Ushering in the New Year: Essential Oils for Purification
It is that time of year when we are emerging from the energy of our last cycle; it is historically common to set new goals on New Years Eve. In fact reaching as far back as the ancient Babylonians, who had a practice of leaving behind the past year by making oaths and promises to King and Gods. Although this ritual occurred in mid-March with the planting of the crops symbolizing rebirth into the new. If they kept their word the gods would show them favor, if not the following year would be riddled with hardship.
Julius Caesar always the reformer declared January 1st the New Year and dedicated this day to Janus the two-faced god, who has the ability to see both into the past and the future. Supplicants made sacrifices asking for aid in understanding their behavior from the past year and asking for boons for a better upcoming year.
Early Christians declared the first day of the New Year be dedicated to the sacrifice of Self, leaving behind old aspects that did not serve and vowing to develop traits to benefit not only themselves but the whole community.
Even though this deeply rooted tradition is still alive and well; Statistic Brain a research institute, found that 45% of Americans make New Years resolutions and only 8% reach their goals. Those are dismal results. Luckily the plant kingdom in the form of essential oils are here to support you. The fist step is clearing the energy of the past year from your continuum, truly allowing you a fresh start, to plant your new seeds in.
The more refined and clear your energetic body is, the more sensitively it can respond to your goals. That is why most traditional practices include intensive preliminary steps to purify any negative/obscuring energetic patterns in the beginning of a growth process. Essential oils can dynamically support the overall purification process. Although all essential oils have a refining quality, hemlock spruce, tulsi, and white birch are especially helpful in the purification process.
Hemlock Spruce (Tsuga canadenis)
Key Traits: A grounded, elevated nature; cooperation; peace; purification; protection; joy; tranquility; humility; self-reliance; fortitude; and a profound sense of the spiritual. An emanation of the divine masculine.
Divine Archetype: Great Spirit/Grandfather (peace, wisdom, tranquility)
Hemlock spruce essential oil is used for achieving a grounded, elevated state and for establishing shelter from discordant energy. It also imparts the energy of fortitude and firm self-reliance. Shamans of the Tsimshian tribe in the Pacific Northwest use spruce boughs during purification rituals. Most Native American tribes believe that spruce offers protection from damaging influences.
Key Traits: Blueprint of the perfected self, understanding what the act of devotion means, pure unobstructed/unconditional love, purification and protection. An emanation of divine masculine.
Divine Archetype: Krishna (the eighth incarnation of Vishnu)
A sacred plant of India and beloved of Krishna (the embodiment of love and the divine joy that destroys all pain), tulsi, sometimes called holy basil, is sattvic in nature (meaning that it embodies the perfected principle of light, perception, and harmony). Use this essential oil to purify and protect the energy of yourself and/or your environment. Tulsi opens and heals the heart chakra, teaching the true energy of loving detachment and devotion.
Key Traits: Bringing light into the darkness, deep purification, expanding your appreciation of beauty and your own inner radiance, emotional succor, protection and a profound sense of calm. An expression of the divine feminine.
Divine Archetype: Brigid; Lady of the Forest/White Goddess
Birch has been traditionally used in Native American sweat-lodge ceremonies, whose purpose is deep purification of the spirit (subtle bodies). The essential oil of birch has the same effect on the spirit as the living tree has in dreary winter landscapes, brining radiance into the darkness. This essential oil also enhances your ability to experience beauty and remain calm.
In Russian folklore, as well as in Norse and Germanic cultures, the birch itself is called Lady of the Forest. Many cultures attribute qualities of nurturing, mothering, renewal, and protection to the white birch tree. The nourishing, caring birch is an age-old symbol of the White Goddess, and the Germanic rune berkana, “birch” stands in part for protection.
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This type of energy healing using essential oils is restoring and brings a balanced flow of energy through the body, thus bringing us back into alignment with universal energies, or Source from which all forms and energy emanate. Hence aligned, our consciousness opens; our inner matrix meshes with the world around us, and we are drawn to the path of our highest self. This type of support makes it infinitely easier to reach goals.
As you read the profiles above take all of the information into account and feel into your present circumstances to discern what energy complex would support you most. Once you determine this, bring to mind what you would like to clear and what goals you have, as you make a topical anointing blend (firmly holding this energy-it will imprint into your blend).
A fascinating aspect of making blends with intent is incorporating numerology. For our purposes today we will explore the numbers 6 and 11
6 - Structured dynamism, the ability to spontaneously respond to the moment, and allowing the feedback to restructure the self
11 - Dissolution of form, intuition, pulling apart limitations to release new potential, and disconnecting from the collective
After you have chosen an essential oil and number of drops blend into 1 dram of base oil of choice I.e. mix 6 or 11 drops of essential oil into 1 dram of base oil in a dark glass bottle. Apply to your heart center, or any place you feel drawn to.
Drink the energy in and know with full confidence you are being supported on your journey: releasing the past and fulfilling your resolutions.
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Of course you may use these oils any time you need energetic purification not just on New Years
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Candice Covington is the author of Essential Oils in Spiritual Practice and Vibrational Nutrition.