The Seven Sacred Oils
Sacred perfumed oil jars with the cartouche of Thutmose III circa 1472 BCE - courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThis article is dedicated to the memory of noted scholar, Egyptologist, and esteemed member of The Danish Egyptological Society, Dr. Lise Manniche, who passed away on September 12, 2022, at 79. Her books “Sacred Luxuries - Fragrance, Aromatherapy, & Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt” and “An Ancient Egyptian Herbal” were primary resources and inspiration for this essay and my work at Wandering Stars.
The Seven Sacred Oils of Ancient Egypt
By R. Shane Clayton
© 2019/25 Wandering Stars Publishing
All Rights Reserved
The Seven Sacred Oil Jars, Left to Right:
Introduction
The “Seven Sacred Oils” is a term used by Egyptologists based upon the archaeological evidence of temple inscriptions, tomb art, oil palettes, vessels, and papyri spanning the 3,700-year history of ancient Egypt. These seven oils were known collectively as Merhet, a generic Egyptian word for vegetable oils used especially for fragrant cosmetics and consecrated anointing oils.
The word for Merhet was represented by the single distinctive jar-shaped hieroglyph below, and alabaster jars of this shape were the predominant storage vessels of choice for sacred Merhet throughout Egyptian history.
From the hazy proto-dynastic days before 3200 BCE to the official closing of the last operating temple in 537 BCE, the Egyptians consistently recognized seven primary varieties of Merhet representing each with a jar of a different shape, as shown in the header above.
The oldest of these surviving jars, dated to pre-dynastic times, were found in tunnels and chambers deep under the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, many of them carved with bafflingly high precision from extremely hard stone. Such are the pharaonic heirlooms above that were reused by Thutmose III and roughly inscribed with his cartouche nearly two millennia after they were created.
These highly revered fragrant anointing oils were often referred to in the temple inscriptions as “the Eye of Horus”, perhaps evocative of the Egyptian concept of beauty magically opening the spiritual “eye”, beauty “being in the eye of the beholder” - or, in this case, “the nose of the breather.” This is suggestive of the important link the olfactory sense has to both memory and emotion.
Most importantly, Horus' eye had been torn to pieces by his adversary Set in battle, yet was magically "rejoined" and healed by Thoth (presumably through Heka, or magic spells), thus alluding to the healing properties of the oils. Indeed, the Udjat Eye of Horus was the premier protective amulet throughout Egypt's long history and beyond.
Collectively, the seven sacred Merhet were considered indispensable elements of the temple foundation ceremonies, daily temple rituals for their gods, and most notably, the mummification process. Their fragrances were believed to magically invoke the “divine living breath” of the effective spirit - the Akh, in whatever or whoever was anointed with them.
As their names listed above suggest, some of these perfumed oils were deployed in the sanctuaries to “calm” the god or goddess as the case may be. Others played a vital role in “rejoining” the parts of the decedent’s body and “supporting” them on their journey into the afterlife. It appears that their primary use was to introduce fragrance as the “breath of life” by anointing either the statues of the gods, their depictions on temple and tomb walls, the temple itself, as well as altars and furnishings; and in this way, they were used not only to mummify the corpse of the deceased but also to bestow a divine afterlife and assist in the transition into the Duat.
The same goes for the invocations of the Neteru to coax their Akh from the Duat into their golden statues enshrined in the temple sanctuaries, through so-called “false doors,” also found in homes as stelae, and carved in tomb chambers as well. In this way, the scents of these seven Merhet in particular appear to be instrumental to its operation as a portal to travel between the tomb or temple sanctuary, and the Duat or afterlife abode.
Below: The "false door" to and from the sanctuary and the Duat, just around the corner turning right from the ritual episode above. We see Seti ofering Senetjer incense to Amun Ra, and Kepu temple incense from a special long armed censer to Amun Ra as his creative ithyphalic aspect Min, just outside the "false door."
Photos by author March 2018
Thoth bestows the Ankh as the breath of divine life to Pharaoh Seti I deified as Osiris, accompanied with an offering of fragrant blue lotus flowers and two lustral water Nemset vases - at his temple at Abydos
It’s worth noting here that another meaning for Ankh in the Egyptian language was “floral bouquet”, and that the Latin root of the word spirit is spiritus or breath, and spirare - to breathe. Thus “inspiration” is “to breathe in”. The double meaning is significant, considering that fragrance, especially that of Blue 'Lotus', was integral to the sacred science of Egyptian religious magic (see my article “Seshen - The Egyptian Blue Lotus”).
But it wasn’t just the fragrance alone. The healing properties of these oils and unguents were also highly esteemed for their cosmetic and medical applications:
"There is more detailed evidence for the use of cosmetics in Egypt than anywhere else in the ancient world. The use of cosmetics is well attested from the earliest times in the Predynastic Period, and cosmetics were particularly important to the Egyptians for practical purposes as well as for beautification. Since bathing was probably practiced in Egypt more than in some other cultures, and the hot climate was harsh, there was more necessity for the use of oils and ointments to counter the effects of heat, dust, and the consequent dryness.”“
First and foremost, the Merhet were valued as cosmetics and embalming oils, but as mentioned before, certain of these were also consecrated and deployed as fragrance offerings to the Neteru, the gods (or more correctly “divinities” or “divine principles”), in the exclusive inner sanctum of the temples, small community chapels, and household shrines. They reasoned that whatever was good for the people must certainly be good for the Neteru!
Some Egyptologists are now of the opinion that the mummification process and interment into a golden casket in human form were intended to make the body of the deceased into a statue, as it were, much like the gold statues of their god forms in the temple sanctuaries; and that anointing these with fragrant oils not only assisted in preserving the body into a statue-like form but also, via divine fragrance, brought spiritual life to the deceased, just as was accomplished by anointing the temple statues of the deity.
Again, the seven oils also appear to be instrumental to the passage through the so-called “false doors” found in many sanctuaries and tombs, suggestive that the olfactory sense may be a key to the transfer of awareness between the divine and mundane worlds. The proven utility, distinctive fragrances, and psychotropic properties of the sacred oils, unguents, and scents were thus inextricably coupled with the Egyptian spiritual belief system; indeed, it is impossible to overstate their importance to the ancient Egyptians.
Anointing with consecrated oils in the temples and tombs occurred after the “Opening of the Mouth Ritual,” both considered integral to the transformation and transfiguration of the deceased, or the statue of the god-form, into an Akh, as mentioned above.
The Opening of the Mouth ritual was called Pesesh-Kaf, after the instrument used for this ritual, psš (“instrument for the opening of the mouth”) - kꜣf (“obsidian”), patterned after a digging tool with a stone blade. It appears that the implement was a very ancient symbol, perhaps representing preparing the earth for planting the seed, and thus a metaphor for conception. The rite only ever appears as a magic spell read aloud from papyrus rolls by various priests in its depictions in certain of the Theban tombs.
The ritual was ostensibly intended to enable either the deceased or the temple statue to breathe in the fragrances of fresh-cut lotus flowers, incense, and anointing oils, as well as to magically ingest spiritualized energetic sustenance from consecrated offerings of food and drink heaped upon the temple altar or in the tomb. The first attested case of the ritual known to date is depicted in the tomb of the royal official Metjen at Saqqara circa 2600 BCE, and it was continued throughout Egyptian history.
The term “temples” is not particularly accurate anyway, as the Egyptians viewed them quite literally as the houses of the divinities, called “Per Netjer,” with worship consisting of rites to ensure that the Neteru should deign to take residence and live there in the inner sanctum.
These divine god-forms were said to be “the most fragrant beings imaginable”, so their sanctuaries and altars were kept filled with fresh-cut blue lotus, and the statues were anointed daily with these scented oils to emulate them. Incense was also burned to evoke/invoke the god-form’s divine living presence as an Akh, or “effective spirit,” spirit being akin to the breath as stated above. Pharaoh Ramses III claimed he offered more than 16,000 jars of Merhet to the Neteru during his reign.
Most Egyptian families kept shrines for their “household gods” that were sometimes integrated into the construction of their homes, and followed the same rituals there - oil residue on the archaeological remains attests to its use to make these sacred objects and images divine or “Senetjer.” The same goes for the tombs, with their depictions of the Neteru carved and/or painted on the walls - the deceased and his family brought to life in the underworld, as it were, through anointing their images with these fragrant botanical oils.
The Pyramid Texts, the oldest complete religious writings in the world, inscribed in limestone by artisans in perfect hieroglyphs in the 6th Dynasty pyramid tomb of Unas at Saqqara circa 2400 BCE (see photo below), speak directly of these Seven Sacred Oils, assumed to have been used in the funerary offerings and preparations of the body of the Pharoah.
The following is the litany of the Seven Sacred Oils from these texts (capital letters indicating instructions to the priest). This anointing ritual is the same as the one found in Teti’s tomb, also at Saqqara. From James P. Allen, (2015), Writings from the Ancient World: The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Second Edition, Society of Biblical Literature, Atlanta, Page 24:
72 Osiris Unis, I have filled for you your eye with oil. RECITATION 4 TIMES. “FESTIVAL-SCENT” (Seti Heb) OIL
73 Osiris Unis, accept the foam that is from his face. “JUBILATION” (Hekhenu) OIL.
74 Osiris Unis, accept Horus’ eye, on which he caused the devastation. PINE (Sefet) OIL
75 Osiris Unis, accept Horus’ eye which he rejoined. “REJOINING” (Nekhenem) OIL
76 Osiris Unis, accept Horus’ eye, with which he got the gods “SUPPORT” (Tuat) OIL
77 Ointment, ointment, where should you be? You on Horus’ forehead, where should you be. You were on Horus’ forehead, but I will put you on this Unis’ forehead. You shall make it pleasant for him, wearing you; you shall akhify him, wearing you; you shall make him have control of his body; you shall put his ferocity in the eyes of all akhs who shall look at him and everyone who hears his name as well. FIRST CLASS CEDAR OIL (Hat-en-Ash)
78 Osiris Unis, I have gotten for you Horus’ eye which he acquired, to your forehead. FIRST CLASS LIBYAN OIL (Hat-en-Tjhenu)"
Burning Senetjer outside the door. Opening the doors to the shrine. Naming the Deity. Kneeling and kissing the earth before the statue of the Deity. Wiping the Uraeus with Madjet and then undressing the statue. Purifying with lustral water and natron.
After this came the presentation of the altar of the food offering followed by the presentation of the symbol of eternal life, the Ankh 𓋹, held to the nose or mouth - signifying the bestowal of the spiritual breath of life to the Netjer image in its earthly sanctuary.
These acts are punctuated by offerings of two types of temple incense Senetjer and Kepu (see article Kepu Temple Incense). The statue is then dressed in fresh red, yellow, and green scarves or linen wrappings and given the sacred Menat necklace or collar, followed by a “cleansing” natron pellet offering.
These rites led to the offering of Madjet unguent, culminating with the sequential anointing/offering of these seven fragrant oils. In this way, the god and the deceased are both “akh-ified” (per the Pyramid text above) and transfigured into an “effective spirit” - the Akh. Here we see the intimate relationship between the Egyptian words Ankh and Akh.
The “False Door” to the Duat stands between these episodes in the 7 chapels at Seti’s temple at Abydos, with the Osiris chapel door being physically functional and leading into a special hall representing the Duat realm, with three chapels to Isis, Seti as Osiris, and Horus.
According to Seti’s temple bas-relief carvings, the anointing of the statues of the Neteru was done with the little finger and seems to take the form of the lightest touch - from the mid-forehead to between the eyes, very much like the Vedic or Hindu Bindi, their Ajna chakra corresponding to the pineal gland or Third Eye. In the Seti I inscriptions, it is sometimes the Uraeus cobra on the brow that is anointed, and in both the chapel of Amun and that of Ra Horakhty the motion is referred to as “wiping” in the accompanying hieroglyphic texts. Recall that "Horus eye" of Hat en Ash and Hat en Tjhenu oils were "on the forehead" of Unas inscribed on the wall to the right of his huge basalt sarcophagus..
It is worth mentioning here that our olfactory nerves are in a direct line behind the eyes positioned directly in front of the pineal and pituitary glands. The sense of smell is processed by this “olfactory bulb”, which sits between and directly connects to the two brain areas strongly implicated in emotion and memory: the amygdala and hippocampus respectively. The senses of vision, hearing, and touch do not pass through these brain areas, but being wholly dependent upon smell, taste does.
This may be why our olfactory senses and food are so singularly powerful in triggering or calming emotions and memories. Herein lies an “open secret” of the sacred science behind the offerings of consecrated oils and unguents, temple incense, cut lotus blooms, and even the food offerings on the temple altar. It speaks most especially to the anointing of oil on the forehead. It also explains the “cinnamon-buns-in-the-oven” warm and fuzzy feeling evoked by the Kepu temple incense. Interestingly, one of the elements of the Madjet anointing unguent fragrance is also cinnamon, a powerful vasodilator.
It should come as no surprise then that the fragrances of frankincense, myrrh, and blue lotus have been clinically proven to contain compounds that relieve anxiety and stress-related psychological issues and increase one’s sense of well-being, among other notable medicinal properties. These subjects deserve their own respective articles, which you can read here at “About Frankincense” and “Seshen - The Egyptian Blue Lotus.”
Various kinds of frankincense are incorporated into the Seven Sacred Oils, so my extrapolations of the different Boswellia species given in my ingredient lists are my own and are based on Manniche’s research and my intuition. The active ingredients such as insensol are the same either way. Once again, with frankincense, we see how advanced the ancient Egyptians were in their knowledge of medicinal plants and the human response to them.
Besides the very old Egyptian medical papyri, which weren’t deciphered until the turn of the 19th century, the first historical mention of Boswellia spp.’s psychoactive properties is in the Babylonian Talmud (circa 600 - 300 BCE), where it is said to have been administered in wine to prisoners with death sentences to “benumb the senses” and “not be sorry.”
Accordingly, some scholars believe it was the “gall” in the possibly psychoactive drink given to Jesus with vinegar at the crucifixion. Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) too has a similar psychoactive effect and was often infused in cheap wine by Roman soldiers and offered to crucified prisoners – possibly including Jesus (Mark 15:23). Recent scientific research has shown that combining frankincense and myrrh, both integral ingredients in these oils and the temple incense, actually has a powerful synergistic effect as a mood-enhancing analgesic medicine. (See the paper Seeing the Unseen of the Combination of Two Natural Resins, Frankincense and Myrrh.)
The religious use of fragrant anointing oils and incense in worship and funerary rites appears to have been passed down from the Egyptians to the incipient Jews living in Egypt from around 1200 BCE, and particularly Alexandria circa 500 BCE, with their prescribed ingredients and rules for use being retold in the Jewish Tanakh and Old Testament chapters of Exodus. The earliest Jewish Christians too, who first become incorporated in Alexandria, coopted the practice of anointing the dead or dying with consecrated fragrant oil, and the practice continues with the Catholic liturgies today.
Coincidentally, in one of the Greek Magical Papyri (Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM), called “The Eighth Book of Moses” c. 350 CE, seven ”secret incenses” or fragrances are listed 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 Heka magic that proliferated in the early centuries of the Common Era that incorporates a mixture of Egyptian, Greek, Jewish, Hermetic, and Gnostic features - so indicative of the melting pot of influences in Alexandria. The relationship between the number seven to fragrance and divinities is eye-catching.
I was fortunate to have run across the work of and befriended a magical symbolist, Dr. Kirsten D. Dzwiza, who kindly shared the graphic below of her translation of this passage. 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 subject of this article. In regards to our story, this shows an ancient tradition of seven scents being sacred to divinities in late antiquity.
We find these same ingredients repeated in the Hebrew Ketoret temple incense and Tanakh holy anointing oil, as well as the Egyptian Kepu Temple Incense, Hatshepsut’s favorite 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), Malabathron from Egypt was based on beef fat and contained cinnamon, and one pound cost 300 denarii. This sounds distinctly reminiscent of the temple Madjet unguent, and the anointing preceding the litany of Seven Sacred Oils as you will see later.
Image courtesy of Dr. Kirsten D. Dzwiza of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
As I point out in my two articles linked above, the Hebrew word Tanakh - denoting the Jewish religious canon and their holy anointing oil - is phonetically identical to the Egyptian Ta-n-akh, which means “Offering to the Akh”, used to describe funerary offerings in tomb and coffin texts.
This similarity is telling since the founders of the nation of Israel and writers of the Exodus passages that contain the oil and incense recipes, Moses and the Levite priests, are now known to be of Egyptian origin with Egyptian names. We wouldn’t be remiss to assume then that the Egyptian traditions, which predated the Hebrew presence by thousands of years, were assimilated by their early Canaanite forebears after so many generations of living there. I go into all of this in some detail in my upcoming book “The Woman with the Alabaster Jar”.
More on the Akh from Wikipedia:
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 akh ꜣḫ. The reanimation of the akh ꜣḫ was only possible if the proper funeral rites were executed and followed by constant offerings. The ritual was termed sa-akh, s-ꜣḫ "make (a dead person) into an (living) akh ꜣḫ.”
The Egyptologist Gertie Englund summarizes the Akh as:
The Egyptologists Jan Assmann and Massimiliano Nuzzolo tell us that:
Early sources state that the anointing of the deceased entailed pouring of the consecrated oils on the head and upon areas of the body corresponding to their “seven souls”, assumed to be based upon the seven-fold proportion standard of the Egyptian bas-relief carvings of the human form (a fascinating correspondence with the seven Chakras of Hinduism). These “seven souls” are incorporated and manifest in life together as the physical body, which dies, releasing two pairs: the Sah and Ba, the Shut and Ka. They and their representative heiroglyphs and anointing oils are:
𓅭 The Sah - the spiritual or dreaming body - Hekhenu oil
𓊸 The Ba - the soul or personality - Sefet oil
𓄣 The Ab (or Ib) - the heart, center of consciousness, thought, and emotions - Nekhenem oil
𓀾 The Shut - the shadow - Tuat oil
𓂓 The Ka - the vital spark, the witness or inner genius - Hat en Ash oil
𓅜 The Akh - the magically effective spirit or body of light - Hat en Tjhenu oil
Special offering tablets or palettes similar to the one pictured above have been discovered in ancient Egyptian tombs, especially those of the Fifth to the Sixth Dynasties at Saqqara, their depressions being repositories for small quantities of the seven oils for fingertips to dip into - with the name of each one conveniently inscribed in hieroglyphs. Dozens of these oil tablets have turned up in the course of excavations over the years and were always placed in burial chambers, along with mostly empty or desiccated jars of Merhet.
The Seven Sacred Oils, especially when used in the process of mummification, were attributed to the god Anubis, whose black color and place of importance in the embalming process allude to the dark black color of many of these oil mixtures, imparted by the bitumen and pine tar in them. Concerning pine tar, Pliny the Elder writes:
“In Europe tar is obtained from the torch-pine by heating it, and is used for coating ships' tackle and many other purposes. The wood of the tree is chopped up and put into ovens and heated by means of a fire packed all round outside. The first liquid that exudes flows like water down a pipe; in Syria, this is called 'cedar-juice,' and it is so strong that in Egypt it is used for embalming the bodies of the dead.” – Natural History circa 79 CE.
'Cedar-juice' indeed! The 6th Sacred Scent, Hat en Ash, is 'Best Cedar' and its primary ingredient is cedar oil. It also contains black naturally occuring bitumin which is black in color. The Egyptians regarded the color black, which they called “kem”, to be most sacred, representing both the black color of the fertile Nile mud, their singular source of agricultural sustenance, and interstellar space - the Duat, the afterlife underworld, signified by the hieroglyph of a black five-pointed star in a circle.
The Egyptian name for their country was Kemet - the black land, and the Neteru who were associated with the Duat, Atum, Osiris, and Khepri, are often represented with black skin (which may or may not hearken back to ancient ancestors - no one knows for sure). In the Egyptian religion, the deceased becomes “Osirified” through the embalming process of slathering these dark oils on the corpse, which turns the skin black like Osiris’. (The addition of the aspirant “h” to spell Khem, is another open secret of the ancient Egyptian magic that I may go into elsewhere, though for now, I will only suggest referring to Gardiner’s dictionary of Egyptian words for more information.)
One of the seven oils is called Tuat, meaning “of the Duat”, alluding to its relation to the anointing of Osiris, the lord of the afterlife. The night sky was regarded as the Duat or dwꜣt, the realm of the dead in ancient Egyptian mythology, again represented in hieroglyphs as a five-pointed star in a circle, as pictured above. It is telling that the 5th oil, Tuat, “of the Duat,” is attributed to the Shut or shadow soul, as the night sky is only visible to us in the earth’s shadow.
Again, the seven oils were originally used cosmetically in Egypt since prehistoric times, with the most desired and expensive of these being prized for anointing the statues of the Neteru in the daily rites, and for the anointing of the dead in the mummification processes; hence the palettes and containers of sacred oils being left in the tombs.
An explanation given in ancient papyri for their magical use was that they were “poured” onto the head of the deceased in the manner that Sokar and Isis anointed the body of Osiris, to bestow the spiritual power for his “resurrection” in the Duat, or afterlife world.
As to the “pouring” of oils on the deceased, of interest are the exquisitely carved alabaster oil jars discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun, some of which still contain residue of the oils and unguents they’ve held for over 3,344 years. Early archaeologists had long assumed that they were all full at the time of his interment, but that most of the valuable oils were haphazardly emptied from these jars by tomb robbers in an apparent inside job since the tomb was sealed right after the funeral.
The face of 44-year-old Seti I darkened by anointing oils used in mummification circa 1279 BCE - over 3,300 years ago!
The healing and anti-microbial properties of most all of the ingredients of the seven oils are now quite well known, as are the preservative (and flammable!) properties of both the bitumen and pine tar used in them. Not only were the bodies of the dead coated with these dark-colored oils but the empty cavities where viscera and brain once resided were often filled with them as well. Add to this that the wrappings were sometimes drenched too, and you can see why the best-preserved mummies, such as that of Seti I above, are a deep black color. Having lain there undisturbed for millennia, they are usually stuck to the bottom of their sarcophagi in a hardened tar-like pool of the excess oil mixture that had slowly drained off after interment. It is here that the subject of Mumia arises.
Mumia
Mumia vera aegyptiaca, as 19th century pharmacology called it, was a dark brown powder made from ground-up ancient Egyptian mummies and the scrapings from the bottoms of their coffins. Considered an exotic cure-all for hundreds of years, references to Mumia are found in the medical literature from the 8th through to the 20th centuries. Mumia or mummia is the Latinized version of mumiya, the Arabic word for bitumen, a naturally occurring form of tar or asphalt, one of the prominent ingredients in the ancient Egyptian sacred oils used in mummification.
This dark brownish-black substance, later shortened simply to Mumia, was a part of the Materia Medica of early physicians in Persia around 865 CE, who knew its medical significance since Roman times. It was primarily prescribed as a topical medication to heal wounds, bruises, and sores - and was said to be prized by the military. It is from the word mumiya that the term “mummy” originally came, since the mummies, their wrappings, and sarcophagi were blackened by this bitumen/pine-tar-based oil mixture. Etymologically, we really don’t know which came first, the mummy or the bitumen. Interestingly, the last of the Hebrew 72 names of God, representing death and rebirth, is Mumiah; and, as we show in other articles here, the early Jews and Persians borrowed heavily from ancient Egypt.
Cairo mummy seller circa 1870 by F. Benot.
Mumia later became a virtually omnipotent medical panacea, based not only on the actual medicinal properties of the bituminous and botanical substances but upon the rather strange belief in the magical healing power of ingesting actual ancient Egyptian mummies! This made it a much sought-after, hard-to-come-by, and expensive medication only affordable by the very wealthy, representing a very peculiar facet of superstition leading to what we must barefacedly call medicinal cannibalism. “Mumia” became a regular component of the Western pharmacists’ stock in trade for centuries thereafter, particularly through the Middle Ages. Sadly, an unknown number of Egyptian mummies ended up on or inside the bodies of wealthy 17th-19th-century Europeans, and countless ancient Egyptian tombs were desecrated as a result. An inevitable shortage of sources for authentic mummies from Egypt eventually resulted in the production of fakes, including dried human bodies lacking the actual active ingredients, except perhaps a thin coating of bitumen/asphalt.
With the scientific breakthroughs of the 19th and 20th centuries and the resulting scientific research-oriented approach to medicine, people gradually abandoned such questionable practices in favor of remedies and procedures whose beneficial effects can be clinically proven. Understandably, the presence of human remains in mumia put the kibosh on that possibility, and consumption of mummy-based medicines finally became a thing of the past after the 1920s. There are still bottles to be found in antique stores from the 1800s labeled “Mumia” that have the residue intact - in US pharmacies it was simply labeled “Mummy”.
The fact that it shows up in German medical catalogs as late as the early 20th century proves, however, that the efficacy of Mumia was not purely superstitious magic or placebo effect alone. It appears that in outlawing its use, modern medicine threw the baby out with the bathwater, or rather, they threw the Mumia out with the mummy. For an example of this, visit this website from the German pharmaceutical company Merck, which once collected and sold authentic Egyptian Mumia. While they are quick to mention the superstitious beliefs surrounding the panacea, they barely mention the other botanical ingredients of the sacred oils besides bitumen, much less their proven medicinal properties. (See: Powdered Mummies Used As Medicine.)
As it turns out, of course, the actual active ingredients of Mumia are to be found in a mixture of at least a few if not all of the Egyptian Seven Sacred Oils, which were liberally poured over the heads and linen-wrapped bodies of the deceased, pooling and hardening over time on the bottoms of the sarcophagus or coffin, like tar. Not having access to the recipes and ingredients for these oils at that time (these were not even discovered until the late 1800s, let alone deciphered), the only source for the early Persian and Roman physicians was scraped from the bottoms of ancient Egyptian coffins and extracted from the body cavities of the mummies where the black goo had pooled. From the temple inscriptions, we know that all seven of these oils together contain no less than 18 different ingredients, each with their healing properties - the predominant being wood pitch and bitumen.
Image courtesy Analytic Chemistry - Nondestructive Analysis of Mummification Balms in Ancient Egypt - pubs ACS.org
Now we have the technology to analyze the substances, and the scientific rundown is eye-opening since it verifies the ingredients of at least two of the seven sacred oils, Tuat (Pistachia spp and pine tar) and Hat en Ash (bitumen and cedar), as well as the Madjet unguent (beef fat). According to an article in Organic Geochemistry volume 65:1–18 · December 2013:
“A rare tiny residue in a historic 18th century pharmaceutical vessel labeled MUMIA was microscopically subsampled and analysed with Curie point pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (CP-py-GC–MS) and GC–MS. From the data (e.g. fatty acids, terpenes, triterpenoids, n-alkanes, n-alkenes, wax esters) there is strong evidence that the vessel contained authentic mummy material. All subsamples could be put into a logical context of the mummification process and its product, i.e. fibres from bandages, wrappings or filling material, conifer wood fibres as a possible part of cover material, “used” embalming material in the form of a mixture of cedrium, pistachia resin (possibly Chios turpentine) and beeswax, (hydrolysed) fat (evidently including human sebum, possibly adipocere), mummified skin or tissue (possibly treated with polyunsaturated plant oil, highly oxidised by the time of analysis) and Dead Sea asphalt with a possible admixture of some asphalt from a different source.”
See also the British Museum article “What Is The Black Goo?” and the paper “Molecular analysis of black coatings and anointing fluids from ancient Egyptian coffins, mummy cases, and funerary objects”.
Only recently, the organic contents of 31 ceramic vessels recovered from a 26th Dynasty embalming workshop at Saqqara have been identified, again using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry analyses, which adds much more to the picture. The results verify predominant ingredients similar to the earlier studies, Pistacia spp. (in Tuat) and Juniper (in Hat en Tjhenu). The vessels were labeled according to their content and use, enabling researchers to correlate organic substances with their Egyptian names and specific embalming practices, with some surprises concerning the use of the word Antiu by this time period. See “Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.” for these fascinating discoveries.
Oddly enough, there was even a popular color of paint called mummy which used mumia for its unique and earthy color, highly esteemed by Renaissance artists; which also happens to very closely approximate the color of our Wandering Stars Mumia essential oil reproduction.
I think that the ancient Egyptians would be humorously horrified at the thought of silly future “noble” people ingesting ground-up mummies when the actual healing properties were the anointing oils themselves. Meanwhile, it is highly unlikely that desiccated human bodies are medicinal in any appreciable way, nor were they really necessary to produce the artists’ pigment. The ancient Egyptians surely didn’t seem to think so, as there is no record whatsoever of such “medicinal cannibalism” in the surviving medical papyri, although there is plenty of documentation of the disinfectant and health benefits of the ingredients of their seven sacred anointing oils and even their temple incense. Altogether, a mixture of some or all of these anointing oils yields a healing emollient that the wise Persian physicians highly valued and called Mumia. Considering the proven medicinal prowess of the ancient Egyptian physicians/priests, we might wish to take another look at Mumia with fresh eyes.
(Note: Wandering Stars guarantees that our Mumia Healing Oil contains no human body parts, but rather is simply a singular mixture of our Seven Sacred Oils, which we believe to be very nearly identical in makeup to the coveted Mumia that the Persian physicians once used - minus the mummy, of course!)
Historically, the names of the seven sacred oils and their corresponding jars are well documented in the surviving art and hieroglyphs on both temple and tomb walls throughout Egypt, with each jar shape symbolically representing its contents. All were attributed and consecrated to the Netjer of fragrance and perfume, Nefertem, and the lord of embalming and funerary rites, the jackal-headed Anpu or Anubis. While all seven are first attested to together in a royal funerary context in the Old Kingdom Pyramid of Unas, they all don’t appear together again until the New Kingdom in a scene found in Queen Hatshepsut's memorial temple at Deir el Bahari, showing offering-bearers carrying them on their shoulders. After that, the practice of including these seven Merhet became fairly common in the temple/tomb inscriptions, although more often only a few different jars are depicted, or even just one, often under the deceased’s chair, that broadly represented them all as Merhet.
𓎯
Interestingly, the general hieroglyph for Merhet or vegetable oil is the same container as the seventh Hat-en-tjehenu oil. Again, this jar shape, with the flat lid tied on, was a popular representation of sacred oil depicted in tombs from all Dynastic periods, and alabaster jars of this shape became the most commonly used for Merhet throughout Egyptian history. The names of the oils go back to Predynastic times, a few being found carved on ivory tags in hieroglyphs with small holes drilled to attach them by a cord to clay jars. Among these recently discovered tags, created circa 3010 BCE and buried in the ruins of mud-brick tombs at Abydos, were also beer, wine, date syrup, honey, grains, and other oils, as well as where they were imported from. These early hieroglyphs comprise the first known use of a fully developed representative alphabet in human civilization, now known to be half a millennium older than the Sumerian cuneiform alphabet, which heretofore was considered the oldest literate civilization.
The Seven Merhet and their Jars:
Seven sacred oils jars courtesy of Egyptologists Dr. Elena Pischikova and Sheila Ann Byl
As described earlier, the seven oils are listed by name in Old Kingdom tombs at Saqqara and are also found in the New Kingdom temples Hatshepsut and Karnak in Luxor, and of Seti I at Abydos. Amazingly, along with a listing of these seven oils by name, the names of the ingredients for all seven and the recipes for several unguents including Madjet, along with recipes for the coveted temple incense called Kepu or Kapet, were discovered carved in hard sandstone on the “laboratory” chamber walls located in the late period Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu. Much scholarly research has gone into the deciphering of these since their initial discovery by Heinrich Brugsch and Johannes Dumichen in 1865, up until the present, and we can be reasonably sure of most, if not all, of the elusive identities of the ingredients. A few of these in my list of ingredients that follow are unique identifications of previously mysterious terms from my in-depth research and experimentation. I humbly invite any feedback from Egyptologists, archaeo-botanists, and perfumers on my identifications.
The following listing of the oils and their ingredients is based upon the translation of the Edfu inscriptions given by Dr. Lise Manniche in her fabulous book Sacred Luxuries, Fragrance, Aromatherapy & Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt, given in bold marked with apostrophes ‘…’, which she translated to English from Dumichen’s Edfou II published in 1885. After much online sleuthing and poring over papers and books by several other academic/scholarly researchers (whom I have credited at the end), I have approximated, elaborated upon, and added to them here, item by item. As for my identification of the different varieties of “frankincense” in these ingredient lists, some all together in one recipe, please refer to my paragraph-long discussion of ingredient #14, Senetjer in my article Kepu Temple Incense. For even more on Senetjer see my article About Frankincense.
Many of these ingredients found their way into the staple cosmetics, perfumes, and medicines used extensively throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East of late antiquity, continuing well beyond the final days of the Egyptian temples. The rare and exotic ingredients listed here and the technologies used to collect and extract them are in many cases still utilized today in contemporary perfumery and cosmetics, incense-making, aromatherapy, and natural herbalism.
Seven Sacred Oils palette from the 4th Dynasty - courtesy the Egyptian Museum Cairo
The Seven Merhet and Their Ingredients
Listed in the temple of Horus at Edfu per Johannes Dumichen and Lise Manniche:
𓋴𓌗𓍿𓉲𓎟𓎰
1) ‘Seti heb - ‘festival scent’
ingredients:
‘Sefy – bitumen’, a naturally occurring fine organic tar that is soluble in vegetable oils. Gilsonite.
‘Tekhu seeds’ - Sni.tꜣ or Wah - Likely chufa ‘seed’, ‘earth almonds” or tiger ‘nuts’ that are rhizomes from Cyperus esculentus, which were grown and eaten in ancient Egypt. Tekhu was given as the ingredient by Theophrastus, tekhu being Sanskrit for tiger. Tehu, the Egyptian pea, is similar in pronunciation and possibly related linguistically since tiger ‘nuts’ are pea-sized. Cold-pressed tiger nut oil will be used in our recipe. Various small tubers and rhizomes are also referred to as “seeds” in the Edfu and Philae incense recipes.
‘Frankincense concentrate’ – Olibanum/Frankincense oil from various Boswellia species, but likely Boswellia frereana oil, which we will use in our recipe.
‘White’ frankincense’ - Hdg, Olibanum/Frankincense resin/oil (Boswellia sacra)
‘Fir seeds’ - (seeds containing higher levels of oil than balsam - we will use fir needle oil in our recipe)
‘Fresh frankincense’ – Senetjer, Pistachia terebinthus, or, lentiscus oil - per my proprietary research
‘Is flowers’ – Iser, Tamarisk (Tamarix nilotica, gallica et al.) per my proprietary research
‘Him flowers’ – Himayt, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) per my proprietary research
𓎛𓏌𓎡𓎯 or 𓎯𓀢 𓄟 𓇳
2) ‘Hekenu’ - Hekhenu - ‘Jubilation’ oil
ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ – pine tar
Note: Long thought to be bitumen tar, now known to be pine tar from recently identified samples in tomb jars labeled “menen,” and samples taken from mummies. Recall Pliny the Elder’s earlier quote concerning pine tar, “and it is so strong that in Egypt it is used for embalming the bodies of the dead.” The root word “men” means charcoal and appears to have included other black and fragrant coniferous wood pitches that result from burning wood into charcoal. Interestingly, the Egyptian word Db ꜥ.t, found in the Edfu ingredient listing for the Kapet/Kyphi incense recipes also has a double meaning of charcoal and/or a charcoal-derived pitch product and may signify a different type of wood used, i.e. Acacia spp.
‘Fresh frankincense’ - likely Senetjer - Pistachia terebinthus or lentiscus oil per my research - but also Boswellia papyrifa or frereana may have been used in the Old Kingdom, and could be used instead. I personally prefer B. frereana in this blend.
‘Dry white frankincense’ - Hedeg - “white” Olibanum/Frankincense resin (Boswellia sacra)
‘Acacia flowers’ – Sendet. Sweet Acacia flowers (Acacia farnesiana) or cassie absolute extract, per my proprietary research
Note: The acacia was sacred to the most ancient Egyptian goddess Iusaaset, the divine feminine consort of Atum and/or Ra Horakhty - and a precursor to Isis. In older recipes the similar, though less fragrant, flowers of Egyptian native Acacia nilotica were used; however, in this recipe, they are more likely the flowers of Acacia farnesiana, from which the perfume oil “Cassie” is derived. A. farnesiana is nearly identical to A. nilotica, but it originates in Mesoamerica.
Even so, it has a long history of establishment in the Mediterranean, showing up in Ptolemaic tombs and mummies, and since the temple of Edfu is Ptolemaic, the intensely fragrant Cassie flowers would have been much preferred at the time of the inscription. It was well established in Egypt long before this time, as the presence of cassie flowers and even cocaine and tobacco were found with and in New Kingdom mummies, indicating that there was trade with Mesoamerica by Mediterranean seafarers, either directly by the Egyptians or via trade with the other seafaring Bronze Age cultures such as the Minoans.
Cassie absolute could easily be substituted for the macerated flowers for this recipe, but the small tree is both cultivated and grows wild widely in the US and even here in northern California, so they are readily available from when blooming from April to May. (It should be of further interest to note that cassie seeds and sub-bark contain low levels of endogenous 5-meo DMT and that A. nilotica seeds contain endogenous DMT.)
Please refer to my discussion concerning ingredient #7 – Cassie in my “Kepu Temple Incense” article for a full rundown on this ingredient.
𓋴𓍿𓆑𓎹
3) ‘Sefet - ‘fir oil’’ or ‘pine’ oil
ingredients:
‘wood pitch’ - Sefet - fir balsam
‘White’ [frankincense]’ – Hedeg - “White” Olibanum/Frankincense oil (Boswellia sacra)
‘Ges-fek’ – Ges-fen – Asafoetida (Ferrula foetida) per my proprietary research
‘Degem of…’ – Castor oil (Ricinus communis) per my proprietary research
Note: Breaking from the traditional canon of the order of sacred oils used for thousands of years, Sft was exchanged with Ntjw – antiu – myrrh, Commiphora myrrha, imported from the “land of Punt”, in the painted bas reliefs of offerings of the sacred oils to Amun in Queen Hatshepsut’s memorial temple in the New Kingdom. See 8) below.
𓎸𓈖𓅓𓎰
4) ‘Nesmen’ - Nekhenem – ‘Rejoining’ oil’
ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ - pine tar
‘Pine’ – A’ash - Aleppo pine oil (Pinus halepensis) and/or Terebinthine pine oil (Pinus pinaster) per my proprietary research. I use both.
‘Sefy – bitumen’ – Gilsonite
𓏏𓍯𓅱𓏏𓎰
5) ‘Tua’ – or Tuat - ‘Support’ oil. ‘Of the Duat.’
Ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ – pine tar
‘Frankincense’ - likely Sntr - Senetjer, Pistacia terebinthus resin or oil but Boswellia frereana would have been used in the Old Kingdom
‘Pine’ – A’ash - Aleppo pine oil (Pinus halepensis) or Terebinthine pine oil (Pinus pinaster) per my proprietary research. I use both.
‘White’ [frankincense]’ – Hdg - “White” Olibanum/Frankincense resin/oil (Boswellia sacra)
𓏏𓏏𓄂𓈙𓂝
6) ‘Hat-en-ash - best fir’ or ‘first-class cedar’ oil
Ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ – pine tar
‘Sefy – bitumen’ – Gilsonite
‘Fir seeds’ – Cedar seeds were used in the inscriptions in the Isis temple at Philae, and since seeds are higher in oils than resin or balsam we will use both fir needle and cedar oil in our recipes.
‘Him flowers’ - Himeyt, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) per my proprietary research
𓏏𓏏𓄂𓌙𓏍𓍿
7) ‘Hat-en-tjehenu - best Libyan’ or ‘first-class Libyan’ unguent
Ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ - pine tar
‘Fine Peresh oil’ – Juniper berry oil – Juniperus communis, oxydedrus or phoeniciana
‘Him flowers’ - Himeyt, Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) per my proprietary
research.
The Five Additional Sacred Oils:
After Unas’ Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, Hatshepsut in the New Kingdom attests to all seven oils once again in her mortuary temple at Deir El Behari. However, she deviated from the tradition by exchanging Sefet with Antiu, that being myrrh, which in many ways was a symbol of her power as a female pharaoh dedicated to the goddess Hathor. As we show later with the inscriptions from his temple at Abydos, Seti I later added three additional sacred oils: Bak, Iber, and both Madjet oil and Madjet unguent. In these, he also alludes to another fragrance, presumably from fresh-cut blue lotus, called Wadjet after the cobra goddess. Manniche also reports that, from the New Kingdom and into Ptolemaic times, there were often three to five additional ‘Sacred Oils’ added to the ‘Merhet’ lists in the temples and tombs, quoting from the translations of the lists and recipes in the Edfu Laboratory chamber. These are:
𓅓 𓏏𓆓 𓎯
8) ‘Madjet’ oil
Ingredients:
‘Best Nedgem’ – Storax - Liquidambar orientalis resin or oil, but due to its rarity in ancient Egypt usually substituted with more available Benzoin resin from Styrax spp. benzoin.
‘Lotus’ – Seshen – fresh flowers or absolute from blue lotus Nymphaea caerulea
‘White’ frankincense’- Hedeg – Olibanum/Frankincense (Boswellia sacra) resin or oil
𓅓 𓏏𓆓 𓎺
‘Madjet’ unguent
(list of ingredients from Edfu, also given by Manniche in Sacred Luxuries, separate from the Sacred Oils ingredient list)
Ingredients:
“Adj” - Ox Fat/Tallow – Rendered grass-fed beef fat – cosmetic grade tallow
“Irp” – Grape Wine
“Sebeb” - Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) resin/oil
“Tisheps” - Cinnamon
“Djalem” - Aspalathos – Cassie
“Wah” – Cyperus rhizome – Tiger nut oil
“Peresh” – Juniper berry oil
“Peret-sheny” - Pine kernels (containing more oil than the resin - we use Scotch pine oil in our recipe)
“Antiu” – Myrrh resin
“Nesti” – alkanet red dye
Note: The word Mdt or Madjet seems used ambiguously here by the Egyptians for a form of Merhet, or vegetable oil. The root of the word is “adj”, meaning animal fat, and in the case of the Madjet Unguent above, this fat was from a specially raised sacred bull, rendered into tallow and infused with fragrant oils flowers, and herbs, with myrrh being the base note. As such, we included the above excerpt from Manniche’s translation of the Madjet Unguent recipe from Edfu. It seems that the two, the blue lotus oil and the cinnamon and myrrh unguent, were inextricably linked by the name.
According to Lise Manniche, the pressed oil of myrrh resin, called Antiu in the New Kingdom, was also called Madjet, the inclusion of myrrh inferred by the name in the Madjet oil ingredients from Edfu she lists above. She also notes in Sacred Luxuries that “By compressing myrrh (ntjw or antiu), a fragrant liquid (mdt) was obtained, called stacte by the Greeks.”; and also “in the pharaonic texts, the liquid expressed from the myrrh, which may itself be a perfume, is under the name of mdt (madjet), called stakte by the Greeks, which in Ptolemaic Period texts is a composite preparation, now apparently called bss (bes) instead of stakte.” Stacte (Greek: στακτή, staktē) and nataph (Hebrew: נָטָף, nataf) are names used for one of the ingredients in Solomon's Temple incense, the Ketoret, specified in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 30:34); and while evidence points to myrrh, there is also evidence that up to a dozen variations with additives such as Storax were used in the recipe. (See the Wikipedia article on Stacte)
This “composite” preparation could be the semi-solid conical unguent form based upon sacred bull tallow as a carrier, rather than oil, which substance was itself generically called adj or Madjet, in distinction to Merhet – vegetable oils. These cone-shaped, perfumed unguents are seen placed upon the heads of feast-goers and images of the deceased and others in temples, tomb art, and papyri, usually accompanied by fresh-cut blue lotus flowers, and are often depicted in tall jars with omphalos-shaped red-dyed unguent as offerings to the Neteru in the temple ruins. These cones didn't appear in Egyptian art until the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, who, as we can see, really loved her sacred oils, unguents, and incense - most especially myrrh! The Temple of Seti I at Abydos has particularly notable instances of the cone-shaped Madjet unguent, which will be shown in the Addendum below in photos and translations of the hieroglyphs of the 29th Episodes depicting the oil offerings from the Chapels of Amun Ra and Ra Horakhty.
In most tomb paintings, these cones are not dyed red like Seti’s, but rather appear to have red/orange myrrh oil poured over them like chocolate syrup on vanilla ice cream, often depicted as melting down over their wigs and clothing, staining their white linen garments red/orange. While Egyptian art suggests this is so, no archaeological record of them had ever been found, that is until 2019 at Amarna with the discovery of two mummies wearing cones on their heads. But these appear to be hollow beeswax caps, and no botanical oil or grease residue was found. It’s still a mystery for sure. (See New Evidence Suggests Ancient Egyptian Head Cones Were Real.)
Tomb painting depicting the Madjet unguent cone on the head of the mummified deceased with blue lotus bloom inserted, supported by Anubis with mourner at his feet. Note the Pesesh-Kaf opening of the mouth implement, Hekhenu oil jar, and leopard skin robe, denoting a priest.
This form of cone-shaped and dyed perfume unguent, while being a semisolid ointment or salve, perhaps encased in beeswax, still falls under the category of Sacred Oil in these temple lists. As for our reproduction ingredients, we will stick to the Edfu lists given by Dr. Manniche above.
Note that the Madjet unguent recipe does not include Seshen or blue lotus, but does contain myrrh, which the Madjet oil does not, the reason likely being the traditional insertion of a fresh lotus flower through the unguent or held to the noses of unguent-wearing celebrants (depicted below). It appears then that the Madjet oil was for use in conjunction with the unguent when lotus blooms were not readily available, but that the lotus scent was considered an integral part of the Madjet offering, thus the identical name for the lotus-infused oil. I’m just guessing of course.
Detail of a funerary banquet scene in the 18th Dynasty tomb of Nebamun, c. 1390-1352 BCE. Each lady is holding a lotus flower or buds and sports a lotus petal broad collar and matching headband, with a bloom inserted into the perfumed Madjet unguent cone on their head, dripping with myrrh oil over their elaborate wigs, drenching their white linen dresses with its orange-yellow color. Notice the lotus offered to one girl’s nose. Photo courtesy of the British Museum, London.
Inspired by this, I have concocted an attar with both blue lotus and myrrh, with a quite delightful effect that incorporates green olfactory notes of fresh-cut blue lotus along with the sublime earthy fragrance of myrrh. I call it Wadjet, after the serpent goddess mentioned in the sacred oil texts in the Chapels at Seti I’s temple at Abydos, given in the Addendum to this article. Wandering Stars also offers 100% Egyptian Blue Lotus Absolute in our Sacred Scents Store.
𓅡𓈎𓆭
9) Bak - ‘Moringa oil’ – or Ben oil
Ingredients:
‘Menen – wood pitch’ – pine tar
‘White frankincense’ – Hedeg – Olibanum/Frankincense (Boswellia sacra) resin or oil
While not listed as an ingredient, being named Bak makes it clear that moringa oil is undoubtedly the carrier of this oil, and likely was also used as a carrier in at least some of the first seven, as our oil reproductions are. Either Moringa oliefera or peregrina may have been used, but for this sacred oil, in particular, I have chosen the less common peregrina since I have a source in Oman for now. Interestingly, the two ‘active’ ingredients of this oil are black and white, respectively, a kind of insider’s nod to the concept of balanced polarity.
It is noteworthy that Moringa oil was regarded highly enough in its own right by the New Kingdom, as in Seti I’s magnificent temple at Abydos, to be added to the traditional canon of the big Seven Sacred Oils. Moringa oil has a long and ancient record of being valued in folk medicine throughout the Mediterranean, Europe, and Asia and is noted for its long shelf life and stability. (See my article About Moringa Oil.)
𓂋𓃀𓇋𓎺
10) Ibr/Iber
Ingredients:
Iber – Labdanum or ladanum oil or resin – (Cistus ladanifer and/or Cistus criticus)
Note: The oil of Labdanum or Ladanum is included in the list of the offering of the seven sacred oils along with Bak and Madjet in the 29th chapters in the chapels of the god forms Amun and Ra Horakhty in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. It was not included in the recipes at Edfu, so all we know is the sole ingredient Labdanum. It could be that having but a single ingredient besides the carrier, no list or recipe was deemed necessary. For our version, it will simply be Labdanum essential oil in a Moringa oil carrier. See the Amun and Ra Harakhty offering texts at the end for reference.
In addition to Seti I’s list of ten sacred oils, the Edfu temple list adds two more “Merhet”, once again from Manniche’s Sacred Luxuries:
𓏏𓈖𓂝𓅘 and 𓋴𓊹𓍿𓂋𓃉
11) Ntjw/Antiu and 12) Sntr/Senetjer
Usually appearing as two jars tied together in several Old Kingdom tombs and in New Kingdom inner sanctuary temple reliefs - literally “Frankincense and Myrrh”, we see the ancient Egyptians were well aware of their synergistic properties, where the two together yield more than the sum of their constituent parts (Seeing the Unseen of the Combination of Two Natural Resins, Frankincense and Myrrh). These depictions of “double jars” put them together in place of Nekhenem oil framing the false door in the Old Kingdom tomb of Meshu at Saqqara, pictured earlier.
Ingredients:
Antiu – Myrrh resin or oil Commiphora spp.
Senetjer - Pistachia terebinthus resin/oil as identified from the Amarna pottery shard samples; also Boswellia spp. resin/oil
Note: Refer to my Article on Kepu and the paragraph concerning ingredient #14 – which discusses Senetjer, Antiu, Nenib, and Khar, as well as the note on Antiu in oil #8 above. Some sources suggest that these jars may have contained raw resin tears or clumps for use directly as burned incense, due to the use of the terms Antiu and Senetjer together. Others posit that they were more likely resin/oils as pure essential oil extractions or dissolved in Balanos or Moringa oil carriers since both are listed as sacred oils and considered unified with the Merhet. Often only Antiu is listed, suggesting it’s use alone, though perhaps in tandem with unnamed Senetjer by proxy as with Madjet oil; but the two were never mixed in one container. Senetjer is only depicted alone when burned as incense or solid resin labeled in a jar.
Since these two jars bound together are attested as early as the 4th Dynasty (see the false door photo at the beginning of this article), we might assume then that antiu, in this case, was still regarded as myrrh, and should be considered as such for the sake of the reproduction of these two in tandem. The representation of two jars bound together shows that the ancient Egyptians were very likely aware of the pharmacological synergy of the two. Again, refer to the paper Seeing the Unseen of the Combination of Two Natural Resins, Frankincense and Myrrh. Meanwhile, the question of the contents being burnable incense resin or fragrant anointing oil (or both!) is still up in the air (pun intended).
Throughout the New Kingdom texts, especially with Hatshepsut, Antiu was myrrh and taking the place of the 3rd sacred oil Sefet, fir or pine oil, in her memorial temple. Like Manniche, some scholars feel that, by the time of the Ptolemaic temples, and based upon the 11 forms of Antiu given at Edfu, the term had become broadly used for any natural resin incense or resin oil. This appears to have been recently verified by analysis of the contents of containers labeled Antiu discovered at a 26th Dynasty Saqqara embalming room. (See Nature article “Biomolecular analyses enable new insights into ancient Egyptian embalming.” for more on these fascinating discoveries.)
This well-preserved mummification facility had dozens of intact labeled jars that contained enough material to test with gas chromatography. While the primary botanical residue in the jars labeled Senetjer was unsurprisingly Pistacia sp.; quite surprising was the presence of Elemi - Canarium luzonicum from the Philippines, and Dammar, a gum resin obtained from various genera of the tree family Dipterocarpaceae in India and Southeast Asia, both also labeled Senetjer. Meanwhile, the jars labeled “Antiu”, contained no myrrh at all! Instead, their contents were cedar and juniper, the primary ingredients of two of the Seven Sacred Oils, Hat en Ash and Hat en Tjhenu. This means that by the late period at Saqqara the term “Antiu” can no longer be viewed as myrrh, having become a term of function rather than an ingredient, just as Lise Manniche suggests. Meanwhile, here we see an emphasis on Pistacia spp. as Senetjer, as well as evidence of the brisk international maritime trade of related Burseraceae resins from the faraway Asian Pacific in the 26th Dynasty!
As for the Greek perfume recipes which simply call for “resin”, we may safely assume they meant either Boswellia or Pistacia species; considering the Saqqara discoveries, it could very well be that Antiu was the term they translated from. In this case, “resin” could be any of those mentioned above, in the very broad and generic spirit of the Ptolemaic use of the term Antiu!
I do find it significant that these two resins, frankincense and myrrh, are colored white and red respectively – thus signifying the Union of Upper and Lower Egypt, an oft-recurring theme in Egyptian temple art. Here too we might note that Hedeg or white frankincense (which I identify as Boswellia sacra) was associated with the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the serpent goddess Nekhbet, as well as semen and the ithyphallic male fructifying god Amun – Min. On the other hand, Antiu, or myrrh, being red, was associated with the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt and the protective serpent goddess Wadjet, the menses, and the female fertility Goddess Hathor. Colored red like blood, it was particularly sacred to Hathor’s martial counterpart Sekhmet. The two together form the Pschent or Sekhemti Crown of Horus and, in turn, the Pharaoh, as attested by the ancient megalithic stone statues of the great Ramesses II all along the Nile Valley.
Carrier Oils
While the foregoing list of ingredients from Edfu temple for the sacred oils does not explicitly include a carrier oil, except for that implied by ‘Bak’, ‘Ben’ or Moringa oil, or beef tallow ‘Adj’ in the Madjet Unguent recipe, it should be considered a given for most if not all of them when considering the ingredient materials, some few requiring at least a process of maceration/infusion, if not distilling or extraction of essential oils, such as is suggested for myrrh earlier. As those who work with essential oils know, most need to be diluted to 20-30% to work with them safely, effectively, and economically.
The practice of diluting concentrated essential oils and absolutes in carrier oils as “attars” or perfumes commercially goes at least as far back as the early Bronze Age, as shown by the fairly intact ruins of an ancient industrial perfumery in Cyprus, buried by an earthquake in 1850 BCE and discovered in 2007. It is clear from the archaeological record that Egypt and Cyprus were trade partners for at least a millennium before this, and while scholars may debate who might have been the first to develop this technology, these processes were certainly used with the sacred perfumed oils of the Egyptians. This shows the distillation of fragrant botanicals as an ancient tradition that has proven remarkably resilient and is quite alive and well today in the contemporary arts of perfumery, incense making, and aromatherapy, all of which can trace their origins to ancient Egypt.
It should be of passing interest to note here that the first use of the word perfume was its ancient Latin root “par fumum,” meaning “through smoke”, originally used to describe any fragrant smoke from burning materials - primarily those used as incense or for disinfectant fumigation. Here the distinction arises where incense is the material burned, perfume the fragrance released, and fumigation the active biological properties of the smoke and/or fragrance. (See my Kepu Temple Incense article for more on ancient Egyptian incense.) Perfume proper then would be the olfactory transmission of fragrance without burning, i.e. whether via a carrier like oil, alcohol, or smoke.
The use of carriers for the sacred oil recipes is supported by the recipes for the ten Egyptian perfumes, as preserved in the writings of several notable ancient Greeks, including Theophrastus, protégé of Plato, who wrote during the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy I circa 300 BCE. Those given by Dioscorides in his great treatise translated from Greek into Latin - De Materia Medica - are the most detailed, and the writings of both Pliny the Elder and the physician Galen help to flesh out the recipes even further. All three were contemporaries of the 1st century CE and the final days of Dynastic Egypt, and all four describe mostly the same essential oils and resins, flowers, and seeds, in carriers of either balanos oil, olive oil, or the oil of Moringa oleifera (from Morocco) or peregrina (from Saudi Arabia), depending on the recipe.
Historically then, “balanos oil,” which to my knowledge at the time of this writing is not available in the USA, appears to have been the most preferred carrier in the Greek recipes for at least some of the perfumes, likely because of its stability and longevity - especially for the elites who could afford it. Where balanos might be preferred for this reason in the ancient Greek recipes for the Egyptian perfumes, Wandering Stars uses the very similar argan oil (Argania spinosa), which is from nearby Morocco and was likely available in Egypt too, though as yet remains unidentified by name in ancient Egyptian artifacts. Quality Moringa oil, also called Ben or Bak, appears to have been the preferred oil by the ancient Egyptians as it is very nearly odorless, feels great on the skin and hair, it blends well with many different fragrances. Olive oil, the carrier oil of Tanakh, has a light but distinct fragrance that does not blend satisfactorily with all fragrances although is quite satisfactory in this case.
Several of the ten Egyptian perfumes were already well-known and famous around the Mediterranean by the 1st Century CE, indicating a long tradition of perfume-making in ancient Egypt, which necessarily included the importation of rare botanicals on a global scale and the exportation of the finished product in trade with nearby civilizations. I have already formulated five: The Mendesian, Metopion, Susinon, Irinon, and Mursinelaion. I believe that the oil the Greeks simply called “Aegyptos” - “The Egyptian” was likely the same as the Hebrew Tanakh holy anointing oil.
Fairly recently, two Berlin Egyptologists, Dr. Dora Goldsmith, and Dr. Sean Coughlin, have also worked on two of the Greek recipes, yielding “The Mendesian” as well as “Metopion” reproductions, working under the auspices of archaeologists Robert Littman and Jay Silverstein. (see Cleopatra’s Ancient Perfume Recreated) I am looking forward to comparing our results. Dora has also attempted to recreate Madjet cones as well. Interestingly, these three perfumed unguents all share a heavy cinnamon olfactory note, as does The Hebrew Holy Oil Tanakh. I will soon be releasing reproductions of these five, along with five others whose recipes were recorded by the Greek historians Pliny the Elder and Dioscorides.
Thus, for the sake of accuracy, Wandering Stars sacred and perfumed oil reproductions use carriers of either Moringa oleifera or peregrina oil, virgin green olive oil, and/or Argania spinosa oil, at a perfume dilution rate of between 20% to 30%, depending upon the oil strength and the particular recipe. Our Egyptian Seven Sacred Oils, Five Elemental Oils, and Merhet Nar–Spikenard Oil are all formulated with a Moringa carrier, while our Ta-n-Akh oil uses Mediterranean olive oil.
New Kingdom alabaster oil/perfume jars, photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Conclusion
After entering the tombs of ancient Egypt, archaeologists soon discovered that, preserved for thousands of years under desert sand or in the dry cool air of the sealed and undisturbed underground tomb chambers, the painted reliefs, inscriptions, statues, and fetishes showed evidence of having been anointed with oils. Egyptologists tell us that this was ostensibly performed to magically bring the images and inscriptions to life and make them divine by the magic (Heka) of their properties and fragrances. Archaeologists have since discovered that the same anointing ceremonies occurred not only within their tombs and great temples but also on home altars and stelae niches in the ruins of New Kingdom houses at Dier El Medina and El Amarna. Recent excavations have also revealed that ceremonial oil jars were buried in caches under the corner foundations of several temples, most notably Hatshepsut’s memorial temple at Dier el Bahari and Hathor Temple at Dendera.
The prolific inscriptions and bas-relief carvings of the pharaohs making offerings of incense and unguents/oils to the Neteru in all of the temple sanctuaries attest to the primacy of scent in the sacramental repertoire of the temple, and in turn to the spiritual life of the people. The Egyptian words themselves say so much: Sntr or Senetjer, the “Fresh Frankincense” in the foregoing recipes, literally means “of the divinities”, and the function of the anointing ceremonies was called Seneteri – “to make divine”.
The ancient Egyptians were seafaring and megalith-building people with an advanced grasp of astronomy, mathematics, harmonics, physics, architecture, art, anatomy, psychology, and medicine. Our contemporary technologies would be challenged to duplicate or reconstruct many of their megalithic works today. We can only assume the same goes for their religious practices - and these sacred oils were considered indispensable to the three most important aspects of Egyptian spiritual life: 1) the bringing of the god-forms into manifestation within the temples, in the tombs, and upon household altars, 2) the purification of the pharaoh, priests and initiates entering the temple and tombs, as well as those who worshiped at and consecrated their household altars, and 3) the cleansing, embalming, and “Osirification” of the dead for interment and preparation for the afterlife.
Additionally, ancient Egyptian medical texts such as the Ebers Papyrus list various diseases and their treatments that utilized an array of remarkably advanced surgical interventions, supplemented by natural herbal remedies that include several of the Merhet ingredients listed here - suggesting a longstanding understanding of practical medicine. In addition to these physical treatments, Egyptian physicians/priests integrated spiritual healing rituals, prayers, invocations, and ceremonial magic (Heka) with their medicine - underscoring their understanding of the connection between physical/mental health and spirituality. This holistic approach to medicine, blending empirical knowledge with mystical elements, highlights a surprisingly deep understanding of human biology and psychology - coming to light only now after thousands of years buried in the shifting Sahara sand.
We should also pay heed to the story of Mumia, and the long history of its use in topical and internal healing medicine. I have only begun to test the mixture on myself and willing others, and the results are notably very positive so far for small wounds, bug bites, and rashes. Based upon the temple laboratory inscriptions, the same healing properties go for the Madjet and Nudj unguents I have reproduced. Over the past 5 years, my Wandering Stars clients and customers have discovered for themselves the powerful emollient and remarkable healing and moisturizing properties of these oils and unguents, for skin as well as hair care - and so I hope you might be inclined to visit my 'The Egyptian' Sacred Scents Store to try some too!
And so, the scents of the sacred oils and unguents, along with the fragrance of copious fresh-cut blue lotus flowers (Nymphaea caerulea) and the temple incenses, were considered to have great magical powers in the ancient Egyptian spiritual belief system and were venerated above all of the other temple and tomb offerings and libations. They had an economic value to match, which drove their lucrative temple perfume industry and a brisk trade not only between the local Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures, but with Africa, India, Asia, and, apparently, even the Americas.
It is almost beyond belief that we should be so fortunate as to have the ingredient lists and recipes for these very ancient fragrant oils, some of which were still a mystery up until very recently. My attempts at reproduction may be imperfect, of course. Still, I believe that they will be quite close enough to evoke the harmonic olfactory and healing power of these mixtures, developed far back in the very hazy past of the earliest civilization, and used for the highest spiritual purposes for over 3,500 years with little deviation. I am quite new to the art… perhaps my efforts may spark the curiosity of professionals in the olfactory/perfumery fields whose greater experience and insight may further refine these mixtures, and look forward to hearing from you.
Again, it’s perhaps impossible to overstate the importance of these sacred scents to the ancient Egyptians. In consideration of their prodigious feats in art, architecture, astronomy, and medicine, and the sacred science of spiritual knowledge and symbolism that supports them, perhaps we should take a closer look at these powerful olfactory “medicines”, and begin experimenting with them in our contemporary practices of cosmetology, aromatherapy, healing arts, and spiritual work. All in all, they are simply divine to the nose, skin, and hair - whatever your interest may be.
Sacred Luxuries (Fragrance, Aromatherapy & Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt) – by Lise Manniche, Cornell University Press
An Ancient Egyptian Herbal – by Lise Manniche, University of Texas Press
The Essence and Use of Perfume in Ancient Egypt – by Sheila Ann Byl, University of South Africa
The Sacred Scents - Examining the Connection Between the ʿNtjw and Sfṯ in the Context of the Early Eighteenth Dynasty Temples – by Katarzyna Kapiec, Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Kyphi – The Sacred Scent – by Karl Vermillion, self-published
The Perfume of Cyprus - from Pyrgos to François Coty – by Maria Rosaria Belgiorno, de Strobel publisher
The Significance of Petroleum Bitumen in Ancient Egyptian Mummies – by K. A. Clark , S. Ikram and R. P. Evershed, Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
Ancient Egyptian Medicine – by John F. Nunn, University of Oklahoma Press
Codex of Ancient Egyptian Plant Remains – by Christian de Vartavan, Arminee Arakelyan & Victoria Asensi Amorós, SAIS Academic Books, London
Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs – by François Gaudard, Chapter 10 of Visible Language - Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond, Oriental Institute Museum Publications Number 32,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Fragment of a Graeco-Egyptian Work Upon Magic - from a Papyrus in the British Museum – edited by Charles Wycliffe Goodwin MA, Cambridge University
The Sacred Magic of Egypt – by Rosemary Clark, Llewellyn
Sacred Space and Sacred Function in Ancient Thebes – edited by Peter F. Dorman and Betsy M. Bryan, Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization vol. 61, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt – by John Anthony West, Quest Books, Theosophical Publishing House
Symbol and the Symbolic – Ancient Egypt, Science and the Evolution of Consciousness – R. A. Schwaller de Lubisc, Inner Traditions
The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos – by Amice Calverley, The Egyptian Exploratory Society
Temple Ritual at Abydos - by Rosalie David
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts – by James P. Allen, Society of Biblical Literature
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The Seven Sacred Oils of Ancient Egypt – © 2019/25 R. Shane Clayton / Wandering Stars Publishing
All Rights Reserved
Wandering Stars is dedicated to expounding the Sacred Science of Ancient Egypt
In memory and in honor of John Anthony West
Born July 9, 1932 - Wested February 6, 2018
AUM