
James Dotson
Lecture & Workshop Host
LECTURE: Occult Aromatherapy
Essential oils are currently a multibillion dollar market and an established commodity within the Wellness industry and New Age practices. They are also widely adopted into contemporary witchcraft and magic. After being a niche item little known outside of France, in the early 1980’s the first wave of English language books and classes on aromatherapy appeared and proliferated into the mainstream over the next decade. One of the earliest aromatherapy enthusiasts in the witchcraft community was the author Scott Cunningham. With more than two million books in print in multiple languages, his magical aromatherapy ideas remain a major contributor to online sources. However, the metaphysical currents of essential oils were established long before their boom in the late 20th century.
The history of how aromatherapy has intersected with magical and esoteric practices since the 19th century will be reviewed with a focus on non-English sources and materials not generally found through internet searches. Highlights include the following : the French and British occult revival (Aleister Crowley), esoteric medicine, osmotherapy and Rosicrucianism (Dr. Arnold Krumm-Heller), theosophical clairvoyant investigations (Charles Leadbeater), Anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner), 1930’s metaphysical chromotherapy and aromo-therapy (Roland Hunt), mid-20th century Parisian occultism, tarot and astrology (Valentin Bresle), and psychedelic era witchcraft (Lady Sara).
WORKSHOP: THE DEVIL (XV) : COMPOSING A TAROT FRAGRANCE
1.5 HOUR INTENSIVE– space is limited to 15 participants
We will review two significant sources for correspondences between the Major Arcana and essential oils and other aromatic materials:
Les parfums et leurs influences magiques (1942) by Valentin Bresle
The Essence of Magic: Tarot, Ritual and Aromatherapy (1993) by Mary Greer
Using these references along with techniques of art historical analysis you will learn to translate the visual motifs and iconography from Arcana XV into an olfactory vocabulary of various scent notes which will then be formulated into your unique fragrance: a sensorially embodied symbol of The Devil.
$35 workshop add on fee
$10 materials fee to be paid to James at time of workshop.
BIO: J.W Dotson MD is a psychiatrist and an independent scholar fascinated by scent sorcery, cultural and anthropological olfaction studies, ethnobotany, premodern medicine, medical astrology, and astrological magic and remediation. James has presented esoteric fragrance lectures as part of The Scent and Society series at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles and is a recurring speaker for The Salem Witchcraft and Folklore Festival. He is currently an instructor at The Celestial Arts Education Library and serves on the Advisory Board of the Archive of Healing at UCLA.
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