In the highly developed, technical world we live in, we have come to depend on many things that are not essential. Essential oils go to the essence of things. We are here in a garden created especially for us to be shared and enjoyed. We experience everything through our senses -touch, taste, smell, seeing and hearing- and through these we truly come to know our environment. There is a type of veil produced by our senses, our intuition, that is projected outward, and it is only by following our instincts and coming to trust ourselves that we obtain true knowledge.     

The size and magnitude of this creation is beyond anything that we can comprehend. One cannot visit the garden all at once. You can view it all from above, but from that level youare not able to see all of the different stages of growth and the individual beauty of each flower, the subtle differences (colors, scents, shape of the leaves) that make each one unique. Some of the most fragile and delicate flowers are so tiny that you ave to be a small child to even notice them -under the shrubs and bushes. Usually we are so busy looking ahead and above, we don't notice the small gems on our path as we walk on them and crush them, unaware of the loss.     

According to David tewart, smell is the only sense directly connected to the central brain, rather than the frontal lobes. Because that part of the brain deals with nonverbal and emotional functions, he says, "our first response to anything we smell can be emotional rather than ational." In other words, oils can also bring about emotional healing and increase spiritual awareness in ways we can't fully understand.     

Alchemy is the transformation of our heaviness and darkness into light. Everyone has the potential to be an lchemist. It is through our heaviness that we come to know our lessons. We need to have this part of the balance in our lives so that we may experience the creativity of transformation. It is only with love and joy that we can do this, not by following any ormulas or chemical procedures. We must be present in a field of freedom to accomplish this.