Incenses and aromatics have been used since antique times to facilitate meditation and prayer. They’ve been an integral form of the practice in literally every religion existent, in one or another form.
Indian Americans used a “smudge stick” to purify places or people. In India the essences were poured to the altars or the ground near them. Even now you still can find Frankincense resins burning in churches.
And it’s not just a coincidence. Fragrance helps to open the consciousness, relax the mind and body, clear the head of continuous flow of thoughts, deepen the breath, improve concentration and most importantly it helps to put us in another space where we become more open and receptive to spiritual explorations.
As a great advantage to the past, these days we have the luxury of using pure essential oils which can be available literally in every part of the world. They can be used in different ways, like:
- purifying and preparing the place for meditation practice. Sometimes we may have a lot happening at home, and the energy can be not the ideal for practicing meditation. Different aromas from cooking may be disturbing as well. Or if you’re travelling and staying in the hotel, the whole atmosphere of the place can put you out of concentration, or out of grounding which makes it difficult to meditate.
- helps to set aside intrusive thoughts and daily lists of to-do things
- helps to deepen and slow the breath, increase awareness and receptivity which helps to bring us to the higher consciousness
- brings mental clarity and calms the mind
- helps to balance chakra energies and opens blocked energy
- brings grounding which is very helpful especially when you live in urban city
How to use:
- use essential oils in burners or diffuse in the air
- you can apply a drop of essential oil or blend on your temples or on chakras ( I suggest using a pre-diluted oils if you have sensitive skin or never used it before )
Essential oils for meditation:
- Angelica (Angelica archangelica) helps us to come into a closer contact with the divine energy. It helps to clean the auric field from negative energies. It’s know as a “Herb of the Holy Spirit”, it bring compassion and understanding to our spiritual completion. Angelica is very grounding and protective. It supports Muladhara, Anahata, Ajna and Sahasrara chakras.
- Cedarwood (Cedrus atlantica) enhances spirituality and strengthens the connection with the Divine. It helps to develop and maintain the sense of balance and control in our lives. Cedarwood essential oil is very balancing and grounding, helps to clear the mind from excessive thinking and brings understanding from non-emotional standpoint. It supports The Root/Muladhara Chakra.
- Frankincense (Boswelia carterii) is one of the most ancient and commonly used essential oil which is associated with highest spiritual aspiration. It helps to deepen and slow the breathing, helps to bring us to meditative state, increase mental focus. It is grounding yet expansive, purifying and protective for the energy field. Frankincense helps to break ties with the past which is essential for personal growth. It helps to balance energy centers, more specifically Muladhara and Sahasrara chakras.
- Elemi (Canarium luzonicum) is very related to the Frankincense and share similar properties. It is very balancing and grounding, aids visualization. Elemi essential oil encourages contentment, calmness, compassion and peace. It helps to unify the upper and lower chakras by helping us to balance our spiritual lives and worldly existence. It supports Anahata Chakra.
- Helichrysum (Helichrysum italicum) helps to activate the intuition and is Heart opening and healing essential oil. It’s very restorative and healing oil, both energetically and physically, and brings a huge value to meditation, visualization, personal growth work as well as in creative arts. It supports and helps to balance almost all our energy centers like Muladhara, Swandhisthana, Anahata, Ajna and Sahasrara chakras.
- Juniper (Juniperus communis, Juniperus osteosperma) is known to be a “psychic cleanser” and has been used in various rituals for thousands of years. It helps to clean and detoxify both physical and subtle bodies. It clears the negative energy that got accumulated from outer sources like crowded places or other people who was expressing anger other negative emotions. Juniper essential oil is also grounding. It encourages feeling of support, personal power, love, speaking truth, clarity. Juniper helps to balance Muladhara, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Ajna chakras.
- Lavender (Lavandula officinalis) is one of the several oils that can be used to cleanse the area of negative energies. It has very similar actions with Vetiver essential oil for energy balancing benefits. In relation to Chakra system Lavender helps to bring the higher and lower energy centers into harmony with each other, same like Vetiver. And for these purposes these two essential oils blend very well and compliment one another. Its calming and relaxing effect helps to reach deeper state of meditation. Supports Heart chakra.
- Rose (Rosa damascena, centifolia, officinalis) is the flower of love, both Human and Divine. Rose opens the Heart Chakra, allows the love to be given and received, brings the feeling of unconditional love. It brings healing to Anahata chakra and helps to open it up again if the grief closed it down, strengthens its energy. Being in a strong affinity with Sacral/Swandhisthana Chakra, Rose helps to stimulate the creativity and unite both aspects of Human and Divine aspects of love.
- Rosewood (Aniba roseodora) has the ability to open the Crown Chakra (only in a right circumstance), calms the mind and body. Rosewood has balancing, protective, healing, purifying, transformative energy and is helpful in harmonizing the chakras. It mainly supports Swadhisthana, Anahata and Ajna chakras.
- Sandalwood (Santalum album, paniculatum) was used traditionally to aid meditation for centuries. It is very calming and grounding, quiets the mind, opens the unconscious, brings awareness, helps to reach the deepest states of meditation. Sandalwood supports all chakras.
- Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanoides) helps to bring the energy of all chakras into the alignment due to its balancing energetic actions. It is very calming, grounding, deepening, harmonizing, earthing essential oil and aids deeper meditation. Vetiver helps to connect with the Earth, find our inner steadiness and calmness. It supports Root/Muladhara chakra.
I’d like to add here a little tip: 1) use your intuition for choosing essential oil, 2) when putting it in diffuser or burner, or applying topically set the intention what for do you want to use it, 3) choose to use only pure essential oils, also if possible learn the process of harvesting and distilling as it matters on the energy level
Namaste,
Anna