A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MAGICAL PROPERTIES OF PERFUME For centuries, perfume has been associated
was crucial for a journey to leave the worldly
with magic, witchcraft, and sorcery. Its charm
life. Mehret - seven sacred oils (festival scent
lies not only in triggering memories and
oil, jubilation oil, pine oil, rejoining oil, support
emotions, but also in a belief that it possesses
oil, cedar oil and Libyan oil) were believed to
magical power. For years many mystical
invoke the divine “breath of life” of spirit Akh
narratives around perfume flourished across
- the spirit of a deceased person enabling the
cultures as people shared fascinations about its
soul to assume any form which made it possible
potential.
to travel to the afterlife. They calmed the gods, helped to connect deceased parts, and supported
We all tend to associate nice fragrances with
them during the journey. The opening of the
good and awful odours with bad, but it’s much
mouth ritual also served a purpose so those who
more complicated than that. To start with, the
passed away and temple statues could breathe
Kapsiki people of Cameroon are an example
the scents of cut lotus flowers and oils and
that proves how subjective it can be.
ingest the spiritual energy from the offerings.
Traditionally for them, cow dung perfume is
Interestingly, the same fragrances were used in
perceived as a status marker of wealth and
medicine, cosmetics or as religious offerings to
prosperity, in opposition to the fishy smell of
gods.
the low class of fishermen, thus it’s eagerly used to appear more sophisticated. Historically,
Europe, for centuries, centred its focus on
nice scents were often regarded as ambrosial
herbs, elevating scents to a prominent place
and delicious, powerful but also very dangerous
since ancient times. In Greece, fragrances were
and it was the same for those who dabbled in
the foundation for sorcery. Plants were regarded
perfumery.
as so potent that they could affect gardeners; it was even recommended for root cutters to
Egyptian funerary traditions of oil balming the
consume garlic and drink wine before work to
bodies involved various fragrant oils used for
shield themselves from dangers of other crops.
purification and preservation since it was
Moreover, aromantic plants were widely
believed that the state someone was buried in 6
