"The Fair Face Of Humanity To Which We All Aspire..."

I ought to have covered this sooner, but Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab happened to release their "Ode To Aphrodite" collection of perfumes just as I began my break after completing this site's first full cycle of cards, and it's taken me a while to play catch-up. Fortunately this series, inspired by vintage nude postcard photography, is still available until March 13th, 2009. Each pose's exotic sensuality has been translated into the poetic language of fragrance; the lovely Psithyristes, for example, evokes lily of the valley, tea rose, orris, ambergris, and plumeria. And you won't have to jump through any hoops to catch Khrysee's scent of vanilla amber and orange blossom.

Like the voluptuous fauna of my previous Empress card, these beauties seem to occupy some sort of secret enclosed garden, but are far from what you'd call cloistered. As nude models, they're perfectly aware of the desires and enticements offered by the male of their species. In fact, just like last time, there's even a man present among their number, : the pensive Glukuprikos, enjoying the view through a mist of ambergris and oakmoss and offering the necessary counterbalance of yang energy amongst all that mysterious yin.

The dame on their introduction page struck me as the ideal visual representation of The Empress; she grasps the earth tenderly, but she is clearly not of the earth. She radiates sexuality, although her nudity is veiled in simple lace shawls and the only jewelry she's wearing is a single strand of pearls. However regal her pose, these homespun touches make her almost familiar -- she occupies an outpost somewhere between fantasy and reality, a true daughter of heaven and earth.

Whether the other gals behind her are mere dryads or Empresses in their own right, each postcard has elements that hearken back to the Tarot. I could lay out the Empress cards from miscellaneous decks and create the same parade of tempting flesh, redolent and generous for all eternity. The sense of comfort, immediacy, and pleasure that this card offers (or urges you to offer to others) is something that can't be faked or forced; it has to unfold naturally. However, if you need a little inspiration to get things moving, I happen to know where you can buy a bottle (if you miss the window of opportunity to order from "Ode to Aphrodite," you'll find that BPAL's site has no shortage of other gardens for you to wander through).

Just as many notes make a fragrance (or a chord, for that matter), the world's generosity, fertility, and hospitality combine to make the fair face of humanity to which we all aspire, regardless of gender. Smell, as they say, is the sense that is most connected to memory, and the craft that goes into constructing a harmoniously blended perfume requires attention to the most subtle details; wearing and enjoying one requires no such effort, though upon closer scrutiny, there is always more to discover than you thought possible.

Previously on Arcanalogue...