One of the main botanical archetypes I use in The Tantrika anointing oil is Resin.
Resin is basically sap.
In the botanical world, sap has two functions — to protect and to heal.
Resin will cover a wound in a tree, sealing it off from pathogens, insects, and microbes.
Resin can also trap invading insects, encasing them in a sticky, fragrant embrace.
Some trees produce resin that attracts beneficial insects which feed upon the would-be invaders.
Resin essential oils include frankincense, myrrh, copal, pinon, and balsam.
“Resin” is a botanical archetype with a “wisdom frequency” just like any other archetype.
The wisdom of Resin is a vital a component the anointing oil, because “healing” is such an important aspect of The Tantrika’s archetypal intelligence.
Resin’s wisdom in The Tantrika anointing oil can remind you of your own resinous response of protection and healing.
Thus, Resin addresses wounding.
By including Resin essential oils in this formula, we align with The Tantrika’s wisdom of honoring the wound, but not focusing on it.
Specifically, The Tantrika archetype turns our attention toward what the wound creates: beauty and wisdom.
Because of a wound to a tree, we get beautiful glistening resin: fragrant, slow moving and powerful. A malleable, sticky gem.
Resin is a response to a trauma. Without the trauma, we would not get to marvel as the tree protects itself, nor have reason for the beautiful, fragrant resin to even exist.
If you’ve ever heard the expression “no mud, no lotus”, it’s along those lines. No wound, no Resin.
Wounding can eventually yield beauty and wisdom.
Not quickly, mind you. There are no short cuts in healing.
But eventually, when it’s stage appropriate, trauma and wounding can show us not where we are vulnerable, but where we are strong and wise, responsive and self-protecting.
This beauty and wisdom can express itself in ways like growth, insight, strength, transformation, and wonderment.
The Tantrika anointing oil is an invitation to celebrate the beauty and wisdom that can come from wounding, rather than focusing on the wound.
The Tantrika archetype shifts us away from wound-centered stories and toward healing-centered ones.
When we tell a different story, we create a different frequency, and ultimately a different reality.
The Tantrika’s anointing oil aligns you with a healing-centered narrative, and a healing-centered reality.
At Beltane, we can celebrate the sweetness of healing, and the glistening gifts from the wound.