Severed from Scent
At the end of last year, I woke up on Christmas morning and my sense of smell was gone.
This is awful for anyone…but for a perfumer? Absolutely devastating.
It’s been a slow recovery (that bout of covid was especially rough). Though my smell had mostly come back by mid February, I could tell that I wasn’t picking up on the subtle nuances I used to.
The loss of smell has been such a strange piece of this pandemic era…
A strong sense of smell has always been a mark of a healer — the ability to sniff out both the diseases and the cures.
It’s also closely associated with our intuition. We can smell when something — or someone — is off.
This probably has something to do with the unique ability of aroma to bypass our conscious minds, eliciting unbidden feelings and memories before our thinking brains can process what’s happening… or get in the way.
Our sense of smell also brings us into our bodies. While transcendence may certainly be part of our soul paths, we also come into bodies here on Earth to experience being fully human. Our five senses are the gateways to embodiment. And embodiment is a gateway to both pleasure and presence.
And, fragrance is a gateway to the gods.
In Egyptian mythology, the fragrance of the sacred lotus birthed the universe. Statues of deities in ancient cultures were anointed with fragrant oils to wake up the gods they housed. The deceased were anointed with aromatic plant material to help carry their souls along their journeys. The aroma of flowers is said to announce the presence of the gods or angels. Temples around the world are filled with fragrant smoke.
Healing, inner knowing, pleasure, presence, and spiritual connection…all rooted in our ability to trust our own noses.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that our connection with smell as been under attack for some time.
Even before the pandemic, humanity had been slowly led away from our sense of smell and the myriad gifts it offers, effectively cutting us off from a profound gateway to healing, intuition, memory, pleasure, and spiritual connections.
One long-standing culprit is the fragrance and flavoring industry.
I’ve long been skeptical of a fragrance and flavoring industry that trains humans to prefer the smell of artificial ingredients in their cosmetics. While the synthetic compounds added to our foods and body products have physically detrimental properties, my concern also lies in effects this has on our psyches and souls.
The fallout of the rampant scent-washing in our culture are twofold:
First, artificial fragrances have distanced humans from the natural world.
The idea that ingredients from a factory are somehow cleaner or potent than those from a forest pervades our collective consciousness.
That the fragrance of an air freshener, filled with known cancer-causing compounds, smells “fresh” is a sign of this insanity. That a “peach blossom” lotion smells like no peach nor blossom ever found in nature is a sign of how far removed from the natural world we’ve become.
These fragrances train our noses — and our knowing — to deny what we know is true and believe the lies sold to us.
The fragrances found in whole plant materials contain myriad compounds perfectly designed to harmonize with each other. We humans evolved in relationship with these plants, and our bodies readily receive their gifts. Our sense of smell brings these complexities into our psyches, where we intuitively receive our plant allies’ wisdom.
As humans learn to prefer synthetic flavors and aromas, they are cut off from their relationship with their own ability to sniff out what’s true. To sniff out their own cures for what ails them. They are subtly disconnected from their innate powerful, intuition-supporting sense of smell.
The second outcome is found in those humans who loudly proclaim that they can tolerate no fragrances of any kind.
I get it. These people’s bodies told them that synthetics were harming them, and they listened. The problem comes when this makes people afraid of all smells — even the ones with profound healing benefits.
Of course, toxic overload from synthetics can lead to the body’s inability to process naturals. And, many smells marketed as “natural” actually contain plenty of synthetics, so I can understand the fear. Yet, this fear cuts off important pathways for healing and delight.
Our sense of smell is a gift from the gods, part of the wonder of being embodied in the human forms. Not only does it help us survive, it helps us enjoy life and find pleasure in our physical experience. And pleasure is part of why we’re here.
My heart breaks when I hear that someone cannot tolerate any fragrance (if you’ve ever worked in an office building, you’ve met many of these folks). As a natural perfumer and clinically certified aromatherapist, I know that simply smelling precious oils from plants (let alone the benefits of topical applications) can help us focus, give us energy, regulate our hormones and nervous systems, alleviate depression and anxiety, soothe us in times of grief, ignite aphrodisiac qualities, relieve insomnia, and so much more.
Anyone who’s ever worn a perfume, or had a signature fragrance of any kind, knows the feelings that arise with that first spritz. You somehow feel more like yourself — the best version of yourself. You might feel more beautiful, sexy, powerful, calm, fulfilled, peaceful, hopeful, abundant, or creative depending on the perfume of the day.
Those over-the-top perfume commercials? They may be ridiculous, but they’re also a pretty good representation of what perfume does for the psyche. While synthetic perfumes legitimately give many people headaches and worse, perfumes made with true naturals bestow even more transformational energy and pleasure to those who wear them.
If you love beauty, pleasure, and Venusian delights as much I do, you might enjoy taking a peek at my perfumer’s artist statement.
The next severance from our sense of smell comes from our online lives.
The pandemic no doubt accelerated this phenomena, yet the seeds have been in place for decades. Our online communities and interactions, social networks and getting lost in the “scroll hole” (This is my partner Mike’s and my term for not just doomscrolling but getting lost in an endless mind-numbing feed of information. I’m surprised it hasn’t taken off yet, to be honest…). And then came the Metaverse and increasing capabilities of virtual reality.
Any life lived online is removed from our embodied experience. Yes, we use our eyes and take in the visuals, we connect with audio and can converse or enjoy a melody, and we can even engage in some sensory experiences with haptics and the rare VR bodysuit.
To my knowledge, however, smell — and its sister sense taste — are not yet available in the online realms. Smell keeps us in our bodies, in the present, and connected to what is true and real for us in the moment.
By the time the pandemic arrived, humanity had been well prepped for relinquishing our sense of smell.
To be clear, I’m not saying that losing our sense of smell as part of the pandemic was some orchestrated event. Rather, I can’t help but wonder if this particular effect is a reflection, showing us what we’ve already lost in no uncertain terms.
If we look at our collective pandemic experience, we can see the separation of us from each other, from our own healing capabilities, and from our intuitive knowing of what is and isn’t true. Yet these questions extend far beyond the pandemic too.
Where have you doubted your own knowing? Your ability to heal yourself? Where have you lost touch with pleasure, embodiment, and the ability to be present in each moment? Where have you forgotten what’s actually true, or allowed yourself to be led by lies? Where has the reverent ritual of bringing spirit into daily life been set aside in favor of more “urgent” matters?
Smell is a gift from the gods and fragrance is the perfume of spirit. May we can heal our broken relationship with olfaction, realign with the true nature of reality, and reawaken reverence and wonder in our hearts.
Returning to the Perfumery
It’s now been a bit over four months since I lost my sense of smell, and it’s just about returned. Though it’s hard to tell if my nose is really as strong as it was before, I at least feel confident to work in the perfumery again. And this fills my heart with joy.
I have several new perfumes I’d designed last year, before the loss of smell, in my studio. I didn’t want to share them until I could be sure they were up to my standards, and now that I can work again, I’m finally putting the finishing touches on them.
A few that will be coming soon…
Odin
The all father of Northern lands, Odin is the newest addition to the masculine Gods series. His perfume is as strong and complex as he is. Imagine walking into a mysterious hall, almost an elevated and member-only speakeasy filled with aromas of tobacco, cognac, and cacao. A hint of spice, a touch of musk. Decadent and dark.
Yuzu Yoru
One of my conceptual pieces, is inspired by my years living, eating, and inhaling the fragrances of Tokyo. A citrus forward fragrance, fresh yuzu and Asian kumquats meet with robust citrón and cedrat, gently harmonized with rare strawberry gum (a type of eucalyptus, not the artificial chews!), Japanese hinoki, and precious osmanthus blossoms. A rare delight for summer days and Toyko nights.
There’s also a magical Chinese Goddess, a watery Greek elemental, and more to come :)
While you wait, be sure to explore the new Scents of Summer Discovery Set, filled with the perfect botanical allies for celebrating this season.
You might also like: