She made oils, soaps and herbal preparations, cooking the plants into beautiful remedies for the body and skin. But she held another secret close to her heart.
She understood the power of touch.
She knew that anointing the body could be more than nourishment. It could become ritual. It could awaken something forgotten - a woman's relationship with her own sensuality, her own pleasure, her own body.
And so she began to experiment.
On warm summer nights, beneath the Full Moon, she would anoint herself with her oils and wander through gardens of jasmine, roses and honeysuckle. She discovered that the ritual of touch could become a doorway - a portal into another kind of knowing.
Then came the vision.
Somehow, she knew that what she had created was not meant to remain a secret.
But she did not yet know who would carry it into the world.
—————
Far away, in Canada, another woman was listening.
Inarra, a High Priestess trained in the British and Irish traditions, had travelled from London to visit her family. Near their home flowed an ancient, untouched river known as Indian River.
She would wild swim there, surrendering herself to the water.
Beavers would appear beside her. Birds seemed to follow her through the river. For those moments, there was no separation between woman and wilderness - only water, earth, sky and the ancient pulse of Mother Nature.
Water had always been her element.
And then, while swimming, she received a vision.
She saw a collection of sensual herbal oils - ancient botanical wisdom reimagined for women today. A way for women to remain connected to their sensuality, even when life, circumstance or solitude had caused them to lose touch with it.
She came out of the river knowing she had been given something.
She simply didn't know where it would lead.
—————
Not long afterwards, while driving through an old Canadian town, Inarra discovered a tiny artisan shop filled with soaps, botanical oils and herbal preparations.
Behind the counter was a woman quietly pouring oils.
The Medicine Woman.
Inarra asked her:
"Have you ever made an aphrodisiac?"
The Medicine Woman looked deeply into her eyes.
"I've had a vision," she said.
Inarra smiled.
"So have I."
There are moments when coincidence stops feeling like coincidence.
The two women recognised something in one another - an instinctive knowing that they had somehow been brought together for a reason.
Inarra asked the Medicine Woman to create the recipe she had been shown.
Together they began experimenting with ancient herbs, botanicals and oils, following the thread of the vision.
They tested. They refined. They listened.
And on the Full Moon, the recipe was complete.
