Aphrodite - Goddess of Love and Beauty

Beauty is the food of the soul and, therefore, needs to be exalted if we are to achieve true union with life

Although we are constantly bombarded with stimuli of all sorts from every direction, the Repression of Aesthetics is still of particular pertinence in our time. Psychologists have seen the overlooking and the undervaluing of the aesthetic life as a prime factor in the malaise of the psyche, which directly affects the inspirational and creative expression of the soul; its vibrancy, luminosity and ecstasy.

James Hillman, an original thinker and a leading spokesperson of psychology, in his “re-visioning” of psychology, sets a trend to make therapy more art than science. More precisely, Dr Hillman makes the point that “beauty is the major repression in our time”. Beauty is personified by Aphrodite/Venus. Aphrodite is, of course, Love; and aphrodisiac (Gk, aphrodisios – belonging to Aphrodite), the exciting of sexual desire. The goddess Aphrodite (born out of the froth of emotions when the old man Uranus’s genitals are cut off), is also the mother of Love, Eros. Her other remarkable progeny are Priapus and Hermaphrodites.

If love, that “multitudinous splendour”, is the raison d’etre (reason for existence) and music, as Shakespeare says, “be the food of love”, then beauty must be, the food of the soul.

The criteria of aesthetics – unity, line, rhythm, tension and elegance – are a set of qualities for appreciating the world around us. As living beings, we are affected by what we perceive around us. It requires a sensitive and sensory involvement – we cannot be truly involved with anything without it touching the soul. The soul craves and needs this experiential involvement for its evolvement – its individuation, and simply to live.

Aesthetic bankruptcy is synonymous with spiritual stasis. The message is clear: see beauty in things!

See beauty in things, not just as a perceptual quality of surface texture, but the feeling that arises from involvement. Reflective insights alone are not enough. The soul thrives on emotions, for emotions move, stir, evoke, moisten, awaken, open, engender. When feelings are exalted to ecstasy, amrita (divine nectar) flows. This personal nectar of bliss is much more than a downpour of liquid that causes the lotuses (chakras) to blossom; it is a powerful elixir that is simply transformative. Milan Kundera terms this “state of grace” as the “incredible lightness of being”.

Naturally, beauty and aesthetics, like everything else, also casts a broad, dark shadow: the pseudo or shallow glorification of beauty as narcissism or self-indulgent ego pursuit.  Hillman recommends that to revive the aesthetic sense, man might look to animals and see the beauty they reveal in expressing their own nature’s so directly. “Man’s proper form of display is rhetoric, our fantasy-filled capacity to speak, to tell stories, paint, sing, make music, build buildings, write letters, make movies and so on. The beautiful and therefore the soul, is in the everyday display of our natures.”

The only way to experience things truly, fully, completely – creating a direct link with nature, with life, with all situations, spontaneously and intuitively, with “naked insight” – is through the practise of meditation. Through meditation, we can cut through neurotic patterns, dissolve the ego, remove the veil of delusion and those “filters” that cover the clear light of pure awareness, which is beauty, along our paths and in our quest for union.

By Ushka
Article first published in Complete Yoga, 1993, Volume 4

To make the unique Africology spa experience and products available to a wider audience, the luxury South African spa brand has opened its first ever Urban Retail & Spa Store in Rosebank, Johannesburg. People are now able to purchase their favourite Africology products in a unique environment and enjoy a selection of Africology treatments, from a rejuvenating full-body massage to a relaxing manicure in one of the treatment rooms.

Africology is currently available from some of the most luxurious spas in South Africa and beyond, including Ulusaba Resort in the Mpumalanga province and the Oberoi hotel in Mauritius. The brand is known for its luxurious and ethical spa products and treatments, which are designed to balance body and mind. The products are synergised with African ingredients like rooibos, African potato and marula oil.

Africology is anti-animal testing and uses organic and local ingredients wherever possible. The brand ardently supports fair trade and sustainable ingredients. The new Urban Africology Retail & Spa Store helps to introduce the brand to a wider audience while also driving general brand awareness.

This exciting new concept is the brainchild of Eliana and Liza Droganis, who have been involved in the Africology business ever since it was founded by their mother Renchia Droganis in 2000. Proud of the growth and success of the Africology brand, Renchia is keen to give her children the chance to explore their talents and take the brand to the next level. She says: “The time is right for the next blossoming, and it is with excitement that I hand the reins of the Urban Africology Retail & Spa concept to my daughters, Eliana and Liza. I am convinced their dedication, vision and passion will turn the store into a huge success.”

If every journey begins with a single step, Africology began with a single goal in mind. The goal was, and is, to empower people through the ideals and knowledge inherent in Africa’s traditions and history. This goal has led to the creation of a brand that educates consumers, uplifts rural African communities and calls for unconditional respect for the planet that so generously sustains us.

Here’s to both sustainable and ethical beauty!

The Africology store address is: Shop G18, The Zone Phase 2, Rosebank, 2196 Johannesburg (just off Oxford Road).

Self tanners, sunscreens and skin moisturisers are essential beauty products that give both gorgeous summer skin and protect your skin against the harmful effects of the sun. Unfortunately however, a lot of products on the market contain synthetic ingredients that do more harm than good. Trade chemical-based products for plant-based, organic ingredients and reap the benefits!

1. Self tanners
DHA (dihydroxyacetone) is a non-toxic sugar that produces a brown pigment in the top layer of skin and is the active ingredient found in self tanners. But it is the parabens and phthalates that are also commonly found in these products that are the cause for the most concern. Parabens are chemical preservatives that alter normal hormone functioning and phthalates are also hormone mimicking chemicals that disrupt hormone functioning.

Go for an all-natural product, such as SunFX™ which has no alcohol, artificial preservatives, mineral oils or parabens. Alicia McArthur, who runs her own salon and uses SunFX™ on her clients says, “With this product there is no odour, stickyness, going orange or streaks!” The company that makes  SunFX™ ensures their products have a high purity level and manufacture and purify their own water as well as source high quality DHA in order to achieve this.

2. Mineral make-up
Opt for mineral make-ups that are lightweight, won’t clog your pores and give you a natural-looking glow. These are free of the perfumes, preservatives and dyes usually found in make-up. Made from 100% natural crushed minerals, Priori’s CoffeeBerry® Perfecting Minerals (011 791 4027) offers free-radical protection with its CoffeeBerry® extract. It offers broad spectrum UV protection, is paraben free, non-comedogenic, non-acnegenic and has no animal derived ingredients. AHAVA’s mineral make-up range also consists of only natural pigments and has no artificial dyes. The range has health enhancing Dead Sea minerals and nourishing plant extracts too.

3. Sun-screens
Research has proven that ingredients found in regular sun-screens increase free-radicals, therefore increasing the likelihood of skin cancer.  A survey conducted on 1500 sun protection products by the United States based Environmental Group (EWG) in 2009 listed 16 chemicals found in nearly all of the sunblocks sampled that are considered dangerous. These included acrylamide (linked to cancer), and octinoxate (octyl methoxycinnamate), which has estrogenic effects (gender bending), and disrupts the thyroid hormone and brain signalling.

Choose a sunscreen like Sunumbra™ (021 788 5656) which is made with non-toxic and natural ingredients. The basis of this product is micronized (non-whitening) zinc oxide, naturally preserved coconut oil derivatives, organic emulsifier from olive oil, and a photo-protective plant extract complex (botanicals). Sunumbra™ is certified by the Photobiology Laboratory of the Medical University of South Africa as SPF30+ (UVB) and 5-Star rated (UVA). It is water resistant, non-greasy and pH balanced.

4. Moisturisers and after sun care
Moisturisers and after-sun care products rehydrate your skin. But many moisturisers are crammed with chemical emulsifiers and preservatives to give them an extended shelf life. Avoid moisturisers that contain mineral oil which coats your skin and clogs pores and opt for ones with natural ingredients such as shea butter, honey, coconut oil and aloe vera. Natraloe Moisturising Day Cream is a rich moisturising cream containing 40% pure certified organic aloe ferox gel and enhanced with ginger, rooibos and green tea extracts to regenerate and revitalise dry skins.

Natraloe Regenerating Aloe Gel contains 83% pure organic aloe ferox jelly which has the unique ability to penetrate below the epidermis, carrying its naturally moisturising, soothing, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties to dehydrated and damaged cells. It is excellent for the treatment of sunburn and damaged skin and it’s naturally occuring soothing and anti-bacterial properties also make it an excellent after-sun balm.

5. An all in one
Swap your sunscreen, moisturiser and foundation for Invisible Zinc® Tinted Daywear (available at Clicks nationwide), a fantastic product that does not load the skin with chemicals and can be worn as everyday protection. It contains no titanium dioxide, parabens, chemical UV filters or mineral oils and utilises 100% naturally derived Micronised (non-nano) Zinc Oxide as it’s active ingredient. Invisible Zinc works by forming a barrier over your skin and reflecting harmful UVA and UVB rays. Chemical sunscreens merely diffuse UVB rays and offer little protection against UVA rays.

Did you know?
Overexposure to UVA and UVB (ultraviolet A and B) can cause aging, wrinkling and also contribute to skin cancer. But it is important to remember that a bit of exposure each day to the sun is actually good for you as it assists in Vitamin D production, which is vital for the absorption of calcium and essential for strong bones. A deficiency can also result in depression, fatigue and weight loss.

A tip from the expert:
According to Lee Melman, beauty therapist at Sorbet Morningside (087 940 3886), exfoliation is the most important step in one’s summer skincare routine as skin tends to be more exposed. “It prevents build-up of dead skin which leaves the skin looking dull and lifeless. Homemade scrubs are a great way to ensure all over body exfoliation. All you need to do is mix brown sugar with a carrier oil such as grapeseed, avocado, sesame or jojoba oil. Coarse salt can also be used in place of sugar and honey can be added to the mixture for additional moisture.”

By Shereen Lurie

It is for good reason that the Baobab is called “The Tree of Life” as, under its massive, bulbous branches and around its ancient trunks (some in South Africa’s Limpopo province are over 3 000 years old), entire civilizations have flourished while the oils from the fruit of the baobab have nourished the skin of women for generations.

It is in this spirit of reverence that the essential oils of the Baobab Tree have, along with the unique use of traditional calabashes, been integrated into Camelot Spa’s unique new signature spa treatment, the Baobab African Journey massage – a 90 minute sensory voyage into deep relaxation and invigoration.

With the sounds of new African-ambient soul music gracing your ears, in the first part of the ritual, you will soak your feet in a bowl of water gently perfumed with pebbles of essential geranium and baobab oils while you sip gently from a cup of perennial tea, in readiness for the epic, African-inspired treatment which lies ahead.

After a rain shaker has surrounded your aural universe with sounds likened to a short African down-pour, your body will be vigorously rubbed with an exfoliant body scrub carrying a cargo of unique scents – sugar, baobab and geranium – to not only remove dead skin cells but improve skin tone and, after showering, ready your body for the sublime massage ahead.

Between savanna and a florid coast

The massage is a deeply perceptive one as the therapist’s hands move in vigorous sweeps and firm, deep draining movements, alternating with the natural touch of the hand and the cool sensation of the calabash. With its different shapes & sizes (from bulbous to knotted and spoon-like), the calabashes are used to incredible effect – at first kneading, then pressing into knotted spaces, then smoothing through the ruts in your meridians before moving like a flock of swallows over your back, unwinding energy all the way to your very core.

Combined with a unique blend of therapeutic oils (the massage oil contains not only baobab but also lavender and geranium), the extraordinary massage makes for deep relaxation and is a distinctly African sensory experience.

In many spa treatments one’s hands and feet are simply ignored but in Camelot’s Baobab African Journey calabashes press firmly into the energy points, providing both a sense of release and a heady invigoration.

The vigorous yet flowing movements are like jolts of lightning to sensory nerve preceptors while the body will eagerly embrace circulation which will begin to flow powerfully through the veins. In turn you will feel a sense of immense, warm healing as lymph drainage begins to take effect and release you of toxins.

The result is a wonderful, regenrative healing on both a physical and mental level as your breathing deepens, any swelling is reduced, stiffness is banished and the stimulated nervous system discovers the simultaneous joys of both relaxation and inspiration.

Your skin will also feel encouraged and cared for as the golden, scented oils squeezed from baobab tree kernels – rich in omega 3.6 and 9 essential fatty acids – super-moisturize and encourage radiance.

As for me, I’m flying somewhere over the African continent –between the inland savanna and a florid coast – and begin to hear the drum beat within.

The Camelot Spa Baobab African Journey”will have that effect on you.

• Camelot Spa “Baobab African Journey” – 90 minutes, R700 at all Camelot Spas nation-wide. Tel: 086 111 4075; www.camenlotspagroup.com

Now your skin can have it all: a truly luxurious anti ageing facial using only organic products, that are environmentally and marine friendly and deliciously pampering to the senses.  The treatment even starts with a heavenly back massage using organic lavender oil, to ensure you are totally relaxed and for your facial…

Developed in Provence, France, using organic essential oils from Mediterranean plants and active marine ingredients, Terre & Mer products are the result of intensive research & development by Thalgo to ensure the range incorporates efficiency while delivering an ecologically-sound, precise solution to all skin types.

Their organic anti ageing facials are a sensory journey provided by the gentle, pure scents of the natural, organic essential oils, that includes sweet almond plant oil, orange blossom floral water, olive oil and a marine scrub with organic almond shells. Your skin is further rejuvenated with comfort patting using pouches containing organic Mediterranean plants.

Its always comforting when trying new products to feel trust in the therapist and, the therapists knowledge and passion for the products and their results leave a lasting impression and are testament to the extensive training Camelot therapists receive.

Terre & Mer Organic Anti Ageing Facials are vailable at any Camelot Spa nationwide.

By Jeanne Beukes

Let’s face it, there’s something special about all massage (I mean really now, what’s not to love?). Spas and beauty salons offer long lists of varieties and styles and, of course, ever-new twists on much-loved traditional massage methods. If used to its full effects, massage can provide truly excellent results, not just for its potent stress-busting release but more specific health and healing where needed.

Very few I have found however offer a tangible spiritual and emotional release like Ka Huna massage, that’s based on the techniques employed by the ancient Hawaiian shamans who used this bodywork method in the temples to restore overall balance and create harmony and flow in the internal energies of the individual.

Energetically, this is a decidedly superior massage as there is no doubt that a well-trained Ka Huna massage therapist is working beyond just technique, moving slowly into the realms of the spiritual and sublime. The training they undergo ensures a vigorous internal processing for the masseuse too who moves and guides the energy release as you are encouraged to breathe with, and move deeper into the energy shifts brought about by the long, fluid, flowing and dynamic movements that, accompanied with specific breathwork, are particular to this massage style.

Known also as Lomi Lomi and Aloha massage, the spirit of respect, honour and sacredness is central to the philosophy behind Ka Huna massage as the immersive process aims to guide you to a destination that is ultimately joy-filled. Therapists often join in this sacred “dance of life” as they perform the massage to uplifting, rhythmic music that further encourages expansion and aids in the recipients ability to “let go”.

Mimicking the ebb and flow of the ocean, the Ka Huna therapist takes you on a journey using elbows, forearms and hands in rhythmic movements along with the positive power of intention to take you where you need to go and help you unravel personal insights along the way. Expressing the truest essence of the self is the path to enlightenment as put down my the ancient shamans who devised these Ka Huna techniques (Kahuna literally means “keeper of the secret”).

Quite simply, there’s nothing quite like Ka Huna massage and the upliftment and euphoria you will undoubtedly feel when you step out from a glorious 90-minute session. Rebalanced, realigned and reconnected, you will certainly feel the marked change in your vibration and energy level. Working through the blockages of your subtle energy system through Ka Huna massage with a qualified therapist is a shape-shifting experience and one you’re not going to forget.

By Angela Wood

For more information on Ka Huna massage and Ka Huna massage courses and training, contact Anthea Hardwick on 073 617 5224 or email morehunamagic@gmail.com

Weighing In
Finding “body balance” is more important and, ultimately more aesthetically pleasing, than the “body beautiful”, says Lorunna Jansen Van Vuuren

In class one morning during Baddha Konasana (the Butterfly Pose) I asked my yoga students to turn their feet up so that they could see the soles of their feet. I then asked them to gently and lovingly stroke their feet, conveying to them (their feet) that they were gratefulto them for carrying their weight around all day, every day.

My students just sat staring at me, with question marks on their faces. Was I serious? Had I finally lost my sanity? To me, it was a pretty normal instruction, but this request puzzled them and some students even started giggling. I reminded everyone that in all the years leading up to that very moment their feet had probably never been thanked. Our feet that offer support, balance and grounding never ever really appreciated or even considered. Our feet that hold our weight, both physically and emotionally, and we walk on them in a state of unawareness of what they do and represent.

The metaphor of feet as an anchor that holds us together and connects us to earth and to life at large can be paralleled to that opposite pole of the body – the mind. The two are inextricably linked. Perhaps it is our reluctance to thank our feet and reflect daily on the burden they carry for us that mirrors our inability to really love and accept our physical form and the physical and emotional “weights” that we carry.

The ongoing illusion fed to us through the media is that we will all be happy when we are thin. Thin is healthy, thin is sexy, the media tells us time and time again, and yet, we do not see the maya or illusion that is well at play here. If you look to nature, certainly all the flowers don’t look the same, it is their individuality that precisely makes each one beautiful. And it is the same with people.

Optimum health exists when the body is in a state of balance and a balanced body is always at the weight it should be. When you look into the mirror, what is it you see? The media’s definition of what thin and sexy is – the typical “body beautiful”? Or perhaps, if you are lucky, the real you looking back at you? When you start seeing the real you, the body literally begins to morph into the image which the self holds to be true – a body that’s balanced and beautiful reflecting right back at you.

This is the healthy, happy view to pursue that is more wholesome, balanced and grounded than those of fad diets, appetite suppressants or plain starvation and something far more uplifting for the feet to bear and carry through.

The wonder of our human differences is found in different measures and pertain to certain tendencies that determine our individual constitutions. Take those of the Ayurvedic Doshas and the air quality of Vatta, the fire quality of Pitta, and water qualities of Khapa that are present in each of us in different degrees. The most beneficial form of Vatta is Prana representing our primal life force, of Pitta is our inner radiance and of Khapa is Ojas, our primal vigour. We naturally strive to have each in the desired quantities for our individual balance and, this balance we seek is also actually for our survival, as seeking balance is an evolutionary trait.

These elements of earth, water, fire and air also rule our emotional lives and can further be seen through the kaleidoscope that is astrology and the planetary influences that affect our make-up. For some it is always easier to let go and shed the emotional baggage we carry than for others. For example a water sign will hold on to things a lot longer than a fire sign will; an earth sign will be more prone to stubborness than an air sign.

Our emotional worlds trigger within us behaviours that try to counter the experience of negative emotion. This affects how we “feed” ourselves both physically and emotionally. Too many people know unhappy over-eaters or equally unhappy under-eaters. Being off balance internally will do this but, when you start to tune into how the body and mind work together through your yoga, it can serve as a motivator and accelerator toward positive action, understanding and finding that healthy, happy weight” where we can finally thank, love and appreciate our feet – bunions, warts and all.

With awareness all negative tendencies and habits that limit our ideas of the self, both outer and inner, can be changed or broken. Success does not lie in denying yourself but in coming to understand your balanced predisposition to weight. Until you have a fundamental knowledge of yourself, not just your likes and dislikes, but the nature of your being, you’ll always be waging a battle against yourself where weight is concerned, and this is not what the gift of life is about.

According to the Tao, “When life is simple – pretences fall away – then our essential nature shines through”. So we see that it is our essential natures that we should rather seek and not an image in the mirror. The benefits of pursuing nobility of character and equipoise far outweighs being thin and sexy. How do I know? My feet told me so.

The Heart Shines Through The Hand

By Nellie Snyders

Take hold of someone’s hand. You feel the beating of their heart, the very substance of their life. The hands have as many expressions as the face and, if you don’t see any reactions from the face, watch the hands… their motion in creating, their movements in happiness, stillness, in idleness or loneliness, covering a face in desperation, reaching out for warmth, caressing with love, clawing to push away death, tension in holding something.

The shape of the hands follows the structure of the body – heavy, thin, muscular, fragile, strong, smooth, rough. Our mind is the energy; our hands the projection of that energy. Take someone’s hand and you will have, in that moment, begun the awareness of yourself. That moment has the seed of the creation of love, every time it is done. Use your hands in the pursuit of beauty, adding and building life.

The hands are so very sensitive to the elements of nature – feel the bark of a tree; put your hands in a cold stream; run your fingers across the sand; put your hands near a fire; hold your hands up to the rain or the sun or the wind – all different feelings.Touch the coat of a dog, a cat, a snake.

We do not need words. Our eyes speak and our touch reveals. Each new day we discover new beauty in silence, of each other. Live for today, but remember yesterday and think of tomorrow. We should receive love with as much understanding as we give love.

As the years pass, your hands gain knowledge as does your mind, and they grow older as does your body. Your hands carry episodes of your life: scarred, stained, calloused, and scratched. Let your hands become the joining together of you and another human being, the extension of your heart, the merging of two rivers, the grafting of two branches, the birth of new life.

Face Food

What’s unique about Skin Nutrition’s range of skin care products is that it’s made from purely nutritional extracts such as super-berries, omegas, seed oils and spinach. It’s got soluble vitamin C and high forms of amino acids and other phyto-active botanical extracts. It contains no synthetic fragrances or colours, petrochemicals or animal ingredients either. It’s literally food for your face, so why not start feeding your face correctly today! To order visit www.skinnutrition.com.

Precious stones for a precious skin

With extracts from the revitalising precious stones of blue tourmaline and amber, Dr. Hauschka’s Intensive Treatment 04 is the next generation of beauty treatments that uses natural and organic essences together with medicinal herbs and sandalwood water to help the skin retain moisture, giving it renewed vitality. Now you can prevent wrinkles, enhance skin tone and elasticity with a facial toner that’s recommended use is just four times yearly to keep you looking younger for longer. Available from Metropolitan Cosmetics and selected Woolworths’ stores nationwide. Visit www.drhauschka.co.za for more information.