Tarot correspondence oils

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Lasiren	16 May 2005
Has anyone here ever been to the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab website? (www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com) The Lab produces handmade perfume and ritual oils, and among these are a collection of 22 oils corresponding to all the cards in the Major Arcana. No scent description for the Tarot oils is given on the website. Some people like to use them as perfume, and others like to anoint their cards with a drop of the oil before a reading to really bring out the energy of the card. I was wondering if anybody here had used any of the Tarot oils. If so, what was your experience? If not, would you use something like this? I'm a tad curious: I was thinking about getting some of these when I ordered my next round of perfume & voodoo blends.

Phoenix Rising	16 May 2005
Hey thanks for the link. Great site too! I'd be very curious as to what oils they use. Great idea actually.

similia	16 May 2005
I'd like to know what is in them too. Quote: Welcome to the Lab! We specialize in formulating intriguing, compelling body and household blends with a dark, romantic Gothic tone. Our scents run the aesthetic gamut of magickal, pagan and mythological blends, Renaissance, Medieval and Victorian formulas, and horror / Gothic-themed scents. By utilizing our knowledge of homeopathy and aromatherapy, the conceptual theories of hermetic alchemy, and the aesthetic artistry of perfumery, we have mastered the art of encapsulating allegorical ideas into singular olfactory experiences. We have over 10 years of practical experience in the field, and our expertise shows. I'm very sceptical of anybody putting homeopathics into these sorts of blends. To do so demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the methodology of homeopathy. Clearly they know nothing about homeopathy, and that makes me wonder what they know about the other products they use... :confused:

Fudugazi	16 May 2005
If it smells nice - why not? I love sweet-smelling oils. But it does smell a bit like a scam to me. How can oil bring energy out of a piece of cardboard? The best you'll achieve if you dab your card with oil is a slippery card - or a stained one.

Eco74	16 May 2005
Sometimes smells can help set us in a state of mind during meditation, and different smells are good for different moods and exercises. If the oils effect us in any way beyond that is very much up to ourselves. I'm a little curious as to what fragrances they might have chosen though, since even one and the same card can invoke different mindsets and frangrances in my mind. The hermit for example is sometimes a sunsoaked beach smelling of algae and seasalt, and other times a metallic smell of a thunderstorm in the mountains. Having just one fragrance, just like having one particular meaning, seems a mite dull..

Tesseljoan	17 May 2005
If you're curious as to what they smell like, here are the reviews that can be found on their forum: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showforum=23 some people use them as scent exclusively, and others as ritual oils. I have tried a few (The Sun, The Star, The High Priestess, The World, The Hermit) and while some were a bit off from my expectations, they were all interesting in the sense of the concept they tried to capture in scent. As I see it, you don't have to dab it on your card, you can dab it on yourself to have the association of the card cling to you in scent, or burn it in an oil burner to scent the room while you meditate on a card.

Lasiren	17 May 2005
Tesseljoan, thanks for posting the link to the BPAL forums. I hadn't thought to look at that when I posted here. Using it in an oil burner is a good idea, too. I imagine it would really help in meditation, since scent is such a strong trigger.

laura_borealis	18 May 2005
I was going to post a link to the reviews, but Tesseljoan beat me to it. :) I recently discovered BPAL and I loooove some of their scents. Yummy yummy yum. :) I am not so interested in their tarot oils, because I would rather make my own associations. I'd also rather associate scents with a deck, rather than individial cards. For instance, in this thread, I mentioned possibly using patchouli with the Cosmic Tribe. They are both so earthy and "trippy," I think they would be a good match. :) What scents would you match with certain decks -- or with certain cards?

Elektra	19 May 2005
Helvetica wrote: If it smells nice - why not? I love sweet-smelling oils. But it does smell a bit like a scam to me. How can oil bring energy out of a piece of cardboard? The best you'll achieve if you dab your card with oil is a slippery card - or a stained one. It's not supposed to bring energy out of the cardboard. It's supposed to help you "better understand, interpret and embody a particular tarot archetype." As much as I love perfume, I'm not that in tune with my sense of smell, but some people really do find scent incredibly evocative. For those people, I think it probably WOULD be an interesting new perspective. (I'm sure that a few some people DO use them to "bring out the energy," as Larisen suggested - but they are not advertised for such purpose, so I really don't think it's fair to call it a scam. And honestly, if people DO choose to use them that way I don't see that as any different than wrapping your cards in black silk or putting a crystal in their box with them. I personally don't believe in any of that, but plenty of people do, judging from this forum!) I love BPAL, actually, though I don't order the tarot oils. Some of my favorite perfumes have come from them. I *have* tried three of the Tarot oils - The Star smells like coconut and lime, and The World and The Hierophant are both hard to describe but quite nice - somewhat reminiscent of Florida Water, actually. Anyway, I'd think of it more as an olfactory majors-only deck. They don't claim to have any magical powers - they're just perfumes based on one woman's interpretation of the cards. Just like making your own deck, except her medium is scent rather than painting or collage or what-have-you. Edited because I wanted to clarify that I was quoting from the BPAL website :).

The Tarot correspondence oils thread was originally posted on 16 May 2005 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.