My Essential Oil of the Year: Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea)

Happy New Year! Here's hoping you are getting off to a positive start for 2020. Many people are busy making plans and resolutions. Often this is a creative process and includes activities such as choosing a word of the year,  totem animal, crystal or theme. I myself have been busy looking at different ideas around this and decided, why not choose an essential oil ally to work with during this new year? 

So today I sat down with my box of oils and explored what I was drawn to. Things like Thyme ct. linalool, marjoram, geranium and lavender all waived at me. All are supportive to the feminine and emotional body in strengthening, balancing and protective ways. But it was clary sage that pulled me in to linger.

Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) is part of the Lamiacea family, which also includes what we think of as garden sage (Salvia officinalis). However, the chemical profile of Clary sage is quite different. The essential oil has up to 75% linalyl acetate, which has been studied in terms of its effect on inflammation and the regulation of the nervous system.  Clary sage  CO2 extract can have very large amounts of sclareol, which has been studied for its potential to inhibit growth of tumour cells. It's a serious oil with serious potential to help us as women in terms of our health and wellness. 

This lovely herb was well known during the Hellenic and Roman period, as monographs from this era have survived. It was even a fashionable remedy during the medieval period for ailments which included uterine and menstrual complaints and as a general nerve tonic. It fell out of use for some time toward the end of the medieval period and has only in the past decade or so begun to make a comeback. 

In my practice at Falcon Rose, Clary sage is a favourite among my female clients who are in a process of cleansing themselves of emotional or physical stress so that they can emerge from their time of healing clearer, stronger and more balanced in themselves. It blends so beautifully with other allies that are strongly aligned to the more lunar, female energies. Oils such as lavender, geranium, marjoram, yang ylang and even vetiver are wonderful blend buddies. Truly beautiful synergies can be created and I have found the simple triad of clary sage, lavender and geranium can work true miracles with my clients when used regularly in massage and aromatic baths. 

Clary can be part of treating PMS, irregular periods and menstrual cramps in a powerful way, something I can attest to personally. While spiritually, Clary sage is said to work with the 6th chakra of dreaming, intuition and trusting one's own ability to see their life with clarity and inspiration. 

For me personally, 2020 is looking to be a year where matters of the womb will be addressed on many levels: looking at how I mother myself, what my relationship is to 'care taking' (the light and shadow), how I birth things in my own life and how I can work on allowing more time for ideas and creativity to gestate instead of feeling a need to force things into being. Ultimately I hope for more balance in all of these areas, less inflammation and a deeper appreciation of my own feminine energies in the way they are - not how I believe they should be.  

One of the words that came to me strongly when I smelled this oil today was: Emerging.

I plan to work with Clary sage this year in a number of ways. Everything from reading new monographs and books, creative writing and artwork that I feel inspired to make, to adding some drops to my personal body oil or bath bubbles. As a professional therapist, I have learned that there is always more we can learn from the plants we choose (or who choose us). A whole lifetime isn't enough to ever fully know these materials. It starts with what you understand from reading and research. Then there's what you experience from smelling or having personal contact with a plant yourself. Next, there's a powerful and deep layer to be gained by observing how a plant works therapeutically with clients over time.  I believe there's something else that we can discover from partnering deeply with a plant for an extended period of time and being open to what else it can reveal, and that's what I aim to learn this year! 

Do you have a plant or essential oil that you feel is speaking to you? Would you like help to choose one for yourself and have guidance on safe usage? Why not come in for a session and see what speaks to you? 

Wishing you a peaceful, strong and deep year to be you! ​

Bibliography

Aromatherapeutic Blending, Peace-Rhind, Singing Dragon, 2016
Aromatherapy & Essential Oils Handbook for Everyday Wellness, Puchon & Cantele, 2014
Aromatherapy & Subtle Energy Techniques, Kiem & Bull, 2015
Aromatica, Holmes, Singing Dragon, 2016
Encyclopedia of Essential Oils, Lawless, Harper Thorsons, 2014

Articles Referenced:
Sclareol inhibits cell proliferation and sensitises cells to the antiproliferative effect of... 
Anti-inflammatory effect of linelool and linalyl acetate constituents in essential oils