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chapter two

AN EROTIC HISTORY

‘Therefore I come forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning, let us solace ourselves with love.’

PROVERBS 7

The word ‘aromatherapy’ may have been coined in the twentieth century but the use of aromatic oils and unguents for religious and sexual purposes goes back thousands of years, to the dawn of civilization.

It is difficult to pinpoint which civilization first had the knowledge of perfumery and aromatherapy. The ancient Chinese say that The Yellow Emperor first brought medicine and perfumes to the world, while in India the birth of perfumery is attributed to the god Indra. Most probably the art of aromatherapy passed on like this: ancient China/India → Egyptians/Hebrews → Greeks → Romans → throughout the Roman Empire/Arab world → on to Europe/rest of the world.

Wherever aromatics were grown people recognized their contribution to sexual and religious ecstasy and, realizing the value of these commodities, travelled to other lands to trade, selling the aromatic plants that grew in their own land and buying aromatics that did not. In this way the knowledge of perfumery/aromatherapy spread.

AROMATHERAPY THROUGH THE AGES

SCENT AND SEX IN ANCIENT CHINA AND JAPAN

Sexual union between man and woman was the basic concept behind Yin and Yang, the ancient Chinese polar and complementary forces of life. The Chinese believed that sexual union had a cosmic influence on world events. Earthquakes, tidal waves, fierce winds – all these were attributable to disharmony. The emperor and empress of China epitomized the balance of the positive and negative elements in the realm. Special court ladies kept records (with a special red writing brush) of the sexual relations between the emperor and his wives. According to R. H. Gulik, ‘ancient China considered the clouds to be earth’s ova, which are fertilized by the rain, heaven’s sperm.’

The emperor had one wife, with whom he copulated once a month. He would practise the Taoist discipline of having sex without ejaculating, which allowed him to indulge in sexual relations many times in the space of one night. Although he only had sex with his wife once a month, he also had three consorts, nine wives of second rank, 27 wives of third rank and 81 concubines. Conserving his sperm was the only way in which he could make love with these 121 different women! Far from being exhausted by so much activity, the Chinese recognized that ‘during sexual union the man’s vital force is fed and strengthened by that of the woman, supposed to reside in her vaginal secretions’

Old Chinese sexual guidebooks preach that the more times one has sex without ejaculating the greater the benefits to the health. Once – and the vital essence are strengthened; twice – there will be an improvement in sight and hearing; three times – and all diseases will be cured; further practice – will result in the man’s having a religious experience. By recycling the semen it was thought that the brain would be nourished and that longevity would be assured.

In their time these sex manuals would have played another very important role – that of mentally exciting the emperor, for it would not be possible for him to feel aroused by each of his women when he needed to make love with at least three every day of the week. Yin and Yang depended upon the harmony between a man and a woman, and as a woman is slower to be aroused and to reach orgasm than a man, it would be up to him to preserve the harmony and satisfy her needs by practising ‘The Tao of Loving’: ‘Man is fire, which quickly flares up and can easily be extinguished. Woman is water, which takes longer to heat up, but once hot, cools down slowly. Fire is extinguished by water and water is heated by fire.’

At the same time it was recognized that inside every man there was some feminine and inside every woman there was some masculine. Harmony between the two is only possible if the man is in harmony with himself and the woman in harmony with herself. Having found harmony within himself, the man could practise Taoist sex, making love to his chosen partner for several hours at a time, without expending his ejaculate.

Many Chinese herbs, such as ginseng, were useful in strengthening sexual potency; aromatic spices and herbs were used regularly both to enhance sexual union and to promote harmony between the two partners.

Such was the Japanese understanding of the importance of sexual expression that the genitals were worshipped. Ancient fertility festivals frequently culminated in a sexual free for all. Phallic worship is one of the oldest aspects of religion in Japan, and even today a shrine exists in Kanamara with a giant wooden phallus on which grandmothers sit their small grand-daughters in the hope that they will receive good luck for a fertile and happy marriage.

Courtship rituals were often elaborate affairs, with go-betweens carrying letters and poems. Sometimes a poem would be written on tinted paper, according to the season of the year, and delivered on a heavily scented fan. If the correspondence was mutually encouraging, it would result in the suitor making a night call to the lady. ‘Stealing behind the curtains and into the scented darkness of the waiting lady’s bedchamber, the man simply removed his clothing and got into bed with her’ (Nicholas Bornoff, Pink Samurai). Sex was guiltlessly regarded as one of the pleasures of life – and free love was very common place. Attached to the kimono sashes of both sexes were little boxes called Inro. These were used for medicines and love potions and other aids to sexual fulfilment.

The Japanese passion for incense was transformed into an art still practised today by devotees of Kodo and known as the Way of Incense. In ancient times perfumes would waft through the temples, clothing and people’s homes, and of course bath water was delicately scented. Bathing in Japan was and still is a very important ritual. Washing was done first outside the bath, and only after scrubbing away the dirt and dead skin debris and rinsing thoroughly did the bather step into the deliciously scented tub of water, where the cares of the day were soothed away.

TANTRIC SEX

Tantra or Tantric sex is the Indian equivalent of Taoist sex. The major difference is that Tantra is seen to be a step on the road to spiritual enlightenment and mystical union, whereas practising Taoist sex does not require a belief system, merely the cultivation of will power.

The Hindu words for the genital organs are ‘lingam’ for the man and ‘yoni’ for the woman, and these organs – which to us are associated with sex, birth and maturity – have in Indian culture a much more spiritual association. Just as the Christian theory of the origin of the world is the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, so in India the god Shiva and his mighty lingam is believed to have brought the world into existence. Throughout India there are shrines – elaborate ones in temples and simpler ones tucked away on side streets – where the lingam and yoni can be worshipped. Sex in all its forms is considered acceptable and beautiful.

A nation that reveres the sex organs certainly has no sexual hang-ups compared to Western nations, and India’s openness to and unabashed enjoyment of sex has provided the world with the most famous sex manual of all – the Kama Sutra. This text’s illustrations of the various sex postures is not considered pornographic nor is its discussion of oral sex meant to be taboo but a normal part of healthy love-making. Yet eye contact is still considered the most important facet of love-making, because the eyes are windows to the soul, and Tantra is the experience of God within oneself and within one’s partner, through sexual union.

Perfumes, particularly sandalwood, went easily from the temple to the bedchamber. The Hindu god Indra is always represented with his breast tinged with sandalwood. Kama, Hindu god of love, is always pictured holding a bow and arrow. The bow is made of sugar cane, the string consists of bees, and each of his five arrows is tipped with the blossom of a flower. The arrows are meant to pierce the heart of the recipient through one of his or her five senses. One arrow is tipped with the jasmine flower, known for its aphrodisiac value. Kama Sutra, or Kama Shastri, means ‘Scripture of Love’, as Kama is the Hindu word for love and is the equivalent of Eros or Cupid. The Kama Sutra has many references to aromatics, as they were an intrinsic part of the sexual act:

‘… the outer room, balmy with rich perfumes, should contain a bed, soft, agreeable to the sight, covered with a clean white cloth, low in the middle part, having garlands and bunches of flowers upon it, and a canopy above it, and two pillows, one at the top, another at the bottom. There should also be a sort of couch besides and at the head of this a sort of stool, on which should be placed the fragrant ointments for the night, as well as flowers … and other fragrant substances.’

The Ananga Ranga, another Indian text, rivals the Kama Sutra and gives the following recipe for a night of passion:

‘… scattered about this apartment, place musical instruments, bottles of rose-water and various essences … Both man and woman should contend against any reserve, or false shame, giving themselves up in complete nakedness to unrestrained voluptuousness, upon a high and handsome bedstead; the sheets being sprinkled with flowers, such as aloes and other fragrant woods. In such a place, let the man, ascending the throne of love, enjoy the woman in ease and comfort, gratifying his and her every wish and every whim.’

A lovely story of man’s use of perfumes to seduce a woman comes from The Perfumed Garden, written by Sheik Nefzawi late in the fourteenth century:

Two prophets lived at the same time, and Sheja, the prophetess, wrote a letter to Mosailama, refuting his right to call himself a prophet. Mosailama sought advice from his counsellors, who recommended that he invite Sheja for a meeting to discuss their problem. In preparation for Sheja’s arrival, Mosailama was to erect a tent of coloured brocade on the outskirts of town, and then ‘fill it with delicious perfumes of various kinds, amber, musk and scented flowers such as the rose, orange blossom, jonquil, jasmine, hyacinth, pink and others similar. That done you will place in the tent golden cassolettes filled with perfumes … Then the tent must be closed so that none of the perfume can escape, and when the vapours have become sufficiently intense to impregnate the water in the tent, you will mount your throne and send for the prophetess, who will remain with you in the tent alone. When she inhales the perfumes she will be delighted, all her joints will slacken and she will swoon away. After having possessed her you will be spared trouble from her.’ When everything was in order Mosailama sent for Sheja, who quickly became stupefied and began to lose her presence of mind. Instead of discussing their conflicts, Mosailama knew he could have his way with her and asked, ‘Whatever posture you prefer, speak, and you will be satisfied.’ ‘I want it all ways,’ replied the prophetess, thus bringing to a satisfactory end the dispute between the two prophets.

As much credence was given to the rejuvenating properties of aromatic plants as to their seductive powers:

‘If you wish to repeat the act, perfume yourself with sweet odours, then approach the woman and you will attain a happy result.’

Kama Sutra

‘He who will feed for several days on eggs cooked with myrrh, cinnamon and pepper will find an increased vigour in his erections and in his capacity for coition.’ The Perfumed Garden

Little wonder that these ‘scriptures of love’ were written in a part of the world where sun and sex were a daily delight, where sandalwood trees grew in abundance, otto of roses was distilled and hundreds, of aromatic spices, grasses and flowers were a part of everyday life.

ANCIENT EGYPTIANS AND HEBREWS

It is from India, as well as from China, that the ancient Egyptians obtained their knowledge and their supplies of many aromatics. The Egyptians were the inventors of the public baths, later borrowed by the Romans and adopted as their own.

After their daily ablutions the Egyptians would rub themselves all over with fragrant oils and ointments. The unguents used were many and varied and were primarily dispensed by the priests, who alone were acquainted with the mysteries of the compounding art. From the priests, who could be called the first perfumers, the skills were learned by the temple attendants and then by ordinary members of the populace. It must be remembered that a perfume and a medicine were one and the same to the ancient Egyptians. In the time of the Pharaohs, Egyptian women appreciated the value of perfumes for sexual attraction and hundreds of formulations were known. Perfumes were used to camouflage body odours, to scent the homes and public meeting places, and to fragrance the hair and even the genitalia.

The passion for perfumes went on increasing in Egypt until the time of Cleopatra, when it can be said to have reached its climax. Queen Cleopatra used aromatics in a lavish way, which may have been a contributing factor to her active sex life. As well as being lover to Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, she is said to have fellated 100 centurions in a single day! Certainly she was no novice in the art of seduction: when summoned by Mark Anthony to meet him on the banks of the Tiber, she drenched the sails of her barge with jasmine and other heavy sensual aromatics. Having sailed to where he waited, she invited Mark Anthony on board. ‘The very winds were lovesick,’ Shakespeare writes in Anthony and Cleopatra, and this may account for the fact that Mark Anthony was completely spellbound by Cleopatra, to the exclusion of all duties and obligations to his country.

Hebrews were kept as slaves in Egypt, and after their release brought the arts of perfumery to their own people. Perfume was one of the means of seduction resorted to by Judith when she sought Holofernes in his tent, determined to liberate her people from his oppression. Elsewhere in the Old Testament the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon act out their erotic and aromatic fantasy: ‘My lover has the scent of myrrh, he shall lie all night on my breasts.’ Other known aphrodisiacs are mentioned in Proverbs: ‘I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.’

GREEK GODS AND ROMAN EMPERORS

Many beautiful and romantic stories describe the origin of aromatic use, and none is more beguiling than the Greek version.

The goddess Aphrodite arose from the waves and, realizing her nakedness, plucked some sprigs from a myrtle bush to cover herself. This is why, it is said, the myrtle plant has leaves shaped like a vagina, the outer lips (labia majora) being likened to ‘the lips of the myrtle’ and the inner (labia minora) to ‘the fruit of the myrtle’. Aphrodite was worshipped as the goddess of love, beauty, sexuality and passion; she ruled all things sensual including the knowledge of the sexual use of aromatic plants. From her name we have the word ‘aphrodisiac’; her son’s name, Eros, gives us ‘erotic’.

According to Greek legend the art of perfumery came to mortals when Aphrodite’s handmaiden, Oenone, confided in her lover Paris. Paris, after anointing himself with aromatics, managed to steal Helen of Troy away from her husband Menelaus. When Helen eventually returned to Greece she brought with her the knowledge of perfumery. Another of Helen’s lovers, Alexandras, was saved from the clutches of the jealous Menelaus by Aphrodite, who ‘snatched him away with the ease of a god, wrapped him in thick mist, and set him down in his sweetly-scented bedroom’. Aphrodite then united the lovers: ‘She took hold of Helen’s sweet-smelling dress and twitched it with her hand. “Come this way, Alexandras is calling you back to the house. He is there in the bedroom, on the carved bed, shining in his own beauty.”’

Aphrodite was not always so kind, for when the women of Lemnos refused to pay homage to her she cursed them with a foul smell which made their husbands turn away from them. In despair and frustration they massacred their menfolk and lived empty celibate lives until Jason and the Argonauts arrived on the island during a tempestuous storm. So desperate for sex were these women of Lemnos that they bartered hospitality for love-making, but to enable this to take place they first had to burn vast quantities of incense on the alter of Aphrodite, not only to appease the goddess but so the sensual odours would mask the foul smell they’d been cursed with.

Ancient Greeks colonized parts of Italy; in Sybaris the men and women bathed several times a day in aromatic water and it was this indulgence in the physical pleasures that gave us the word ‘sybaritic’. Later when the Romans began to amass their Empire, conquering Southern Italy, the knowledge of perfumery passed to Rome.

The Roman goddess of love and sensuality was Venus, and she too was supposed to have been born from the sea and to have covered her nakedness with myrtle leaves. The Three Graces in attendance on Venus and her son Cupid were crowned with myrtle leaves; when accompanying The Muses, however, they wore wreaths of roses. Rose essence was called ‘the blood of Venus’ and Roman temples were always adorned with roses. Venus gave us the word ‘venery’, meaning sexual desire, and ‘venereal’ (of the sexual organs), and it is not coincidence that Venice is called ‘city of lovers’.

Roman feasts in honour of Bacchus, god of wine and lust, were elaborate occasions, with roses being as important a commodity as wine, women and food. The Romans were obsessed by the rose. Rose-water perfumed the public baths, flowed from fountains in the emperor’s palaces and were strewn everywhere at banquets. Even wine was rose-scented – and the cure for over-indulgence? Rose-water.

Although not the earliest aromatherapists, the Romans knew that perfumes in general possessed medicinal properties. The most popular recipes were inscribed on marble tablets in the temple of Venus. Brides-to-be in the fourth century BC were anointed with aromatic oils prior to their wedding. Romans borrowed from the Egyptians the use of the public bath, which they would visit daily. Ovid, the great poet in the time of the Emperor Augustus, told the Romans ‘Adonis is a woodland boy, but became the darling of Venus. It is by simple cleanliness that you should seek to attract …’ Rome in Nero’s time had over 1,000 unctuaria (baths that specialized in the use of fragrances). Nero’s wife Poppaea bathed in scented ass’s milk. She was a poet, and wrote ‘Wives are out of fashion now/Mistresses are in/Rose leaves are dated/Now cinnamon’s the thing.’ Eating, drinking, bathing and copulating were not only indulged in but actually worshipped. One month in every year male genitals were worshipped in honour of the god Liber. The month of this phallic worship corresponded to the time of year ruled by Libra. Romans worshipped the genitals as the gateway to immortality both for their procreative powers and because it was believed that one could attain spiritual union with the gods by reaching sexual heights of ecstasy, as was believed by those who practised the Indian Tantra.

BYZANTIUM

Wherever we look in history and see how the mighty empires rose and fell we can see evidence of aromatics used for sensual pleasures. After the fall of the Roman Empire power passed to the Eastern Empire, as Byzantium became the hub of trade. Harem women relied heavily on the use of aromatics, for their beauty, their ability to satisfy their master sexually, and to appease their boredom during the long hot days with nothing better to do than prepare for a night of love-making. Spices such as cloves and ginger were rubbed onto the body, because the women of the harem believed that these aromatics had the ability to increase sexual power.

Bathing was not only a necessary obligation but the main social event of the day, where dozens of nude beauties whiled away the hours. The bathing ritual lasted for several hours, and afterwards ‘they at once spring upon their sofas, where the attentive slaves fold them in warm clothes, and pour essences upon their hair, which they twist loosely without attempting to dislodge the wet … and then cover with handsome handkerchiefs or embroidered muslin … perfumed water is scattered over the face and hands, and the exhausted bather sinks into a luxurious slumber beneath a coverlet of satin or eider down.’

EUROPE AND THE NEW WORLD

In Europe perfume, although introduced by the Romans, went out of fashion and was only really reintroduced when the Crusaders returned from their travels and their wives found themselves competing with the seductive memories they brought home with them. Exotic perfumes brought home by the Crusaders became popular with the women, who took to wearing perfume in an attempt to lay the ghosts of Arabian nights to rest and so to regain their husband’s affections.

‘With the Renaissance the perfumer’s art was revived with a vengeance … it was also acceptable once more for men and women to search openly for the erotic.’ Catherine de Medici adored aromatics, especially neroli, which she transplanted from her native Italy to the South of France when she became wife of Henry II. Despite the fact that Diane de Poitiers was the young and beautiful mistress of the king, Catherine managed to give him five heirs.

The Empress Josephine loved scents and, being a Creole brought up in Martinique, she was used to wearing oils and creams of almond and coconut impregnated with heady aromas from jasmine and other heavily scented flowers. She was fanatical about the use of aromatics and impregnated the walls of her bedroom with musk. Her favourite flower was the violet. Napoleon gave her instructions to wear only orange-water, lavender-water and eau de Cologne when she visited him on location, claiming that her perfumes distracted him to such an extent that he could not concentrate on planning his battle strategies. But when they had been apart for a lengthy period he would send word to her: ‘Je reviens en trois jours, ne te laves pas’ (I return in three days, don’t wash), so potent did he find her natural body odours. When Josephine died Napoleon had violets planted on her tomb, and in loving memory of their nights of passion he wore a pressed violet in the gold locket which he wore constantly round his neck.

Though pomanders were originally used for medicinal purposes, in the seventeenth century many upper-class European women wore them solely as a means of enveloping themselves in an aura of perfume, in order to attract the attentions of a lover. Perfumed bracelets became popular as, it was believed, they ‘by their odiferous scent conduce much, to the making your captives numerous, though they bind only your arms, yet they take men your prisoners’

The use of aromatics for seduction became so rife in Europe that the English Parliament of 1770 even passed an act intended to protect men from being beguiled into marriage by the fairer sex. ‘All women, of whatever age … that shall from and after such act, impose upon, seduce and betray in matrimony, any of his subjects, by the use of scents, paints, cosmetics … shall incur the penalty of the law in force against witchcraft and like misdemeanours and that marriage shall stand null and void.’ Witch-hunts and the Puritanism of Cromwell’s reign did much to destroy the love of perfumes, sensual pleasures and open sexuality. During the Restoration perfumes made a comeback and one popular scent was an orange fragrance created in memory of Nell Gwynne, mistress of Charles II, as her humble origins were that of an orange-seller.

Elsewhere around the globe people were also employing aromatics in their love lives. Women in Senegal used the tubers of the ginger plant to make belts, with the aim of arousing the dormant senses of their men. In North America, Native American tribes made a tea from juniper berries which they drank as a contraceptive. At wedding rituals great bowls of yucca suds (aloe vera) were prepared so that the bride and groom could ceremonially wash each other’s head.

Every civilization has employed aromatics in the course of a fulfilling sex life, and only in times of repression and fear has the use and appreciation of sensual aromatics been lost.

‘Man only doth smell and take delight in the odours of flowers and sweet things. Sweet scents are the sweet vehicles of still sweeter thoughts.’

WALTER LANDOR