NOTE: The information in this newsletter is intended for education purposes only. It is not provided in order to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease, illness, or injured condition of the body or mind. Anyone suffering from any disease, illness, or injury should consult with a physician or other appropriate licensed health care professional.
By Anthony Stewart, FCCI, Executive Director
Billions of dollars are spent on roses in the month of February and are given as a sign of love between couples. What makes these lovely flowers so prized and unique? The essential oil distilled from rose petals is even more valued than the flowers themselves. You can search for bottles labeled as “Rose Essential Oil” and you will find prices ranging from a few dollars to several hundred to over a thousand dollars for a small bottle. But buyer beware! Not all rose oils are created equal.
Mythology and Roses
Roses (especially red ones) have been regarded as a symbol of love for thousands of years. In ancient Greece it was said that white roses appeared at the birth of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Red roses were later created as a result of Aphrodite pricking herself on rose thorns in a rush to hold her lover who had been mortally wounded. A mixture of blood and Aphrodite’s tears saturated the white roses turning the petals red.
Rose Oil Distillation
According to some sources, rose oil was steam distilled from the petals as far back as 5,000 B.C. by the Egyptians and, perhaps, other ancient cultures. However, the art of steam distillation was lost at the dawn of the Dark Ages circa 500 A.D. and wasn’t rediscovered until sometime during the 9th or 10th century A.D. by the Arabians. Today, most rose oils are solvent extracted, which is an inferior process to that of steam distillation. Young Living uses a precise and delicate process of steam distillation for rose essential oil so that the integrity of this precious oil is preserved.
What’s So Special About Rose Essential Oil?
Essential oils are often referred to in scripture as “precious” and “costly.” Some essential oils, such as frankincense and myrrh, were valued more than gold in Jesus’ day. Rose oil is, perhaps, the costliest essential oil on the market today… that is, if you are buying pure, authentic, undiluted rose oil.
Ancient peoples used rose oil and balm to beautify the skin and to protect against harsh desert climates. It has been used to alleviate abdominal and chest pains, menstrual issues, digestive ailments, to name a few of its traditional benefits. Some claim that rose oil relieves itching caused by poison ivy, oak, and sumac.
Perhaps rose’s most profound benefits are emotional and spiritual. While rose may address the heart on a physical level, it also has properties which encourage feelings of love, and helps one release and resolve feelings of constriction, heartbreak, grief, anxiety, and fear of intimacy. It promotes emotional healing and spiritual connectedness. Many people have reported smelling the fragrance of roses during and after spiritual visions and experiences. In light of this, it is interesting to note that rose oil has the highest frequency of any known essential oil in the world at 320 MHz. [1] Perhaps its high frequency creates a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms, making it a perfect fit to help our emotions resonate with the higher virtues.
A Rose is a Rose is Not Always a Rose
It takes 3,000 to 5,000 pounds of rose petals to make one pound of rose essential oil! Young Living states that one 5 ml size bottle of rose essential oil requires 22 pounds of rose petals. Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of roses for very little essential oil. This is primarily why rose oil is so expensive when compared to other essential oils like lavender, wintergreen, peppermint, or even frankincense and myrrh. Have you ever bought a dozen roses from a florist for your sweetheart? They’re certainly not cheap! Think of what it would cost to buy 3,000 pounds of those roses… just the petals without the stems!
Being that it’s such an expensive oil to produce, it’s no wonder that you will find a lot of fraud from many companies selling “rose essential oil.” In many cases it is not rose oil at all, but a synthetic version that was created in a laboratory. Other times, rose oil may be diluted. You may find examples of “rose” oil online selling for $30-$40 for 5 ml size bottles. But when you read the fine print, it may state that it’s 5-10% essential oil diluted with jojoba or some other fatty oil. It is also important to note that if a company makes a synthetic fragrance, such as one resembling rose (which can be done much cheaper than distilling the oil from nature), they do not have to divulge that information on the label. Even though no part of that oil came from the field, it may still be labeled 100% pure essential oil. So it is possible to buy what one thinks is rose essential oil and that one would assume is essential oil from roses grown from the earth and in sunlight, but it was actually crafted in a laboratory. Any essential oil that is made in a laboratory will not even be close to the essential oils created by God. There are hundreds of constituents within any given essential oil, many of them in trace amounts. All of these constituents play a role in the therapeutic value of the oil. When essential oils are synthesized in a laboratory, they may only be using the most predominant compounds found in the original oil. And so, the duplication is never complete, nor will it ever be possible to duplicate what God creates in nature from compounds mixed in a laboratory. All you are purchasing is a mixture of lifeless chemical compounds.
What’s Love Got to Do with It?
In an episode of MASH, Hawkeye says to Col. Blake, “Without love, what are we worth? 89 cents… 89 cents worth of chemicals walking around lonely.”
Col. Blake quickly does the math and says, “That means my marriage is only worth $1.78?”
It’s sad to think what life would be like without the gift of love; and not necessarily romantic love but love in the “agape” sense of the word. Think of love in the spirit of 1 John 4:7-8… God is love. The point Hawkeye was making was that without love, we lack meaning, and we are only worth the price of the chemicals that make up our human bodies. Everything becomes quite meaningless without God’s love active in the creative process.
Similarly, rose oil is only worth the price of the synthetic chemicals used to manufacture it if it is crafted in a laboratory. But when God creates the essential oils within the rose petals, there is something very special about that. God is love, and His act of creation is an act of love. Without God’s loving creative power within the roses, they are lifeless. Man-made rose oil will lack its vibrancy and God’s infinite intelligence within. Unless God has created the oil, it will lack its measurably high frequency.
If you can fit Young Living’s Rose Essential Oil into your budget, I encourage you to experience this beautiful oil for yourself. Or you can smell rose oil highlighting one of Gary Young’s amazing blends such as Envision, Harmony, Joy, Forgiveness, Gathering, Gentle Baby, Humility, SARA, Trauma Life, or White Angelica. Of course, you can always find some roses in nature and experience this powerful fragrance free of charge. Smell the Creator behind His creation. Let those roses be a reminder to you that we find a deeper meaning within ourselves when we realize God created us as an act of love. His love adds value, not only to the roses, but to each one of us as well. For we were innately created to love and to be loved.
[1] Idaho Blue Spruce has often been said to have a higher frequency than Rose, but we lack viable sources to this claim.
By David Stewart, PhD,
Founder of CARE International
Contrary to what you may think, the first to employ sex in advertising were not people. It was plants. In order to attract insects to pollinate them, plants’ most common device is to produce oily compounds that imitate sexual pheromones. Thus, they trick either the male and/or the female of a species to visit them and carry pollen from one flower to another.
These imitation pheromones comprise many of the fragrances we love in essential oils which have been the foundation of the perfume business for thousands of years. They are aphrodisiac to many members of the animal kingdom and they are aphrodisiac to us. Plants and flowers have seduced us all, and we love it.
![The Hidden Benefits of Pollinator Diversity for the Rangelands of the Great Plains: Western Prairie Fringed Orchids as a Case Study - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Western-Prairie-Fringed-Orchid-Platanthera-praeclara-fl-owering-stalk-This-species-has_fig2_259886518 [accessed 9 Feb, 2024]](https://raindroptraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Western-Prairie-Fringed-Orchid-Platanthera-praeclara-fl-owering-stalk-This-species-has-653x1024.png "A Rose by Any Other Name 8")
For example, in eastern Kansas, some of the Dakotas, bits of Minnesota, Illinois, Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, there lives a rare flower called the western prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera Praeclara). It is a stately plant about 1-3 feet high that bears a couple of dozen creamy white flowers. With their beautiful white fringe and delicate fragrance, these flowers stand out against the surrounding grassy prairie. Their survival depends entirely on two species of nocturnal moths the achemon moth (Eumorpha achemon) and a variety of sphinx moth (Sphinx drupiferarum), both members of the hawk moth family (Sphingidae). These two species are the only pollinators for the western prairie fringed orchid. Its lovely flowers lure no others. The reason is this.
First of all, the fragrance of the flowers (i.e. their essential oils) become more concentrated at night, increasing their scent by several factors over their daytime levels. Their white color is also ideal for seeing in the dim moonlight over the prairie. Hence, they are definitely only interested in night visitors.
The scent that these flowers waft into the night breeze matches that of the sexual pheromones of these particular species of moths. But the factor that restricts their pollinators to only two types of moths is more than scent and night visibility. The nectar of a fringed orchid is found at the bottom of a tubular structure about 2.5 inches long. To sample the nectar, the animal must be capable of reaching to the bottom of the tube. These two types of nocturnal insects are among the few with a proboscis long enough to reach the nectar. Most other visitors would leave the orchid unrewarded and, thus, would not be encouraged to patronize the species.
Even if there are other creatures with the equipment to tap into the orchid’s nectar, they would be incapable of pollinating the flowers. The orchids are so constructed that when one of these two moths approach, they provide a runway guide to steer the oncoming insect into just the right position to suck up the nectar. This has to do with the distance between the eyes of these particular moths, which is just right to touch the anthers on either side of the orifice they must locate to find the nectar. When the moth has completed its drink, it flies away with pollen affixed to both eyes. At the next orchid, the pollen grains are brushed onto two receptive structures leading to the ovaries whose location exactly matches that of the moth’s eyes.
Only an insect having a head of the right dimensions, and its eyes placed just so, could transport the fringed orchids’ pollen from flower to flower. These two species of hawk moth are the only two creatures with a sufficiently long proboscis and properly spaced eyes to match the unique needs of the western prairie fringed orchid.
Such perfect symbiosis between plants and animals makes one realize the infinite planning that continually goes into creation by the Creator. There are literally thousands and thousands of examples of perfect meshing between species, more than we will ever know.
This article is an excerpt from The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple: God’s Love Manifest in Molecules by the late Dr. David Stewart, founder of CARE International.
Love is a Choice by David Stewart, PhD
In stock
This is an inspired publication that describes ideal love between couples and people in general. It also describes love’s relationship to health and to essential oils.
from Lora Lee Stewart, FCCI
Happy Valentine’s Day! Are there really benefits to eating dark chocolate? Let’s find out!
According to a blog I read recently from Primal Source News:
“I was so excited when I found out about the power of a unique type of Peruvian chocolate. You see, most chocolate is grown on the west coast of Africa. But small batches of chocolate also come from the jungles of Peru. And the difference is astounding. Peruvian cacao is not only sweet like regular milk chocolate…
It’s also one of the healthiest AND highest antioxidant foods on the planet.
This delicious chocolatey gift has been the food of emperors for nearly 2,000 years. And the growing process was finally perfected during the late Incan empire.
Which is what gives us this unique Peruvian chocolate that not only tastes delicious, but can also…
According to a description found on Amazon for Healthworks Cacao powder (We ALL shop on Amazon, right?):
“One of the most nutritionally complex foods on the planet, Cacao, is also a great source of magnesium, dietary fiber, calcium, zinc, iron and potassium. (It is) great with smoothies/drinks, cereals, yogurt, oatmeal, baked goods, cookies, ice-cream, trail mix, granola bars, coffee, snack foods, or as a fantastic chocolate chip substitute in any recipe for a tasty and fun meal! (It) tastes great with Coconut or Almond milk!”
You can find all sorts of information on the internet regarding the benefits of pure unadulterated Peruvian chocolate! My conclusion is that it definitely can be a “super food” and it is readily available in many forms! Be sure that it is sugar-free or uses a sugar substitute such as stevia or allulose.
Click here to jump to a tasty Peruvian Hot Chocolate Recipe
For those that are dairy-free, caffeine-free, grain-free and/or sugar-free, use these substitutions: For whole milk, use coconut milk or almond milk; for evaporated milk, use coconut cream; omit the coffee for caffeine-free; for grain-free, use arrowroot or tapioca flour instead of corn starch; and instead of regular sugar, you can substitute stevia, allulose, maple syrup or any other preferred sugar substitute.
ENJOY!
If you wish to use essential oils in this fabulous, healthy drink, you can use a few drops of Clove Oil in place of actual clove (Essential oils are very potent! A few drops should be sufficient).
Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple – Whether you have a background in chemistry or not, you will understand and enjoy this book. It will enlighten and entertain you while demonstrating, by the chemistry of essential oils, that God’s power and divine nature can be seen through the things he has made. (Romans 1:20) Based…
Only 63 left in stock
It was the year 2008 where I had a come apart, and what an experience that was! My four children were now grown and off to seek their own adventures in creating a life of their own design. To work through my little come apart, I was waiting for a bodywork session and on the desk of my therapist was a book titled, “Essential Oils Desk Reference”. Because he had it, it must be important, so I ordered one. Upon its arrival, I anxiously opened the book to observe its contents.
Panaway??? AromaSiez??? Peace and Calming??? No store in my state had any of these oils; so the book was shelved for 2 years. I purchased several hundred dollars of whatever brand Whole Foods had on the shelf and off I went. Essential Oils at my fingertips, I was set, and it was all good!
In 2010 I was introduced to Young Living Essential Oils. I ordered a starter kit and inside that starter kit was Panaway! I quickly grabbed my Essential Oils Desk Reference book and Voila! Now I was on a mission to learn all about what essential oils were all about. I didn’t want to learn the DIY’s, I wanted to learn HOW these oils worked and what made them so amazing.
In 2013 I was with a friend and she told me there was a CARE Intensive and I needed to go. What was I going to? I asked myself. It was so much fun I went to three more after that. Then my CARE Instructor, Marie Kopke, looked at me and said, “Just become an instructor!” And the process began. Three years later, I became a CCI and moved onto becoming an FCCI. (Because of my intensity and very deep over thinking, I believe, Marie was all too ready to check the box and move onto the next one) Grateful for her instruction as well as Anthony and Lora for proctoring my CHEM and ER.
One year, Summit’s read was “The Secret Teachings of Plants”. This book has become one of my favorites. As I began reading the secrets inside of its pages, I struggled to understand its message. I felt impressed to go read this book outside with the plants and did just that. As I stared at this large tree and the stepping stones leading to it, the secrets started to divulge themselves. In Chapter Thirteen, titled, ‘The Importance of Rigorous Self-Examination and the Necessity For Moral Development,” drew me into its pages as if the message was specific to my needs at that time in my life. It spoke of the heart-field, trusting my senses and my heart’s ability to perceive these senses. One secret I learned was from this quote, “The senses do not deceive, judgment deceives.” ~Goethe: No truer words have ever been spoken.
Drumming is a good release for me. I learned to make this drum from a Lakota Indian out of Buffalo hide. I love the yin and yang pattern that showed up after it dried. I named this drum my spirit drum. It resonates that deeply.
To date, I am a mother of 10 girls. They make me smile as they run around the yard as if they were lifting their petticoats to make it gracefully back to their home in time for their evening snack of grubs and black oiled sunflower seeds.
LomiLomi was the first modality I learned before I attended massage school. It’s a praying work. It’s hot and its sweaty, but the Spirit of Aloha or the “coordination of mind and heart with each person”, is in abundance using this healing art.
My new favorite recipe. Onigiri
Click Here for the recipe for this simple yet very delicious meal!
Lastly, my favorite oil is MOTIVATION because some days I just need that.
THE RAINDROP MESSENGER
Official Newsletter of CARE
The Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education
12923 BCR 800, Marble Hill, Missouri USA 63764
(573) 238-4846
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The Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education, Inc. (CARE) and it's Certified Instructors have trained hundreds of Facilitators in the Raindrop Technique. Click here to get started.
Center for Aromatherapy Research and Education is approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a continuing education Approved Provider.
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