Twenty Years of Essence and Alchemy
By Thea Wirsching

Fifteen years ago, a friend gifted me with a book on a topic I had no particular interest in—Mandy Aftel’s Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume.  I read it at the same friend’s urging, and it stirred something deep within me, a longing rich and archaic.  Essence and Alchemy planted a seed, one which matured into a tree with musky roots, fragrant boughs, and narcotic blossoms.  It’s no exaggeration to say that Aftel’s book paved the path to the most fulfilling sensual experiences of my life and utterly transformed my spiritual practice.  Essence and Alchemy gave me a vocabulary for the only medium in which I might claim to be an ‘artist,’ and also allowed me to engage imaginatively with the alchemists’ quest for the elixir of life.  What’s more, my experience is not exceptional.  Saskia Wilson-Brown, the director of the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, cites Essence and Alchemy as the novice perfumer’s gateway drug and refers to it as a “crucial societal touchpoint and a huge factor in the ongoing evolution of independent perfumery.”
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