Homecoming

After a long journey, I love the first moment after opening the front door and smelling the good familiarity of home. Our olfactory sense is directly wired to our limbic or instinctual brain,and the brain reacts in some interesting ways to smell. Teaching aromatherapy classes to massage students, I frequently have to explain to my students how after the initial processing of a new smell, the brain begins to filter it out of our conscious sensory perceptions, even if we are still reacting to it. Home smells good, but we can only smell it those first few moments, then we become desensitized to it, even though we still react by calming down, feeling safe, and relaxing easily in that environment. We choose and react to a mate in the same fashion. Initially attracted by the unique scent (beyond deodorants and perfumes) of our lover, we may, eventually over time, not be aware of it at all, but still experience a physical and physiological response of sexual attraction when that person is near. My second husband could always tell if I was about to get sick, or if I was under emotional duress because my smell would change and he could perceive it. So if emotional upheaval has a perceptible smell to it, maybe there really is a “smell” of fear, that dogs or bees, or predators can sense. So while some behavior is ritualistic, some ritual behaviors are directed by smell: arousal, aggression, hunger, nurturing, sleepiness, relaxation, even anger. It depends on what you are smelling. Burnt toast? Smell enhances and has direct links to memory, and can be a ritual of its own simply by recreating a psycho-emotional experience in the brain, for good or ill.
The smell of honeysuckle is one of my very favorite scents. It takes me back to being 7 or 8 years old, and independent, invincible, limited to neither male or female ideals, and imagination was everything. I really could fly, and stop time, and nothing existed at all until I knew about it first hand. There were no theories to cloud the mind with logic and ice, just the warmth of the sun on our faces, and the rainbows in the parking lot puddles, and chocolate pudding at friends houses. The aroma of Garlic and burgers takes me to the age of 11, and down home dinner on the ranch, where my grandmother would toast the sourdough, and make the garlic butter from scratch for their famous hamburger sandwiches, served to every visitor for thier first meal. It was usually home raised beef, so the flavor was something we indulged at “home coming” even during our vegetarian teen years. An important ritual to start the summer off, and mark another year gone by. Roses make me blissfully happy and I feel connected to nature, and God, and humanity, and the whole darn planet and cosmos. They make everything seem right with the world regardless of what is going on. There is a special rose garden I frequent, by a river, and I journey there whenever something or someone very important comes into my life and I want to know why. Like taking tea, I am able to step outside of transition, and rise above the fray of the battlefield to see the perfection of the larger picture, and the clear light of direction shining in my life. Walking around smelling the roses, flitting from flower to flower like a honey bee, I find the answers I seek and I somehow just know what to do, and with whom, the “why” usually sorts itself out shortly after. My confidence in the direction I receive is intimidating to some people, and generally catches them off guard when I act on it. Smell is a powerful influencer.
This shows the allure of incense, herbs, and essential oils in ceremonial settings. Certainly large corporate chains have used it to influence our spending habits for years, (Walmart, Victoria's Secret, Target, Mrs. Fields, Nordstroms, to name a few) so it makes sense that we should become aware of it and utilize it for our own well being. Aromatherapy maybe like casting spells after all. And I just wanted to clear my head, take a hot salt bath, and freshen the air. Hey! What do you know? Its another homecoming ritual. So We do have them, and create them all around our secular lives after all.