History Cistus Incanus Menu

Holy plants (Plants in Holy Books)

1.       Rose of Sharon
2.       Jesus as the Rose of Sharon.

Crete.

1.      Crete is a botanical paradise
2.      Cretan Herbs

Cretan Tradition Cistus Incanus.

Cistus Incanus in Cretan tradition as:

1. Tea.
2. Cretan Tea.
3. Herbal Tea.

Cleopatra's Beauty Secrets: Magic Fragrances

Cleopatra.

How do you think why Cleopatra chose just milk and honey as the basis of her beauty secrets? A fragrance is one more component of her female appeal. In esoteric beliefs the scent of honey meant the scent of nature. It's naturally sweet. A child, youth, and juvenility smell of milk. That's why milk and honey, in the philosophy of belief, meant the combination of natural sweetness and youth, literally ‘a young sweet woman'. It is no accident that both Caesar and Marcus Antonius couldn't resist Cleopatra's charm of her deeply subconscious natural beauty.

In addition to these scents, Cleopatra liked labdanum and myrrh. These mysterious and magnetic odors calmed her men down who were strong but hot-tempered and ready to give short shrift. Probably, beauty of Cleopatra made men feel good beside her while they had a rest in comfort and enjoyed bliss. Beauty is the real power, isn't it?

Akkadian Empire (5.000 year ago)

ladunu, ladanu are Akkadian works.

lab·da·num (lbd-nm) also lad·a·num (ldn-m)
n.
A resin of certain Old World plants of the genus Cistus, yielding a fragrant essential oil used in flavorings and perfumes.
[Middle English, from Medieval Latin lapdanum, labdanum, alteration of Latin ldanum, from Greek ldanon, ldanon, from ldon, *ldon, rockrose, of Semitic origin; akin to Akkadian ladinnu, ladunu, an aromatic.]

labdanum [ˈlæbdənəm], ladanum
n

Akkadian

(Chemistry / Elements & Compounds) a dark resinous juice obtained from various rockroses of the genus Cistus, used in perfumery and in the manufacture of fumigants and medicinal plasters
[Latin, from Greek ladanon, from lēdon rockrose, from Semitic]

Neolithic (10.000 years ago)

In prehistoric (neolithic) North Africa there lived, amongst many peoples, a tribe of nomadic goat-herders. Occasionally, these people noticed that their goats acquired a blackish, sticky substance on their fleeces and eventually they realised that if this substance were removed and burned, it provided a very fragrant smoke.

As a brief aside it is worth mentioning that the use of aromatic materials as incense is the origin of perfumery and of aromatherapy. The word perfume itself comes from the Latin words per fumum, meaning through smoke.

Having lived in North Africa, not far from the Nile delta, I can appreciate what kind of impact a pleasant smell had on the people who lived there at that time. Even living with the benefits of hot water and soap one starts to smell like a cheese one or two hours after a shower. In summer the coolest time of day is in the middle of the night. Even then, with all windows open and movement restricted as near as possible to nil, the perspiration pours off as if one were in a sauna.

The value of a fragrant substance was apparent to our nomads and they isolated the origin of the black sticky stuff. The goats ‘collected’ it as they grazed among the rock roses (labdanum). It can’t have been long before the goats were removed from the equation. The invention of the ladanesterion, a flail with leather thongs later named after the plant by the Greeks, may have been the first technology to be related to aromatics. With it the nomads could flail the plants, the resin sticking to the thongs. From these it could be more conveniently squeeged off than it could from goats’ fleeces. (They actually used sand to separate the labdanum from the ladanesterion, the sand being easily removed later).

Osiris keeps in his hands the royal symbols of ancient Egypt

Naturally enough, the labdanum resin so collected was much in demand and the nomads eventually gave up goat herding to become labdanum traders. They were so successful in this that they became the first dynasty of Egypt. If you examine pictures of pharoahs or of Osiris (the imagery is largely interchangeable) you will see that the arms are crossed over the chest, one hand bearing a crook (a legacy of the goat-herding days), the other hand bearing a flail (ladanesterion). The pharoah wears a false beard (even if female!) actually made from goat hair which was evidently stuck to the chin using labdanum.

The importance of aromatics in antiquity is thrown into sharp relief when it is realised that that the humble rock rose is responsible for the iconic imagery so well known to us five thousand years later even if we have largely forgotten that the roots of this imagery are in incense (per fumum).

It was Dioscorides who first mentioned the ladanesterion method of collection but the first written mention of labdanum as a modern medicine occurred in 1589 when it was listed in Dispensatorium Noricum. Its use as a medicine does seem to stretch back into antiquity though, because, although its principal uses were in incense and in the mummification process (along with the much better known frankincense and myrrh) there are ancient references to its use for liver and stomach problems as well as a remedy for breathing difficulties and for the loss of the hair.

The essential oil has a specific gravity of 0.925 and its boiling point can be as high as 280 deg., one of the reasons why it is an excellent fixative. Another reason is that, in the right proportion, it imparts an ambergris* note which is invaluable in some types of fine fragrances and lavender compounds.

*Ambergris is a pathological secretion of the sperm whale and was extensively used in former times as a fixer and toner for perfumes. While whaling is still carried out by Norwegian and Japanese barbarians it is very important for us not to use it. When whaling is a thing of the past, all ambergris appearing on the market will be ‘found’ and consequently usable.

the word "labdanum"

Labdanum

Etymology

Latin lādanum, from Ancient Greek λήδανον (lēdanon, “gum”), from λήδον (lēdon, “rockrose”), from a Semitic language; compare Akkadian  (ladinnu).
Noun

labdanum (uncountable)

    A sticky brown resin obtained from species of rockrose, used mainly in perfume.
Translations

    Russian: ладан (ru) (ládan) m

Ancient Egypt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Labdanum is a sticky brown resin obtained from the shrubs Cistus. It has a long history of use in herbal medicine and as a perfume ingredient.

History

In ancient times, the resin was scraped from the fur of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats. Later long poles with leather or cloth strips were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted. It was used to treat colds, coughs, menstrual problems and rheumatism.