BPAL - Sephiroth and Qliphoth and Magickal Oils in General
I'm obviously trying to check all these decants I've gotten so as to eliminate what I do and don't need to get in a bottle before they all fade away to obscurity and inflated pricing on EBay.
I'm going to leave the previous post about the Tarot Oils as a kind of 'gathering post' of reviews, etc., as I (and perhaps you guys) make up my mind about them. Despite what I know of the Tarot and the Paths of the Tree, I generally don't count the "Tarot" as real magickal oils under most circumstances. They're rather like sharpened astrological oils and/or positions of life and I can see someone wanting The Star because they're Aquarian (despite the Lemon Pledge smell) or The Hierophant because they're beginning their own quest through the Mists.
In His Mansion there are many rooms...and many corridors. I don't see Tarot oils as being threatening, because they're not used in anything CLOSE to a magickal ceremony, nor are they used in divination. Moreover, I do think they were intended to be worn as perfumes--mood-altering and 'influencing' perfumes, but perfumes.
The difference between Tarot oils and REGULAR BPALs to TALs and the more magickal oils like the Sephiroth and Qliphoth is that these latter are not truly intended to be "perfume". They're for influence, centering, and ceremonial uses...and I think the difference can be tracked through their scents.
I WAS originally going to do as I did with the Tarots and list the two groups of ten oils in the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth, but I began actually TESTING them last night. NOW I remember why I didn't test them earlier!
I thought I'd be clever and start at the Crown of the Tree of life with Kether and move down through Chokmah, Binah, etc. to Malkuth. Um...NOT such a good idea! These oils DO have a "perfume" aspect to them, but they also have "other things" in them that aren't really suitable for perfumes, I'm thinking! *laughs*
For example, Kether is a spicy-sweet leathery concoction that tones down into saddle leather. Nice, interesting...I can see my character Cyril wearing it. But it's nothing I'd want to wear myself.
On the OTHER hand, Chokmah starts off like a sickly-sweet Snake Oil and devolves very quickly into what I can only call "Voodoo magick shoppe stink". Back when my best friend and I used to go downtown to the 'soul' record shop to harrass the little old white ladies who stood behind the counter and sold the "Skippy's" voodoo knicknacks and special house-cleaning washes, sprays, incenses, and little charms and hexes. Neither of us had ever been exposed to anything like that before, and it was fascinating to us that there was this whole subculture of African Voodoo in the middle of WhiteBread America. Plus, the two little old white ladies knew NOTHING of what they were selling, so we'd make a point of asking them about EVERYTHING just go to through them pulling it out and saying, "I don't know, honey...let's take a look at it and try to figure out what it's for..."
All of that to say I literally REEKED of what would be called "Chinese Buddah Wash" once the Chokmah dried down. Worse, even washing my hands thoroughly (I tested the back of my hand) did not dispel it and it continued to pour its noxious ooze into the atmosphere all around me for HOURS afterward!
I'm guessing I should just stay away from testing any more of THESE particular oils and stick with the Tarots!
Magickal oils are that way for a purpose...they're not perfume.
Although now I keep seeing that slogan that was all over all the packaging of the stuff from the voodoo section in the back of my mind:
"Remember--Only Skippy's Can Help!"
*cackles* Well, it was fun for the moment!
Nechtan :)
I'm going to leave the previous post about the Tarot Oils as a kind of 'gathering post' of reviews, etc., as I (and perhaps you guys) make up my mind about them. Despite what I know of the Tarot and the Paths of the Tree, I generally don't count the "Tarot" as real magickal oils under most circumstances. They're rather like sharpened astrological oils and/or positions of life and I can see someone wanting The Star because they're Aquarian (despite the Lemon Pledge smell) or The Hierophant because they're beginning their own quest through the Mists.
In His Mansion there are many rooms...and many corridors. I don't see Tarot oils as being threatening, because they're not used in anything CLOSE to a magickal ceremony, nor are they used in divination. Moreover, I do think they were intended to be worn as perfumes--mood-altering and 'influencing' perfumes, but perfumes.
The difference between Tarot oils and REGULAR BPALs to TALs and the more magickal oils like the Sephiroth and Qliphoth is that these latter are not truly intended to be "perfume". They're for influence, centering, and ceremonial uses...and I think the difference can be tracked through their scents.
I WAS originally going to do as I did with the Tarots and list the two groups of ten oils in the Sephiroth and the Qliphoth, but I began actually TESTING them last night. NOW I remember why I didn't test them earlier!
I thought I'd be clever and start at the Crown of the Tree of life with Kether and move down through Chokmah, Binah, etc. to Malkuth. Um...NOT such a good idea! These oils DO have a "perfume" aspect to them, but they also have "other things" in them that aren't really suitable for perfumes, I'm thinking! *laughs*
For example, Kether is a spicy-sweet leathery concoction that tones down into saddle leather. Nice, interesting...I can see my character Cyril wearing it. But it's nothing I'd want to wear myself.
On the OTHER hand, Chokmah starts off like a sickly-sweet Snake Oil and devolves very quickly into what I can only call "Voodoo magick shoppe stink". Back when my best friend and I used to go downtown to the 'soul' record shop to harrass the little old white ladies who stood behind the counter and sold the "Skippy's" voodoo knicknacks and special house-cleaning washes, sprays, incenses, and little charms and hexes. Neither of us had ever been exposed to anything like that before, and it was fascinating to us that there was this whole subculture of African Voodoo in the middle of WhiteBread America. Plus, the two little old white ladies knew NOTHING of what they were selling, so we'd make a point of asking them about EVERYTHING just go to through them pulling it out and saying, "I don't know, honey...let's take a look at it and try to figure out what it's for..."
All of that to say I literally REEKED of what would be called "Chinese Buddah Wash" once the Chokmah dried down. Worse, even washing my hands thoroughly (I tested the back of my hand) did not dispel it and it continued to pour its noxious ooze into the atmosphere all around me for HOURS afterward!
I'm guessing I should just stay away from testing any more of THESE particular oils and stick with the Tarots!
Magickal oils are that way for a purpose...they're not perfume.
Although now I keep seeing that slogan that was all over all the packaging of the stuff from the voodoo section in the back of my mind:
"Remember--Only Skippy's Can Help!"
*cackles* Well, it was fun for the moment!
Nechtan :)