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Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian. Show all posts
Clement Continued: Essential Oils Balance the Emotions
Oils Can Calm or Stimulate the Emotions
When Benjamin Franklin was sailing
across the Atlantic on one of his many diplomatic voyages to Europe, he noticed
a very interesting phenomenon. After dinner the scullery hand would throw the
cooking oil overboard and as the oil settled on the water, the waves would
calm. Some essential oils can have a similar calming effect on our emotions.
On the other hand, there are also essential oils that stimulate the emotions working as a
catalyst for action. As Clement notes, “Some men it benefits, and some it
summons to the fight.” In general, we can say that essential oils tend to balance the emotions, one way or the
other. The fact that oils have been known time out of mind to enhance our mood is confirmed by Clement listing depression as an ailment benefiting from them.
“How does it work?” you might ask. Some scientists, today, claim the
emotions are connected to the hormone centers and other systems of the body by
nano-pathways and that essential oils stimulate our feelings both chemically
and electrically. Since I am not a scientist, I prefer to think of it in
holistic terms: Oils can balance the emotions like a nourishing, hot meal and
a glass of good wine balance the emotions. It’s just the way God designed us.
The effect of oils on our feelings is
significant because our emotional health has much to do with our physical
health. For an example of how our emotions are effected by the nutritive benefits
of God’s creation, we can take a look at the ancient system of Humorism.
The
Four Humors
I would not completely disregard
the observations of the ancients just because they used different methods and less
sophisticated tools than we have today. It is one thing to pull everything
apart and strip it down to its smallest part – atom, proton, neutron, or
whatever. It is entirely different to understand how God puts a living thing
together and what makes it tick synergistically. It is extremely difficult
to quantify health because of our interconnectedness – body, mind, emotions, and
spirit.
The
ancients understood the human person as a whole – not a machine, but a
body-soul composite. Clement, Hildegard, and all the ancient Western medical
practitioners after Hippocrates (c.400 B.C.) understood that humans could be
divided into roughly four temperaments: choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic, and
sanguine. We might understand these today as chemical or hormone imbalances in
the body. Nobody is perfect, everyone is slightly off balance. If one is generally a
little too happy he is sanguine, if a little too sad, melancholic. . .
The ancients divided up all of creation into
categories that would especially benefit each of the temperaments. This is what
Hildegard of Bingen was doing in her book, Physica.
She was categorizing plants, animals, rocks, and the other elements as ‘hot,
cold, wet, or dry.’ These were not literal temperature observations or humidity
readings; it was a way of categorizing food and the elements according to
Hippocrates understanding of medicine. ‘Hot-wet’ food, for example, was
believed to affect choleric people in a different way then it affected sanguine
people, and so forth.
The following quote illustrates – one of Clement’s oil
blend descriptions: “The Susinian ointment is made from various kinds of
lilies; and it is warming, laxative,
drawing, moistening, cleansing,
subtle, anti-nauseating, and soothing.” Do I believe we should return to this
ancient system of classifying food and medicine, Humorism? No; but I do think it
is foolish to believe there was nothing to it. Many of the observations and
classifications may have been correct even if the explanations for why they
worked were wrong because they were based on a faulty understanding of human
anatomy.
Modern medicine confirms that everyone’s
body-chemistry is slightly different and that different medicines and foods are
compatible with some and incompatible with others. The
practice of medicine is not like auto mechanics. With the human body there are
millions of moving parts and we are constantly changing, so it is more like
working on a vehicle as it's traveling down the highway, only more complicated
than that, because our humanity is not simply physical but spiritual, mental,
and emotional.
PRINCIPLE: ESSENTIAL OILS CAN
SUPPORT OUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Is eating certain foods and using the right essential
oil blends the only way to support our emotional health and wellbeing? No; the
emotions have their seat in the body, but they are powers of our soul. Feelings
give us information but they do not control us. The most important part of our
overall health is our spiritual health. In order to be healthy we must also be
virtuous.
Chemically supporting
hormones is different but complementary to growing in virtue through
self-discipline. Balanced, right ordered emotions are truly beneficial when
they contribute to good action. The highest faculties of the human soul are not
memory and feelings, but reason and will, yet we use these four faculties
together for good.
Clement Continued: Essential Oils Support the Body
Food is Medicine
The 1987
Danish drama, Babette’s Feast, offers
the perfect complement to Clement of Alexandria’s stoicism. Babette’s Feast is a deeply Christian
film about food wherein two devout Danish sisters allow
their cook, a French refugee, to prepare a feast in honor of their late
father's birthday, despite their spiritual concerns over the sensuality of
French cuisine. Babette had been head cook in one of the finest restaurants in
Paris. The film shows how powerful lovingly, prepared food can be for the
healing of mind, soul, and body - especially when shared in communion with
others.
Food, wine, and oil go together (Psalm 104), and spices get their flavor from essential oil. If it
smells wholesome and fresh and it came from a plant, what we smell is the
essential oil. The delightful tastes and smells of plants are part of God’s
providence. In my mind, essential oils are more like food than medicine, but depending
on your disposition to food that may or may not present a complete picture.
Clement’s main concern for Christians is
that we don’t use essential oils in excessive luxuriousness or sensual
licentiousness. Clement of Alexandria does not actually use the term ‘essential
oil.’ He speaks of ointments and unguents, but a quick glance through his
writing shows that what he means is aromatic oils, sometimes mixed with fatty
carrier oil, but not always.
Clement lists a number of plant sources: lilies,
cypress, spikenard, roses, myrrh, stacte (aloes), cassia, narcissus, myrtle,
and frankincense. His first admonition is against those who drench themselves
in unguents in order to be sexually alluring.
Here he is talking about the use
of essential oils as perfume. He believes it is effeminate for men to wear
perfume, but a few unguents are permissible for married women, as long as the
scent is not “overpowering to their husband.”
Essential
Oils for Healing
Clement does not, however, condemn their use
for medicine: “In the department of medicine, for healing, and sometimes also
for moderate recreation, the delight derived from flowers, and the benefit
derived from unguents and perfumes, are not to be overlooked . . . [they] are
most useful.” Clements quotes five Scriptural references to oils for spiritual
edification and as a basis for legitimate oil use:
·
Luke
7:37-38 - And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having
learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of
ointment. She stood behind him
at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry
them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with
the ointment.
·
Psalm 45:7-8 - Therefore God, your God, has
anointed you with the oil of gladness
beyond your companions; your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.
·
Ecclesiasticus
38:1-2, 5 - Honor the
physician for his usefulness, for the Most High made him; and the art of
healing is of the Lord. And the compounder of unguents will make the mixture.
·
Ecclesiasticus
39:13-14 – Listen to me, O
you holy sons, and bud like a rose growing by a stream of water; send forth
fragrance like frankincense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the
fragrance and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works.
·
Ecclesiasticus
39:26-27 - The basic necessities of human life are water and fire and
iron and salt and wheat flour and milk and honey, the blood of the grape and oil and clothing. All these are good for
the godly.
Clement recognizes that roots, plants,
and flowers have their individual properties: “some beneficial, some injurious,
some also dangerous.” (Obviously we would not want to use poison ivy oil
topically or take hemlock oil internally.) Clement gives several examples of
beneficial uses for oils, like these: narcissus calms the nerves, rose relieves
headaches, cypress helps one sleep, etc. Clement says that rubbing the feet
with unguents and massage also has beneficial effects. Clement recognizes that
oils have the ability to relieve all manner of ailments:
“God hath
permitted the production of oil for the mitigation of men's pains... Ointment
is to be employed as a medicine and help in order to bring up strength when
enfeebled, and against sinus congestion, colds, fatigue and depression, as
the comic poet says:
The
nostrils are anointed; it being
PRINCIPLE: CHRISTIANS USE ESSENTIAL OILS TO SUPPORT A
HEALTHY BODY WITHOUT EXCESSIVE SELF-INDULGENCE
There is no need to go into all the ways
essential oils support the body. That is what essential oil guidebooks are for.
Thank God for modern science and the tools we have to observe and record the
multiple, beneficial effects of essential oils. Today we are able to observe
and record both chemical and electrical interactions between essential oils and
the body. That is fascinating. It speaks to the wonder and glory of God’s
intent for plants and humans.
[i] All of the
quotes about oil from Clement of Alexandria, in this chapter, come from The
Instructor, Book II, Chapter 8
"Nature's Living Energy": How is God Present in His Creation?
O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of
Truth,
Who art everywhere present and fillest
all things,
Treasury of blessing and Giver of
life,
Come and abide among us
and in Thy goodness, save our souls.
- “usual
beginning” of the Greek Christian rites
Nature’s Living Energy
Someone asked me once, “What do people mean that say essential oils are ‘nature’s living energy’?” I avoided a direct
answer because I didn’t know what was meant by that. But, recently I was reading, Physica,
by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179 A.D.) and her text shed some light on this concept.
Hildegard was recently recognized as a 'Doctor of the Church' by Pope Benedict XVI,
(which, by the way, has raised a few eyebrows among orthodox Catholics because some of
her writings are rather unusual.)
My purpose in introducing Hildegard, however, is not to raise controversy but to look at a Christian Theologian, poet, and herb master of the medieval world who has something very interesting to add to our conversation. Some New Agers have tried to claim Hildegard as ‘one of their own’, but Hildegard ought to be interpreted within the context of her own Christian tradition. She is ‘one of our people.’
My purpose in introducing Hildegard, however, is not to raise controversy but to look at a Christian Theologian, poet, and herb master of the medieval world who has something very interesting to add to our conversation. Some New Agers have tried to claim Hildegard as ‘one of their own’, but Hildegard ought to be interpreted within the context of her own Christian tradition. She is ‘one of our people.’
Hildegard, like the monks and nuns of her day, were not only prayer warriors
and farmers, but scholars and doctors, as well. The medieval monastery always
had an herb garden. Monastics were the most highly educated men and women of
their time and they would have kept the wisdom of the ages regarding medicine
in addition to the other human sciences.
In Physica, Hildegard
discusses the medicinal qualities of various plants, animals, and minerals.
I found Hildegard’s "Introduction to Plants" wise and practical:
I found Hildegard’s "Introduction to Plants" wise and practical:
With earth was the human being created.
All the elements served mankind and sensing that man was alive, they busied
themselves in aiding his life in every way. And man in turn occupied himself
with them. The earth gave its vital energy, according to each person’s
race, nature, habits, and environment.
Assuming this is a good translation of Hildegard, from German dialect
into Latin into English, let’s look at what Hildegard is saying, because her
statements are very interesting for our case study in essential oils. This
statement, “the earth gave its vital energy” is similar to the “nature’s living
energy” quote earlier . . . but one thing at a time.
First, she acknowledges the hierarchy of God’s creation and the interdependence of creatures. Our tradition confirms our human experience: We depend
upon plants and they depend on us. Without each other we could not exist. We
give them carbon dioxide, they give us oxygen. All creatures complete and serve
each other according to God’s design.
Then Hildegard speaks as if the elements
have intelligence and free-will which enable the elements to volitionally “busy
themselves in aiding [man’s] life in every way.” I have heard aromatherapists make
claims that sound similar to this – that essential oils know where the body
needs them to go, or that the oils only attack bad bacteria, but leave the good
bacteria alone.
Do
Essential Oils Have Intelligence?
There is a principle in
classical philosophy that says, “a thing is received (known) according to the
nature of the receiver.” Humans are gifted by God with the capacity to know and
understand so much more than the other creatures. Humans can apply calculus to
engineering, learn multiple languages, study history, and understand themselves
philosophically. {Warning: The next few paragraphs are very philosophical. Feel free to read the bold and skip to the next section.}
In the example of a pet dog looking at a pond this means the animal knows water as something useful to drink or swim in, but a human, because of his rational nature, can receive the idea of water into the intellect and contemplate water both poetically and scientifically. Just as we looked at the sensitive powers of the soul, it is useful to quickly look at the different ways material beings know according to their nature:
In the example of a pet dog looking at a pond this means the animal knows water as something useful to drink or swim in, but a human, because of his rational nature, can receive the idea of water into the intellect and contemplate water both poetically and scientifically. Just as we looked at the sensitive powers of the soul, it is useful to quickly look at the different ways material beings know according to their nature:
To better understand how plants ‘know’ we must first look at how
lifeless bodies (minerals) communicate. By contrasting the ways that minerals
and plants know, as Aquinas understood ‘knowing’, we will better understand the
powers and limitations of plants. Water communicates with rocks, for example, as
it flows over them and around them - pulled downstream by gravity. This
communicating between water and rocks is restricted to immediate physical
contact. It is literally what we call superficial
communication. A pail receives sand; the stream bed receives water, but no
mineral changes substantially in the process of knowing another mineral. If the
communication becomes more intimate, as in the union of hydrogen and oxygen,
the mineral molecules lose their identity and become something else – in this
case, water.
Plants have a richer nature than lifeless minerals. Plants can take on
minerals and light from the elements and make them their own without losing
their plant identity. But because trees and plants can’t get up and walk around
like the animals, their ‘knowing’ is limited to direct physical contact. Animals,
on the other hand, know things in immediate relationship but also at a distance
so they are vastly superior to plants and minerals, but they are limited by their senses. They are
submerged in a sea of feelings and instincts (i.e. they lack reason to sort
through their feelings).
Only man’s soul is able to transcend
the limitations of physical existence and know things as universals.
Only
man can chose between good or bad, because only he can make that judgement. We
will study this in depth in the next section, so let’s get back to Hildegard.
What could she be saying?
Do plants or their oils have intelligence to rationally discern such
things on their own?!
No; it is not in the nature of plants (or plant oil) to
be rational. So what does Hildegard mean? She must be referring to God’s
intelligent presence in creation.
Considering Hildegard is an orthodox Christian and a highly educated Doctor of
the Church, let’s start by eliminating two things she cannot be saying. She is
obviously not a Deist. Deism is the belief that God put all of creation in
motion and then disengaged and had no more to do with it, like a clockmaker who
engineers his clock with gears and gadgets and then winds it up and lets it
run, without interfering.
Hildegard is also not a pantheist or even a panentheist. New Agers would like to think she is, but she isn’t. She can’t be a pantheist or a panentheist because those ideas are not compatible with orthodox Christianity. We have already looked at pantheism, but a look at panentheism would be very helpful at this point.
Hildegard is also not a pantheist or even a panentheist. New Agers would like to think she is, but she isn’t. She can’t be a pantheist or a panentheist because those ideas are not compatible with orthodox Christianity. We have already looked at pantheism, but a look at panentheism would be very helpful at this point.
Panentheism is
the belief that the Divine interpenetrates every part of nature – that creation
is ‘part of’ God. Literally the Greek means, “all-in-God.” We have demonstrated
that the Godhead is distinct from His creation, so this cannot be the answer,
either, unless panentheism means something other than the essence of God literally present in creation. So in what way is God present in His creation?
God’s
Energies – Divine Grace
Basil of Cappadocia (330-379 A.D.), Father
of the Church, taught that we experience God in His energies, not His essence. Creation is not wholly separated from
God, because creation exists in and from the divine energies. The divine
energies are the natural way in which God interacts with his creatures. They
are the operations and works of God and, in some sense, they are identifiable
with God, but creation is completely distinct from God’s essence. Divine energy is also called ‘grace’
– a more familiar term.
God’s
energies are like sunlight. The sun’s energy is the part of the sun we
experience – the part that does the work for us on earth, but the rays of the
sun are not the sun itself. The analogy is incomplete, because God is not created light (God can be rightly described as uncreated light). Nevertheless, the sun is often used in Christian tradition as a symbol
of God, so it is fitting. God is fully present in His energies, but man only participates in
communion with God according to his capacity; like Jesus transfigured on Mt.
Tabor who showed His glory to His disciples as far as they were able to bear
it.
We
cannot know the depths of divine essence, but we can experience the energies of
God. The transcendent nature of God is
independent of creation and yet, the Apostle Paul tells us, “Ever since the
creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and His
deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” (Romans
1:20). Out of love for us, God creates the universe, by His will and from His
energies. All of creation is alive to God and God’s graces are present in
everything.
We comprehend the ease by which the devil was able to deceive the ancient pagans into nature worship, mistaking the creature for the Creator. God’s working presence in the flowers, trees, waterfalls, and rocks demand a response from us. All of creation, pulsating with divine energy, demands that we love and worship God and God alone, who is in all and for all and works through all. But God honors our free-will and our imperfect intellect. In our misguided attachments to foolishness and selfishness, we often fail to meet God, even though He is all around us.
Basil reminds us “He shares His energy in
‘proportion to faith’ (Romans 1:16).” Those who commune with God “enjoy Him to
the extent that their nature allows, not to the extent that His power allows.” (Basil, On the Holy Spirit) This means, He is present in creation, sustaining and providing for all things, whether we
recognize Him or not, but He is not present in a way that we can capture Him
and bottle His power up to use according to our plans and devises. He is beyond
our grasp. His energies, rather, invite us to recognize His intelligent design
and plan – to give glory, honor, and worship where it is do.
PRINCIPLE: GOD IS
PRESENT IN ALL OF HIS CREATURES THROUGH HIS DIVINE ENERGIES, WHERE WE ENCOUNTER
HIM ACCORDING TO OUR NATURE AND OUR FAITH
So we return to Hildegard who says, “The earth gave its vital energy, according to each person’s race, nature,
habits, and environment.” What does Hildegard mean?
God Wills the Interdependence of Creatures
For essential oil users, Hildegard means that God sustains our life through
creation, and particularly plants. We can’t live without food and water – elements
of the earth. God, in His wisdom created a variety of foods and herbs so that
man and beast might be sustained in their diverse habitats – cold or hot, arid
or fertile. This is one of the primary ways God manifests Himself to us daily,
by providing for our health and nourishment.
As Basil demonstrates, God is inaccessible
and hidden in His essence but He continually bursts forth from hiding in
immanent processions (energies), which communicate Himself to creation and through
creation. All of creation falls into a hierarchy according to each member’s
degree of participation in the Divine plan.
God wills the interdependence of creatures: The
earth is designed by God to run on His energies, but the building blocks of all
visible creation - living and non-living – are the atoms and minerals, the raw
material. The plants, according to their created nature, take those minerals
and transform them, through the help of the sun and the rain, into food and oxygen
that nourish animals and humans. Animals play their part, likewise, according
to God’s wisdom; and in all of God’s creatures, man encounters the energies of
God - at work for his well-being and his life. So that, even in the simple acts
of breathing and eating, we might know that God loves and cares for our every
need and desires to be near us.
So, are essential oils "nature's living energy"? It depends what you mean by that. A positive Christian interpretation would be that, all of creation is alive with the presence of God (Divine energies). Essential oils are a gift from God who intelligently designed the oils to benefit our bodies. (That is where oils get their intelligence.) When we use oils according to God's design and purpose, we receive from His bounty the chemical energy (food/nourishment) necessary for life. The measure we encounter God's grace through food or oil (or any other created thing) is in proportion to our faith.
So, are essential oils "nature's living energy"? It depends what you mean by that. A positive Christian interpretation would be that, all of creation is alive with the presence of God (Divine energies). Essential oils are a gift from God who intelligently designed the oils to benefit our bodies. (That is where oils get their intelligence.) When we use oils according to God's design and purpose, we receive from His bounty the chemical energy (food/nourishment) necessary for life. The measure we encounter God's grace through food or oil (or any other created thing) is in proportion to our faith.
Isn’t the truth so much more interesting and
liberating than the twisted muddle of misconceived assumptions?! Our Christian
duty is to align our views with
philosophical truth and Christian revelation. You might have anticipated that reading
this post would be an unexciting, backward chore. Maybe you still think that
and if you do, I hope I have, at least, begun to demonstrate that the discovery
of truth is an adventure. For the faithful Christian the adventure comprises of eternal loving relationship with Jesus, the Lord
of all Ages, together with Our Heavenly Father, through the Holy, Life-creating Spirit!
May You be praised,
O Lord, in all Your creatures, especially brother sun, by whom You give us
light for the day; he is beautiful, radiating great splendor, and offering us a
symbol of You, the Most High . . .
May You be praised,
my Lord, for sister water, who is very useful and humble, precious and chaste .
. .
May You be
praised, my Lord, for sister earth, our mother, who bears and feeds us, and
produces the variety of fruits and dappled flowers and grasses . . .
Praise and bless my
Lord, give thanks and serve Him in all humility.
–
from “Canticle of the Creatures”
If this post has been helpful, thank you for sharing it with others using the share buttons below! We also invite you to LIKE "A Christian's Guide to Essential Oils" on Facebook and follow us there.Essential Oils: Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral . . . or Divine?!?
I recently
took a hike with my son and as we came out of the woods into a wetlands area
overlooking a large pond, a wooden deck with a railing came into view. A few
steps brought one up to the platform which hosted a pleasant picture of the
marsh above the aquatic grass tops. On the deck we observed a gray haired man
standing next to a slightly younger, female counter-part. They were both
holding lap dogs in their arms, as a mother would hold a child up to a
water-faucet, only they were obviously perched so as to be able to enjoy the
view. As the couple stood there, talking to their pets, I couldn’t suppress a
chuckle, as I recalled a lesson from C.S. Lewis.
“Are You
My Mother?”
Lewis begins the Abolition of Man
with the story of “Coleridge at the Waterfall” in which there are two men, one
who admires the waterfall and calls it ‘sublime’; the other who calls it
‘pretty’. One of Lewis’ points is that modern man thinks these are statements
of feeling, when they are actually statements of value. The first man says,
“This is sublime” because he is making a judgement about the waterfall. His
feelings of awe and humility are in response to something intrinsically,
profoundly beautiful in the waterfall. The other man is heedless of the
waterfall and misses the opportunity to respond reasonably to the falls.
My observation here is that it takes a human to recognize the goodness
and beauty of a sublime landscape. Our pets, I am sorry to say, cannot do it.
Contemplating an exquisite masterpiece is the work of the intellect - a gift
God gave to humans and angels alone. It
is not in the nature of animals to make a universal, abstract judgement like
this. The rational human soul is able to recognize universal goodness. A dog’s
soul cannot. Thus, we are faced with the absurdity of the aquatic scene,
wherein the owners of the pets assume their animal friends are gifted with
capacities they do not possess.
The behavior of the couple by the pond may
be an innocent projection of their own human nature onto their canine
companions but we see a lot of projection these days and a general confusion
about the nature of all creatures, not just animals. Some confused modern
thinkers, for example, treat people like computers, computers like people, and themselves
like gods. Others believe they are mere animals or embodied angels.
What Genesis Reveals: God
Gave Humans Dominion over the Material World
The first story of Genesis tells us that God created the
universe according to His intelligent design. He established it in order with
boundaries and limits, says Psalm 148, which cannot be passed. The six day
creation account teaches us about the inner nature, the value, and the ordering
of the whole of creation. God separates light from darkness, water from land,
plants from animals, and animals from humans.
“And God saw that it was good.” Augustine
reminds us that there is nothing that exists, material or spiritual, that was not
created by God and everything is held in existence by the Creator. (Augustine, On Genesis) God's visible, material creatures are endowed with stability and truth according
to the order that governs them. In its own particular way, each creature
reflects a ray of God’s infinite wisdom, perfect design, and goodness. Because
of this goodness, man – made in God’s image and likeness with a rational,
spiritual nature and set apart for the task of dominion over the earth (Gen
1:26-29) – ought to respect and steward all of creation according to God’s
order and purpose.
In plain English this means, man must
neither selfishly exploit nor devalue the goods of creation nor promote the
orders of nature beyond their particular values. The disordered use of creation
causes serious problems for humans and their environment.
God’s Word reveals
an ascending scale of value in the order of creation itself. It is expressed in
the six days of creation, the order of things being created from less perfect
nature to more perfect. God loves all of His creatures. “His compassion is over
all He Has made.” (Psalm 145:9) Yet, men and women are clearly the summit of
God’s creation. Jesus confirmed the hierarchy of man over animals when He said,
“Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!” (Matt. 12:12) And also, “you
are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:7)
God’s Created Hierarchy in Nature: We Are not Equal to God or Plants
The hierarchy of nature was expressed in our
Western tradition most clearly by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322
B.C.), and his medieval student, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 A.D.), a Dominican
friar and ‘Doctor of the Church’. Their understanding of nature is not
exhaustive, but, their combined metaphysics is the most coherent study of the
order of being in the Western tradition. Even a Western atheist should not
ignore it. As Christopher Dawson (1889-1970
A.D.), the great philosopher of history at Yale claimed - if you do not
understand your own tradition first, you can never pretend to understand any
other tradition.
The hierarchy of creation (see chart), in
ascending order, is: minerals, plants, animals, humans, angels, and God. That
is fairly straight-forward, as is the fact that the nature of minerals, plants,
and animals is material and the
nature of God and angels is spiritual.
Man is more complex because he alone of all creation is both material and
spiritual in his nature. We will look at humans another time. For now, let’s look at the powers (scope of functions) God gave to
plants and animals because that will help us understand the differing values
within the various orders of creation.
Aristotle and Aquinas recognized that all
living bodies (i.e. plants, animals, and humans) have a soul. A soul is the
part of a living creature which gives it the capacity to engage in the
activities proper to that living organism, according to God’s design. The souls
of plants and animals are material souls, not spiritual souls. Only the human
soul is spiritual. (Angels don’t have souls because they don’t have bodies). Spiritual beings are rational, which is to say they act with intelligence
and free choice.
PRINCIPLE: PLANT (AND ANIMAL) SOULS
ARE MATERIAL,
NOT SPIRITUAL, AND THEREFORE NOT
RATIONAL
Plant Souls
Aristotle and Aquinas call the plant soul a
vegetative soul. The vegetative soul has three functions (powers):
augmentative, nutritive, and reproductive. These powers enable the plant to
draw nutrients from the air and the earth, convert sunlight into energy, grow
according to its design, and reproduce according to its kind.
Practically speaking, essential oils, then,
are oils that have developed in the plant, according to God’s design, for the
wellbeing of the plant and for the wellbeing of those animals or humans who may
partake of the plant for food, medicine, or other needs.
(The animal soul and the human soul also have
vegetative powers which give them the capacity to use food and water, grow, and
reproduce according to God’s design.)
Animal Souls
Our two philosophers call animal souls,
‘sensitive souls’, not because you can hurt their feelings, but because they
act upon their external and internal senses.
The external senses are the five we know so well: touch, taste, smell, hearing,
and sight. I don’t need to explain. The internal senses are the mysterious ones: memory, imagination, estimation, and apprehending (unifying sense).
For example, if a
dog apprehends that eating steak gives him pleasure, he will store an image of
steak in his memory and use his external senses (smell, sight, etc.) to
discover more steak in the future. Instincts are proper to the estimating power
and allow an animal to apprehend intentions that are not perceived with the
external senses. A sheep runs away from a wolf, not because of its color or
shape but because instinct ‘tells’ the sheep it is in danger of being eaten.
Likewise, a bird gathers straw for a nest, not because it finds the straw
pleasant but because instinct instructs the bird that this is good building
material. In other words, instinct informs the animal whether something is
harmful or useful. Animals (and humans) also have appetitive powers (also
called desires, feelings, emotions and passions), but we will look at those later.
Human Souls
In addition to these vegetative and animal
powers, man’s soul has rational powers. This is to say that, just as animal
souls enjoy the vegetative and sensitive powers, man enjoys all three. The
powers of intellect and free-will are spiritual powers and belong to the human
soul alone. The intellect and will enable the soul to reason and to know and
love God and other persons. Angels are also persons, with an intellect and
will, but angels do not have a soul because they are pure spirit. The soul, by
definition, is the vitalizing principle which enables a plant, animal, or human
to perform the activities which we associate with being alive.
“Where are you going with all this?” you might
ask.
The whole point of going through the
hierarchy of creation is to lay a foundation for further sections. The big take
away is this: God created plants for a purpose. We honor that purpose by
honoring their nature. It does us no good to add or subtract from the value God
gave to plants. This kind of adding and subtracting leads to problems that I will try to illuminate in further discussions. For now, be at peace in the wisdom of God’s design for
plants and animals. The reality is far more interesting than the half-truths
and illusions.
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Why Essential Oils Cannot Be Divine Essences
Dr. Wayne Dyer was introduced to essential oils not long before he died in 2015. Motivational speaker and New Thought philosopher, Dyer was a big believer in self-actualization through positive thinking. New Thought has some connections to New Age philosophy and Christian Science, and hitherto Dyer’s focus had been on attaining health through positive psychology, but he was so captivated by his discovery of oils that he anticipated the cultivation of essential oils would “alter and shift what is happening on our planet.”
Dyer was convinced that these plant extracts are, in his own words, “the essence of what God created,” and went so far as to call essential oil vials, “little bottles of God.” Granted, this statement is not only self-contradictory, but also out of context, but my intention here is not to judge Dyer’s entire philosophy. I chose this story to simply illustrate a common confusion many people have about the nature of God.
America has always been a melting pot of ideas and religions. Post-modern Christians here live among tribes of people that embrace any number of philosophies and religious ideas. Fragments of these philosophies get taken up by the majority, from time to time, as part of popular culture.
If
essential oils are “little bottles of God,” as Dyer called them, then they are unpredictable,
like the real God, and we should be mortally afraid of them. If we believe oils
are little bottles of divine essence and in partaking of them we should not suffer
but become like God, we have confused the creature for the Creator and
misinterpreted God’s omniscient plan for our well-being.
However, this is not the end of the discussion.
So far we have hinted at what Basil the Great described as the ‘essence’ of
God, but we have yet to discuss anything concerning what Basil calls the
‘energies’ of God. We are getting to that. Next we need to address what an
essential oil is and how it fits in to
the order of God’s creation. Stay tuned...
God is
Beyond Our Control
The danger in believing essential oils are God is that we consequently
believe we can put God in our pocket and control His magical power in our lives
whenever we feel like we need it. This is a very effective lie and one that the
devil uses throughout history. How many Christians only pray when the car
breaks down on the highway or when they need consolation after emotional trauma?
But is God a first-aid kit or a teddy bear that we can control when and how we chose
to use Him? No; God is wild, all-powerful, beyond our grasp, and unpredictable
- like the Narnian Aslan.
Essential
Oils Can Manifest God’s Providence or Become Idols
Yet, if essential oils of plants are not God, but creatures, then they are created by God for a purpose. That purpose,
God tells us in Psalm 104, is to serve our needs – and if for a purpose, then
there is a proper way to use those oils – according to his design – and our job
is to discover that purpose and practice the virtue of using them rightly and
in due season according to their nature, created order, and God’s will.
This means using essential oils could give glory to God and draw us
closer to Him, if we thank Him for His providence and recognize the beautiful wonder
of His loving design. But it can also mean that, under different circumstances,
our use of essential oils could be idolatrous. Idolatry is when we supplant God
in our heart with something else – a creature.
We need to
be careful. Our God is a jealous God and He will not tolerate a rival.
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