A Revival Under Fire and Grace - Mendittorosa - Stefania Squeglia. Athanor - Talismans Extreme -2020 Luca Maffei and Mauna - Talismans Classic -2024 Cristiano Canali
1, 2,4 and 5 - Pinterest, 3 - Upres Slider - Unsplash, 6- Anuj Yadow- Unsplash
I am the athanor of myself
My heart is rotting
Salt, sulphur and mercury
Flow through my veins
The lead of my contradictory impulses
Transmute into pure gold
Jacques Viallebessert 2011.
.Ray Proenza - Unsplash, Detail of The Ghent Altarpiece - Jan Van Eyck- Wiki Commons Viktor Talashuk - Unsplash
We never truly arrive, the passage of time reveals a honing, a finetuning that is continual . A moment submits itself and in that moment there begins the subtlest of shifts, almost imperceivable at first, yet we feel it strongly, a profoundness of minute proportions that has the sense of a begining that will not cease until the transformation it seeks is complete. Athanor from Mendittorosa is a finely crafted essence of Alchemical metamorphosis. . It lives and breathes underneath my skin, challenging me to embrace the changes that await without fear.
Athanor: The Crucible. The melting spot where metals meet and change. The burning flames underneath – Incendium Amoris – The Fire of Love. Like a living creature can change when exposed to the heat of life. For good or worse.
Interpretation of the alchemistic work through the nose:
A diffused heat, or rather a glow.
Human baseness begins to dissolve.
A translucent silver, cold but alive.
Purification.
And then a vibrant gold is revealed behind the initial heat.
The result of the transformation.
Alchemical Illustration - Emblems Ruosh, 2, Crucible - Bollinger Atelier, 3.Athanor Pinterest 5. Founder Mendittorosa Stefania Squeglia, 6. Perfumer Luca Maffei
Athanor graces the collection of the Talismans Extreme at 33% concentration from Mendittorosa , a collaboration beween founder Stefania Squeglia and Perfumer extraordinaire Luca Maffei has given us a distillation of fears, hopes, courage and profound change. Mendittorosa are always crafted so consciously with time-given depth and emotions.
Athanor released in 2020 was during a time of immense change for us all, it invites us to face the fear of change and to step lightly forward, embracing the chance to shift our perspectives and to rise into a future, honed with a renewed edge. Here bound within its liquid pages, like a book without age, rests the simplest and complex clues to our dynamic nature. Change, such a word, change, tinged with hope but often rejected through our fears of the unknown, how reticent we can be to step out beyond our comfortable selves even when we sense our current form has outlived its skin. Why so uncertain, why so afraid? , these words emanante from my skin, Athanor piques my curiousity, a distant scent from afar, it curls, strangely reassuring, a struck -match accord draws my attention to an itch under my skin that has existed for a while unseen, but that now is set upon a course of transformation, an ignition unstoppable, time to shed and reveal what my new form may be. Something approaches from the winds of the South, Notus, a spirited charge scenting the winds, surrendering to this process of change, edged with a anticipation wrought in Cassis and Saffron.
Pinterest 2. Homunculous 3. Turning into Gold - Lxxt 4.Mads Schmidt Rasmussen, 5. Portrait of Solitude - Abdelrahman, 6. Notus - Greek Carving
Step now into the heated places of dissolution and assimilation, have no fear for there are whispers afoot within this creation that tell of a new sight, new horizons and renewed purpose, there is nothing to be afraid of. Such a necessary rebirth requires courage and faith, but a birth it is and a newborn shall arrive.
Dense fumes rise in Vetiver, Guiac wood and Black Amber, heated and inviting, stepping over a threshold of no return to find a flame of such white intensity it divests me, holds me intimately close and moulds me, intense yes, but all the while holding its soft promise of the returning. Nowhere to go just to feel the emergence of the reborn, here in this Athanor, this womb.
A richness apears on my skin, flushed with newness and gifted with attuned sight, gentler tones call out to step forward onto untouched earth, feet alighting on terrotory new found. Ripples of excitement traverse this new form posing the question, why did I wait so long? Here I am, in a different facet, enriched and polished. Settling in this new skin awaft with Saffron, Iris and Cashmeran, I am tingling with the promise of what awaits
Athanor is the hand that guides towards the path of change, the supreme cataylst, it is a journey both strewn with beauty and strength, an invitation to step lightly away from outdated forms and arms wide, call to the future.
I am the athanor of myself
My heart is melting
Passions, desires and feelings
Burn in my veins
I am incandescent
Of my only true identity
Jacques Viallebessert 2011
The magnificent bottle for Athanor with its cap finalized by Carmine Borreli known as Nibo, goldsmith and sculptor. He is meticulous and scientific in his execution and a deeply inspired and creative artist. Two human figures concentrated in the work with the Crucible of the Athanor symbolizing the right celebratory context of the ritual connected to this archaic work.
Nibo has made the bronze change in colour to illustrate the beauty and the evolution that is made possible by Mother Fire.
Ethics and aesthetics melt together in a fusion that shows the way for the human psyche.
A raw golden nugget appears on the flacon bottom.
A fragment of light and beauty.
This fragment signifies the whole from which we came. And the whole we should achieve to once again be.
Text from Mendittorosa.
1, 3 and 4 - Mendittorosa Athanor, 2 Fire
Notes: Sulphur, Cassis and Saffron, Iris, Cypriol and Fumencens, Cashmeran, Guaiac wood, Vetiver Java and Black amber
1, 2, 3 - Pinterest, 4. Irina Iriser - Unsplash, 5. Olek Sandrkuzmin - Unsplash, 6. Anuj Yadow - Unsplash
Let me settle into the silence inbetween
Dsf.
Mauna is the newsest creation from Mendittorosa, a collaboration between founder Stefania Squeglia and Perfumer Cristiano Canali. An ode to the stillness and the movement within silence, here is majestic Sandalwood elevated to rarefied heights, in its noblest guise. A devotional chant without sound, uttered on immovable lips and rippling outwards to softly encompass humanity.
“…smelling the scent of Sandalwood, the ordinary feeling of indifference disappears and there is (instead) a Vibration that arises in the heart, it is nothing else than Energy of Bliss.”
Tantraloka, Chapter III, 208b-10.
Andrew Small - Unsplash
Sandalwood gilded in peppers and spices dazzles my sight and settles me quietly into the spaces between, moments that are ‘nano’ in nature yet can stretch away into the distance for hours. Mauna is a time-shifting perfume, to wear her is to be stilled and to escape the bonds of time. Inhaling deeply , there is a lulling of the mind, to cease its turmultuous ramblings and find in solace, places that usually escape our attention, residing there for a while in absolute harmony and surreal peace. Olibanum, Tonka and Musk present a trinity of sacred overtoning, forever holding the hypnotic stance.
Mauna is a pure, piercing tonality of tranquility, effortless and sublime, a sensuality of self that draws us inward. Here lies the stilling of leaves as the wind drops, the sound between two hands just before they touch, a single moment between dusk and dawn, the sound of sunlight slipping into the ocean at the close of day, the indrawing breath of a newborn, the moment between a storm ceasing and the first birdsong, the heightened airs between thunder and lightening.
It calls us to cease, to stop and dive deeply into her enfolding, here may we find a real luxury.
Silence with sound, without sound, Mauna holds me spellbound in moments of suspended Grace, here is something of great power without aggresive gestures, here in this submergence is the answer to all your questions, doubts, fears and a key to peace. Be submerged in it sincerity.
DsF 24
1,and 3 Pinterest, 2. Adrien Converse - Unsplash, 4. Mauna - Mendittorosa Talsimans, 5. Founder Mendittorosa Stefania Squeglia, 6. Perfumer Cristiano Canali.
Notes: Piper Nigrum, Madagascar Ginger, Olibanum, Benzoin Resinoid, Santalum Album India, Tonka Bean absolute, Sacred Musk, Velvet, Styrax Exudate.
Again a beautiful artistic expression in the aesthetic aspects, the Lotus floating. Waiting to open. Connected to water and air. With a descending root in the depth of the unconscious pond, it represents Mauna spirit. Cap by Tuscan artist Alessandro Reggiol.
Mauna From Mendittorosa Talismans Collection
My thanks as always for a precious connection and friendship with Stefania Squeglia and to Jakub Piotrovicz also for sending samples to me.
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