It was at Sedona Verde Valley Spring Planting festival while learning about permaculture, that I was offered a few garden plots in the Crescent Moon community garden. With my already overbooked teaching schedule, I thanked the director of the community garden and dismissed it as impractical.

It took me a couple of days of reflection to recognize this was the opportunity to integrate my passions and make the garden and growing food part of my curriculum. I run yoga teacher training programs and have students for about 33 days. It is an intense immersion into yoga not just to create teachers but to experience yoga and ayurveda as a spiritual lifestyle. We have an Ayurvedic kitchen and find that the teaching of food as medicine is the most practical application of ayurveda for yoga practitioners.

So this year I initiated a program called “From the garden to the table…creating relationship with the food we eat.”. Once a week I take our students to the community garden and we garden and chant mantra together. In January it is about composting and soil preparation, in April we level the beds for proper irrigation and early planting.  June/July is planting, harvesting and weeding, September is for harvesting of the last of the fall crops – squash, pumpkins, melons, corn and starting to compost again.  Most of the year after gardening, the students go for a swim in the creek to wash off the dirt.

I give little instruction. Cultivation of awareness through the senses and elements comes naturally in a garden.  The students have been content to escape into the meditative practice of weeding or digging. It doesn’t take much explanation or teaching to connect the dots between gardening and yoga. Or nature and yoga.  Or food and consciousness. And what the students have reported back is: feeling a sense of balance, groundedness, peace, an appreciation of beauty… and having no sense of time.   All signs of clear flowing presence which happens as we let go of mind.  It is one of the greatest benefits of practicing yoga and meditation. There are many paths up the mountain and I am so grateful to have discovered this one.

Click Here to Learn More: Including David Crow’s Sedona Workshop

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We are pleased to announce the next Floracopeia teleseminar and webcast course. This series can be attended by listening on your phone or on the internet.

It is called The Dharma of Ayurveda, and is an illuminating course that brings to light the inner teachings of Ayurvedic Medicine.

The Dharma of Ayurveda is a six week series that will be taught by Floracopeia’s own, Jai Dev Singh. The live class will take place each Monday night from 6-7:30pm PST (9-10:30pm EST), starting on March 15th and ending on April 19th. If you cannot attend the live class, you can simply listen to the class replay at any time.

To begin, enjoy  this beautiful audio piece taken from Jai Dev’s Ayurveda Foundations course, placed over a backdrop of the gorgeous music of Simrit Kaur (Jai Dev’s wife!). Here, Jai Dev explains the essence of Ayurvedic Medicine, and sets the context and framework for the upcoming Dharma of Ayurveda course.

Listen below and then follow the link to read more about the course and sign up at the pre-registration special this week only.

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AUDIO: The Dharma of Ayurveda

Jai Dev Singh (featuring the music of Simrit Kaur)

Click Here to Learn More and Sign Up for the Course

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One year ago, David Crow came to Sedona to share his vision of plant-based medicine and the importance of growing food locally through backyard gardens, community gardens and regional agriculture. His presentation, “ The People’s Pharmacy” and the theme of replanting the global garden initiated a weekend of teaching on medicinal aromatherapy. As part of that presentation, I added a panel discussion of local leaders in the area of sustainability and invited the community to see who was interested in helping organize a farmers market and a community garden.  One hundred people showed up to listen and share their interest and concerns about the land, resources and issues of sustainability.

Since that weekend, a much greater vision has unfolded with passion and momentum as individuals and organizations have started to come together and create projects and committees around what is now being called the Agricultural Renaissance of Northern Arizona.

Sedona is well-known as a mecca where a diversity of spiritual paths converge within the backdrop of the indigenous culture of the Native Americans. it appears that regardless of the difference in traditions, there is common agreement that relationship to the land as mother is an intrinsic part of all spirituality. The community is now coming together in an unprecedented show of unity around the importance of plants, the medicine and food they provide, and conscious and sustainable agriculture, whether from a garden or a farm.

This is some of what has happened here since last Thanksgiving:
) Gardens for Humanity has made its primary mission the “renaissance of agriculture in Northern Arizona.”  The primary goal of this movement is to create a food safety zone for Northern Arizona with the intention to feed 120,000 people through locally grown food within next three to five years.
) The first annual Sedona / Verde Valley Spring Planting Festival: a week with 16 events: 3 gardening workshops, evening panel discussion with experts on current issues of sustainability, 3 community garden work projects, 3 concerts, a universal dance of peace, 3 yoga classes a local herb walk, a presentation on eco-projects and a weekend retreat of contemplative aromatherapy…most events were free.
) First season of Sedona farmers market with regular 35 vendors participating to great success.  Many small family businesses started.
) Some innovative restaurants are now working with local growers and highlighting them through special menus
) Showing of the film Food, Inc – sponsored by Gardens for Humanity for consumer education. Record number of movie goers attended.
) Sedona Film Festival adds  a sustainability track to their 2010 International Film festival with a “Locovore reception” to benefit the Agricultural Renaissance movement.

Come and join us for the second annual Sedona/Verde Valley Spring Planting Festival March 14-21. David will be giving a retreat on the weekend of March 20/21st on “Contemplative Ayurveda and Aromatherapy.” The weekend will start on  Friday March 19th  when David will be giving an inspiring  talk about “Taking Medicine to the People: An update on the grassroots healthcare revolution.”
In the afternoon we will be doing a distillation of native juniper with Max Licher, who specializes in Southwest botanicals and is known for his extraordinary knowledge of plants.

Visit the Seven Centers Yoga Website for more info

Golden Bridge is an impressive place. It becomes obvious as soon as you enter the building that you’re not in the average yoga center. Amongst the busy streets of LA and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, Golden Bridge is a breath of fresh air.

The aesthetics are gorgeous and the mood inside has the feel of a temple. Refreshingly, it seems far removed from the typical cookie cutter yoga studio situated in the local shopping center. It has a large concert hall style room in its center, seemingly hidden classrooms around every corner, a healing center, a nice sized boutique and a vegetarian cafe. It is a self proclaimed ’spiritual village’.

Golden Bridge also happens to be an excellent place for southern Californians to shop for the world’s finest essential oils!

David Crow at Golden Bridge

Next weekend will be an especially fine time to visit as the line up of events will feature Floracopeia founder, David Crow, and sacred music artist, Simrit Kaur. The weekend kicks off with a special evening event with David and Simrit that will be filmed for DVD, and is entitled In the Garden of the Medicine Buddha: A Visionary Synthesis of Medicine, Ecology and Spirituality.

On Saturday afternoon, David will teach a special workshop called, The Alchemy of Essential Oils: Botanical Pranic Intelligence. As always with David’s events, both Friday night and Saturday afternoon promise to be well worth your visit.

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Divine Music on Saturday Night

As if that wasn’t enough, Saturday night will be a divine ending to a powerful weekend of teachings. Simrit Kaur will perform live with her band at 8pm. If you haven’t heard Simrit’s music yet, you are in for a treat.

You can listen to Simrit’s music here. Simrit performed at the Floracopeia retreat, of the same name, last September (In the Garden of the Medicine Buddha). One of the highlights of the retreat was David reading from his book over Simrit’s music…a taste of whats to come this Friday night. (You can watch a short video of Simrit warming up before the retreat on our Facebook page here.)

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Visit the Event Pages to Learn More

David Crow at Golden Bridge: In the Garden of the Medicine Buddha

Simrit Kaur Sacred Chant Concert at Golden Bridge

Learn More and Register at the Golden Bridge Events Page

Blog by David Crow

The Sandalwood Oil of Sri Lanka

This weekend, we are very pleased to announce the release of a unique and rare botanical treasure: Certified Organic, true sandalwood from Sri Lanka.

This limited edition collector’s oil was distilled from the roots of old growth trees that were harvested several decades ago. Because of the difficulty removing the roots, they were left in the ground and were only recently salvaged. The fragrance of this oil is therefore not only extraordinary because it is from the true Santalum alba species, it has also aged beautifully in the ground over the years.

We are very concerned about the ethical harvesting of sandalwood, and do not carry Santalum alba as a regular product. This oil not only has the unusual story of coming from salvaged roots, it is also certified organic. More importantly, the distiller of this oil is responsible for large-scale reforestation efforts to replant the sandalwood trees and establish organic aromatic crops in Sri Lanka. In this way, this oil is both a treasure remaining from the past – a fragrance from the days when the trees grew more plentifully – and a way of supporting the regeneration of this precious species.

Learn More and Purchase the Sandalwood Oil of Sri Lanka Here

For your enjoyment and education, I am posting a few short excerpts from a piece I wrote about sandalwood which has not been published yet. When we know and understand how precious an aromatic treasure such as this is, and what it represents both in terms of what we are losing and what we should value and preserve for future generations, I am sure that you will agree that this oil should be used with reverence and gratitude.

David Crow

Sandalwood: Fragrance of the Gods

(Excerpt from the upcoming release)

“If the tranquil heaven of sages gone to bliss had a fragrance, it would be sandalwood. If purity of being, openness of heart, and loving kindness born of inner peace had a smell, it would be that of the finest golden oil suffused throughout the heartwood of the oldest sandalwood tree growing in the deepest forest of tropical India. If there was a single aroma that evoked the memories of devotion, remembrance of the Divine, and aspiration toward enlightenment within the collective soul of the innumerable beings that have passed through this world, it would be that of sandalwood’s blue-gray smoke curling upward from the temple censer.”

“No other aromatic tree has played a more central role in Asian spiritual culture, religious ceremony, perfumery, and medicine than Santalum alba, the ‘true’ sandalwood. No other aromatic tree faces as uncertain a future, a future of almost insurmountably complex ecological and economic pressures. No other aromatic tree is causing as much distress and concern among those who know its value than the rapidly dwindling population of old-growth sandalwood. And nothing would represent such a triumph of long-term environmental wisdom and sustainable forestry than sandalwood groves planted today yielding their treasured nectar eighty years from now.”

“The history and probable fate of sandalwood is a story of irony, while its potential role in the future global garden depends on nothing less than mankind achieving an evolutionary ability to think of coming generations’ wellbeing. While representing the quintessence of compassion, generosity, and all that is good within the human mind and heart, wild sandalwood trees have nonetheless been decimated by greed, corruption, mismanagement, and ignorance. This small sensitive evergreen, that refuses to flourish without specific symbiotic and parasitic relationships with other plants, has been loved to near-extinction in India by religious-minded seekers and by enjoyers of beauty everywhere, who have unknowingly created and supported an uncontrollable black market of poaching, bribes, and smuggling.”

“It is written that sandalwood is one of the oldest incense materials in the world, and that for at least 4,000 years its soothing aroma has filled homes and temples. But people have lived in and around sandalwood forests longer than the imagination, let alone recorded history, and when people dwell in such intimacy with nature they know well the plants and their uses. Over the millennia the tree was carried from its original primeval setting in Indonesia to China, India, Australia, and the Philippines, eventually taking its place on the world stage. Ever since, its wood and oil have been sought after, traded, and utilized for a wide range of purposes, from house-building lumber impervious to the jungle’s voracious insects to the fixative base note of fine perfumes.”

“To a Balinese carver it was a fine-grained hardwood waiting to become a statue or an elegant rosary to accompany the prayers inhaled and exhaled by those absorbed in meditation. To a Siamese temple builder it was an enduring wood with a calmative smell disliked by destructive white ants, whose terrible tiny mandibles reduced structures of other materials to pulp and sawdust. To a Persian physician it was an oil with a slightly bitter resinous taste and pronounced antiseptic and anti-inflammatory powers. To an Indian attar maker it was the unsurpassed liquid receptacle of distilled floral essences, an alchemical medium of such unique digesting, aging, enhancing, and stabilizing properties no other perfume base would suffice. To a noblewoman of the early Roman Empire or an aristocratic Athenian of Aristotle’s Greece, it was a viscous pale yellow treasure carried in amphoras by sail and caravan from distant shores, an unctuous delicacy with a soft, sweet, woody, and slightly animalic balsam aroma, most pleasant for anointing oneself for events both social and sensual. To a woman of a Burmese village it was a paste to gently cover the body, bringing relief from the searing tropical heat. To a Chinese herbalist it was an ingredient of decoctions that cured hyperacidity and intestinal spasms. To a Japanese incense maker it was a beige-white powder the consistency of talc, the foundation of numerous subtly nuanced recipes to be rolled into sticks and cones and sold to common householders and palace priests.”

Learn More and Purchase the Sandalwood Oil of Sri Lanka Here

Just in time for Valentine’s day, we are pleased to launch perhaps our most precious botanical treasure yet: Anahata Botanical Perfume. Purchase Here

An exquisite blend of saffron, rose, and sandalwood, this masterfully blended aromatic treasure is unmatched in its sweet yet soft fragrance.

Anahata possesses subtle yet potent therapeutic qualities for the body, mind and spirit.
Throughout the ages, these three oils have been revered for their effects on the heart chakra, “Anahata,” the “unstruck sound of the celestial realm” within our own consciousness.

As a therapeutic perfume, Anahata is calming to the mind and nerves, euphoric to the senses and uplifting for the spirit. Regular use of Anahata will evoke heightened states of love and compassion and is also a powerful sexual rejuvenator and romantic aphrodisiac.

It is an excellent anointing oil for yourself and your beloved before lovemaking, helping to transform the impulses of sexual gratification into deeper levels of emotional intimacy.

Anahata promotes physical relaxation and mental tranquility. With it’s base of sandalwood oil, it  is an excellent daily  oil for people of all body types. Wearing this exquisite oil is not only a treat to yourself; everyone you come in contact with will be affected positively by the aura of this sublime perfume.

Distilled only in small quantities to ensure high quality, Anahata is in stock for a limited time only.

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LEARN MORE AND PURCHASE HERE

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Below is a very interesting section of the interview that we have made available for all. We also included a portion of the conversation about the upcoming tele-seminar course for those of you who are still on the fence. The full audio recording of the interview will be given as a free bonus to all participants of David’s Tele-Course. Register today and you will receive the link to the entire interview (if you’re already registered you will receive the full interview as well).

This weekend is the last chance to register for the tele-seminar series. If you’re not yet registered for the course, begin by listening to this interview clip and we hope you’ll join us this Monday evening!

The Molecular Expression of Profound Intelligence:

(Interview by Jai Dev Singh)

Click the audio link below, sit back and enjoy….the full version of the interview will be sent to all participants of the tele-seminar series.

David and Jai Dev on the Tele-Seminar Series

Here is a short section of the interview focused on the upcoming course which begins on Monday.

More About the Essential Oil Therapeutics Tele-Seminar Series

David’s Essential Oil Therapeutics tele-seminar series is a one of a kind educational event. It is truly a superior education in botanical medicine, specifically from the context of essential oils and aromatic plants. As with everything David teaches, it will be a profound and comprehensive education that will give you an in depth and practical understanding of essential oils, their benefits and many uses.

Register for the Essential Oil Therapeutics Tele-Course Here

There are no short cuts we can take. If we are to inhabit a sustainable world, it starts at the ground level. Replanting the global garden is the key to environmental health. Replanting the global garden is the key to poverty alleviation and wide-spread prosperity. Of equal importance, it is the key to preserving the world’s ethno-botanical, spiritual traditions. Medicinal plants are the key to human health.

Healthy people make healthy families. Healthy families make healthy communities. Healthy communities make healthy nations. Healthy nations make a healthy planet. Obviously, we have a long way to go and much work before us.

The work begins in our homes, with our families and with our friends. There are no magic bullets or secret pills that will solve our problems. True health comes from a wholesome lifestyle and efficient adaptability to stress. It comes from education, knowledge and a pro-active  attitude towards that which brings goodness and vitality into our lives. True health is not just the absence of stress and dis-ease, it is the presence of vitality, inspiration and the willingness to persevere through difficulty.

So from Floracopeia to all of you who have supported us this year and beyond….we thank you deeply. You are the reason we are still here and the reason why we will continue to thrive into the coming year. Here’s to a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010.

To inspire your new year health resolutions, please read this all too important article from David Crow on the end of the anti-biotic era and the immune enhancing effects of essential oils.

Community Immunity: Using Diffusers for the Immune-Enhancing Effects of Essential Oils

By David Crow, L.Ac.

Essential oil-containing aromatic plants have been used for anti-infectious purposes for millennia. The unpleasant odors of sewage, rotting garbage, sick people, and environmental pollution reveal the presence of proliferating microbial toxins. Without knowing the details of what pathogenic agents were present, people have always known that where there were bad vapors, diseases lurked. Throughout history, aromatic plants and their essential oils have been the primary antidote for these evil spirits.

Since the 1800s, scientific research has compiled a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that essential oils have powerful antimicrobial effects against a broad range of bacterial, viral, and fungal pathogens. As the disturbances of the Kali Yuga increase around us, it is wise to consider how these healing plants can be used as our allies, not only to prevent contagion and enhance personal immunity by purifying the atmosphere around us, but to remove the causes of illness within communities as well.

One of the recent discoveries of aromatic research is that the antimicrobial effects of essential oils are most potent not when the oil is used in liquid form, as when applying tea tree to a fungal infection, but when pathogens are exposed to the vapors of the oils. This means that the most effective way of utilizing essential oils for reducing atmospheric contagion, neutralizing air-borne illnesses and enhancing immunity is through the use of aromatic diffusers, ionizers, and nebulizers. It has also been found that it is not necessary to have a high concentration of oil in the atmosphere for it to be effective; only a minimum amount of oil dispersed from a diffuser is necessary for optimum biological and immunological effects.

Although there are many aromatic diffusers on the market, from simple candle burners to complex ultrasonic devices, atmospheric dispersion of aromatic botanical oils is nothing new. A traditional fire puja in Rajasthan filling the temple with aromatic offerings; precious sandalwood and agarwood incense moving like coiling dragons through monastery meditation halls; Egyptian ceremonies burning copious amounts of desert resins and exotic spices; Tibetan monks throwing juniper branches onto coals while chanting; an Arab family welcoming an honored guest with a smoking censer of their purest frankincense: these are all ways that cultures have practiced spiritual hygiene and community immunity throughout the ages.

In their native habitats, plants grow in communities. They must survive exposed to the natural elements, must compete with other plants, and must live in the midst of complex microbial and insect communities. Essential oils are part of a plants immune system, created by its evolutionary intelligence primarily for repelling pathogens. By harvesting and distilling their oils, we bring the immunological power of the plant communities into our communities.

Just as an individual plant cannot thrive in a poor environment, no individual person can maintain their health if the community they live in is unhealthy. Whether it is the threat of serious epidemics such as  flu, allergic reactions caused by genetically engineered food, antibiotic resistant bacterial infections, chemical sensitivities from an increasingly toxic environment, or just the common cold spread through schools and the workplace, one does not have to look far to see this basic truth.

A forest is a perfect example of community immunity. In conifers such as pine, spruce, and fir, the primary agents of the trees defense are monoterpenes, aromatic molecules such as pinene, which give pines their characteristic fragrance. These molecules have several important physiological functions, including repelling insects and microbial pathogens and healing wounds to branches and bark.

Because trees and humans are so closely related biologically, it is not surprising to discover that the essential oils produced by a trees immune system are directly beneficial for our immunity. When we diffuse conifer oils into our homes we are not just bringing the beautiful fragrance of the forest indoors: we are also surrounding ourselves with a cloud of disease-fighting molecules created by the trees immunological intelligence.

A garden is another kind of plant community. When the soil is healthy and rich in nutrients produced by healthy microbial ecologies the plants have vibrant flavors, colors and fragrances, indicating the presence of vitality and life force. Some of the most powerful antibacterial and antiviral essential oils come from this community: rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, lemon balm, and lavender. A well-known example of this type of community immunity is the Hindu practice of growing of tulsi, holy basil, in courtyards of homes for its health-enhancing and insect-repelling powers; in other parts of the world aromatic plants such as basils and marigolds planted in gardens have been found to be highly effective for repelling mosquitoes from neighborhoods.

Deserts have their own communities of long-lived species, growing slowly under the harsh sun. In this community we find some of the most famous of the sacred scents used for prayer and meditation from time immemorial: frankincense, junipers, sages. From our own backyard in the dry California coastal mountains we find the white sage, now globally renowned as part of Native American ceremonies, containing its own potent camphorous antimicrobial oils.

Jungles are intensely dynamic communities, filled with a multitude of diverse aromatic medicines. Here we find common spices like cinnamon, and more unusual species like ravensare and niaouli, which have unique antimicobial properties.

In the fields we find yet more fragrant plants with oils that destroy pathogens, such as lemongrass, palmarosa, citronella, and angelicas.

Nature has provided us with a rich and diverse palette of aromatic healing treasures to choose from. By filling our gardens and cities with aromatic plants, by using their flavors in our diet, and by diffusing the oils they produce into our workplace and homes we are strengthened and protected by the essence of their immunological intelligence. We can create not just good health at the individual level, but community immunity as well.

Community Immunity Series: On Sale for New Year’s Weekend

The Ultrasonic Aromatherapy Diffuser: $70.00 $63.00

Forest Essential Oil Diffuser Blend: $54.00 $43.20

Orchard Essential Oil Diffuser Blend: $40.00 $32.00

Fields Essential Oil Diffuser Blend $54.00 $40.00

It is referred to as ‘aloeswood’ in the bible, its arabic name is ‘oud’, and it is most commonly known as Agarwood.

Agarwood is one of the most mysterious and powerful medicines of the botanical kingdom. We think you will love the following written work by David Crow: The Mystery of Oud. Enjoy, and tell us your agarwood experiences below.

The Mystery of Oud

The Strange and Wonderful Alchemy of Agarwood

By David Crow

There are some fragrances that are so old, that have been used with so many prayers in so many rituals and are so deeply entwined with the human psyche that people claim they have smelled them before, even though they have not. The woody cinnamon-sweet aroma of agarwood (Aquillaria agallocha) is one of those mysterious fragrances.

One of agarwoods first mysteries is how it appears. Not every agarwood tree growing in Assam, Burma, or other mountainous countries of Southeast Asia produces the treasured black resin that delights the minds and intoxicates the senses. First, the bark of the tree must be pecked by certain species of birds, which then renders it vulnerable to fungal infections. If a fungal infection sets in, the tree responds by producing a dark resin within the heartwood. Over time, this resin hardens into strange and exotic sculptures, dragon-shaped pieces of wood that bring tens of thousands of dollars from collectors, royal incense-makers, and priests.

Agarwood also represents a fundamental mystery about humans. Why do we destroy the precious gifts of nature that can bring us healing, happiness, and wealth? Over the centuries agarwood has been plundered into near-extinction, with little thought for future generations. Now, finally, people are realizing that this tree and its magical resin is a great treasure that should be preserved, and efforts are underway to protect and regenerate its populations. Because of its high value agarwood is now one of the foremost agro-forestry products, so valuable that it offers a sustainable economic alternative to destructive logging.

I first met agarwood during my studies of Chinese medicine, where it is used in teas for neurological problems, digestive disturbances, and asthma. I met it again in India, where it is a major part of Ayurvedic medicine and traditional incenses; the word agarbathi, meaning incense, literally translates as lights of agarwood. While studying Tibetan medicine in Nepal, I learned that agarwood was one of the Tibetan doctors primary remedies for emotional and spiritual diseases; this ancient tradition uses it to fumigate the rooms of those afflicted with psychiatric disorders, who are often diagnosed as being possessed by the demons of mental negativity.

More recently, I have enjoyed the scent of agarwood incense during a traditional Zen retreat in a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. In this temple setting a large flat stone engraved with a spiral groove sits in front of the altar. Before meditation sessions a layperson fills the coil in the stone with fine agarwood powder and lights one end. Throughout the meditation the calming, hypnotic, yet spiritually uplifting scent wafts through the hall as the ember slowly spirals across the stone.

Over the years I have encountered many forms of agarwood, from the resinous sculptures to one of the most mysterious preparations in the botanical kingdom: oil of oud.

Oud is the Arabic name for agarwood; oil of oud comes from hydro-distilled agarwood chips. Because of chemical processes that happen inside the still, the oil does not have the sweet woody spice notes that burning of the wood produces; instead, it has an aroma that is a culturally acquired taste. Smoky, urinaceous, animalic, and pungent, the thick oil is beloved by the Saudis and many Asians as an exotic perfume that slowly transforms into a musky sweetness on the skin, while working a powerful magic on the mind.

Perhaps the most mysterious encounter I have had with agarwood happened while studying with the King of Nepals alchemist in Kathmandu, who described it to me as the wish-fulfilling gem. Use it wisely with a reverent mind, he instructed me, for it has great powers to manifest our thoughts and desires. He then proceeded to tell me how he gave it to those afflicted by serious poverty, to be used to attract wealth.

And this is why it is legendary and sought after by all who can afford even a small sliver of the wood or drop of the oil: it brings love and good fortune and prosperity to those who take care of it and use it wisely.

But is this actually true, or simply a fantastic tale passed down through the ages? We know that by skillful caretaking the trees are now bringing wealth to areas afflicted with chronic poverty. But is there indeed some subtle way that the molecules of the immunological resin from the heartwood of an endangered tree affect our brain chemistry, which in turn affects the flow of time and space within the synchronicity of our personal destiny? This is what the legends say, and what I have heard from many people along the way, but it remains a mystery.

Puchase the Wish Fulfilling Gem Agarwood Gift Pakage

KATHI KEVILLE is an internationally known herbalist and aromatherapist. She has written 14 books on herbs and aromatherapy and has taught seminars for more than forty years. She is the director of the American Herb Association and just happens to live right up the road from us on her farm in Nevada City, CA.

She has acted as herbal consultant for many magazines, including National Geographic, Newsweek, and Woman’s Day – and for numerous aromatherapy and herbal companies.

Kathi is also a founding and honorary member of both the American Herbalist’s Guild and the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, a member of United Plant Savers, California Native Plant Society, Sierra Club, and Nature Conservancy.

(Video) Kathi Keville: Christmas Folklore and Aromatic Plants

When it comes to herbalism and aromatherapy, Kathi is a wellspring of knowledge (which you know if you’ve picked up any one of her books). One of her areas of expertise and favorite subjects is ethnobotanical folklore. In this amusing and informative video, Kathi talks about Christmas Folklore and fragrant plants…just in time for your holiday festivities. Enjoy, and let us know what you think below!