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  I am delighted to announce that my book, Essential Oils for Mindfulness and Meditation: Relax Replenish Rejuvenate, has sold almost 3,000 copies since it was published in November 2018 (Inner Traditions Bear & Co., Healing Arts Press, Rochester, Vermont, USA: printed and distributed by Simon & Schuster USA & UK).   You can purchase copies […]

The journey from idea, pen to paper, to publication. “You become what you believe, not what you think or what you want”.  Oprah Winfrey The readers experience of a book is as significant as its academic and/or creative content.  Good publishers respect their readers as well as their authors, and produce books that people want to ‘own’, […]

Three Wise Middle Eastern Kings brought gifts to the new born infant to protect him and honour his birth. Gold symbolises purity of spirit and encourages realisation of one’s potential. Frankincense deepens and calms breathing, instilling a sense of tranquility and inner connection, an invaluable aid to meditation and prayer Myrrh strengthens the sense of spirituality […]

  Rose Otto (absolute) (Rosa x demascena Miller. Rosa x centifolia L)  Originally native to the Orient and Middle East, rose is grown and cultivated throughout the world, producing numerous species and cultivars. Rose essential oil is extracted from the fresh flower petals of the demascena and centifolia species and produces a pale yellow to […]

The aim of meditation is to hone and sustain conscious awareness of ‘being’ in the present moment.  I am always a whispered distance from the veil of my future and the shadows of my past, shades flickering in muted colours in my memory.  Yet focusing attention on what is happening, what I sensually experience, what I […]

The air richly infused with the fragrant scent of lavender, I walked into the greeting garden, beyond which stretched several neat linear rows of small purple bushes extended to the tree-lined distant edge of the adjoining field. On one side of the field, in beautiful contrast, a stunning array of sunflowers stood proudly as if […]

The history of essential oils is inseparably entwined in the historical evolution of medicine, evidenced through references found in ancient medicinal texts, treatises, artwork, imagery and artefacts left by civilisations living over 5,000 years ago. Applied in the form of fumigants, incense, cleansers, antiseptics, antibiotics, bactericides and preservatives, as well as psychosomatic, hedonistic perfumes, not […]

Native to Australia, this evergreen tree produces spikey leaves with ‘bottle-brush’ white, red, or green flowers.  It’s bark is spongy and easily flakes.  The essential oil is extracted via steam distillation from fresh leaves and twigs, and has a mild, fruity-sweet camphoraceous menthol metallic scent, with greeny-woody dry out notes.  Cajeput belongs to the same […]

This strongly aromatic annual herb grows throughout Europe, North America, and Australia. It has delicate feathery leaves and daisy-like flowers. The flower heads are picked in full bloom in summer and steam distilled to extract a distinctive blue-green essential oil. Chamomile German possesses excellent skin healing qualities when added to vegetable oil, or non-perfumed cream […]

Native to Europe, northwest Asia, Africa and Morocco, and naturalized in North America and Australia, carrot seed is a biannual herbaceous plant with small finely divided and lacy flowers that develop in clusters of flat dense umbels.  The flat green seeds or fruits are dried then steam distilled to extract the essential oil.  The essential […]

Larger than Chamomile German, Chamomile Roman is a strongly aromatic perennial herb that produces large daisy-like flowers, which is found growing in dry fields and cultivated gardens throughout Europe and North America.   Chamomile Roman yields a straw-yellow to transparent essential oil from the flowering heads.  It  is an invaluable skin healing essential oil when added […]

Native to the Mediterranean region, North Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, and Britain, Cypress is an evergreen, statuesque, cone-shaped tree that produces small flowers bearing ovoid seed cones. The essential oil is extracted from the twigs and needles, sometimes cones, by steamed distillation.  It’s scent is fresh, coniferous gently camphoraceous with a sweet balsamic dry-out odour.  Cypress […]