In my 20s I was living and working at the Wildwood Retreat Center in Sonoma County, CA.
I had bought a copy of Clysta Kinstler's 'The Moon Under Her Feet' (at the local hippy goddess shop, of course) which is a retelling/re-imagining of the life of Mary Magdalene as a temple priestess, with Jesus as her beloved.
I read the book straight through in 2 days flat, and felt my cells rearranging themselves into something more expansive, more inclusive--more home.
As someone who had grown up Catholic, and who was no longer Catholic but still appreciated the fierce love of the actual Jesus while I was also deeply claiming my identity as a witch, this book laid out what might have been: Jesus holding and weaving together what is often referred to as the sacred masculine and feminine, with great tenderness and wisdom.
At the time there was a huge Cecile Brunner rose bush growing at the retreat center. Cecile Brunner roses are fragrant, pink climbing roses that grow in a glorious profusion, and I was inspired to infuse them in olive oil.
The result was a distinctly Mediterranean/Middle Eastern smelling oil, complex and mysterious.
Mary Magdalene is of course associated with roses, and olive oil is a staple of the Mediterranean and Middle East.
I then added spikenard, the source of the costly 'nard' oil that Mary anointed Jesus with. Spikenard essential oil has a distinctly earthy smell, and I always feel both more grounded and expansive in its presence.
The final addition was Helichrysum essential oil.
Helichrysum is a bright, citrusy smelling plant from the Mediterranean.
For me in the alchemy of the Hieros Gamos oil, helichrysum is the aspect that both ties the rose and spikenard together, as well as embodies something new--the 'child' of the rose and spikenard (archetypally this would be their daughter Sarah).
For a long time this oil was just something special for me, in my witchy/priestess supplies. And then one day I realized I could create it anew, and share it with you!
Hieros Gamos is the sacred marriage, the rite of the priestess and the king or priest embodying the Goddess and God in a rite of divine love making, creating heaven on earth and blessing the world with fertility.
To create the sacred marriage within ourselves is to bring together what we have been taught is opposite and in conflict, and to create relationship and harmony within ourselves.
To anoint is to honor Spirit in Matter, to bless, heal and recognize the radiance of the body and of life.
This oil embodies the potency of the ancient rite of the Hieros Gamos, or sacred marriage, made between the Goddess/Land and the king, which brought fertility, peace and prosperity to the community and world.
We are called on now to make this sacred marriage within ourselves, to divest ourselves of false binaries and live from the more expansive truth of the dance that is the universe.
It is perfect to use in your daily and ceremonial practice to bless and heal any area of the body where Spirit is not fully embodied in Matter, where we want to nourish sacred erotic intelligence, and/or to simply mark our body as the sacred and beautiful temple that it is.
Bulgarian Rose Infused Olive Oil, Essential Oils of Damascus Rose (Rosa Damascena), Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi) & Helichrysum/Immortelle (Helichrysum italicum), Energy Signature of Green Malachite & Quartz. Blessed & charged in tantric ritual.
