On the transportive quality of scent & the protective power of objects
A conversation in response to the Scorpio new moon.
Saga and I met a few weeks ago through a series of kismet connections. Throughout the past two years, I have worked with what I lovingly refer to as my “tribe of advisors” who have kept me grounded, directed, and have helped me to continue growing. One of those people is my dear intuitive therapist who introduced me to Saga. We have since discovered many more connections in the form of mutual friends. Saga and I decided to sit in conversation over Zoom and see what formed from the new moon energy in Scorpio.
Journey with us.
Saga: I’m starting the recording now. We're talking about objects, and you have been telling me about your necklaces, how they act as amulets for you. How do you say it, Hamsa?
Maya: Yes, chamsa. I found it in Jerusalem in 2017 in a sundries-type shop that I felt drawn to poke my head into. I remember, my dad was so impatient and didn’t understand why I was in there, but I saw this chamsa in the counter display case and it was so unique. It’s shaped like a real-life hand holding the word “chai” which is the word for life, and also signifies the number 18, a number of great luck in Judaism. It felt like it was made for me. I wear that charm with the star of David my parents gifted me for my graduation from university. I studied in Israel, and although that charm traditionally represents Judaism, for me, it stands more for the culture and the life I came to adore in Israel. I remember those years fondly every time I wear that necklace. I usually keep that one inside of my shirt, you know, with everything going on–the antisemitism right now.
Most days I wear three necklaces. I have a Turkish eye charm that my safta gave me when I was a child. In Sephardic Jewish culture, having an evil eye on your person is incredibly important for protection. The eye deflects any negative thoughts or bad luck coming in from others. I find it especially important to wear it in public. I also wear a horseshoe charm made of garnets from my mum, she bought it in Hungary and it reminds me that I have all the luck I need inside of me.
Saga: And that reminded me of this perfume I wear. It’s the only perfume I’ve worn since I was nineteen years old. I went with my dad to this hidden little shop in the West Village and we chose it together. It’s French, it’s fancy, it’s delicious. Most importantly, it reminds me of him and ever since he passed in 2019 I wear it to connect with him.
Maya: Oh wow, this reminds me of my grandfather. My Turkish grandfather, Saba Momo.
He had this aftershave that he would use every single day. It was interesting because we couldn’t connect through language–he didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Hebrew or Ladino. We would barely exchange words, but we were very close, energetically. There are so many things I still think about to this day that he told me about myself that I have only now come to know.
And he used to use this aftershave that smells like orange blossoms. It was so lovely. And I found it a couple of years ago in a Turkish shop attached to a restaurant. He passed away, I think it was 2017, or 2016. When he passed away, I went out and I found this aftershave. The minute I smelled it, it just brought back all the memories of him.
And I use it once in a while. I'll put a little bit on my wrists.
Saga: I need this aftershave because I was on the hunt for orange blossom fragrance this summer. I started working with orange blossom as a flower essence, I even have this orange tree -
Maya: Oh my God.
Saga: So, this is my meditation painting from Allison Strickland, who you - [Saga holds up her painting, which has an orange-y hued background and gold brush strokes]
Maya: Okay, wait a second. Hold on. You have to see mine because they're very similar. This is bizarre.
Mine's in the closet, I haven't put it up yet, since we just moved. Oh no, it's here. I'm unearthing this.
Saga: Put them up to each other!
Maya: It's all crooked in the frame and everything. I need to reframe it. [Maya holds up her painting, which has a reddish background and gold brush strokes]
Saga: Is that, Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yours is a deeper red. Yeah. What color is, is that -
Maya: It's like, it's literally just a true red.
Saga: Wow. It almost looks like a Tibetan monk. It does, yeah. Like a robe from, uh, I saw the Dalai Lama when I was 15 in Central Park, and then I went home and painted my walls yellow and got that red for my curtains.
Maya: I love that.
Saga: Um, but the mantra for my painting, which she did I guess in the end of the spring, early summer, is “I am the orange”. Because we had this exchange about the orange tree being a symbol for creativity and offerings to the world, of bearing the fruit and asking, what are the oranges? And it was this symbol of creativity.
Basically, it's a reminder that I can release the “what am I offering” and anchor in the idea that I am my offering to the world. You know? So that's the mantra. But from there, I started then working with the Orange. I even bought myself an orange tree for my kitchen -
Maya: and I bought a lemon tree last year. You did?
Saga: Yes. This is so fun!
I bought one and it bore one flower. Precisely. One. Flower. And I bottled it and I made an essence and I started to take it and it started flushing stuff from my unconscious into my consciousness. I learned that is the role of this flower as an essence. Suddenly, I was experiencing all this anger I thought I had processed. But I’d only processed it intellectually, and I was enraged for a few days, moving through this next layer.
Anyway, so then I was like, I need to be wearing orange blossom scent.
And I went on the hunt for the most pure scent and couldn’t find one. I texted my friend Emma who was in Portugal and I was like, Emma, if you see this orange blossom scent, I need this. Anyways, she she didn't find any but -
Maya: It's so funny because I feel really connected to that smell and also just to the orange tree in general.
And for me, I talk about it a lot in my newsletter–it lined the streets leading to the entrance of my university. So it's this really nostalgic smell for me. I'll actually send you this piece because it totally ties in the orange trees to my grandfather, and my walk to school and this time in my life that was really strong and important.
And I also am always on the hunt for orange blossom scent and I did find some in Spain.
Saga: You did?
Maya: In a beautiful glass bottle and therefore I never used it, so I'm sure by now it's probably dead. Yeah. But I just kept it because it was this beautiful orange color and it was in this adorable little glass bottle. I also found a violet scent there.
Saga: Exactly. That's what you want for your orange blossom. It has to be the glass bottle found in Spain. Where did you find yours?
Maya: It was Christmas time in Barcelona at a market, and this is back in 2012.
Saga: Okay. Hold. So 2012? No. Okay. I lived in Spain in 2009. So, three years before you. And the other scent that I was gonna say that is very evocative for me is Jasmine. Like walking the streets of Seville with the jasmine and the flamenco in the air.
Maya: Shut the - I am right there with you! Because Jasmine is the other thing I talk about all the time. Jasmine, that smell. When I was in Israel just now, I was just inhaling and inhaling. Jasmine is everywhere and it smells like a dream.
It's my favorite. Jasmine and Orange Blossom are my two favorite smells.
Saga: Same. Actually, I would add Rose to my list. I love Rose too. My wall is painted in “Climbing Rose” - the name of this clay paint - and I painted it as a climbing rose in my garden was talking to me and I was like, Yeah.
Maya: Um, mm-hmm. Yes to clay paint. I would add rose to the list too. I'm kind of a flower junkie, but those three are definitely in a category of their own. I can't really explain it– It's almost like they have a mysterious bend to them. Like it's not just straightforward,
Saga: Transportive. They are transportive.
Maya: Yes, yes, yes, totally.
Saga: And you travel with them. You really travel.
Maya: They also feel, they feel to me at least, as though they're representative of this Middle Eastern region of the world.
Saga: Mediterranean?
Maya: Like very Jasmine energy. And Jasmine, the Disney character. That type of energy, where it's this very beautiful, alluring, deep, you know, kind of mysterious, sensual vibe.
Saga: Mm-hmm.
Maya: I love this.
Saga: So I pulled a card for us vis-a-vis this conversation, and it said “protection”. What do we think about that? Kind of an interesting idea.
Maya: Well, that definitely speaks to our flowers! It's actually interesting because a friend and I just started doing this fun podcast recording. My friend does tarot readings, and so we decided to record a New Moon tarot card pull. And today we did one on the Scorpio New Moon. This theme of protection came up - I mean, obviously, there's the things that we know about the Scorpio New Moon, but she pulled the father of Pentacles. Reversed.
She was like, “you know, this is this time to go inward and to really find your sense of protection, and home. It's a cocooning time.” We had this whole conversation about this. So I think my brain's still on that in terms of protection.
Saga: It does remind me of when I used to work with Deborah Hanekamp, Mama Medicine. She's how Allison and I got to know each other, and she would talk about this time of year, specifically October, when the veils are thin as being a time for psychic protection. The way that she phrased it was that like anything can kind of come through, and there are energetic measures you can take to protect yourself.
If you're sensitive, you're just in a state of heightened awareness all the time, right? So, how do you protect yourself, you know, without shutting down? Which is, I also think something interesting to talk about - something that feels like a wound for so many sensitive people. So many of us choose to shut off our sensitivity as the form of protection or as a form of survival, right?
Oops, I think you froze for a second. Oh, my hair.
Maya: Let me see if I've stopped. Oh, now you're frozen. Oh!
Saga: You're back. Anyway, it just reminds me of how, when I was in offices, and you probably do this too - you know, I'd wear black and even like, lipstick I feel is a form of protection.
Maya: Yes.
Saga: I rarely wear makeup now, and I actually just bought some makeup again that really excited me where I was like, mm-hmm. Ooh. Yeah. But I feel like I've moved away from it because I no longer need to mask.
Maya: I haven't worn makeup since 2014 or 15 and actually, today of all time, I kid you not, this morning - I usually put on an spf and then brush my eyebrows and that's it. And today I forgot to brush my eyebrows and I was like, “Oh my God, I feel so…bare.”
And I went to work and I met with a friend of mine for coffee, and she looked fabulous. Her hair was done. She had on perfect makeup, she had bright red lips. And I kind of felt like maybe I needed the mask today. Yeah. I felt like I needed it. And that's the first time in a really long time that I even thought that way.
Saga: Yeah. Makeup as a protective form. It's interesting though, because I feel like I've recently begun to distinguish between makeup because it feels good versus makeup that creates this shield. Uh, but yeah, but also thinking in terms of protection - energetically, psychically, you know, I call in my father's protection when I wear my perfume.
Maybe you call in your ancestors with the scent of orange blossom. And jewelry obviously holds so much, you know… our grandmother's necklaces, things like that. Yeah. But that they really carry that vibration in them, and then you can feel that, and then you feel held.
Maya: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's actually, it's interesting too because of the psychic protection part, I have also been thinking about how to hone in more to these new nuanced languages and ways of connecting with yourself spiritually.
We're kind of moving into more of that in humanity. The perfume and the jewelry, it's all languages that we're speaking without using verbal language. I just think we're starting to move more into that and it's, it's really fascinating.
Saga: Well, I feel like that's a much bigger topic, which I totally agree with. An idea I’ve been playing with is the conscious and the unconscious. But really that’s not quite right here, it can be a conscious choice. It is a conscious choice. It's just a nonverbal choice. Right. Or it's a non mental choice. Which goes into multiple intelligences: the idea that we have multiple ways of knowing, and therefore also multiple ways of doing, you know, of doing something.
Maya: I like this little thread that we went on.
Journey further…
Jozi Radus, who sparked this conversation.
This essence of orange blossom to reconnect with our truest self.
Magical meditation paintings created by our dear mutual friend, Allison Strickland.
For a piece of Judaica that can be passed down for generations.