Aromatherapy and the Mind. Julia Lawless
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used as a means of establishing contact between man and god, a contact which can bring man to heaven or god to earth.3
Incense was thus used to bring the human and transcendent worlds closer together – the ascending smoke was seen symbolically as a vehicle by which prayers could be carried to the deities above and as a means of communication between the two realms. What does this mean in modern psychological language? It suggests that scent has the power to evoke our highest aspirations and fears, and can be used to transport us onto another plane of consciousness.
The invisible yet influential effect of odour was well known to the ancient Egyptians who utilized its remarkable power: the ability to penetrate the unseen realms of the psyche and affect the inner dimensions of the mind. ‘Kyphi’ for example, was burned on ritual occasions to heighten the senses and spiritual awareness of the priests, and to raise the spirits of their ‘congregation’.
According to the ancient Egyptian world-view, the human realm was governed by a resident deity, sustained through offerings from the king or, in his absence, the high priests. The image of the deity was tended daily – washed, censed, anointed, clothed and fed – and in return the god ensured the equilibrium and good fortune of the people. According to myth, several of the deities were themselves associated with various aromatics – Nefertum, the god of perfumers, incense and fragrant oils, was identified with the sacred blue lotus, while his consort Sekhmet, the goddess of healing and alchemy, was known as the ‘lady of every herb’. Myrrh was derived from the tears of the god Horus, while plants used for incense were produced from the tears of Shu and Tefnut.
The early Egyptians also believed that their deities were nourished by odours and incense was commonly thought to be ‘the food of the Gods’. The ‘Ka’, or double of the body, which resided in sacred statues and in the mummy, took pleasure in scents, while its ‘Ba’, or soul, actually fed on incense and offerings. Since scent delighted the human senses, it was naturally assumed that the deities found it especially pleasing. By burning aromatics the Egyptians believed they could ensure divine favour and attract special attention to their prayers. In many temple murals the king himself can be seen standing before the statue of a god holding a smoking censer in his hands.
At Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, incense was burned in the temple three times a day in honour of the sun-god Ra: in the morning with gum arabic; at midday with myrrh; and at sunset with ‘Kyphi’. The nightly offering of ‘Kyphi’ ensured the return of the sun the following morning! Incense and libations were also offered during the coronation ceremony, to celebrate a military victory and before the opening of a shrine containing a deity.
The two main types of aromatics used by the ancient Egyptians were known as ntyw and sntr. The former most probably referred to myrrh (bdellium/sweet myrrh) which was also used in the form of stacte – oil of myrrh. Ntyw, which was employed in perfumes, medicines and cosmetics as well as incense, was the product par excellence imported from the ‘Land of Punt’, i.e. Somalia on the north African coast. Sntr, meaning ‘God’s odour’, was also imported in smaller quantities from Punt and most probably referred to a variety of frankincense – either Boswellia carteri, B. frerenan or B. papyrifera. It was used exclusively as an incense, though inferior in quality to the true sacred incense B. sacra, which is only found in southern Arabia. An expedition to the Land of Punt depicted on a temple relief shows Queen Hatshepsut receiving a ship loaded with vast quantities of aromatics brought back from the ‘incense terraces’. Expeditions to Punt were recorded as early as 2800 BC under the patronage of King Sahure. It was only around the first century AD that the focus of the incense trade swung towards Arabia.
THE NEAR EAST
At about the same time as the birth of Jesus, incense materials were being brought overland to Egypt by Arabian traders. The best type of frankincense (B. sacra) grew in southern Arabia and its high value was matched only by myrrh and gold, which together represented the three costliest commodities of the ancient world – suitable gifts for a newborn king! The ‘perfumes of Arabia’ also constituted some of the earliest trade items between East and West. Pliny reported that the southern Arabian kingdoms of Hadramout and Dhofar were the wealthiest states in the world because of their monopoly of the frankincense trade, yet little is known about the exact ritual practices of the early Arabian civilization. They certainly used aromatic resins and gums extensively in their religious practices and erected specific incense altars within their temples. These small cube-shaped altars, which often stood on four short legs, were made from limestone, terracotta or clay and were decorated with regular geometric designs. The names of various aromatics were inscribed on the sides of the altars – some had many names, some only one. Frankincense, myrrh, storax and mastic occur quite frequently, being indigenous to the area. Spikenard and costus are also among those mentioned – these were probably imported from India. On some altars, the burnt remains of incense are still discernible in their basins thousands of years later. Incense burners were also often placed in tombs.
Another trade route from southern Arabia went eastward towards Syria – Mesopotamia. Like the Egyptians, the Assyro-Babylonians required vast quantities of aromatics for use in their rituals. They gathered them from the richly forested Amanus mountains in Syria or imported them from Arabia. The wood, resin or sap of a wide variety of aromatic substances, including myrtle, galbanum, tamarisk, cypress, bdellium, cedar, frankincense, ladanum, spikenard, myrrh, calamus, mastic, juniper and opobalsam, were used as incense in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia. The incense was offered either upon an incense altar, similar to those found in southern Arabia; on a hollow pottery shrine, specimens of which have been traced to the third millennium BC;4 in an incense ‘lamp’ designed to hook on the wall; in a vase-shaped censer; or in a shallow bowl placed on top of a tall cylindrical pottery stand, which is depicted in many Assyrian relief carvings. These often contain a conical mound of incense which looks very similar to the cones of incense or ‘unguent’ used by the Egyptians, which were composed of a blend of powders, oils, resins and fats.
Like the early Egyptian term for ‘perfume’, the Mesopotamian word for ‘unguent’ had religious associations. Assyrian sculptures at Ninevah show incense being burned for the sun-god and it is known that the Assyrians used aromatics during rituals connected with the cult of the dead. The Babylonians also sometimes sprinkled their meat offerings with incense as a way of consecrating the food, making it holy and therefore acceptable to the gods.
But again, the principal and underlying basis for the use of incense in Syria and Mesopotamia was the belief that its odour ensured divine favour. Where incense was burned, the gods assembled – as if they actually manifested their presence through scent. It was also thought that the fragrance of the incense worked like a drug on the minds of the gods, as well as on the minds of men: their wrath was calmed, they gave positive oracles (incense smoke was used as a form of divination) and looked kindly on the misdeeds of man. Incense was the means by which the human soul could be cleansed before the face of god:
Incense, dwelling in the mountain, created in the mountains,
you are pure coming from the mountains.
Fragrance of juniper, fragrance of cedar, incense dwelling in the mountains.
The powerful incense has been granted to us,
the high mountains provide it for purification
in the pure censer, filled with awe inspiring splendor,
the sweet oil, the choice oil, worthy of the table,
and the pure [aromatics], the materials of the purifying craft.
Make the incense fumes, their purifying product, issue forth:
May he be clean like heaven, may he be pure like the core of heaven,
may the evil tongue stand aside!5
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