Fall Season and the Energy of Leaves

Fall Season Begins at the Autumnal Equinox with Aromatic Herbs and Essential Oils for Good Health

Noted today: the Aromas of Leaves!

Aromatic Leaves of herbs and spices, grasses, and trees or shrubs create essential oils and perfume materials of great strength and intensity.

Selecting aromatic leaves from trees and shrubs, I’ve chosen two distinctive scents for the kinds of healing benefits they offer! Essential oils from the Leaves of Cypress and of Eucalyptus help us breathe better, dispel painful aches, assist in wound healing, clarify cloudy thoughts, and calm our agitations.

Certain essential oils from leaves offer aromatic alternatives to camphor. These are leaves of trees native to the Southern Hemisphere, grown and distilled there and in similar tropical places world-wide.

Regarded as sacred in ancient times, essential oils of the conifers offer medicinal substances that guard against bacteria, agitation, and allergies. Tree leaves with these substances are native to the Northern Hemisphere with some trees thriving at or near the Equator.

A Plant Pedigree?

If I spoke about these herbs using only the common names Cypress and Eucalyptus, I would be ignoring certain essential oils I have in mind right now. For a discussion on defining aromatic plants by their appropriate names, please see this post.

Essential oils alternative to camphor, offering decongestive aromas

Alternatives to camphor may be anti-bacterial, anti-microbial essential oils, but they might also be a spiritual cleansing kind of aroma. Preventing germs from proliferating, a selection of essential oils of the Myrtle family are strongly anti-microbial. And are medicinal for the breath. Eucalyptus, Cajeput, Tea Tree, and Niaouli are typical of Myrtle family plants. Their leaves exhibit a variety of shapes but are known as broadleaf evergreens.

Leaves of Pine family trees are needle-like and evergreen, opening or clarifying to the breath, applied for muscular pain. The leaves of Grasses and Herbs and Spices have seasonal importance, with some contributing more benefit if they are in flower at the time of harvesting.

Eucalyptus Leaves

Essential oils of Leaves contribute a variety of components that ease breathing. If a Eucalyptus oil is air-borne, or diffused, it may increase immunity for people in the same room.

Blue Gum Eucalyptus leaves, Narrow-leaved Eucalyptus leaves and Lemon-scented Eucalyptus leaves, Cajeput leaves, Tea Tree leaves, Ravintsara leaves, and Niaouli leaves are particularly robust with Fall Essence.

Eucalyptus leaves have a concentration of energy that promotes the breath, thus clearing emotional constriction or indecision.

This energy lies in tiny cells called secretory cavities that hold healing substances and which lie next to leaf veins inside the Eucalyptus leaves. Little holding stations, these cavities balloon in size as the nourishment from the sun, and moisture from the surrounding air and soil around their roots congeal into an oily or viscous substance. This concentrated essence keeps ants and other insects—our competitors for this oil—from chewing on the leaves.

It’s the concentrated, viscous deposits in Eucalyptus leaves which humans want for medicine.

These viscous deposits are extracted from the leaves during steam-distillation which results in essential oil.

Known for their medicinal herbs or distilled oils, Eucalyptus trees are the royal family of anti-microbial essences. And their aromas clarify the channel of the breath, assist in pain relief, and brighten mental outlook.

Cypress Leaves, Energy of Autumn

The essential oil of Cypress leaves comes from trees that are known for their longevity–some trees are calculated to be between 1,000 and 2,000 years old. World-wide, Cypresses grow in “warm-temperate” regions. They are not tropical in origin, rather they tend to grow in mostly dryish terrain. Cypresses form the mystique of plant lore and the gods and goddesses of ancient times in Greece and Rome, maybe even earlier in human civilization.

Aromatic Molecules in Cypress Leaves

And there are also oils made from the cones and sometimes the woods of Cypress trees. The wood is reputed to have fire resistance (much like Eucalyptus trees), was the material which made Noah’s Ark (wonderful stories like this seem to knit together the heritage of human-plant connections), is the material that the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome are made of, also provided the structure of barrels in alcohol distilleries before stainless steel. (see wikipedia article)

Make Equinox Sacred Scent, a Cypress-Centered blend that shares the stage with a Summer flower essential oil (Clary Sage) and a Summer wood essential oil (Sandalwood), blended into a carrier oil in a magical wand roller applicator to carry with you. Or keep at home as talisman in affirmations on nature and well-being.

Equinox Sacred Scent in a Bottle

Equinox Sacred Intention: a low-key activation of vitality

Ingredients, essential oils (e.o.):

3 drops Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) e.o.
3 drops Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) e.o.
3 drops Sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) e.o.

Carrier Oil: 10 ml Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) oil as a carrier for the above mixture

Container: 1-10ml roll-on glass bottle with cap

To Make: Open a clean 10ml glass bottle. Drop in essential oils by the drop. Then close the cap tightly and gently roll between your palms to encourage the combination of aromas. Make sure cap is closed tightly. Allow to rest overnight. Next day, open the bottle and pour your Jojoba oil over the aromatic blend to reach the neck of the bottle. Re-cap tightly. Turn bottle upside-down, and right-side up several times to combine thoroughly. Ready for use!

To Use: Un-cap and roll over your pulse points at wrists, neck and upper chest. Alternatively, roll across palms two or three times. Rub your palms together, bring close to your nose and inhale. Repeat.

Autumnal Connections & the Flow of Life

Our breath is the very life-force we’re conscious of, and depend on—if we can breathe with calmness and intention, we feel vital and healthy. Breath is one channel of energy we can consciously control. Air, breath, prana, or another name you want to call it, affects our emotional life as much as our physical body.

Fall Season is symbolized in connections. The structure of all things and living beings is due to connections, and the parts that contribute to the prosperity of the whole. Connections depend on the movement that’s possible with the transfer of energy.

In Fall Season it’s Leaf Energy that’s prepared to extend its vitality and nurture. As Fall Season arrives, we’ve experienced a half year of growth—all from the natural world, our source of food and much more. Yet we’re likely a bit depleted, or bewildered by the swift passage of time. Or possibly we feel congested and restrained by any number of distractions and can’t seem to move forward.

Now, while the sun is receding, it’s possible to lean into the benefits of intentionally smelling the Leaf essential oils. Leaf oils that are aligned with the harvest time of year. Although we are partying and focused on holidays, it’s the Leaf energy that can balance our over-indulgent natures, clarifying the future, the view ahead.

Leaf essential oils should be used respectfully, even conservatively, because these essences are liable to be too strong! They can in fact overpower us, blocking, rather than unlocking, energy. See my Notes, below.

Write and ask me how to use an essential oil that you already have at home.

Tip # 7: Meet the challenge of Autumn. Galvanize Strength & Live with Vitality

RESOURCES: Author Gabriel Mojay is a source of information on the psyche and essential oils. Aromatherapy for Healing the Spirit by Gabriel Mojay, 1997. Published by Healing Arts Press, Rochester, VT.

Author Peter Holmes is an authority on Chinese herbal medicine, and essential oils. See Aromatica Vols. 1 & 2 by Peter Holmes, c2016 & 2019. Published by Dragon Press, London & Philadelphia.

SAFETY NOTE: Be Safe! when using essential oils and products of natural origin. An essential oil is safe, but only if applied in a safe way. Always dilute essential oils in a carrier oil before applying to the face or body, or when adding to bath water. Ask your aromatherapist or herbalist for guidance.

Ask your health care provider before using essential oils in pregnancy, or when trying to become pregnant, OR taking medication for any condition. Do not use essential oils internally.

This post is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical treatment for any disease or condition. Do not use Eucalyptus oils with or around children under 10 years of age.

NOTES:

A substance known to herbalists and shamans since ancient times is camphor, from the tree leaves and resin of the specific tree, Cinamomum camphora, growing in Japan and China, also known as hon-sho, and white Camphor. The use of camphor, Cinamomum camphora, essential oil in aromatherapy should be limited to adults and only to those not taking medications.

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