Intuitive Development Through Scent: Unlocking Aromatherapy’s Hidden Power
We’re taught to trust our eyes. To prioritise the mind. To listen with our ears and speak with precision. But what about the nose? When was the last time you trusted a scent to guide you? To tell you something before your mind could explain it away? In the quiet, intuitive arts—those of listening, remembering, returning to self—scent is often the most overlooked teacher. And yet, it is one of the oldest. This article explores why scent mastery can be a vital tool in intuitive development.
Why Scent Is So Powerful
Unlike sound or sight, which must be filtered through thought and language, scent takes a direct route. When you inhale an essential oil, its molecules travel straight to your limbic system—the part of the brain responsible for memory, emotion, and instinct.
There’s no translation. No logic. Just knowing.
This is why scent can unlock deep memories, buried emotions, and sudden insight. It doesn’t wait for your permission. It bypasses the gatekeepers and opens the door to what you already feel, already know.
Why Is Scent So Bypassed in Modern Society?
Of all the senses, scent has long been treated as the least trustworthy. While sight and sound were cultivated into sciences—optics, acoustics—smell was left to folklore, suspicion, and mysticism. It has been bypassed not only in modern science, but in collective consciousness. And perhaps this is because scent is hard to pin down. It lingers, it disappears, it provokes emotion without explanation. It enters the body invisibly and stirs memories, instincts, and feelings before we even know what we’ve breathed in.
Historically, scent has occupied a liminal, often uncomfortable space—particularly in the religious imagination. In the early Christian church, the use of incense was met with deep ambivalence. Pagan and mystery religions had long used fragrant smoke to summon gods, spirits, and altered states. The early church fathers, eager to distance Christian worship from what they saw as “heathen ritual,” initially rejected incense as a tool of demonic invocation. It was associated with Roman imperial worship and magical practice, and therefore viewed with suspicion. The smell of incense carried not just fragrance, but accusation—it evoked the sensual, the mysterious, the other.
And yet, over time, the church’s attitude shifted. By the 4th or 5th century, the sensory language of smell began to enter Christian theology in a new way. St Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2:15, “For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ.” The faithful were said to be surrounded by a spiritual perfume, while sin and heresy were increasingly described as having a stench. As physical smells became metaphors for spiritual states, scent was moralised. What smelled good was seen as holy. What stank was demonised. And in this binary, the complexity of olfaction - nuance, subjectivity, rawness, even—was flattened.
Scent As A Harbinger Hampered Both Scientific and Intuitive Development
What’s more, because scent evaded easy classification, we filled in the gaps with stories. We didn’t understand how the olfactory bulb connected directly to the limbic system—the seat of memory and emotion. So we mythologised scent. We said that certain smells carried spirits, or warnings, or presences. And in the absence of scientific understanding, we often trusted cultural fear over biological fact.
Even today, scent is under-researched. There’s no universally agreed-upon “language of smell.” It remains personal, intuitive, hard to express—and perhaps that’s why it’s so potent for those of us who work with it spiritually. Where reason steps back, scent moves in.
What Neuroscience Confirms About Scent
And yet, when we turn to the few scientists who have studied smell in depth, we find striking confirmation of what spiritual traditions have long suspected: that scent speaks to something far older and deeper than language. Dr Rachel Herz, a neuroscientist and pioneer in the psychology of olfaction, has written extensively about how smell is uniquely tied to the emotional brain. In her book The Scent of Desire (2007), she explains that the olfactory system is the only sensory system that connects directly to the amygdala and hippocampus—the regions responsible for processing emotion and memory—without passing through the thalamus, the brain’s rational filter. In other words, smell bypasses reason.
This may seem like a small anatomical detail, but it has vast implications. It means that scent doesn’t wait for permission. It doesn’t ask to be analysed or categorised. It simply arrives—laden with meaning, memory, instinct—and it acts on us. Sometimes it soothes, sometimes it repels, sometimes it triggers a flood of grief or joy that seems to come from nowhere. And this, perhaps, is why scent has made the rational world so uncomfortable. It resists intellectual control.
Every Scent Experience is Unique
(Think How That Influences Intuitive Development)
Herz writes that none of us are capable of smelling objectively, even in a lab. If two people smell the same molecule, they might even describe it differently, depending on their personal and cultural experiences. How one percieves scent is a complicated tangle of identity, history, and emotions. It’s shaped not only by what’s in the air, but by what’s happening in the emotional and mental bodies at any given time. So the idea that there might be a “neutral” or universal response to smell is challenged really, isnt it? And that working with scent might be one of the most direct ways to explore our own unconscious material feels, to me at least, strongly reinforced.
So when modern society it ranks any scents as primitive or unworthy—it bypasses essential truths about how we feel things when we encounter them, how and what they provoke in memory, and how we intuit. Scent isn’t any kind of lower sense. It is a threshold one, brings us to the edge of how much we can know rationally - like there might be danger incoming because you can smell smoke - which then provokes our bodies to listen to the world in a supercharged state of hypervigilance.
A Biological Bridge Between Scent and Spirit
Here's what happens when we inhale a fragrance—whether its a sharp burst of eucalyptus or the soft breath of hyssop. The scent molecules travel through the nose and land on the olfactory bulb, a tiny piece of tissue roughly the size of a 5 pence coin (or a dime). Small though it may be, this is one of the most emotionally potent contact points in the human body. It’s where seen and the unseen blur.
On the surface of this bulb sit around 100,000 olfactory receptors, which together decode the shape and signature of the molecules we've inhaled. But they don’t just register scent—they relay that information deep into the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for memory, mood, instinct, and emotion. Unlike vision or sound, smell doesn’t pass through the thalamus—the brain’s rational gatekeeper. It takes a shortcut, and in doing so, it bypasses reason to reach us viscerally.
The HPA Axis
The first stop on this path is often the amygdala, which scans for threat and relevance. Scent is deeply tied to the fear response—certain odours can trigger anxiety or even flashbacks, while others can calm the body in seconds. From there, signals pass to the hypothalamus, which governs autonomic processes like hunger, temperature, and hormone regulation. The hippocampus, close by, handles memory consolidation—which is why smells can recall scenes and emotions long forgotten, and why trauma healing work often begins with olfaction.
The pituitary gland, directed by the hypothalamus, releases hormonal instructions throughout the body, activating the adrenal glands, which sit above the kidneys and drive the fight or flight response. Together, these systems form the HPA axis—hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal—a key network in our experience of stress, safety, and emotional regulation.
It’s no wonder, then, that essential oils like lavender have been shown to modulate brain waves, increasing alpha waves associated with calm, meditative states, while oils like rosemary enhance beta waves—linked to alertness, cognition, and recall. Inhaling essential oils doesn’t just lift mood. It can repattern the stress response, soothe trauma, and invite the nervous system back into balance.
But this is only part of the story.
Olfactory Neurons Secrete Neurotransmitters
The olfactory bulb doesn’t simply receive information. It also secretes neurotransmitters, including serotonin, dopamine, and GABA—the brain’s key calming chemical. Serotonin alone is involved in over 300 physiological processes, including mood regulation, sleep, appetite, and hormonal cycles. Curiously, around 90% of the body’s serotonin is found not in the brain, but in the gut, suggesting a deep, bidirectional relationship between scent, mood, and embodied emotional experience.
If the olfactory bulb produces enough serotonin, it also helps synthesise GABA, which reduces anxiety and promotes inner stillness, and dopamine, which governs pleasure, motivation, and reward. In this way, the act of smelling becomes medicine—not metaphorically, but chemically.
What’s more, research shows that inhaling essential oils for just ten minutes a day may increase oxytocin levels—the so-called “bonding hormone.” Oxytocin is most famously involved in lactation, birth, and pair bonding, but it also strengthens bones, supports heart health, and most compellingly—it enhances the felt sense of connection. To others. To ourselves. To the world around us.
A Forgotten Key To Intuitive Development
If oxytocin allows us to feel connected, could that very sense of connection be the missing thread between sensation and intuition? If intuition is not just knowing—but feeling the relationship between things—then perhaps it is oxytocin, or something like it, that opens the door. Perhaps it is not only about knowing more, but feeling more. And that begins, very often, with the breath.
In this light, smelling becomes a devotional act. A return to self. A softening toward the body. A way of remembering that we are not just thinking beings—but sensing, responding, intuiting ecosystems, in which spirit and science are not at odds, but layered.
Scent and Intuitive Development Through The Subtle Senses
When people speak of intuition, they are usually describing sensations that arise without conscious effort:
Gut feelings
Sudden knowings (claircognisance)
Bodily sensations (clairsentience)
And inner voices (clairaudience)
Scent can supercharge intuitive development in all of these areas. Essential oils open doors to knowing that which is “other”—not by forcing insights, but by awakening them.
Claircognisance may come unbidden when the rose opens its soft truth. I have opened a bottle before and known, instantly, what decision I needed to make. It wasn’t about the rose. It was through the rose.
Clairsentience often arrives in the body before the mind can interpret it. Frankincense, with its balsamic hush, will bring peace to the belly or shoulders before you even realise you were bracing.
Clairaudience, too, can emerge in unexpected ways. I’ve heard oils speak—not always in words, but in tones, shapes, or ideas. Sometimes, it’s like being remembered by the plant itself.
And while not everyone hears as I do, everyone feels. Everyone senses. Everyone can remember what it’s like to be guided by something other than logic.
Scent stirs the soul in ways we’ve forgotten how to name. And in that stirring, we begin to hear ourselves again.
Intuitive Development of Working With Scent
Start small. One oil. One quiet moment.
Sit with the bottle closed. Hold it. What do you notice?
Open it. Inhale gently. What memories stir? What changes in your breath?
Where does your body respond—chest, womb, spine?
Ask, “What do you want me to know?” and wait.
This is not a practice of command, but of communion.
You are not using the oil—you are being with it; entering into relationship.
Don’t worry if nothing happens right away. You’re probably not doing anthing wrong. It's perhaps taking you some time to remember how to listen. Take your time. Consider the journey back to the knowing as sacred. ssential Oils That Support Intuitive Development
Certain oils act as allies in the process of intuitive development. I often recommend:
Blue Lotus – For dreamwork, trance states, and subtle awareness especially over issues to do with the ancient past and ancestral work.
Melissa - The Priestess oil. Provided me with the portal into the plant and insect kingdoms.
Cedarwood - Extremely important for connection to judgement, judiciary issues and decisions that weigh moral fortitude and what the "right" thing is.
Frankincense – For spiritual grounding and feeling comfortable in your spirtual practice. I find frankincense helps spirit to sound louder that it was before. I find this more useful for accessing masculine issues than feminine ones.
Rose – Softens defences and perhaps more than any other oil helps you to connect with the essence of sacred femininity.
Spikenard – For when the journey can feel frightening - because it definitely can. Galbanum is very good here too.
Clary Sage – Its name means "Clear Sight" or I guess, Clair Voyance, so that's a good pointer. Know that it connects to the moon- and her associations with emotional connections. But also to Mercury too, who is thought, communication and the passing of ideas.
Elemi – For opening spiritual perception and intuitive development generally
Angelica Root – For protection and guidance in the unseen realms
These are invitations rather than prescriptions.
You might find your most trusted allies are ones that surprise you. Trust your body’s eyes and inner resonance. Trust the plant will meet you where you are.
The Deep Work of Scent
Scent is not just fragrance. It’s frequency. A presence. A teacher.
In devotional aromatherapy, we speak of essential oils as "prayers in liquid form". They carry the vibration of the plant, the story of the earth, and the soul of some of the most ancient lineages.
When you inhale with intention, you are not “using” the oil. You are entering into relationship. And through that relationship, intuition awakens—not as a lightning bolt, but as a slow, gentle yes.
This is the essence of intuitive development.
Ready to Deepen the Practice?
This is just the beginning (I shall be growing this blog series.)
If you're curious about building an intuitive relationship with essential oils, I’d love to guide you further. You can:
Join my newsletter for seasonal plant teachings and rituals
Explore my upcoming plant devotionals—each one a deeper path into scent and spirit. Why not try doing some inhalation work with Cedarwood essential oil, then see how they compare with my historical notes about it. You can access the free class, by signing up for my Scent Sorcerers Portal.
Read more about intuitive development through somatic knowing, in this reflection: Relearning How to Hear Plants
