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Hi we're Cathy Skipper & Florian Birkmayer MD

Gnosis and the Lost Sense

Published 3 months ago • 2 min read


Dear Reader,

This is Cathy. It feels like it’s been a while since I got down to sharing with you. So here goes.

A lot has changed here at AromaGnosis in a very short space of time. For a start, my oldest son Jah has joined the team. He’s brilliant and forcing us to look clearly at how precise our message is. How good our content is. Are we serving our clients in the best way possible?

I won’t lie. It’s hard at times. Change is hard. Looking at ourselves honestly is hard. Getting older and realizing in these ever changing times, we need to at least keep up a bit is hard.

One thing that we have been forced to take a long, hard look at is, “What is Aromagnosis’s core message?”

On one hand, we are so many things, but on the other hand, what do all these aspects of our work at AromaGnosis boil down to?

It’s been frustrating trying to concisely describe something that is so much part of us, something that we live all day everyday. Basically Florian and I felt too close to the work to be able to name it, too close to the trees to see the forest.

But eventually it happened. A lightbulb moment. We realized that what the Aroma in AromaGnosis really speaks to isn’t essential oils or other materials that smell. It’s the symbol of our sense of smell.

What do I mean by that?

Our sense of smell is our most archaic sense, but it is also, in the modern world, a lost sense. Since we have started walking upright, we don’t lead with our noses anymore, we lead with our vision. We don’t navigate the world through smell, we navigate through sight.

This has disconnected us not just to the hugely powerful way our sense of smell gives us information about the outer world, but how it gives us vital information about our inner worlds--The Gnosis.

Gnosis is a feminine Greek noun that means, “knowledge or awareness.” Direct personal knowledge rather than intellectual or book knowledge. Our sense of smell is unedited. It is not filtered by the thalamus like all our other senses. (You don't feel the clothes on your skin right now because the thalamus filters out this touch input.) Gnosis helps us access the deepest, most unconscious aspects of ourselves. It gives us personal, inner knowledge not through thinking, but through perceiving.

The French verb ‘sentir’ means ‘to smell’ ‘to sense’ and ‘to feel’. It is through an inner sense of perception that we feel truth and live our authentic life. Our sense of aroma leads us through space and time into places within us that are unknowable to the left brain. It helps us navigate the vast unconscious and bring our shadow self into the light.

AromaGnosis isn’t Cathy and Florian. it’s more than us. It’s alive. It scents. It senses. As it evolves, it continues to transform itself and us.

We are ever grateful to be able to share our continuing process with you our subscribers.

We love hearing from you.

Blessings

Cathy

Hi we're Cathy Skipper & Florian Birkmayer MD

We are teachers & coaches of soul growth to live your best life. We are AromaGnosis.

We combine a deep perspective, incorporating ancestral healing, psychedelic therapy, aromas and a hands-on roadmap of the psyche for transformational healing and growth by getting your ego and shadow to collaborate instead of undermining each other. Remove long-standing blockages and live your best life.

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