Ta-n-Akh Oil
Late Period alabaster perfume vessels ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 inches in height, with three "Merhet" style jars on the right, and a Merhet Nar Spikenard jar and lid on the left. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum.
by R. Shane Clayton
© 2019/25 Wandering Stars Publishing
From the King James Version of the Old Testament:
22 Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
23 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels,
24 And of cassia five hundred shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin:
25 And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil.
26 And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony,
27 And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense,
28 And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot.
29 And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy.
Those familiar with Egyptology will see that this OT passage faithfully describes the ancient Egyptian rituals of anointing their temples, sanctuaries, altars, and the statues of their god forms or Neteru with consecrated fragrant oils. (See our article The Seven Sacred Oils of Ancient Egypt.) Moses was said to have been taught priest-craft as a young man in the Egyptian temples, and the sacred Jewish Tanakh anointing oil recipe is very similar to both the Egyptian Madjet unguent and Dioscorides’ recipe for an Egyptian scented oil he called The Mendesian, ingredients-wise. I sense that this may be the lost recipe for the mysterious perfume “The Egyptian” which he describes in his list of perfumed oils. (And now you know why it’s called ‘The Egyptian’ Sacred Scents!)
In most translations of the original Hebrew, the ingredient attributed to kaneh-bosm is usually “calamus”. Abraham of Worms specifies calamus as well, likely derived from the Greek Magical Papyri (Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM - see below). To this day kaneh-bosm is translated to English as calamus in most copies of the OT, as in the KJV above. Even so, it is becoming more generally accepted that the enigmatic kaneh-bosm is actually Cannabis sp.:
“Linguistic evidence indicates that in the original Hebrew and Aramaic texts of the Old Testament the ‘holy oil’ which God directed Moses to make (Exodus 30:23) was composed of myrrh, cinnamon, cannabis and cassia.” - From the British journal New Scientist, Malyon & Henman 1980
It appears then that Abraham’s “calamus” ingredient may have been either a conflation or, even more likely, a blind - for other than that, it mirrors the Tanakh formula. This makes sense, since Cinnamon increases circulation in the skin and is a powerful agent to increase topical absorption into the bloodstream, ideal for CBD/THC. Since calamus is somewhat toxic and can induce stomach distress, cannabis would therefore be a far better candidate for kaneh-bosm when applied to the skin, or especially when ingested.
The recent discovery of a 450 BCE Judahite temple, just south of Jerusalem, with an altar with frankincense residue and a smaller altar next to it with remains of burned cannabis resin (i.e. “burnt offering” from Exodus 30:28), cements the place of kaneh-bosm as cannabis, a now-documented consecrated offering in the Jewish temple rites. In fact, we offer a version of the Tanakh oil without the calamus for those who would like to add their own terpene-fragrant kaneh-bosm cannabis oils. I discuss this temple in some detail in my upcoming book "The Woman with the Alabaster Box."
Author/researcher Chris Bennett delves deeper in his online articles and books, convincingly demonstrating that kaneh-bosm was either Cannabis indica or sativa or more likely both.
.jpg "Holy_of_Holies_in_the_Israelite_Sanctuary_at_Tel_Arad_2_(19474305708)")
The Jewish people had a long history of both living in Egypt and under Pharoah’s control in the Levant during the last several centuries BCE, and their traditions and rituals were clearly influenced by them. Knowing this, we can easily trace the use of their Tanakh anointing oil today to the ancient Egyptian religion, some of whose traditions were later assimilated by the Canaanite and Jewish religions, and vice versa in the truly Egyptian way.
Again, I believe that the Hebrew Tanakh and its analog “The Oil of Abramelin” could actually be the "lost" recipe for the fabled perfume called simply “The Egyptian” by the Greek historians - already renowned throughout the Mediterranean lands by the beginning of the 1st millennium CE, with a variation referred to as "The Mendesian" given by Dioscorides.
Interestingly enough, Ta-n-akh means “Offering to the Akh” in the ancient Egyptian language and is used to describe funerary anointing in late-period tomb and coffin texts. From Wikipedia:
"The akh or ꜣḫ "(magically) effective one”, was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief. Relative to the afterlife, akh represented the deceased, who was transfigured and often identified with light. It was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity. The akh - ꜣḫ also played a role in the afterlife. Following the death of the khat - ẖt (physical body), the ba - bꜣ and ka - kꜣ were reunited to reanimate the ꜣḫ. The reanimation of the ꜣḫ was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed s-ꜣḫ "make (a dead person) into an (living) ꜣḫ."
On the subject of religious magic involving sacred fragrances, in “The Eighth Book of Moses” c. 350 CE from the Greek Magical Papyri mentioned above, three of the Tanakh holy oil ingredients, malabathron (a species of cinnamon), cassia, and myrrh are included among the “seven sacred scents” used in a passage from a fascinating initiation ritual.
These texts are mostly coterminous with the Gnostic Gospels of Nag Hammadi and reveal a syncretic form of magic that proliferated in the early centuries CE that incorporates a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, Jewish, Hermetic and Gnostic features - so indicative of the melting pot of influences in Alexandria.
I was fortunate to have run across the work of magical symbolist Dr. Kirsten D. Dzwiza who kindly shared the graphic of her translation of this passage below. This is one of only three historical instances of “seven sacred/secret scents” I have yet to encounter, besides the popular Hindu chakra attributes and the Egyptian Seven Sacred Oils.
In regards to our story, it shows all of these scents being considered sacred in late antiquity. We find these same ingredients repeated in the Hebrew Ketoret temple incense, as well as the sacred Kepu/Kyphi temple incense, Merhet Nar spikenard perfume, and the Egyptian perfume recipes of Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides.
Note: Malabathron is a species of Cinnamomum, either malabatrum or tamala, if not cinnamon itself. According to Dioscorides (I - 63), Malabathrum from Egypt was based on beef fat and contained cinnamon; one pound cost 300 denarii. This sounds distinctly reminiscent of the temple Madjet unguent, which was considered part of the litany of Seven Sacred oils.
The Oil of Abramelin later became popular with the Western Esoteric Traditions in the 20th century after the publication of the S. L. MacGregor Mathers English translation The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage (1897), and especially via Aleister Crowley, who used a similar version of the oil in his system of Ceremonial Magick he referred to as Thelema (initiated in 1904). There are multiple recipes in use today and the oil continues to be used in several modern occult traditions.
Crowley had a rich Kabbalistic view of the ingredients that he had borrowed from the Mathers translation:
Mathers and Crowley both specify galangal, rather than the calamus of Abraham’s recipe. This gives a far more exotic and floral olfactory note, but more importantly for their sacraments (such as Crowley’s “cakes of light”), it is ingestible - calamus being hard on the stomach if taken internally. Crowley gives a huge amount of cinnamon oil in his recipe, however, which is clearly beyond toleration on the skin for most of us - and might just be another of his famously cruel blinds. (We use a 1:14 ratio in our Crowley version, though I am happy to formulate his 8:21 ratio upon request…)
“This oil is compounded of four substances. The basis of all is the oil of the olive. The olive is, traditionally, the gift of Minerva, the Wisdom of God, the Logos. In this are dissolved three other oils; oil of myrrh, oil of cinnamon, oil of galangal. The Myrrh is attributed to Binah, the Great Mother, who is both the understanding of the Magician and that sorrow and compassion which results from the contemplation of the Universe. The Cinnamon represents Tiphereth, the Sun - the Son, in whom Glory and Suffering are identical. The Galangal represents both Kether and Malkuth, the First and the Last, the One and the Many, since in this Oil they are One. … These oils taken together represent therefore the whole Tree of Life. The ten Sephiroth are blended into the perfect gold.”
He goes on...
“The Holy Oil is the Aspiration of the Magician; it is that which consecrates him to the performance of the Great Work; and such is its efficacy that it also consecrates all the furniture of the Temple and the instruments thereof. It is also the grace or chrism; for this aspiration is not ambition; it is a quality bestowed from above. For this reason the Magician will anoint first the top of his head before proceeding to consecrate the lower centres in their turn…”
“It is the pure light translated into terms of desire. It is not the Will of the Magician, the desire of the lower to reach the higher; but it is that spark of the higher in the Magician which wishes to unite the lower with itself.”
- Aleister Crowley, Magick, Book 4
He does appear well-acquainted with Exodus 30. This makes one wonder after reading if Crowley himself knew that calamus was a blind for cannabis, and was continuing the tradition of obfuscation with galangal. This seems doubtful though - if Crowley had discovered that cannabis, his beloved Thelemic “Grass of the Arabs”, was the actual ingredient of The Oil of Abramelin, I think he would have more likely waxed poetic about it. Who knows? Sometimes secrets are far more delicious when finally divulged through experience.
An interesting side note to occultists: as mentioned earlier, the ingredients of the Tanakh are very similar to the Egyptian perfumed oil recipe for “The Mendesian”, one of ten Egyptian perfumes documented by Greek historians. The chief deities of Mendes were the ram deity Banebdjedet (Ba of the Lord of Djedet), who was the Ba of Osiris, and his consort, the fish goddess Hatmehit. With their child Har-pa-khered ("Horus the Child"), they formed the triad of Mendes. (see wiki article on Mendes)
This god-form, oftentimes referred to as “the Goat of Mendes”, was Eliphaz Levi’s inspiration for his famous Baphomet and ‘The Devil’ Tarot card imagery. We would be remiss to not assume that the Greeks were likely speaking of a sacred perfumed oil associated not only with the city of Mendes, but with the temple offerings to this Egyptian god form or Netjer.
“The Egyptian” Sacred Scents Store will soon be offering some of these Egyptian perfumes including “The Mendesian”, based on the Greek formulas, so stay tuned.
For what we believe is the true Jewish Tanakh anointing oil, per Chris Bennet’s ground-breaking research on kaneh-bosm, we offer Abraham’s version of the formula without the calamus or galangal at our ‘The Egyptian’ Sacred Scents Shop. Simply warm the bottle and mix in your own favorite oil-soluble terpene-rich cannabis oils. Or you can acquire the ingredients and make your own, which in itself can and should be a magical act, as is every batch made here at Wandering Stars.
Our Oil of Abramelin formulas contain the following ingredients:
Abraham:
1/2 part Cinnamon essential oil, 1 part Myrrh essential oil, 1 part Calamus essential oil, 1 part Cassia essential oil, and 7 parts olive oil
WARNING: Do not ingest this formula as Calamus can cause stomach upset.
Crowley:
1 part Cinnamon essential oil, 4 parts Myrrh essential oil, 2 parts Galangal essential oil, 1 part Cassia essential oil, 7 parts olive oil
Offered in 30 ml, 12 ml, and 2 ml bottles.
WARNING: Cinnamon can irritate sensitive skin, so be sure to test, and go with the Ta-n-akh or Abraham formulas if in doubt.
>> MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: Our expertise lies in aromatherapy, fragrant botanical resins & essential oils, handcrafted incense, perfumes, and cosmetic skin/hair ointments & balms. Information contained on this website is to the best of our knowledge factual and backed by clinical citations, and is presented solely for your edification and enjoyment. Wandering Stars and/or 'The Egyptian' Sacred Scents is not a licensed healthcare provider and cannot give medical advice. For your own safety, do not ingest any of our products without first consulting your physician or naturopathic caregiver. Your reading this notice serves as our agreement that you will abide by this recommendation in accordance with our Terms & Conditions. <<
See also:
The Seven Sacred Oils