The Clair Senses 3 - Fragrance Beyond All Fragrances

This is part 3 of a set of posts on the Clair gifts and part 5 of a series on gifts. If you'd like to start from the beginning, they begin in February 2026. 

The sense of smell is our most faithful to memory.  A smell can take one back years to an experience long forgotten. The sense of smell is also inseparable from the breath, and breath is linked to spirit and soul more than any other sense. Clairalience (the term for clear smelling) is not widely known. The medical or psychological world might call it olfactory hallucination, but it is another way that the spiritual world can reach us. I have a friend who smells roses when her dead grandmother is near, another smells baking bread. The smell of wet wool lets Jessica know that there is a shepherd nearby.

The subtle world is not devoid of smells. In the book of Enoch, when Enoch is given a tour of all the heavens and cosmos, he is shown an orchard of beautiful and fragrant trees. This is how he describes it:  

“And amongst them was a tree such as I had never yet smelt, neither was any amongst them nor were others like it; it has a fragrance beyond all fragrance…”

The tree was also beautiful, and when Enoch asks Archangel Michael about the tree, Michael responds,
 
“Why dost thou ask me about the fragrance of the tree, and why dost thou wish to learn the truth?”

Enoch says. “I wish to know about everything, but especially about this tree.”

Michael’s answer is mind blowing. I will have to paraphrase some of it because it is long. Basically, he tells Enoch that these trees surround the highest mountain which represents the throne of God. Then Michael says:

“And as for this fragrant tree, no mortal is permitted to touch it till the great judgement…. It shall then be given to the righteous and holy. Its fruit shall be for food to the elect: it shall be translated to the holy place, to the temple of the Lord, the Eternal King. Then shall they rejoice with joy and be glad, and into the holy place shall they enter; and its fragrance shall be in their bones…. And in their days shall no sorrow or torment or calamity touch them.” [1]
           
After reading Enoch’s description of the trees in The Book of Enoch, I felt as if it explained some things about my life. I have a terrible time with strong or toxic smells. I suffer greatly when people wear perfume or cologne in a car with me or even in a line with me. I can’t abide fake smells such as air fresheners or scented candles. I wondered if I was born with a memory of that heavenly smell and everything less that is a huge disappointment. I think the closer one comes to the spiritual realm the more earth stinks, and the more we long for high vibe smells like orange blossoms and roses.

Melinda Joy Miller says In Shamanic Gardening that the strongest attraction of a plant is it’s flower with its fragrant-spiked nectar.[2]  Many traditions associate specific scents with spiritual effects. For example, for millennia, religious ceremonies have used frankincense and myrrh or sandalwood scents to aid meditation. Indigenous traditions use polo santo and sage for “cleansing” a space of negative energy. Rose is often linked to love, the heart chakra, and emotional healing.

Science shows solid evidence that scent has a powerful effect on mood, memory and emotional state. This is because the olfactory system connects directly to the limbic system—the brains emotional center—more so than any other sense. So, in addition to the spiritual, there is also a neurological basis for why scents can profoundly shift your state of mind and wellbeing.

Smells alert us of danger, such as rotten food or other toxins to avoid. As one develops clairalience, one may begin to notice how many ills are being covered up with strong or sweet smells, especially in the grocery aisles. I can’t even walk down the laundry detergent or cleaning supply aisle. It makes me physically sick and I sometimes have to recover for a full day from fragrance exposure. This is not uncommon among the sensitive. On the positive side, with clear smelling one can "follow one’s nose,” to the right healing cure or other remedy. That may be herb, lotion, potion, or person.

Of course, people have scents too (underneath all the scented deodorants and perfumes) that send messages to other humans, especially potential mates. They are called pheromones. Though many people still don’t take human pheromones seriously, they are important! A person’s true smell will tell you a lot about your compatibility, at least genetically. According to one study known as “The Sweaty T-Shirt Study” (linked below) women were less attracted to smells that came from a man who’s DNA was too genetically similar to them.[3] This is why your brothers or adult sons may smell off-putting to you, but the girls who keep calling on the phone think they smell great even after a workout.

Sometimes smells change as we engage with them, especially nature’s medicines. Some herbs that repel, are actually the herbs we need, but we can’t discover this until we sit with them for a while and notice our sense of their smell changing. Other smells will always be toxic smelling, not matter how long we repeat our exposure. It’s best to listen to one’s nose and stay away.
 
I can’t talk about smells without talking about blood. Blood is a bad smell to humans. Especially the blood of animals. Our natural instincts guide us away from eating meat and blood. Think about it. We put our slaughterhouses and packing plants as far from our cities as possible. We cover up the smell with lots of spices and marinades to cover the smell and taste. Yet just looking at ripe fruit makes our mouths water—fruit is appetizing just to look at, let alone smell.

The truth is that eating meat keeps us from being as spiritually attuned as we could be. If you don’t want to become a vegetarian, you don’t have to. Plenty of clairvoyants eat meat, but they eventually stop because they start to sense the pain, fear, and death of the animal. This blocks subtle input and can distort it.

If you look at most saints and enlightened people the world over, almost every one of them eats a plant based diet. In the Hebrew Bible (Daniel 1) Daniel and certain Hebrews are trained in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. They were supposed to eat the king's meat and wine, but Daniel does not want to defile himself. So he asks the guard to give them plain food made of grains, and no wine, for ten days and see if they don’t look better than the other men who are eating the kings ration. At the end of the test they appear “fairer and fatter” than the other men.

These scriptural verses make sure to note that God gives these four men “knowledge and wisdom” beyond all others. I would argue that this is not mere correlation but causation. There are many stories among the saints and from so many people I have interacted with that tell of special increases of both wisdom, knowledge and physical power only after they changed their diet. This will be covered more in the shamanic lifestyle chapter.

As I said, nothing is compulsory on the spiritual path. All the divine beings honor free will more than anything. As a woman of science I encourage Daniel’s approach: experiment. Perhaps a short experiment of 10 or 21 or 40 days, and let your nose lead you. When you stand in the grocery store, hold different foods and smell them. What is your spirit drawn to? What smells good to you?
 
Then, when you eat it, how does it make you feel--both immediately and later? And of course, it has a taste... Which brings me to Clairgustance, or clear tasting. In my next post…  
 
 
End Notes:

1. [1] Slavonic Version.  RH Charles translation. Chapters 24-25 p 16 of my book. Will fill details in later.
2. [2] P 115
3. [3] “The Sweaty T-Shirt Study.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. www.RoyalSocietyPublishing.org Accessed March 31, 2026.