How to Use Anointing Oil
What is Anointing Oil?
Anointing oil is an oil blend that helps to connect the human body with the divine. And what makes Anointing Oil divine? A combination of ingredients, intention, and how it's put into practice.
With roots in different religious systems, across the globe, anointing oils have been used since ancient times. Depending on your belief system, these oils can carry different meanings.
In Buddhism, flower water has been used in ritual, in Judaism priests are anointed, and therefore the High Priest is also called The Anointed One, in Vedic Rituals officials, worshippers, and idols are anointed with oil, and anointing people with oil as an act of hospitality can be traced back to the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians.
As history and lineage is important, perhaps research how your ancestors or the people who tended to the land you live on now originally used anointing oil in their rituals and practices. This can be a great way to connect with history.
Though all of these practices have different contexts, histories, and meanings, they all carry a common thread; anointing oils can be used as a part of a ritual process. Anointing Oils can remind us about what is holy, divine, connected, part of the cosmos.
One beautiful way to work with Anointing Oils is through ritual. A ritual is a practice that helps its practitioners connect with extreme presence. They can make us fully in the “now.”
Rituals can mark time, offer soothing, or celebrate exciting life events.
These practices can be a part of a meditation or yoga dedication, an art practice, or a before-bed activity, depending on what resonates most with you.
How to Use Anointing Oil
When working with anointing oil, first set an intention.
What’s the intention of your ritual?
Then, think about which pulse, chakra, meridian points best support your intention (depending on your practice and relationship to your body in your practice).
Apply the oil to these points, while taking a deep breath, and thinking about your intention.
Say thank you as you finish your ritual practice, and close the ritual.
Our Favorite Anointing Oil
We love Aba Love Apothecary’s Divine Me Anointing Oil. Aba Love’s natural aromatherapy treatment soothes anxiety and reduces stress.
This is an expansive blend to promote clarity, creativity, and connection to self. We love to apply this oil to pulse points, Third Eye & Heart Center. After application, inhale deeply.
Aba is an east coast native with first-generation roots stemming from Ghana. She grew up inspired by her mother's elaborate beauty rituals and the worldly travels of her parents who instilled the virtues of continuous learning, hard work, kindness. Aba eventually went on to study fashion leading to careers in Trend Forecasting and Product Development in New York City. Which ironically, led her back to what first captured her imagination as a child - beauty. In 2015 she became a Certified Aromatherapist with training from The New York Institute of Aromatic Studies.
Read an interview with Aba of Aba Love Apothecary here.
For more information on ritual with Oil, read our piece on Abhyanga here.
Art: Yves Klein, Anthropometrie Le Buffle ANT-93 (1961)