Meditation With Sensual Sandalwood

Sandalwood Flowers

 NOTE OF CAUTION:  Please consult with your physician or a licensed homeopathic practitioner before using or trying any aroma or crystal therapies.  This is to ensure that it will not interfere with current medical treatments.

   Sandalwood or Santalum Albumis a scent that I use all of the time.  I use it as a perfume,  to aid with falling asleep, meditation and to help with frustration or stress.  It is a wonderful addition to your aromatherapy toolkit.  The word, sandalwood, is derived from the Sanskrit, Chandana, which means honoring or praising.  It does have an interesting historical background. 

   Sandalwood has been a popular scent and wood since antiquity and was seen on the early trade routes of Asia.  Early traders discovered sandalwood in Hawaii and forced the Hawaiian people to give up their traditional farming in order to use them as forced labor to cultivate sandalwood.  Effects of this forced labor were so devastating that some of the Hawaiian elders pulled up young sandalwood trees with the aim of preventing the same life for their descendants.  There are still some hidden groves of sandalwood in Hawaii but the location is kept secret.

    Sandalwood is commercially grown only in India with the best quality essential oil coming from Mysore, India.  The trees are numbered and protected by the Indian government which only allows the extraction of the oil after the trees have reached 30 years of age and are at least 30 feet tall.  Sandalwood is sacred in many Asian cultures.  In India, centuries old temples are built of sandalwood and are considered sacred.  They still retain the sandalwood scent after all of this time.  The oil is used extensively in Oriental funeral ceremonies and religious rites.  It was also used in the embalming rites of the Egyptians.

    The essential oil is usually obtained from the inner core of the wood.  Sandalwood is a parasitic evergreen tree native to Asia, although there is another variety of Sandalwood cultivated in Australia.  Wild species of Sandalwood can be found in the Pacific Island.  The roots of the Sandalwood tree burrow into other trees and vegatation.  The trees grow to about 30 feet tall, have small purple flowers and small fruits containing a seed.  The roots and wood yield about 6% of the oil, while the leaves and shoots yield approximately 4% of the oil.

    Sandalwood is associated with the moon and the element of water.  It is known to open the crown and base chakras in addition to being used in meditation practice for centuries.  It has a warm, woodsy scent that has sharp undertones and seems to induce spirituality and peace.  Sandalwood oil and burning of the wood lulls the conscious mind, encourages dreaming, soothes nervous tension and anxiety, and relieves obsessive attitudes.  The scent of sandalwood increases over time and is the longest lasting of the essential oils.   Sandalwood is known for calming irritation and frustration, restores your equilibrium, facilitates spiritual practice, and aids tension headaches.

Sandalwood

It is considered one of the true aphrodisiacs and stimulates sexual activity.  It was at one time thought to cure gonorrhea.  Sandalwood has been used in the treatment of emotional and sexual dysfunction and assists in cutting ties to the past.  This is a hell of a scent, huh?  This tree has been known to aid in clairvoyance, contact between the plains plus assists in divination, psychic development and growth.  It has vibes for good luck and success.

    Sandalwood is used in almost everything.  You can use it to flavor foods, candies, beverages, baked goods, and even liquers.  More commonly, it is used to scent perfumes, soaps, detergents, lotions, and incense.  Physically, sandalwood has ties to aiding or helping several medical conditions.  It assists in aleviating cystitis, urinary tract infections, chest infections, dry coughs, and sore throats.  It also stimulates your immune system and has been used to treat heartburn. 

    Sandalwood is divine on the skin.  It is a balancing oil and works well with eczema and aging or dehydrated skin.  The oil is known for tightening up the “turkey neck” effect as you age when mixed with cocoa butter.  It relieves itching, inflammation and its antiseptic qualities are helpful with acne, boils and infected wounds.  It blends very nicely with most of the floral type scents and resins.  You can add it to your bath, use it for massage, or as an aromatic in your home.  A good scent combination that I have found is sandalwood, amber, and Mediterranean fig. 

    Try this receipe for an exotic massage oil.  It is from “The Essential Oils Book” by Colleen K. Dodt.   Add 2 drops of Jasmine Absolute, 2 drops of Rose Absolute, 4 drops of Sandalwood, 2 drops of Vanilla, and 2 drops of Ylang-Ylang to 1 ounce of base oil.  Before you slather it all over someone, test it on a small patch of skin in case of allergic reaction to one of the components.

  My next post on aromatherapy will be about Lilac and it’s ghostly effects.