“Ever since human beings walked on this earth they have searched for materials which would ease their suffering. As time went on they came to know which plants would feed their hunger, which would poison and which would heal.”
(Valerie Ann Worwood)
The ancient world had a huge influence on what has come to be know as Aromatherapy today. There are two specific historic sites that will amaze you and add credence to this quote:
It is said that in the caves of the Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France there are cave paintings which depict the use of plants for healing and medicinal purposes. Amazingly, Archeologists estimate that these paintings date back as far as 18000BC.
A terracotta still, believed to be 5000 years old, is housed in the Taxila museum in Pakistan. It would have been used to make aromatic waters and even essential oils and may have belonged to the ancient Indus or Arab civilisations (info from Denise Whichello Brown).
Both of these indicate that ancient civilisations must have been far more advanced than previously imagined and humans have always to looked to natures pharmacy for health and healing…until some time around the 17th Century mark when the medical establishment became obsessed with science and thus botanical therapies began to fall out of favour. It would be in France in the 19th Century that aromatherapy would begin to flourish again.
So given all this connection with the earth’s botanicals that people have had for thousands of years, why then the current disconnect between us and the planet? Why do we reach for a pill rather than a herb, hydrosol or essential oil synergy? How have we diverted so far from the natural rhythms of the earth, connection with the stars and even in the case of women, achieved disharmony from the lunar cycle?
