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Friends! If you felt left out of our summer travel plans (SDCC and Midsummer Scream were outstanding!) then perhaps the following will make it up to you: a cluster of small scent collections serving as a veritable sampler platter of the best 2017 has to offer. Firstly, the path of this month’s solar eclipse has inspired a Limited Edition series of thirteen scents, in addition to our usual Lunacy fare -- Harvest Moon 2017 to set you soaring into September, and Single Note: Honeysuckle to make sure you turn every head along the way. We’re also rolling out the long-awaited next installment of Neil Gaiman’s 15 Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot, bringing the number of scents in this collection up to 7. These bottles, accompanied by an actual tarot card drawn by Madame Talbot, will raise funds for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Last but far from least, the latest winner of our #BPAL7WordStory contest (ENVY Edition) has finally been announced… and you’re gonna want to sniff those words. In all, that’s a gallery of 19 new creations to wander through as the world outside swelters and the sun itself threatens to go out. On Monday, 21 August 2017, all of North America will experience an eclipse of the sun, with a total eclipse stretching from Oregon to South Carolina. During this event, the moon will completely cover the sun, and the sun’s corona will extend its golden tendrils from behind a shadowed veil. Solar eclipses have been held responsible for the fall of empires, the onset of wars, the birth and death of great people, and the onset of terrible plagues and natural disasters. Is this rare and awe-inspiring event an omen? Grab your nearest soothsayer or augur; it’s big business for seers this year! This series is a paean to this once in a lifetime event: an amber-gilded sampling of the poetry, prose, notable persons, mythology, and historical accounts surrounding solar eclipses. ++ SONGS OF MIDDAY DARKNESS ALL RUINOUS DISORDERS These late eclipses in the sun and moon portend no good to us. Though the wisdom of nature can reason it thus and thus, yet nature finds itself scourged by the sequent effects. Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide, in cities mutinies, in countries discord, in palaces treason, and the bond cracked ’twixt son and father. This villain of mine comes under the prediction—there’s son against father. The king falls from bias of nature—there’s father against child. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves. Find out this villain, Edmund. It shall lose thee nothing. Do it carefully.—And the noble and true-hearted Kent banished, his offense honesty! 'Tis strange, strange. - William Shakespeare, King Lear Amber, bergamot, and honeyed saffron blackened by smoked oudh, patchouli, ti leaf, scorched thistle, leather, and yew. DISASTROUS TWILIGHT As when the Sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams, or from behind the Moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. - John Milton, Paradise Lost Star-touched blue amber, gurjum balsam, pale orris, Somalian myrrh, benzoin, red sandalwood, and ylang ylang. ECLIPSES BE Eclipses be – predicted – And Science bows them in – But do one face us suddenly – Jehovah’s watch – is wrong. - Emily Dickinson Rose amber, carnation, and clove. THE SUN HAS PERISHED …and the Sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist hovers over all. - Homer, the Odyssey An evil mist hovers over all: Tunisian amber, wilted asphodel, myrrh, and smoke. ++ HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, LANDMARKS, AND PERSONAGES 18 JUNE 1860 On this date, the first wet plate photograph of an eclipse was taken. Shimmering amber, collodion, silver nitrate accord, and white lavender. NOTHING IS UNEXPECTED, NOTHING IS FORESWORN Nothing is unexpected, nothing is foresworn and Nothing amazes now that father Zeus the Olympian veiled the light to make it night at midday even as sun was shining: so dread fear has overtaken men. From this time on everything that men believe will be doubted: may none of us who see this be surprised when we see forest beasts taking turns in the salted field with dolphins, when the echoing waves of the sea become Dearer to them than the sand, and the dolphins love the wooded glen - Archilochus Red amber and heady red wine, benzoin, ash, and bourbon vanilla. THE DRUNK ASTRONOMERS Credit for some of the first recorded accounts of eclipses are attributed to the legendary Drunk Astronomers, Ho and Hsi, circa 2137 BCE. Ho and Hsi were royal astronomers in the court of Chung K’ang. They were in charge of predicting the celestial dance – all movements of the Heavenly Bodies. They were also reprobates, and spent a fair amount of their time in debauch, drinking and carousing. In a drunken stupor – though they knew an eclipse was imminent – they failed to notify the emperor of the event, and they failed to perform the sacred rites that would prevent the celestial dragon from consuming the mighty sun. They were summarily decapitated for creating chaos and confusion in the celestial chain by leaving their duties unperformed. Here lie the bodies of Ho and Hsi, Whose fate, though sad, is risible; Being slain because they could not spy The eclipse which was invisible. Jasmine tea, blood musk, and pale yellow amber. IN HIDEOUS DARKNESS The elements manifested their sorrow at this great man's departure from England. For the Sun on that day at the 6th hour shrouded his glorious face, as the poets say, in hideous darkness, agitating the hearts of men by an eclipse; and on the 6th day of the week early in the morning there was so great an earthquake that the ground appeared absolutely to sink down; an horrid noise being first heard beneath the surface. - Historia Novella, William of Malmesbury on the death of Henry I Golden amber and ambergris, sage and white cedar, rockrose, bourbon tobacco, and vetiver. MABEL Mabel Loomis Todd is probably best known as the first editor of Emily Dickinson's poetry and editor of publications of Dickinson’s posthumous works. She was also a fearless and experienced adventuress, eclipse chaser and astronomer, and trekked over the globe locating unobscured sites to witness solar eclipses. She published Total Eclipses of the Sun in 1894, a list of past and future total solar eclipses, and recorded her experiences in her travels through painting and journals. Rose-tinted amber, golden chypre, ambergris, tobacco leaf, and clove. THE SUN IN ANGER SWORE And the moon in haste eclipsed her, and the Sun in anger swore He would curl his wick within him and give light to you no more. - Aristophanese, Chorus of Clouds A withdrawn, seething red amber spiked with dragon’s blood resin, black pepper, red musk, and red oudh. OIL AND PITCH It has been known since antiquity that looking directly at an eclipse can cause serious damage to the eyes. Islamic scholar, Al-Biruni, observed that you could minimize the damage by viewing an eclipse reflected in the surface of still water. In his Naturales Quaestiones, Seneca observed, "Whenever we want to watch an eclipse of the Sun we set out basins filled with oil or pitch, because the heavy liquid is not easily disturbed and so preserves the images it receives." Amber swirled in opoponax, black labdanum, and poplar tar. THE THALES ECLIPSE In the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day became night. And this change of the day Thales the Milesian had foretold to the Ionians laying down as a limit this very year in which the change took place. The Lydians however and the Medes, when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them. - Herodotus, on a prediction of by Thales of Miletus Red amber and leather, patchouli, champaca flower, frankincense, oudh, castoreum accord, and black musk. ++ BIBLICAL CATASTROPHES The Bible is filled with the eclipse’s ill-omens. Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s blood-red moons and midday darkness have indicated to Biblical historians that the date of the crucifixion was November 24th AD 29 (solar eclipse) or April 3rd AD 33 (partial lunar eclipse). THE CURTAIN OF THE TEMPLE WAS TORN IN TWO By now it was about midday and a darkness fell over the whole land, which lasted until three in the afternoon; the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus gave a loud cry and said, 'Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit'; and with these words he died. Radiant golden amber suffused with holy incense smoke compounded from acacia, myrrh, cassia, balsam, frankincense, cinnamon, onycha accord, and galbanum. ++ 15 PAINTED CARDS FROM A VAMPIRE TAROT V. THE POPE This is my body, he said, two thousand years ago. This is my blood. It was the only religion that delivered exactly what it promised: life eternal, for its adherents. There are some of us alive today who remember him. And some of us claim that he was a messiah, and some think that he was just a man with very special powers. But that misses the point. Whatever he was, he changed the world. Life everlasting: clove-smoke, benzoin, rose maroc, Jerusalem cedar, cistus, and frankincense. VII. THE CHARIOT It was genetic engineering at its finest: they created a breed of human to sail the stars: they needed to be possessed of impossibly long life-spans, for the distances between the stars were vast; space was limited, and their food supplies needed to be compact; they needed to be able to process local sustenance, and to colonise the worlds they found with their own kind. The homeworld wished the colonists well, and sent them on their way. They removed all traces of their location from the ships’ computers first, however. To be on the safe side. The scent of white-hot metal and stardust, limned with glowing bergamot aldehyde. X. THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE What did you do with the doctor? she asked, and laughed. I thought the Doctor came in here ten minutes ago. I’m sorry, I said. I was hungry. And we both laughed. I’ll go find her for you, she said. I sat in the doctor’s office, picking my teeth. After a while the assistant came back. I’m sorry, she said. The doctor must have stepped out for a while. Can I make an appointment for you for next week? I shook my head. I’ll call, I said. But, for the first time that day, I was not telling the truth. An antiseptic white scent, splattered with blood. ++ BPAL 7 WORD STORY ENVY “Galatea wept as Pygmalion carved new statues.” -- Tyler Butler Marble-white sandalwood, vanilla blossom, and orris root veined with whorls of ambergris accord, rose-touched with life, slowly shattering tears of bitter carrot seed and cistus. ++ A LITTLE LUNACY HARVEST MOON 2017 Harvest Moon is celebrated in almost every culture, and the bounty of the season is marked in a myriad of ways. Harvest Moon touches the Equinox, the festival of Janus, the culmination of Homowo, the "crying of the neck" in Cornwall, and the Women's Festival of the Moon. This is a day that celebrates abundance and beauty, fertility and progress, and the light of this full moon blesses new undertakings and reunites lost loves. The Harvest Moon, by definition, is the Full Moon that falls closest to the Autumnal Equinox, and thus, it shares some of that Sabbat's characteristics. This Full Moon was thus named because it rises within half an hour of the sun's setting, in the Northern Hemisphere, and at this time farmers are able to work longer into the night by the light of this Moon. As the year draws to a close, the Full Moon rises an average of fifty minutes later each night, with the exception of a few nights surrounding the Harvest Moon, which only rises 10-30 minutes later. This moon is also, to the human eye, the fullest and largest of the year's Moons, hanging gloriously huge, yellow and low in the night sky, and many lunar illusions play tricks our eyes at this time. The Harvest ushers in many celebrations, including the Equinox and the Festival of Janus, God of Doors. Janus is the Roman Lord of Gateways, beginnings and endings, and transitions. Thus, the Harvest Moon is a time for blessing new ventures, the onset of new and progressive phases in one's life, and rites of passage into adulthood. This time of year also marks one of the Festivals of Dionysus, Lord of Ecstasy and the Vine. This Harvest lunacy combines the autumnal scents of dry leaves, mulling spices, balsam fir and spruce tips, cedar, juniper berry, clove, saffron, wild apple, sage, yarrow, and lily twined with Dionysus' sacred grapes and ivy, a bounty of blackberry and pumpkin, deep russet sunflowers, the amaranth and lingum aloes of Janus, all touched by a gentle breath of festival woodsmoke and sweet wine. ++ SINGLE NOTES WILD HONEYSUCKLE
