Hi, it’s Keiko. 

I’m sure you are well aware of aromatherapy.  But did you know that there’s a very close connection between aromatherapy and astrology?  In today’s article I am going to tell you a little bit about aromatherapy and introduce you to the close historical connection between astrology and aromatherapy.  Let’s get started!

Contents

1. What is aromatherapy?

2. The relationship between humans and plant scents has been around since ancient times

3. In the Renaissance, plants, astrology, and medicine were linked 

4. Essential oils are the embodiment of cosmic energy in plants

WHAT IS AROMATHERAPY? 

Aromatherapy is a natural therapy that uses the aromatic components of plants to care for the body and mind.  

Essential oils are oils that have been extracted from plants and are used for fragrance, massage, bathing, and other purposes. 

It wasn’t until the 20th century that aromatherapy was established and began to be practiced in earnest. 

After suffering a burn to his hand during an experiment, the French chemist René Maurice Gattefosé, applied some nearby lavender oil to the burn at the spur of the moment, and recovered from it without it worsening. 

The healing effect of the lavender oil made him wonder, “Are there more benefits to essential oils than just fragrance?” And after conducting substantial research, he published a paper on the subject.  This was when the term “aromatherapy” was coined for the very first time. 

After his paper was published, further research was conducted, and it became recognized that the ingredients contained in essential oils not only have fragrances but also contain medicinal effects.  This led to the establishment of modern day aromatherapy. 

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMANS AND PLANT SCENTS HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE ANCIENT TIMES

Aromatherapy wasn’t established until the 20th century.  However, there has been a close relationship between humans and plants and plant scents since ancient times. 

In ancient Egypt, it is said that highly fragrant herbs were burned in temples during religious ceremonies in order to purify the site.  It appears that ancient Egyptians believed that the scent of burning plants rising into the sky was a way to connect themselves with invisible gods. 

Even today, incense and fragrant wood are often burned during ceremonies at shrines, temples and churches because these ancient notions remain alive. 

IN THE RENAISSANCE, PLANTS, ASTROLOGY AND MEDICINE WERE LINKED 

Around 3000 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, people began observing the movements of the stars to determine the weather in order to assist in the growth of agricultural crops. 

Data accumulated by observing the movement of the stars over a long period of time and the movements of the Earth in response to those observations, led to the birth of astrology.  

In fact, even as astrology has been used in agriculture and other fields, it has also had a great influence on medicine. 

There are descriptions left by the ancient Sumerians, and medical documents from ancient Egypt that include plant-based treatments for many symptoms. 

In the Renaissance through to the 17th Century, Paracelsus, a famous physician, astrologer, and alchemist, and Nicholas Culpeper, a famous English herbalist, studied astrology and incorporated the medicinal properties and benefits of plants into their treatments. 

Paracelsus described plants as “terrestrial stars,” and believed that plants were influenced by stars and the Universe while they were living on the ground, and that cosmic forces had an effect on humans the moment they were harvested by humans for medicinal purposes. 

Nicholas Culpeper said, “Medicine without astrology is like a lamp without oil.”  He connected astrology with plants and widely promoted the idea that the human body corresponds to the celestial bodies of the Universe and its energy. 

ESSENTIAL OILS ARE THE EMBODIMENT OF COSMIC ENERGY IN PLANTS

Unlike humans and animals, plants are unable to move from place to place on their own in order to obtain nourishment.  Instead, they have had to adapt their shape and form to regional conditions such as the local climate and the number of hours of sunlight at any given place. 

That’s why it was believed that incorporating plants into the body in various forms was a way of taking in cosmic energy, and essential oils, or aroma oils, came to be thought of as plant energy, or condensed cosmic energy received from plants. 

That concludes today’s article.  Wasn’t that interesting?  The long history and the close relationship between astrology and herbal medicine and aromatherapy, is quite surprising isn’t it?