Aromatherapy is the art and science of helping living things toward wholeness and balance using the essential oils which can be extracted from plants.

Let's look at each of the parts of this statement in more depth.

"Aromatherapie" is the word coined by Henri Maurice Gattefosse in France in 1928 to describe the science he was beginning to explore: that of using the aromatic components of plants to facilitate healing. The story goes that Gattefosse burned his hand in his laboratory and thrust it into a container of Lavender oil; it apparently healed much more quickly than expected, and with minimal scarring.

These aromatic oils had been used for healing for millennia before Gattefosse 's dramatic experience; in fact, there are records of their use by Babylonian physicians as early as 5000 BC. Similarly, there are records in Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine from 2000 BC, as well as passages of the Bible that speak of their healing properties. They have been part of folk medicine for millennia, but Gattefosse is acknowledged as the "father" of modern Aromatherapy because he started the process of scientific documentation of the components of essential oils and their healing abilities.

Jumping out of order for the sake of logical progression, I'll define essential oils next. These are liquids obtained from plants, which evaporate at room temperature with characteristic aromas. They are also called "volatile oils" because of this ability to evaporate readily. One can experience essential oils by rubbing one's hands in the foliage of a rosemary, lavender, or peppermint plant and sniffing one's fingers. They were believed to carry the "essence", the soul or unique identity, of the plants they came from.

One theory is that these oils perform a similar function for plants to that which pheronomes do for animals: they allow for communication. They can send a message to bees that this is a good flower to visit or similarly repel other insects. Lavender oil has been used for millennia to repel moths. Jasmine has been used for even longer to attract lovers.

Most of these oils have a protective function, killing micro-organisms. One busy area of research in early aromatherapy was cataloguing the various bacteria and moulds that could be killed by different essential oils.

Although called "oils" these liquids are not made of the fatty acids that are found in fats and oils. The chemicals involved are highly volatile, and a good quality essential oil should not leave an oil ring if dropped on paper to evaporate.

Science has assiduously researched the effects of essential oils and found them to be antiseptic, as above, but also anti-inflammatory, stimulating, sedating, warming, cooling, diuretic, diaphoretic, antispasmodic, anodyne, emmenagogue, and vulnerary, to name but a few of the physical effects that have been documented.

However one may analyse the components of essential oils, there is an art to mixing them to produce desired effects. The art lies in the trained sense of smell needed to distinguish quality oils from diluted or adulterated products. It also lies in the intuition needed to try new combinations for different purposes, for here as in much of plant medicine, the whole is not necessarily the sum of its parts: one may mix two oils with specific effects and find the combination does something unexpected. The art also lies in understanding the ways these oils can effect the emotions, and how to take advantage of these effects to facilitate healing.

Living things: Aromatherapy has been used to help animals and other plants as well as humans.

Wholeness: Essential oils seem to work in three ways. If used in baths, compresses, or cosmetics, the very small molecules involved will be absorbed through the skin and into the capillaries that underlie it. Or if used in vaporisers or diffusers, they will be breathed in and absorbed through the respiratory mucosa. Then they are carried by the blood through the body to the different organs they target to exert their physical effects.

They are also absorbed in the nasal mucosa and taken up by scent receptors, which send signals through the nerves to the limbic system. This is the area of the brain where memories associated with strong emotions are stored. It also links directly to the parts of the brain that control many of the automatic functions of the body, such as bloodpressure, heartrate, respirations, and gut movements. Thus the essential oils can have a strong effect on the emotions, both through the body functions associated with them and through memory. Go back out to the garden and rub the lavender and then the rosemary again...see how different these two smells make you feel.

Finally, and here is an area not amenable to scientific study, the essential oils can have an effect on one's energy bodies...clearing, stimulating, slowing, or opening according to their own nature. Thus their association with churches, meditation, and spiritual work for millennia. For example, anyone who has been in Catholic churches will remember the scent of frankincense and myrrh. These incenses did more than kill germs that hadn't been identified yet; they help to open people spiritually.

So when we speak of wholeness, we are acknowledging that all beings exist on spiritual, mental, and emotional levels as well as in physical bodies, and that all of these dimensions effect health and well-being. Most holistic practitioners acknowledge that dis-ease may start on the levels of spirit or emotion, blocking energy flows here for some time before the disturbance manifests on the physical level. Since essential oils can exert an effect on all these levels, they may be able to work on some of the causes of dis-ease as well as easing physical discomfort.

(For a more complete discussion about energy bodies and how they effect health and dis-ease processes, please see the discussion of personal energy management in the Wicca 101 section.)

Balance: It is a theory generally held by many who work with plants for healing that many plant medicines "normalise" rather than exerting a purely stimulatory or depressory effect on body functions. What this means is that by providing substances which interact with the receptors that regulate body functions, some plant medicines can stimulate processes if they are depressed by illness or depress them if they are stimulated. This isn't assuming some "intelligence" in the plant medicines, but acknowledging that the biological molecules involved can stimulate synthesis of compounds that are needed or inhibit synthesis of compounds that are in excess.

Extracted: These products are classically extracted through distillation, although modern suppliers are also using pressurised and chemical extraction methods to lessen the heat required. They can also be extracted by smearing petals onto a fatty substance to draw out the oils (as in rose or jasmine absolute), or by crushing juicy plant parts such as the peels of citrus fruits. The oils produced are generally extremely concentrated; it can take 2000-3000 pounds of rose petals to make one pound of rose oil.

So, to summarise, we have an area of study which uses these highly concentrated plant extracts in various ways to stimulate physical, emotional, and energetic processes which can help living things regain or maintain wholeness and balance.