Aromatherapy and the bible

The bible and the culture it relates has been a source of inspiration for 6000 years.  We want to lead a good life.  The gel, the lake and stream of consciousness which is perceived within the human mind we are told does not end on our deaths but continues.  Reason tells us this cannot be, that when the neurons in our mind die the conciousness we have dies with them preserved only in the minds of those left behind.  That may be so but faith inclines us to believe there awaits us a new life.  Perhaps the life we lead now but without the need for food and drink.  An attractive thought!

Certainly something remarkable happened just 6000 years ago. A creation of a kind.  Civilised and organised man appeared and with him an appreciation of everything that we take for granted today.  Abrahamic religion holds that if we take a record of the lives recorded in the bible then we get to a starting point of 4004 BC.  That may well be an accurate estimate of when civilised life began.  Science with its measurements and our minds common sense tells us that the world and all in it were not created in a working week at this time but were the work of billions of years of life. That we and the plants diverged onto our differant paths one and a half billion years ago from a common stock.  Genesis should not be taken literally our reason dictates.  Nor should it be dismissed.  The account of Genesis contains the fundamental truth that everything that we perceive was created out of nothing a long time ago.  It is hard for us to imagine what our creator may be because light and dark are nothing and not something to such a creator.  Laws are something to such a creator as the universe is governed and bounded by laws. Will is something to that creator as it is to us.  Life perhaps is something to such a creator not because it existed before but that was the consequence of the way the universe was created.  So intelligent life should be esteemed greatly by such a creator.

We cannot sustain civilisation without leading good lives ourselves individually.  Reason alone is enough to be good.  Reason alone is enough to seek and maintain wellbeing.  Genesis tells us that light, dry land, the sea and air for travel and communication, grass, herbs, trees their seeds and fruit were created for our wellbeing.  That is certainly true enough.  We grew together sharing the light of the sun.  Science is informing us on a daily basis of how and why.  Looking after the wellbeing of ourselves and others with herbs and oils derived from them is integral to our creation not an optional extra it seems.  A belief in the benign goodwill of a creator and creation is fundamental to the British style of aromatherapy and in its kindness also lies its power.

 Certainly there is a great truth in that ester containing plant oils have the ability to relax the mind and relieve anxiety.  There is though a great deal more to Aromatherapy around the world than that.  Today as I walked in my garden with my three year old we talked about why plant bark is broken in some trees as they grow.  We came to a pine tree with pine resin exuding down into the broken bark. Creation is a shared intelligent creation it seems whether it be our chemical intelligence or that of trees, grasses and herbs.