Most people know of myrrh as one of the gifts the Wise Men gave baby Jesus:

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. - Matthew 2:11

Many Internet sources mention myrrh as a gift of great value – one acceptable to honor a king. It was an anointing oil and possibly a foreshadowing of the way Jesus’ earthly life would end. Myrrh was known as an embalming spice. The words of the Christmas carol “We Three Kings” explain the spiritual significance of the gift:

Myrrh is mine: its bitter perfume

Breaths a life of gathering gloom.

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Later scripture bears this out as well:

And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. -...

Cancer and Essential Oils, Discussion #2 and Spearmint Oil.

Hi Everyone, Today we are going to continue our discussion on this topic and we will bring Spearmint Essential Oil into this discussion.

Many times we tend to not think a whole lot about Spearmint Essential Oil and rarely ever discuss it. We really are missing out on this refreshing oil. One of the most popular uses of Spearmint is in gum. But it is also distilled into essential oil and really is a very safe essential oil to use. Recently I had to do some research on a few of the individual constituents that are in Spearmint essential oil and ended up spending a lot of time as I began to be even more fascinated with it. One reason why I got into the studying of it was because of a man I have known for a number of years has discovered that he has an issue that he has to deal with and that is prostate cancer. So he was asking me what he could use among the lines of essential oils to help himself. So I discussed with him what...

How would you like to clean a freshen your entire home with just two simple products?

How would you like it if these products were super inexpensive to make and included two of the most useful essential oils you have on hand?

Cleaning your home isn’t the most glamorous job in the world, but is must be done. I’m a picky cleaner, but I also like to get it done as quickly as possible. I have two little ladies, 3 year old hazel and 1 ½ year old Evelyn. I also work part-time. The time that I allot for cleaning in minimal. I need to be able to sweep through my house as fast as I can with baby and helper girl in toe. If I tried to carry around a cleaning caddy, full of all the specialty cleaners for any possible need, I would be “dropping” them (being helped by my little duo) all along the way. Also, it gets heavy pretty fast. Keeping things simple is a must for me. I do all my general cleaning with two simple, homemade, products. I have a spray, and a...

DEFICIENCIES: PART 1

Hi everyone,

Are you ready for a discussion on essential oil quality and related topics? I thought you might be. This discussion is on an aspect of essential oil quality, “quantified” in this term: confabulation. It has had a heavy influence in the development of aromatherapy in North America, particularly over the past 25 years.

Confabulation is a term more in the behavior science field rather than the aromatherapy world, but it has helped shape how aromatherapy is viewed by people participating in it. Following is a cut-and-paste from Wikipedia with the definition, so you can verify from a commonly available source:

“Confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a memory disturbance, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive. Confabulation is distinguished from lying as there is no intent to deceive and the person is unaware the information is...

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to do a follow-up of sorts related to the internal/external application of the oils. This is a big deal to a lot of people. I want to be short and to the point, so I will share an actual personal experience. Even though we are all adults, sometimes certain types of discussions can be uncomfortable and this will be one of those types. So if you can handle it, read on, if you can't then move on I guess. I will present this in simple speak.

Quite a few years ago I was messing around with the base of the Sweet Soothe EO blend. That is a 3 way, equal mix, of Coriander, Fennel and Dill. Many people over the years have used this base for a number of purposes. One is for upset stomachs, one is for a basic parasite cleanse and for help for diabetics. I had used it a few times for an upset stomach after I ate one of those cheap hotdogs on an empty stomach. Yeah, lots of fun. Yuck. Anyway, that was done, heaven for bid, orally. It helped, made all the difference in...

Good day everyone!

Hope everyone is having a good week, and looking forward to a great weekend. In the meantime, I thought I would share some other interesting items of note.

In any number of farm magazines, you will always find them addressing a number of issues dealing with soil fertility and the nutrition level in the plants that is grown in the soils.  One is the idea of Sulfur.  In many older publications they bring up the issue of the coal burning plants spewing out that awful pollution.  This was not viewed as a totally bad thing.  They bring up the idea of how sulfur comes back down in the down wind path. Then it eventually falls to the ground,  gets into the soil and the soil is regenerated.

The problem? What the charts are showing is that over the past decade there has been a very serious sulfur deficiency decline in the soil that they have measured.  A decline of these very elements.  This is interesting because of the idea of cutting...

The REAL bottom line on Essential Oil Quality.

Many times we have people really hammer us on the quality of essential oils. It doesn't matter what company you are with, that company's oils is the best by leaps and bounds. Well, really you should feel that way about the company that you represent. It really presents some serious issues and conflicts in your mind and is irresponsible and irrational to know your product is of a low quality and still promote it and sell it. Part of the process of "proving" your product, (essential oils as far as this discussion is concerned), some so called "facts" are presented as as proof that "your" oils are the best. OK, I can deal with that. Most people can. But is it the truth? That is the question. The facts are only the truth to the extent of and the relationship to the available data that the "facts" are based on.

I will explain in this illustration. My favorite apple is a Golden Delicious. For me it is, without question the best. That is a...

I have been wanting to get into this discussion for a long time. Some of you will find a lot of this sort of boring as you already know a lot about the soil. However, many might have a sort of fuzzy, unfocused view of soil and its contribution to the quality of essential oils.

The basic building block of life is Water, Air and a few little tiny bugs and their interaction. Most people know what air and water is, but the little bugs.. those are for the most part known as bacteria, fungi and the sort of things that many times are too small to see, IE; Critters. In fact if you were to take a gallon can and fill it with some good quality soil you would find, not millions or even 10's of millions but BILLIONS of little bacteria and fungi and all sorts of their friends of their choosing, critters. But before we start walking Pavlov's dogs, we need to understand the nature of the dogs.

In an as is state, soil consists of roughly 4 major parts. For ease of discussion lets be general, as...

Hi everyone,

Today we will go in a different direction. We are going to discuss a nice little friend that plagues people in many parts of the world. That little friend is known by the common name of chigger, or chiggers. You have to say it in the plural form because with them you don't just get one, you get a bunch.

So what are chiggers? They are essentially a little immature mites. In mites you have them in 4 stages: egg, larva, nymph and adult. There are many species but in general we are discussing chiggers, which are mites in the larva stage. How these buggers get here is the adult mite lays the egg(s).

Humans usually become exposed to chiggers in nature – tall grasses, forest areas and such. Because of the way the adult lays their eggs, in clusters, then moving on, you can become exposed to the chiggers in a specific spot and yet, 20 feet away, another person can be totally free of them, because they didn't come in close enough contact for the chiggers to...

All the time the question is asked, “How many drops of oil are there in a bottle of essential oil?”

Answer: It really is hard to tell just how many drops are in a 10 ml. bottle or in any bottle for that matter. But as a general rule 200 drops is an accurate answer for a 10 ml. bottle of essential oil and 100 drops per 5 ml. bottle. Here is why it is a general rule.

The oils all have a different viscosity, which makes the surface tension come in at varying points on the scale. Higher-viscosity oils have more surface tension than the lower-viscosity oils. So with more surface tension, the more likely the drop will be bigger.

 Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/viscosity?s=t

When you turn a bottle upside down, a drop (usually) forms right off the bat. A higher-viscosity oil will try to hold on longer and a bigger drop will form before it detaches itself from the other oil or the orifice of the bottle, based on the weight of the drop. So even...