Symbolism in scent

Ancient Egyptian limestone depicts Sekhmet, the Lion Goddess as she exchanges the breath of life with Pharaoh Sneferu, prior to his entrance to the Land of the Dead, a sensory experience often associated with immortality itself. 

The mystery behind our own psyches in relation to scent is vast in the ability to link us to an array of instinctual functions, including a nuanced chemistry of pheremones ,  detection of noxious fumes and in some instances physical danger.

Archetypal imagery possesses a strong emotional pull visually, more so when accompanied by the power of scent.  Sacred resins, incensed accords and narcotic night-blooming jasmine sambac,  redolent of by-gone eras, waft through ancient temples, iconic gardens, age-old  papyrus infused with natural vanillan and alabaster jars filled with aromatics, echoing the art of olfactive portraits.

Varying cultural associations with  botanicals activates a spectrum of feeling. Agarwood, a highly revered resin, also known as Oud, a crushing dark richly scented accord known for dispelling grief, mental fatigue, while alleviating fear. Our lives become enriched by stories of timeless tales, written in scent

What all of this symbolic imagery has in common with the evolution of our nose, is the biological link  to our antediluvian nature. Ancient worlds exist entirely by olfactive sensors alone.

Envision, one by one, the tactile, visual and auditory sensory experiences stripped away,  illuminating in their absence our individual sense of smell, uniquely subject to our unconscious drives, by-passes our cognitive functions, activating  our nervous system in a soothing, almost subliminal pathway. Igniting passion, alleviating stress, eliciting calm or repulsion dependent on memory yet always yielding to the intangible parts of our nature.