Читать книгу Aromatherapy and the Mind - Julia Lawless - Страница 19

At about the same time as the birth of Jesus, incense materials were being brought overland to Egypt by Arabian traders. The best type of frankincense (B. sacra) grew in southern Arabia and its high value was matched only by myrrh and gold, which together represented the three costliest commodities of the ancient world – suitable gifts for a newborn king! The ‘perfumes of Arabia’ also constituted some of the earliest trade items between East and West. Pliny reported that the southern Arabian kingdoms of Hadramout and Dhofar were the wealthiest states in the world because of their monopoly of the frankincense trade, yet little is known about the exact ritual practices of the early Arabian civilization. They certainly used aromatic resins and gums extensively in their religious practices and erected specific incense altars within their temples. These small cube-shaped altars, which often stood on four short legs, were made from limestone, terracotta or clay and were decorated with regular geometric designs. The names of various aromatics were inscribed on the sides of the altars – some had many names, some only one. Frankincense, myrrh, storax and mastic occur quite frequently, being indigenous to the area. Spikenard and costus are also among those mentioned – these were probably imported from India. On some altars, the burnt remains of incense are still discernible in their basins thousands of years later. Incense burners were also often placed in tombs.

Another trade route from southern Arabia went eastward towards Syria – Mesopotamia. Like the Egyptians, the Assyro-Babylonians required vast quantities of aromatics for use in their rituals. They gathered them from the richly forested Amanus mountains in Syria or imported them from Arabia. The wood, resin or sap of a wide variety of aromatic substances, including myrtle, galbanum, tamarisk, cypress, bdellium, cedar, frankincense, ladanum, spikenard, myrrh, calamus, mastic, juniper and opobalsam, were used as incense in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia. The incense was offered either upon an incense altar, similar to those found in southern Arabia; on a hollow pottery shrine, specimens of which have been traced to the third millennium BC;⁴ in an incense ‘lamp’ designed to hook on the wall; in a vase-shaped censer; or in a shallow bowl placed on top of a tall cylindrical pottery stand, which is depicted in many Assyrian relief carvings. These often contain a conical mound of incense which looks very similar to the cones of incense or ‘unguent’ used by the Egyptians, which were composed of a blend of powders, oils, resins and fats.

Like the early Egyptian term for ‘perfume’, the Mesopotamian word for ‘unguent’ had religious associations. Assyrian sculptures at Ninevah show incense being burned for the sun-god and it is known that the Assyrians used aromatics during rituals connected with the cult of the dead. The Babylonians also sometimes sprinkled their meat offerings with incense as a way of consecrating the food, making it holy and therefore acceptable to the gods.

But again, the principal and underlying basis for the use of incense in Syria and Mesopotamia was the belief that its odour ensured divine favour. Where incense was burned, the gods assembled – as if they actually manifested their presence through scent. It was also thought that the fragrance of the incense worked like a drug on the minds of the gods, as well as on the minds of men: their wrath was calmed, they gave positive oracles (incense smoke was used as a form of divination) and looked kindly on the misdeeds of man. Incense was the means by which the human soul could be cleansed before the face of god:

Incense, dwelling in the mountain, created in the mountains,

you are pure coming from the mountains.

Fragrance of juniper, fragrance of cedar, incense dwelling in the mountains.

The powerful incense has been granted to us,

the high mountains provide it for purification

in the pure censer, filled with awe inspiring splendor,

the sweet oil, the choice oil, worthy of the table,

and the pure [aromatics], the materials of the purifying craft.

Make the incense fumes, their purifying product, issue forth:

May he be clean like heaven, may he be pure like the core of heaven,

may the evil tongue stand aside!⁵

It is clear from this text that to the Assyro-Babylonians incense was also a substance of purification, especially with regard to those rich odoriferous resins derived from coniferous trees like cedar, juniper and cypress. This corresponds to the central idea behind many Oriental practices, especially those of the Buddhists, in which incense is used extensively as a means of purification.