The ritual use of the sense of smell can include literally stopping to smell the roses. A pause on one's way, appreciating a flower, a whisper of "Hail Freya" as one sniffs, this is a ritual. Rituals do not have to be elaborate.

One can plant specific plants to honor particular god, or ancestor, or other being. If the nature of the plant includes fragrance, the smelling of the plant scent can be incorporated into ritual. I have a pink rose in my garden and when I smell it I honor Freya. Roses are usually Freya flowers but I also have one specific rose bush that is for Sigyn due to my personal experiences; see my "pranked by nature" post. 

Perfume, incense, scented candles, and scented products for taking ritual cleansing baths are fairly mainstream, but using them with intention and attention can really add to one's religious and magical practice. These can be incorporated into larger rituals or they can be small daily rituals. They can be for magical purposes, that is, a spell to accomplish something, or they can be for religious purposes, that is, to honor a specific power, god, or phenomenon.

Magic Spells

As a small ritual of the home, choosing a fragrance to use in the form of perfume, soap, a candle, etc. is part of the way to set your intention. You decide what you want to accomplish and then make a selection in keeping with that theme. The second part of setting intention is to say it out loud or otherwise articulate your intention. Attention is simply keeping your mind on what you are doing, experiencing the sensations as fully as possible.

For example, there are any number of perfumes that promise to make one attractive in order to attract love. There are perfumes for relaxation, for having fun on a night out, and for many other intentions. 

One can also use the sort of color magic one would use with candles or fiber art to attune with nature or perform other magical or religious actions. For example, to attune with the autumnal season, one might select a photo that depicts fall in nature and in our lives, and pull out its colors. I did this with a photo that included fall leaves, and came up with the colors amber, chocolate, red-purple mystery, spice, and coffee. From there I chose perfumes that included the the notes amber, chocolate, spice, and coffee, and perfumes presented in red-purple and in the other colors. 

Honoring Powers

There are perfumes for attuning with nature, in the form of seasonal scents, scents related to sea, wind, earth, fire, ice, and other natural phenomena. There are fragrances for specific times of day, such as A Midnight Stroll, and L'Heur Bleu (blue hour, the twilight after sunset), which is a favorite of mine and my brother's.

Places and their place spirits are also to be honored. There are many perfumes designed to evoke a specific place. An example is Silver Mountain Water by Creed, designed to include the scents of a particular mountain popular for skiing.

There are also perfumes that directly honor a god or power. For example, Oriflame makes a perfume called Frey. They describe it as a Woody perfume, and put it in a bottle shaped like a phallus. I have no doubt they named it after the god Frey.

When selecting a perfume to wear as I start my day, I ask myself, "Which god or power do I want to honor today?" If I don't have any specific ideas about that, an easy way to make the decision is to choose the god whose day it is. Yes, it's the days of the week again. 

It's easy to come up with perfumes for Wednesday (Odin), Thursday (Thor), and Friday (Freya) because there are perfumes specifically dedicated to them. I've written about perfumes that honor the gods before, particularly the Asatru collection of Cherry-Ka's Trunk. The Asatru collection has a perfume for Odin called One-Eye, one for Thor called Thunderstrike, and one for Freya called Vanr Volva. There are many commercial perfumes named Freya. Mythology Parfums makes a Thor fragrance. There is even a Thor fragrance from Bulk Apothecary, the company from which I order soap making supplies. 

But what about the other days of the week? Saturday is named after Saturn, so anything Saturn related would work, including Saturnalia. But as this is an Asatru and Heathen blog, I'm concentrated on the Heathen gods and ways. Saturn is Roman, so he is not one of the gods that most Asatruers honor. The old name for Saturday was Laugrdagr, Bath Day, a day for ritual cleansing. So any scent used while bathing or washing would work for the the Bath Day theme. That's a great day to do an actual ritual cleansing bath, and either use your favorite fragrances, or choose something with the theme of cleansing and purification. Something very pure like sea salt would be a great choice.

Sunday and Monday are of course the days of the sun and moon. There are many perfumes with solar and lunar themes. It's easy to find them by searching the internal search on a perfume website using the following keywords. For sun: Sun, Solar, Solaris, Sunray, Soleil, Sunlight. For moon: Moon, Lunar, Luna, Moonlight. My personal favorite Sun scents are Grain de Soleil by Fragonard and Melody of the Sun by Mancera. My favorite moon scent is Moon Carnival by Vilhelm Parfumerie. 

That leaves Tuesday, the day of Tyr. He is a god of justice, and of just war, and of leadership, and self-sacrifice. He is the foster father of Fenris Wolf. Many modern Asatruars see his story as being fundamentally in conflict with the wolf, but others see him as being an allied power. Historically Tyr and Fenris were invoked together. As the god of justice, he is often asked for aid in legal matters, but he is also seen as a god of war and duels. He was the original king figure of the gods, his name Tyr being a synonym for a god, and his linguistically related name Ziu being a cognate of Zeus.

In his aspect as Ziu he is the husband of Zisa Undoer of Knots. Many modern Asatruers and other heathens consider her the same goddess as Nehellenia, a regional goddess of dogs and the sea. As Undoer of Knots, Zisa's symbols are a pine cone and the act of undoing knots, but Zisa also has an aspect as a psychopomp whose boat carries the dead to the afterlife. Romans identified her with Isis.

Any of these sorts of aspects are appropriate for honoring on a Tuesday. So, in abstract ideas: justice, righteous war and victory, and canine/lupine themes. In scent notes: pine, and the sea.

Perfumes for Tyr could include victory themed perfumes such as Invictus Victory by Rabanne, or Victory by Armaf. Or depending on what aspect of Tyr one wishes to communicate with, one could choose a kingship themed fragrance such as Nobility by Spirit of Kings. I went in another direction with my personal honoring of Tyr; I write more about that in my upcoming post My Monster Powers December 2024. 

For more information on honoring the gods on their days of the week, please see my first Asatru Plus column, which appeared in the December 2023 issue of Witches & Pagans Magazine. My article includes the complete ritual cycle of the days of the Sun, Moon, Tyr, Odin, Thor, Freya, and Ritual Bathing Day.

Of course there is no reason to stop there. There are many gods, goddesses, and other powers, and only 7 days in a week, so they can't all have a day named after them. There are holidays with the names of gods, such as Ostara. Another such holiday is Yule, because one of Odin's names is Yulefather. There are many gods to be honored on different occasions and for different reasons other than holidays and named days of the week.

Perfumes that honor gods who don't have a day of the week named after them include a matching Frey and Freya perfume by Oriflame, the Heimdall perfume The Hornsman by Cherry-Ka's Trunk, an Ostara by Penhaligon's and an Ostara by Saff & Co., the Hel honoring perfume Hidden Goddess by Cherry-Ka's Trunk, the Ullr perfume Ydalir by Alkemia Perfumes, and the perfume Bilskirnir by Cherry-Ka's Trunk which is named for Thor's home and family which includes his wife Sif. 

This is only the beginning. I hope it has prompted you to explore this sense yourself and decide what works for you.