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new from dabney
rose "Spruce Walker" Launch date December
31 st
Fragrance for cooking I bet more cooking/baking
goes on this month than any other, Acorn Squash, cut
in half and seeds removed, Orange Roughy marinated
in 2 TBS Lemon Thyme Scallops rinsed and
dried,then just barely, very gently sauteed in 1 tsp. enfleuraged
Lemon Blossom/coconut oil
Imagine yourself in a hot, steaming bath. Scented vapors rise from the perfumed oils massaged into your skin just before you plunged into these silken waters. Sunlight enters the room through large floor to ceiling windows, its radiance a shiver of sparkling jewels across the watery surface. As you sip honey-flavored wine and nibble a snack of eggs, nuts, and fish, every fiber of your body begins to loosen and relax. You settle back. Music drifts in and you float with its swelling melodies. Now you look around. More than two thousand of your fellow citizens bathe with you!
The Romans loved company and nowhere did they love it more than in their very public baths, where people from every social strata - noblemen, slaves, businessmen, the poor, and occasionally even kings - came to wash away the dirt and cares of the day. Some of the most important business deals of the kingdom, not to mention marriage proposals, spontaneous dinner invitations, and just plain gossip, were solidified in its walls. And what walls they were!! Although there were smaller baths in Roman times called balnae, many, called thermae, were enormous and magnificently luxurious. Whereas balnae were gloomy, dilapidated, and privately owned, thermae were often the size of one of our modern day theme parks and were publicly owned by the city or state. Polychromatic marble, gleaming bronze and gold, elaborate statuary, as well as multicolored, intricate mosaic walls and floors adorned these mammoth architectural feats. They had numerous rooms to prepare their guests for a series of bathing experiences (to be described below).
Some had theatres. Almost all had gardens with areas for outdoor exercises, games, or simple ambling. In certain rooms, one could enjoy poetry readings; in others, philosophers held forth. Vendors sold food in snack areas and music was often played. At times singing could be heard. All in all the baths were busy, animated places full of vibrant activity (Fagan, Bathing in Public in the Roman World, pp. 12-39; Yegul, Bathing in the Roman World, pp. 5-21).
Roman citizens felt both pride and delight in their baths. Often they bragged about the quality and number contained in their community (Yegul, p. 3). All strata of the society benefited from their presence. The poor gained an opportunity to enjoy the wealth of the city and time away from cramped, dirty, foul-smelling living quarters. For many, bathing would have been impossible without these public facilities. The baths provided a setting for the formation of friendships and intimacy as well as a place to develop a sense of wellbeing and belonging to a group (p. 6). The Romans coined a term, voluptas, for the awakening of the senses, a state which they relished. Mental, physical, and social pleasures were not only valued but actively pursued. Yegul informs us that the “dream world” created by bathing with warm, clean water, the scent of perfumed unguents, an intimate massage, as well as luxurious architecture and furnishings, was one of the foremost pleasures of Roman citizenry. Here it seems one could linger, float in relaxation, and, inspired by the scented vapors, engage the imagination. By bathing up to three times a day, Romans insured the abundant presence of pleasure, as well as the experience of voluptas, in their daily lives. These experiences were not idle luxuries but rather essentials of wellbeing. Yegul writes that “sensual awareness…forms the very core of our existence (p. 10).” The ancient poet Statius, inspired by his bathing experiences, sang the praises of Roman thermae: Toil and care, depart! I sing of
the baths that sparkle By its very nature, the thermae integrated mind, body, social, and aesthetic pleasures of living into one unified experience of bathing. In addition to enjoying these delights, Romans saw the bath as a contribution to maintaining good health. Bathing and the exercise that preceded it were both held to be beneficial activities. Sculptures of Asclepius and Hygeia, two health-related deities, frequently adorned the inside and outside of the same bathing quarters. Once at the bath, exercise was the first order of the day. After disrobing in the changing room or apodyterium, the body was massaged with perfumed unguents and dusted. Thus prepared, the bather chose his or her sport: ball games, running, wrestling, fencing, trochus (“rolling a metal hoop with a hooked stick”), or swimming (Yegul p. 16). Unlike today, exercise was mild and not strenuous. When finished, the sweaty oil and dust from the exercise grounds were removed by an attendant with a strigil. This was a tool with a curved metal blade that wiped the offensive, greasy mixture from the skin.
Inside the baths, one bathed in a series of large luxurious rooms, passing in precise order from cold to lukewarm to hot and then again to cold pools. But before plunging into those pools, a fragrant massage with oils warmed the body. It was given in a special room variously called aleipterion, destrictorium, unctorium, or unctuarium. Mandy Aftel, in her book Essence and Alchemy, describes this room as looking “something like the shop of an old-fashioned chemist, its walls lined with jars and urns of all shapes and sizes, each containing a perfumed oil or oil-based unguent.” She goes on to say that the oils were “simple” ones, “such as rhodium, made from roses; narcissum, from the narcissus; melinum, from quinces; metopium, from bitter almonds; and corimum, from saffron, which imbued the wearer with both a fine odor and a rich color.” Choice was based upon affordability. Different parts of the body called for different scents. There was one oil for “the feet and thighs, another one for the cheeks and chest, a third for the arms, a fourth for the eyebrows and hair, a fifth for the neck and knees (p. 179)”.
Radiating this confluence of scents, the bather moved on in their fluid journey. First, he or she visited the frigidarium; then, the tepidarium or room with a lukewarm pool; the calderium, or hot room, followed. A hypocaust, or furnace, heated this room from underneath the floor, which became so scalding hot, that wooden sandals were worn (“The Roman Bath,” Pure Inside Out). Aftel writes that “Here sweating freely, he scrubbed himself with a bronze comb -- or, if he could afford it, had his servant scrape and massage him and apply unguents to his skin… Because the water had a high mineral content, it dried out the skin, so the oily preparations were a means of restoring moisture as well as perfuming the body (p. 179)….” In good time, bathing ended with a another plunge into the cold pool of the frigidarium. Now the bather chose between either a sweat room, called the laconicum, for a dry heat experience, or the sudatorium, for wet, steam heat (Yegul, p. 17). Finally, he or she moved back to the unctorium for another application of perfumed oils. This brief exploration of the Roman baths shows that scent, bathing, and the creative imagination have been intimately related since time immemorial. It was no accident that the baths generated a “dream world.” Soaking in a fragrant tub, more than just our pores open to the scented waters. Our imagination, memories, and thoughts begin to open and emerge into consciousness as well, taking on new and creative forms. The Romans were not so outlandish in having poets and philosophers, theatres and libraries within their baths. I like to believe it was their intuition, or perhaps even explicit wisdom, that these seemingly divergent dimensions of life mutually enrich and expand one another. During this busy holiday season, I hope you will find time to create a dreamy bath experience for yourself. Let the tensions of juggling work, shopping for presents, planning parties and dinners, rushing to get errands done, and gifts wrapped, melt away into the warm, steamy, scented vapors of a luxurious bath. Delight yourself, open to voluptas, and for a moment in time, join the Romans in all their ancient wisdom.
References
'Ganache for Lips' also has a WONDERFUL, lightweight body oil, appropriately called "Whisper Light Body Oil Veil" in 5 delightful fragrances, including unscented (my favorite is 'Rose De Cacao'.) True to their name, they soak into the skin like magic; my husband commandeered one for his work van as they are as non-greasy as an oil can be. You can find this gem of a product at http://beautyhabit.com/ and go ahead and order one for everyone!
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November 2009
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Humans
have always celebrated whatever we have to celebrate, by including
the plant world. After all, we started out at the seed of our
history believing we and the plant kingdom were related; kinfolk.
Did
the Romans bathe with goats? Sort
of. Let's be smart enough and follow Cleopatra's brilliant lead and
use milk on our skin. Milk brings moisture and fats to our skin in
forms it finds very recognizable on a molecular level. Sheree
of Mariah Country Soaps has done the hard part for us
and concocted our goat milk lotion for us! (As well as milking her
own goats!) Her goat milk products are a sensation! I could feel a
collective "sigh" from my skin cells when I first spread
some on. EXACTLY what our winter dried skin is craving to return to
it's supple softness. (But you know your skin will appreciate it all
year long)