Today it finally arrived in my humble abode!
The Travelling Perfume Bottle is the Mind Child of the wonderful Monica Miller of Perfume Pharmer.
"I wanted to make a Perfume for PEACE
The Travelling Perfume Bottle is the Mind Child of the wonderful Monica Miller of Perfume Pharmer.
"I wanted to make a Perfume for PEACE
I wanted to travel all around the world collecting ingredients...prayers for PEACE...things like....
from the Zapatista people in Mexico...the FREEDOM that they crave ..if we put in the bottle the prayer for FREEDOM from people who so fervently pray for FREEDOM then that prayer is carried throughout the world in the bottle and becomes part of the homeopathic medicine....there is s song..."everything is everything" and there is a saying... that in everything is the seed of its apparent opposite
I came to understand that I didnt have to travel all over the world collecting ingredients and I began to see it as not so much a personal project but a co created project".
One of the Creation Stories of the Anangu People of Central Australia, is that of the Great Mother Snake called "Kunia". She was very pregnant, and travelled far and wide through the Land, looking for a safe place to lay her babies...she travelled all over the country, from the top end, to the bottom South, From East where the Sun rises, to the Western Coast where she go's to sleep, and she couldn't find a place that was safe and peaceful enough....and eventually she came to Uluru, the huge Sandstone Rock in the centre of the desert that calls so many tourists from all over the world nowadays....and here she came to rest. She laid her eggs, and her children were born. It is truly one of the strongest, most peaceful places in the world.
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It started off with one of the Grandmother's of Natural Perfumery, the great Jeanne Rose. Her son is fighting in Aphganistan. And she tinctured one of his combat gloves. What a start for a perfume project for Peace?!!!
It has since travelled through many countries, and many perfumers, each adding a few drops of oil, special herbs or sacred waters...and it's quite an amazing thing...
As I open the bottle, it's like the impact of hundreds of different voices...so many scents, so many layers have been added as it travelled. It's dark brown, sticky and full of wierd bit's and bobs, like some kind of primordial ooze....There are flower scents, and herbs, and deep musky layers..like an over the top kaleidoscope of perfumes from many cultures...
I have to put the bottle down and take a deep breath as my head is spinning just from one sniff!
I take a few more carefull sniffs and then start thinking about what I can add to this....
I've just come back from working out in the Australian desert as a remote area nurse for a month...and what I have brought back with me is a deep sense of Peace...the wide open spaces, the ancient mountain ranges, impossibly blue skies and the glowing warm red sand....
Australia is an ancient country....and travelling out to the Outback, you begin to understand just how small and new us humans really are....ancient landscapes that have been here since long before humans started to create their "civilisation" and beging to squabble over territory and money....
So I am am adding that sense of ancient Peace:
Australian Sandalwood for it's deep healing properties. Oz sandalwood is drier than mysore...it carries with it that tang of the desert and the hot sun that forces you to relax, not matter how stressed you are. Sandalwood is one of those magic perfume ingredients that connects all other elements gently and warmly, giving them a base to work together.....which feel very fitting for this potion.
Cinnamon oriental magical ingredient to give warmth and life to everything. It's heat and sharp bring a touch of clarity to the many voices in the Travelling Perfume.
Cardamon and Coriander to add a touch of Love and Passion, because after all, these are what truly bring us together...
One of the Creation Stories of the Anangu People of Central Australia, is that of the Great Mother Snake called "Kunia". She was very pregnant, and travelled far and wide through the Land, looking for a safe place to lay her babies...she travelled all over the country, from the top end, to the bottom South, From East where the Sun rises, to the Western Coast where she go's to sleep, and she couldn't find a place that was safe and peaceful enough....and eventually she came to Uluru, the huge Sandstone Rock in the centre of the desert that calls so many tourists from all over the world nowadays....and here she came to rest. She laid her eggs, and her children were born. It is truly one of the strongest, most peaceful places in the world.
So this I give to the Travelling Perfume of Peace...a little touch of the Great Mother, protecter of her children from out in the Red Centre of Australia.
And a new word I learnt in Pitjanjara: "Palya!" All is Good!
