Working With and Learning From Nature
Wake Up And Smell The…Spruce?!
Black Spruce, Latin name Picea mariana, is my new BFF. I’ve never met a Black Spruce in person, but I’ve been spending my mornings with its essential oil and I think it’s making me a better person.
Native to North America, Black Spruce is a coniferous evergreen and slow-growing tree that grows up to 25m tall. The needles (and sometimes the twigs) of the tree are used to make its essential oil. Essential oils are concentrated liquids extracted from plants. Black Spruce oil has an uplifting, clearing and purifying fragrance that seems to wake me up and calm me down at the same time. I learned about Black Spruce essential oil at an Aromatherapy seminar that I recently attended in San Rafael, California taught by Kurt Schnaubelt and Monika Haas of the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy (PIA).
The seminar was a fragrance lovers’ dream. Oils would be introduced, pictures of the plant would be shown and then, for the pièce de résistance, smell strips would be passed out and enjoyed. (Mostly enjoyed, a few of the oils weren’t as pleasant to smell.) We learned and talked about over 50 oils, including some I’d never heard of in my long decades of using these amazing plant extracts including Cape Chamomile, which smells like Spring and Hyssop decumbens, so light and friendly an oil, that I now count it as a favorite.
At the seminar, Monika Haas talked about “preventative aromatherapy”- ways that people can use these authentic plant oils as part of their daily routines. The “Shower Method” is an easy way to incorporate essential oils into your life.
Oh, Black Spruce I’m so glad I met you. What an amazing plant and essential oil you are.
2 Comments on “Wake Up And Smell The…Spruce?!”
I loved your podcast on essential oils, Jill! Where do you typically get yours? Do you get get them online? If so, what companies do you like?
Hi Molly. I really like the Pacific Institute of Aromatherapy oils. They are top quality and super nice people. John Steele has very high quality oils, too. Also, Nadine Artemis with Living Libations. (Those are all online.) If I buy them at the health food store, I look for Simplers brand.I’m sure there are lots of other good oils, too. Thanks for listening!