The longest, darkest night approaches in the northern hemisphere–many of us seek warmth, comfort, light, and clarity to carry as we navigate the night.
Crafted to celebrate Santa Lucia, this simple anointing perfume carries deep symbolism and bright energy.
While the feast day and festivities that most enthusiastically celebrate Santa Lucia are in Scandinavia, Lucia’s origins are actually in Rome.
As a Christian saint and martyr, Lucia endured unbelievable suffering, but remained unfailingly generous and faithful.
Since we’re working on positive energy here, I won’t detail the mythology I heard as a child around Lucia’s martyrdom… (Let’s just say the Lucia in this image has good reasons to look a bit miffed.)
Instead, we’ll focus on the fact that Lucia is cherished and celebrated as the patron saint of vision.
She is thought to be associated with light and clarity. Her festivities, celebrated on December 13th, are most enthusiastically brought to life in Italy and Scandinavia, especially in Sweden where processions for Santa Lucia featuring young women in white robes with red sashes and crowns of burning candles wander through most every church and Christmas market.
Young women participate in the festivities and celebrate Lucia on behalf of their families as Lucia’s blessing is thought to help families endure long, cold, dark winters.
And couldn’t we all use a little help with that right about now? Yes?
Then let’s celebrate Santa Lucia with a beautiful oil for anointing, a simple celebration of her spirit and blessing, no flaming candle crown or saffron buns required.
We’ll be working with four essential oils for the blend: larch, juniper berry, lavender, and lemon.
Larch brings a truly remarkable energy.
Whereas we typically think of conifers and pines as evergreens because they keep their needles in the winter, larch (also known as tamarack) actually loses its needles; that makes larch the only deciduous conifer. In autumn, larch trees turn a brilliant orange or yellow pointy like fiery spires from the mountainsides and forests where they grow. As the days get shorter, they shake off all of their needles entirely, standing naked and plain through winter.
With that, larch has special symbology for this blend.
For while evergreens remind us we can stand strong and whole through the cold and dark of winter, larch tells us it can also be okay to let things go. In losing its needles, larch shows us we can remain a part of a family, community, or tribe (i.e., the conifers) and still be different. We can release our old patterns, shake off what doesn’t serve us, and kinda fall apart without losing hope. Like larch, we can lose it and emerge softened, strong, and newly whole in spring.
For more wonderful insights into larch, check out the applications and recipes part of Aromatics Internationals larch page.
Juniper berry appears to bring its strengthening properties. It can help us to push through when we are discouraged, overcome, or wanting to withdraw.
Finally, the single drops of lavender and lemon bring comfort and bright optimism respectively.
To get the most from your anointing perfume, I recommend applying your anointing oil with roller bottle in the shape of a compelling and relevant rune or sigil.
If you aren’t familiar with runes and don’t know where to begin, draw the rune Kenaz or Ken (which looks just like the “<” symbol). Kenaz is associated with torches and illumination–perfect to honor Lucia’s bright light and candle crown and just right for drawing down clarity and empowering a quest for truth.
Santa Lucia's Anointing Perfume
A bright, uplifting, and encouraging oil celebrating Santa Lucia's enduring faithfulness and generosity to help guide and support you through the cold chill and darkness of winter's long nights.
Ingredients
- 10ml roller bottle with cap
- plastic pipette
- 9 ml (skant 1/3 oz) of unrefined organic jojoba
- 6 drops of Larch (Larix laricina) essential oil
- 2 drops of Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis) essential oil
- 1 drop of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) essential oil
- 1 drop of Lemon (Citrus limon) essential oil
Directions
- Step 1 Using a pipette, fill the roll-on bottle about halfway with jojoba.
- Step 2 Add the essential oils and stir with a stir rod or clean bamboo skewer.
- Step 3 Add the remaining jojoba to fill.
- Step 4 Cap tightly and shake to combine.
- Step 5 Apply as an anointing oil at wrists and over the heart using the roller ball to draw sigils (sacred symbols) or runes on your skin.
- Step 6 Be sure to keep an eye on the ratios of each oil and keep the overall dilution safe. (Lemon is phototoxic at more than 12 drops per ounce and can be a skin-irritant.)
- Step 7 You can also make a 5ml stock blend of 3ml Larch, 1 ml Juniper Berry, 1/2ml Lavender, and 1/2ml Lemon to create lots of bottles at once–use about 10 drops total in each 10ml roll-on bottle.
