Today’s article is a follow-up to my previous article in which I discussed the surrounding essence, an alchemy technique that I have developed for the Spiritual PhytoEssencing (SPE) blending. In this article, I describe another blending SPE alchemy technique called the magic drops.
Brief review:
1) The art of Spiritual PhytoEssencing (SPE)utilizes customized combinations of essential oils for deep soul-level healing work, which involves what I refer to as archetypal blending. In SPE, the term archetype refers to a unique intangible construct of the soul that generates a characteristic pattern of perceptible emotional and physical expressions. In turn, these expressions—such as temperament, personality traits, reactional tendencies and diverse symptoms of dysfunction, such as anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, stomach weakness, etc.—are considered to be archetypal images.
The basic premise of Spiritual PhytoEssencing is: In order to be able to ameliorate soul-level disharmony, an essential oil blend must engage with the archetypes embedded within the fabric of a person’s soul rather than with the archetypal images which manifest as emotional and physical symptoms. While oils are not selected to directly treat specific emotional and physical symptoms, these symptoms are used to identify their underlying archetypal roots.
Thus far I have elaborated highly detailed portraits of 122 different oils (Berkowsky’s Synthesis Materia Medica/Spiritualis of Essential Oils). Accordingly, each of the oils represents a unique plant soul with a characteristic mixture of prominent archetypal qualities.
Since each person’s soul is characterized by an array of archetypal patterns, soul-level healing work is best approached with a customized blend of essential oils rather than a single oil. In Spiritual PhytoEssencing, the construction of a custom essential oil blend is similar to painting a portrait. Accordingly, the custom blend development process can be characterized as “painting a portrait in oils.”
2) SPE is not a conventional science, instead it is a type of rational mysticism that incorporates various scientific perspectives. All the reference and study materials, including the Synthesis Materia Medica/Spiritualis of Essential Oils and the Spiritual PhytoEssencing Repertory of Essential Oils, begin with the rational thought processes that organize and direct the flow of the practice of SPE. However, this thought-consciousness also opens the door to the coequal superconscious, metaphysical aspect of SPE. Thus, the practitioner needs to approach the art of SPE using all four windows of knowing: thinking, sensing, feeling and connection to spirit.
3) Spiritual PhytoEssencing takes alchemy from the realm of the purely esoteric into the realm of general practical application. The term alchemy invokes images, such as the one above, of medieval chemists attempting to transform base metals into gold or silver. In contrast, in Spiritual PhytoEssencing, the alchemy techniques that I have developed are designed to vitalize an essential oil blend in such a way as to enhance its potential for effecting deep, psychospiritual transmutation within the individual for whom that customized blend is intended.
The various alchemy techniques used in Spiritual PhytoEssencing blending serve as a bridge between the physical and the metaphysical, the tangible and the intangible, heaven and Earth. Utilizing these techniques elevates a custom blend out of the realm of the ordinary and potentiates its ability to affect fundamental shifts in a person’s relationship with the inner and outer worlds.
Below, I describe the magic drops technique, one of the primary alchemy techniques used in Spiritual PhytoEssencing blending.
The Magic Drops Technique
Layered Blends
All Spiritual PhytoEssencing blends are built in layers, with a maximum of one layer added per day. Layering is an integral aspect of the natural world. This can be seen in the rings of a tree and the sedimentary layers of rock set down over the course of many millions of years.
The Kabbalah teaches that the soul is comprised of five levels. The two highest levels are considered to be outer lights, so high they cannot be contained within the material nature of the body and can barely be perceived even in the deepest states of meditation. The three lower, inner lights represent those aspects of the soul with which we have the most intimate, conscious contact.
Based upon my observation of the phenomena of the natural world and this kabbalistic model of the soul, I came to the conclusion that blends prepared for soul level healing work must be constructed similarly so that they are more consistent with the inner patterning of both the natural world and the soul.
Magic Drops
The purpose of the magic drops technique is to initiate a unique catalytic response within the organized, unified field emanated by all the oils within a layered blend. The oil which serves in the role of magic drops is one which was not a component oil of the layered blend. Instead, it is an oil added at the end of the blending process to elicit a unified response orchestrated by the plant souls within the blend.
Prior to the addition of the magic drops oil, the constituent oils within the blend have only known each other. According to Plotinus (famed 3rd century Greek philosopher) in the process of creation that begins in the endless light (what Plotinus refers to as the One) the unity of the One evolves into the ever-diversifying multiplicity of the many. This is the nature of emanation — the centrifugal process that begins in the world of being and cascades in this world of the becoming.
In the process of blending, we begin the centrifugal creative process by determining a number of oils that will be part of a blend. In other words, we elaborate a multiplicity. However in the process of blending, with the proper intent we reverse this flow, not only by blending the many to create a unified whole but by linking the soul energy within the blend with the unity of the uncreated light.
Thus, throughout the layering process, the plant souls of the component oils within the blend have been interacting and progressively developing an understanding of how to move from multiplicity to harmonious unity. While each oil within the blend retains the essence of its unique individuality, it also adapts to the group organization and becomes an integral component of the collective identity established during the layered blending process.
When the magic drops are introduced into this established group structure, the oils that comprise the group are challenged to react both as individual souls and as fully integrated components of a unified whole to the sudden appearance of a “stranger” within their midst.
Plants are alive, and everything that lives has a soul. An essential oil, the bonding medium for the soul of the plant, is uniquely suited to act as the physical entity that can facilitate an interface between plant and human souls. The plant-soul is not encumbered by ego, so it has the qualities of purity and infinity.
Therefore, when the magic drops are introduced, the plant souls within the blend react in a complex, objective manner. The magic drops initiate a cascade of individual plant soul and collective soul responses that subtly alter the inner nature of the blend and its associated organized field structure. This alteration serves as an activating mechanism that expands the operational dynamics of the blend on both physical and non-physical levels and thus acts as a force multiplier regarding the energetic potential of the blend.
As with the surrounding essence oil, the magic drops oil is not a constant. Instead it varies from one blend to the next. Any oil has the potential to serve as a magic drops oil.
In Spiritual PhytoEssencing blends, the oils in the blend with the strongest links to the person’s soul archetypal profile are referred to as the “main oils.” On the other hand, those oils which have sufficient relevance in the case to qualify for inclusion in the blend but not enough to qualify as a “main oil” are utilized in much smaller quantities as “alchemy oils.”
African Tea Tree Oil – Melaleuca alternifolia
For the 2018 Spiritual PhytoEssencing Training Intensive I formulated a blend called Soular Hero’s Journey (inspired by the work of the great mythology scholar Joseph Campbell) which all the students will be blending using the oils in the course oil set.
This blend will help spiritually sensitive individuals acknowledge and understand their own hero’s journey. Furthermore it will help the individual successfully navigate through this dark period in our history from an inner self level, so that the current seemingly intransigent resistance to enlightened ideas and empathic understanding does not inhibit the progress of one’s soular hero’s journey.
For this blend, I have selected African tea tree oil to serve as the magic drops oil. African tea tree is the same genus and species as Australian tea tree – Melaleuca alternifolia. Tea tree, a member of the Myrtaceae family (which also includes its close relatives cajuput and niaouli as well as clove, eucalyptus and myrtle),is indigenous to Australia, more specifically to the federal states of New South Wales (a small area on the North Coast and adjacent ranges) and Queensland (southern; a very small area bordering New South Wales).The tree is now cultivated in various places around the world including Kenya and South Africa.
I opted for African tea tree oil in this course oil set because, while it has a similar biochemical profile to the Australian oil, it nevertheless has a softer, quieter quality that is more consistent with the overall energetics of the Soular Hero’s Journey blend.
In 1768, the English explorer, Captain James Cook, set sail on the first of his three great voyages during which he explored two thousand miles of the east coast of Australia (then called New Holland), and claimed the country for England. The name “tea tree” is explained as being derived by the fact that in 1770, Cook and his crew came upon a grove of Melaleuca alternifolia trees and found that their sticky, aromatic leaves made a spicy tea (they also used it to flavor beer). Thus, Cook anointed it the “Tea Tree” and it went on to become a valued bush remedy among early European settlers.
Thus, as Cook named the tree, his soul archetypal nature (in some synchronistic way that is not explicable via pathways of logical thought) is an important factor in the identification of the inner archetypal nature of tea tree oil. Two of the central archetypal components of Cook’s soul nature are the journeyer and the explorer. Thus, tea tree oil serves well as magic drops within the context of the Soular Hero’s Journey blend.
Instructions for Adding the Magic Drops
1) To reiterate: the magic drops oil is an oil which was not used in the blending and is added as a unique catalyst of unified response orchestrated by the plant souls within the blend.
2) The magic drops are added only after the blending of all the layers has been concluded.
3) Wait at least 24 hours (preferably 2 to 3 days) after creating the final layer (i.e., the crown layer) of the blend, before adding magic drops. To 5 ml of blend, add no more than 2 to 3 drops of one oil to the blend. After adding the magic drops swirl the blend well for 30 seconds (holding the bottle upright, swirl the bottle around in a clockwise, circular pattern. Do not mix a layered blend by shaking it in an up and down manner as this will disturb the horizontality of the layering structure.
4) This is the one and only time, magic drops are added to a blend.
Recording Links
The following recording links provide a 40 minute excerpt from one of the 2014 SPE Training Intensive classes. They not only offer additional insight about the magic drops technique but also other important aspects of the art of Spiritual PhytoEssencing blending.
