Subtle Aromatherapy

© Andy Oldfield 2009

SUBTLE aromatherapy - the use of essential oils to promote health, harmony and balance in human energy fields - is a tool that is sadly lacking from many aromatherapists' tool kits.

Essential oils have well-attested bio-chemical properties that all qualified aromatherapists are familiar with. Black pepper for dilating blood vessels to let more blood into the muscles. Frankincense for opening bronchial passages. Lavender for encouraging burnt skin to heal. Tea-tree and Eucalyptus for their antiseptic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral and fungicidal properties.

Oils also have psychological effects and energetic properties overlaying their physical, but few aromatherapists study these subtle qualities in any detail en route to qualification. This is probably because most qualification curricula are essentially one-dimensional and concentrate on scientific models of explanation with only token coverage of concepts such as life-force and energy meridians and how oils have been used to enhance these subtle energies in healing systems that have much longer histories than Western science.

For example, something like Frankincense is used straightforwardly in the case of respiratory complaints because it is antiseptic, aids clearing mucus and deepens breathing. Contemporary aromatherapists know this and most will have some sort of inkling that psychologically the oil is emotionally balancing and produces a sense of calm that is useful for clients suffering stress, anxiety and depression.

As far as it goes, this is fine and beneficial, but subtle aromatherapy goes further, it takes into account that the resin from this tree has been used for thousands of years and not just for chest infections or mental fragility. It has all manner of lore associated with it and subtle aromatherapy uses that  to work with the energetic as well as physical body. As well as thinking about bio-chemistry, subtle aromatherapists might think about what insights Ayurveda or TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) might have to offer.

For instance, in Ayaurveda Frankincense is characterised as decreasing Vita and increasing Pitta doshas. Similarly in TCM its quality is categorised as Yang and it is held to energise the kidney, brain heart, spleen, small intestine and bladder. Its energy is cool and dry; its elements are Earth and Metal. It affects particularly the heart, throat and third-eye chakras, but also links the base and crown chakras.

Based on these considerations a practitioner might use Frankincense to adjust and optimise the energy flow to enable an individual to live a lifestyle that makes them healthy and capable of positive change - or to look for another oil more suited to the client.

Frankincense has sacred and spiritual connotations in the West and the East. Its smell is familiar in Christian Churches where its spiritual purifying qualities are alluded to, and in some traditions the smoke from Frankincense incense is believed to symbolise the rising of prayers to God and hence an essential connection to the divine. It is also a key component of incense mixes that have been used for psychic purification and to aid ritual meditation in various non-Western cultures - in this context it acts as a psychological and spiritual aid to focus and concentration enabling the individual to make deeper connections with aspects of his or her own being as well as higher realities.

In a subtle aromatherapy treatment, that spiritual aspect is taken into account as much as the pharmacological effects of oils used.

An interesting side effect of this is that subtle aromatherapists are likely to use some of the less common oils which aren't included in qualification body curricula. Kirlian photography suggests that essential oils from plants such as Spikenard, Ambrette, Helichrysum, Elemi, Inula, Hyacinth, Nutmeg and Litsea can have powerful effects on raising the vibrational levels of the energetic body to higher and more well-balanced states.

Such oils also lend themselves to areas not usually associated with aromatherapy: hypnosis, guided visualisation, meditation and aiding the terminally ill to cope with the transition stage they find themselves in.

As well as working with a wider palette of oils and on a wider canvas of treatment, subtle aromatherapy also uses a wider variety of techniques than the limited brush strokes usually associated with aromatherapy.

Smudging a treatment room or client with specially chosen cleansing or protective oils before or as part of a treatment is not unusual. This sacred and healing technique, which is widespread in many cultures, is often used in conjunction with the more familiar room burners to give rooms a specific healing ambience as well as a pleasant fragrance.

The use of essential oils in baths is enhanced in subtle aromatherapy by combining it with the use of meditative focus and intent by the client, transforming the act of adding useful oils to a bath into a ceremonial, ritual act known in the Western mystery tradition as lustral bathing.

Massage is still important, but this can, as in Reiki, be of the aura as well as or instead of the physical body, using energetic oils placed on chakra points or just oils on the practitioner's hands which are moved through the client’s aura.

Awareness of all these factors and the ties that they are making between, physical, energetic, psychological and lifestyle dimensions underlines the fact that subtle aromatherapy takes very seriously and fundamentally the notion of holistic health and will take account of a client's psychology, spirituality and energetic health as well as their physiology.