03/15/2025
🌹🦋 HONOURING THE ONES YOU LOVE WITH FUNERARY AROMATHERAPY AFTER THEY HAVE GONE 🦋🌹
This is the first time I have written about this so far, but it feels like it’s time. At the end of January, my sweet old dog (going on 17 years) died in my arms after three months of round-the-clock end-of-life care. While Animal Aromatherapy absolutely played a huge part in his care and comfort measures those last few months (that is an experience worth sharing, but that is a post for another day along with the spiritual happenings at the time he left), this post is about something I did for him after he had died.
Plants have been intrinsically linked to human death rituals for quite a long time through our history, and we can still include them today. In fact, we already do. Flowers sent for the dead and for the surviving loved ones are so normal to us that we likely don’t even think about it. When we talk about aromatherapy, it certainly refers to using essential oils, but we can enjoy the benefits from all sorts of botanical sources, including fresh and dried plants and plants in their natural environments as well. It’s no mistake that plants provide such healing balm to a grieving heart.
While Zeus was sick and declining, he began to look and feel and smell a bit grungy. He wasn’t grooming himself anymore, and while he never became incontinent or lost his ability to eat on his own, I chose to help him eat as well (treats and extra spoiling can be a messy business). Things like nail trimming or full bathing became something we decided not to stress him with towards the end. Between those things and the bodily things that take place as a body slowly shuts down, it left him not seeming quite himself. I decided a while before he died that I would do my best to make sure he was clean and fresh for his trip to be cremated and for his little urn to join our Pawsoleum, and I told him so.
After Zeus died that afternoon, we took the time to say our goodbyes and to engage in our personal memorial rituals that are meaningful to us in those raw emotional moments before offering our other animals the chance to know he had gone and for closure to say goodbye. After that, I took him and laid him down in the living room and gave him the nail trimming he hadn’t gotten for the last bit, and then I took him to the kitchen to bathe him. This is when aromatherapy got to play its supportive role.
I have always had a draw to ancient Egyptian death practices, and that was my aromatherapeutic inspiration here. I chose botanicals (in this case in the form of essential oils) inspired by mummification practices. I chose Cinnamon Bark for its protective energy and warm and comforting aroma, Frankincense and Myrrh for their spiritual uses and ties to the energy of the spiritual world, Galbanum for its ability to connect to the spiritual realm, Atlas Cedarwood for its sacred and grounding energy, and Cypress for its associations with dying, death, grief and with Greece because, well, he was my Mighty Zeus after all, and this was to be the final earthly offering of care I would be able to offer him.
I laid him on a blanket on the table and prepared his bath supplies. He was a tiny guy, but I chose to cloth-bathe him rather than dunking him in my sink because it seemed much nicer. I got a cloth and a large bowl filled with very warm water, and I added a few drops of each of my chosen oils. I wore gloves because I was going to be having my hands in the water with the oils and the oils themselves and the amount of oils were not safe to be dipping my hands repeatedly into. I dipped and wrung and gently wiped and cleaned until he looked much more like his old self again. The intentionality of this act felt soothing to my soul where my mind ached for the physical loss of my sweet boy. The kitchen smelled green and rich and spicy, and the aromas felt warm and sacred and comforted me. When he was as fresh from his spa experience as I could make him, Mason placed a bouquet of flowers between his paws, and we gave him the last gifts we had to send him off with on his final journey and prepared to take him in for cremation. Waiting the time until the urns and paw prints are ready to return home is excruciating, but it’s a relief when they get back.
While I had the ability to have my darling dog die comfortably at home with me and then offer him my last sacred act of care in our own space, not everyone or every situation offers those luxuries. Obviously, many people and animals die in hospitals, hospices, long-term-care facilities, or veterinary clinics, but we can still use aromatherapy in those scenarios to honour and care for our dead. We could even quickly anoint our loved one with an anointing oil*, or give them flowers, or give them a small scented hand massage (or maybe even a manicure), or fragrance their hair or whatever is meaningful to them and to you. Don’t be afraid to communicate with your loved one’s care providers and share with them what you wish to do and why it’s important to you. While many institutions have policies in place in regards to fragrance and sometimes even flowers, they will likely understand and support you in that experience.
*ANOINTING OIL: To create your own anointing oil for spiritual, energetic, and emotional purposes, add 1 - 2 drops ONLY of your chosen single essential oil or essential oil blend to 10 mls / 2 TSPs of vegetable carrier oil (like fractionated coconut, jojoba, apricot, grapeseed, etc.), shake, and store in a glass bottle in a cool, dark, and dry place. To use, shake, place a drop or two in your hand, and anoint yourself or your loved one. Common places to anoint include the forehead and over the heart space.
Well, I hope this post has both offered you some comfort and some inspiration in ways we can honour our lost loved ones and help to bring ourselves in line with the first steps of the grieving process and how the use of botanicals, plants, aromatherapy, and even simply fragrance and scent can help us in doing so. Be well, love heartily, and remember plants are always there for you!
If you have any questions or want to connect with me, please feel free to reach out! Thanks for reading my post! Have a scentsational rest of the day! - Melinda Erin! 🌞🌱🌹🌳🍋🌿🍊🌲
- In loving memory of my Mighty Zeus the Chihuahua who gave me nothing but love, joy, and inspiration for almost 17 years. I love and miss you forever. Thanks for being my dog and my best friend. June 21, 2008 - January 23, 2025. 🤍🤍🤍
www.funeraryaromatherapy.ca
