender's gentle spirit is universally understood. Because there still abides beneath our hardened, agitated, aggressive, restless madness an inescapable vulnerability to the feminine power of the earth's compassion, lavender's soothing touch transcends our painful imagined differences, bonding us together again in the simple child-like truth that we all suffer and need comfort.

Open a bottle of fine lavender oil, as if you were one of those who feel reverence because it has cured them of sorrows in ways that science could not do. Bring it slowly to your nostrils, for inside lies more than you ever realized. Can you perceive the fresh notes of rain, dewy transparent pearls rolling off silken petal and leathery leaf? Draw your attention further inward: there await rich earthen notes of loamy fertile soil or mineral notes of harsh wild landscapes. It is easy to get lost in the smell of purples, the sweet aquamarine notes of fruit and flower so distinct yet so indescribable, but anyone can do that. Do you sense the pungency, the soft sharpness of sunrays, the fiery acrid heat of Mediterranean summer days? How can you not notice the cool air of evening that settles on the flowing contours of color at dusk, changing the heliotrope undertones to fuschia then magenta then indigo as the plants exhale their purifying breath into the night sky?

But wait, there's more...that was only the terrain the oil came from. What has created this wonder, this sublime artistic expression like a fragrant Impressionist painting from a palette of wind, water, earth and fire? What intelligence, what evolutionary force, what biological necessity, what inborn instinct, what genetic genius, what devic magic has mixed and melded and separated and compounded and purified and refined this alchemical gem, this elixir of healing, this infinitely valuable aromatic talisman of protection? Can we name it, or should its name not be spoken, so profound a mystery it represents? More importantly, can we smell it? We must, for its presence now permeates the cavities of the sinuses, aroma molecules now vie for receptor sites, receptor sites now fire in unison, enzymes cascade in torrents of information converting the sheer pranic power of this supreme presence into holographic neural networks. In an instant, something that did not exist a moment ago is now manifest; the fragrance of lavender within our own unique private universe of perception.

Rest a moment and breathe; new revelations will appear. Notice how this apparently simple essential oil has, in its profound botanical wisdom and primal spirituality, covertly carried the nutrient life force of the earth, the soothing cooling touch of water, the energizing rays of sun, and the uplifting breath of air directly into the deepest recesses of our brains, our hearts, our mind.

Notice its effects.

Are the sinews not softer, the nerves somehow more translucent, the joints younger? Are the pains of unconscious habitual contractions and chronic irritation of smoldering inflammation not receding? Is the chest not more open, the breath smoother, and the heartbeat steadier?

Notice also the effect on the intangible parts of our being. Is the mind not more clear, the mood more elevated? Can you not feel the somber cloud of collective despair and frustration, so closely entwined with the empathic fibers of our being that we can no longer perceive its weight, lifting, in its place a simple joy that needs no cause to arise?

Give thanks. Thanks to the compassionate plant that heals a multitude of ailments without causing harm, to the ancient intelligence that enlivens it, to the soil that nourished it, to the water that moistened it, to the air that it breathed, the sun that awoke it from slumber. Give thanks to the men and women who labor with love tending their precious children until mature, and then tending them more. Give thanks to the sacred alchemical arts and sciences of distilling the essence of these beneficent beings, and the lineages of teaching and knowledge that have brought us this precious blessing in humanity's hour of need.

The complete article 'A Poetic Tribute to Beloved Aromatic Plants' will appear in a future NAHA Aromatherapy Journal.

Click here to purchase David's NAHA tele-conference presentation:
Essential Oils as Pranic Intelligance.


To learn more about David Crow please visit his website at www.floracopeia.com