My book on Melissa was finalised in Dec 2020.

After four years of researching the practices of the Melissae, the priestesses of the ancient Greek goddess, Demeter, I found that my interest in aromatherapy had changed.

I was no longer so interested in the same debates surrounding quality and safety; I had become fascinated by the fragrant oddessy into the parts of me that make me, me.

My tax accounts inform me that I have read over 350 books on Greek history, archaeology, shamanism and women's rights as research to help me understand Melissa officinalis. The academic papers do not even appear in that number, so the voices I have heard have been many, but it was one quote in particular that galvanised my desire to write these courses.

American feminist writer, Merlin Stone and historian wrote a book called "When God Was a Woman". In it she described how the demise of religous thinking around sacred femininity came to be. The Great Goddess, who had been ruler of all things had first been unthroned by Indo-European invaders who worshipped sky gods. They smashed her omnipotent identity and fractured her into many parts.

This is the point we meet her, in Ancient Greece, where She is no longer the all powerful Gaia, but her daughters and granddaughters are worshipped as facets of her power, Aphrodite of love, Demeter of motherhood, Hera of marriage.

The list goes on and on.

Tragically, she would then come to be disgarded as Hebrew, Christian, and Muslim religions subsequently arose.

A male deity took her place.

Worship of the sacred feminine became obsolete. Goddesses faded into the background, and women in society followed suit.

Stone noted, “We may find ourselves wondering to what degree the suppression of women’s rites has actually been the suppression of women’s rights."

The magnitude of that truth is perhaps portrayed by this: More than twelve different goddesses were worshipped in Classical Greece, each concerning herself with a different aspect of the complex nature of a woman's internal world. Each deity had her own entourage of priestesses whose job it was to open the space for women to comminicate with their goddess.

And yet, we only have the word "priesthood" in our language. "Priestesshood" does not exist.

So if what Stone said about women's rights is indeed true, and seems to me that it must at least play a part, perhaps there has never been a better time to revive these women's rites.

Part of the practice of the Melissae priestesses was to open the sacred space between goddess and woman, for them to commune and know each other more fully.

​ Aromythology is a brand new modality that seeks to ressurect some of the meditations and contemplations of the Melissae, deepening them with the fragrant wisdom of essential oils.

Based on the idea that the priestesses met fragances with the rapturous abandon of a bee, the work is done solely through inhalation.

In some cases, even the uninitiated will do this intuitively. How do we fall into alignment with the goddess of love? We use roses. Of course, we do. But the links between divinity and plants go much deeper than that. Activating the limbic system, they rouse ancient modems of power with in us.

Just as the priestesses of old knew how to do, we create an aromatic frequency that allows the goddess to become manifest. In the psyche. In the space. In the world. And as She shifts through the realms, in scents, so we find ourselves changed. And as we change, so does our world and the greater world at large.

So, together, we examine both the archetypes of the goddess within our psyches , but also how to summon Her, to help us learn, develop and change.

We being with She, who began as the Great Goddess, with many names such as Cybele and Rhea, and became the goddess of abundance, of the harvest and mothering.

The greatest of the Bee Goddesses, Demeter.